The Inspiratorium

I like this cheeky interpretation of the first few lines of Chaucer’s General Prologue. In all its geeky futuristic imagery and mispronunciation of the Middle English, it’s completely charming in its simplicity and brings an easy smile. And it is ultimately a tribute to Chaucer’s lines and remarkable that they still speak to people 600 years later … longer ago than even Shakespeare.

I love the cute panda-like creature that reads the lines in the computerized voice. The delivery is actually charming and warmer even than many of the human voices that read Chaucer on the Chaucer Metapage’s audio files site. Not to mention that it is just funny in itself, and refreshing to hear the General Prologue in such a unlikely context.

I found this, by the way, on a medieval blog site called In the Middle, which is produced by a number of contributors, most of them academic medievalists. I believe the author of this little piece of work is Karl Steel, a professor of English at Brooklyn College. It is like an experiment by Karl on the do-it-yourself animation website, xtranormal.com.

Thank you, Karl!