Do they have a titular typo? On their website, The MacGuffin cites Alfred Hitchcock to explain their name, saying he used the term and stated "No film is complete without a MacGuffin" because that's what "everybody is after."
Sadly, I need to report that Alfred spelled it differently than the magazine. In his interview with Francois Truffaut, (available on the DVD bonus features of Notorious, if not elsewhere) he actually spells out the term at the beginning of the interview, and it is MacGuffen, with an "en."
So what should our friends at The MacGuffen do? Change the name? Unlikely. They could argue, a bit sheepishly, that Hitchcock was wrong, or that he was using a variant. They do say the term actually derives out of Victorian England, as a name for a device used by mystery writers. Perhaps, if one wanted to take the time to research it, the original users of the term might have spelled it the way they do. I, for one, don't have that kind of time for research, but perhaps someone you know does.
Another reaction could be to imply I'm being too retentive about spelling. Hoo kers about spelling, anyway? Arguably a pretty radical step, but then again their very name is kind of insouciant and radical; maybe the rest of us are like cattle, letting spell-checkers jostle us down a constrictive line of orthographic conformity. Mu?
Perhaps it's best to say it's their title, after all, and they can spell it however they want. Pretty hard to argue with that. So I guess we can all go back about our business, and try not to think of it as a typo. Thanks for reading.
Sadly, I need to report that Alfred spelled it differently than the magazine. In his interview with Francois Truffaut, (available on the DVD bonus features of Notorious, if not elsewhere) he actually spells out the term at the beginning of the interview, and it is MacGuffen, with an "en."
So what should our friends at The MacGuffen do? Change the name? Unlikely. They could argue, a bit sheepishly, that Hitchcock was wrong, or that he was using a variant. They do say the term actually derives out of Victorian England, as a name for a device used by mystery writers. Perhaps, if one wanted to take the time to research it, the original users of the term might have spelled it the way they do. I, for one, don't have that kind of time for research, but perhaps someone you know does.
Another reaction could be to imply I'm being too retentive about spelling. Hoo kers about spelling, anyway? Arguably a pretty radical step, but then again their very name is kind of insouciant and radical; maybe the rest of us are like cattle, letting spell-checkers jostle us down a constrictive line of orthographic conformity. Mu?
Perhaps it's best to say it's their title, after all, and they can spell it however they want. Pretty hard to argue with that. So I guess we can all go back about our business, and try not to think of it as a typo. Thanks for reading.
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