Chiasmus in Neil Cuthbert’s “Mystery Men”
"Am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic?"
Mystery Men (1999) is a comedy film written by Neil Cuthbert that stars Ben Stiller as Mr. Furious and Wes Studi as The Sphinx, among other familiar actors and actresses. The Sphinx, who is the mysterious and wise trainer preparing the team for battle, speaks in chiasms and parallelisms. For example:
While everyone else on the team is impressed by The Sphinx’s wise words, Mr. Furious finds them “formulaic.” Here is their dialogue on this topic:
MR. FURIOUS: Am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? "If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right". It's...
THE SPHINX: Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage…
MR. FURIOUS: ...your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say. Right?
Notice how Mr. Furious completes the chiasm that The Sphinx begins:
Mr. Furious raises an important point about chiasmus: without variation it risks becoming formulaic. Writers who are skilled at chiasmus vary the forms of their chiasms, keeping their writing fresh and engaging. (For examples of varied chiasms, read the other posts on this Substack.)
Below are a few additional chiasms and parallelisms from The Sphinx.
