License to kill also serves as a license to transfrom language

When I first heard the title of the latest Bond film, I, like many people, wondered what the hell it really meant. Happy to see Matthew Shaer over at VQR break down the other ways in which 007 plays with our nifty little language:

As Daniel Craig told the BBC earlier this year, there’s something poetic about the idea of a quantum of solace. (The dictionary definition of “quantum”: “The smallest amount of a physical quantity that can exist independently, especially a discrete quantity of electromagnetic radiation.”) When [relationships] go wrong,” Craig explained, “when there’s nothing left, when the spark has gone, when the fire’s gone out, there’s no quantum of solace.”