Popular Culture
- The split infinitive, specifically its famous use in the Star Trek opening sequence, is the basis of a joke from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "In those days men were real men, women were real women, small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri. And all dared to brave unknown terrors, to do mighty deeds, to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before — and thus was the Empire forged."
- Split infinitives are an annoyance to Inspector Fowler (Rowan Atkinson), the main character of the British comedy series The Thin Blue Line. He corrects Constable Goodie for using the famous Star Trek split infinitive only to be chided by his son later in the episode for splitting one himself.
- Numerous P. G. Wodehouse characters show the tendency to split infinitives, and other characters, who pride themselves upon being purists, detest this. For example, in The Swoop!, the young hero says triumphantly to his prisoner—a German prince with excellent English—"it is when apparently crushed that the Briton is to more than ever be feared". Even in this dire situation, the prince insists that the protagonist has used bad grammar by splitting an infinitive and has thus spoiled his big speech.
Read more about this topic: Split Infinitive
Famous quotes containing the words popular culture, popular and/or culture:
“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)
“There is a continual exchange of ideas between all minds of a generation. Journalists, popular novelists, illustrators, and cartoonists adapt the truths discovered by the powerful intellects for the multitude. It is like a spiritual flood, like a gush that pours into multiple cascades until it forms the great moving sheet of water that stands for the mentality of a period.”
—Auguste Rodin (1849–1917)
“Let a man attain the highest and broadest culture that any American has possessed, then let him die by sea-storm, railroad collision, or other accident, and all America will acquiesce that the best thing has happened to him; that, after the education has gone far, such is the expensiveness of America, that the best use to put a fine person to is to drown him to save his board.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)