Daily Dialogue — November 11, 2015

Spoon feeding a bedridden Paul some soup.

Annie Wilkes: The swearing, Paul. There, I said it.
Paul Sheldon: The, uh, profanity bothers you?
Annie Wilkes: It has no nobility.
Paul Sheldon: These are slum kids, I was a slum kid. Everybody talks like that.
Annie Wilkes: THEY DO NOT! What do you think I say when I go to the feedstore in town, “Oh, now Wally, give me a bag of that F-in’ pig feed, and ten pounds of that bitchly cow corn”? And the bank do I tell Mrs. Bollinger, “Oh, here’s one big bastard of a check, give me some of your Christ-ing money?”

She spills some soup.

Annie Wilkes: THERE, LOOK THERE, SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO!

— Misery (1990), screenplay by William Goldman, novel by Stephen King

The Daily Dialogue theme for the month: Writers and Writing.

Trivia: Annie Wilkes is Stephen King’s favorite written character because she was always surprising to write, with unexpected depth and sympathy.

Dialogue On Dialogue: I am tempted to say, “This is a great representation of a Hollywood script notes meeting,” however that’s not entirely true. In Hollywood, they don’t feed you soup! Seriously, this scene pulls open the veneer of Annie’s civility and leaves Paul with a feeling of impending threat.