The following is an actual tagline printed on a DVD box for an actual movie:
In A World Of Seduction & Power, Temptation Has Its Price
The upper case article and preposition are in the original, as are the, you know, words.
Has its price? Like, not its cost, but its price? I would like some temptation, please—Oh, that’ll be twenty-nine ninety-five. How much would you pay for temptation? Not for culmination or consummation, mind you, but for temptation itself? Well, I’m fond of temptation, but I don’t think I could pay more than ten. —Ten, are you mad? Look at this temptation! Hand-crafted temptation like this costs thirty dollars just to create! I couldn’t let it go for less than twenty-five, and at that I am cutting my own throat.
Er, OK. But what does it supposed to mean? And if temptation has its price in a world of seduction and & power, is temptation in a world of prunes and prism and powerlessness free? I mean, surely in a world lacking in seduction, temptation would be rarer and thus the price would increase according to the supply curve. In a world of seduction (& power!) temptation should be as common as dirt, and cheaper. Possibly much cheaper.
I am so totally going to watch this movie. Thank the Divine it’s rated R, at least.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.
One might say that something “exacts a price”; maybe that’s what it’s trying to allude to.
Or maybe, you know, it was written by illiterate goons.