• About

The Dunedin School

~ (2009 – 2014)

The Dunedin School

Tag Archives: symbols

Prescribing things to symbols, with Wittgenstein

01 Monday Feb 2010

Posted by Deane in Reception

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Adolf Hitler, Barbara Thiering, Kimbeley Cornish, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Notebooks, symbols, The Jew of Linz

A school photo of Wittgenstein & Hitler - according to the adventurous theory of Kimberley Cornish, a member of the Babs Thiering Down Under School of Hermetic Historiography

Wittgenstein & Hitler - According to the adventurous theory of Kimberley Cornish, a member of the Babs Thiering Down Under School of Hermetic Historiography

“You cannot prescribe to a symbol what it may be used to express. All that a symbol can express, it may express.”

– Ludwig Wittgenstein, in his Notebooks 1914-1916, numbered 130-131

Biblical Scholars in Pop Culture & The Media: (2) The Abominable Dr Phibes, Again

05 Saturday Dec 2009

Posted by Deane in Biblical Studies, Film

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Abominable Dr Phibes, Dr Phibes, rabbi, symbols

“I would imagine that scholars of religion exist largely in the movies to explain the happenings in horror movies to unbelievers and skeptics.”
(Eric Repphun)

The 1971 classic, The Abominable Dr Phibes, contains not just one character who is a biblical scholar, but two biblical scholars! It is a veritable biblical scholar-fest. In addition to Dr Phibes himself, the film includes a Jewish scholar and rabbi, whose role is to explain the hidden meaning of the murders to the investigating police detective. This is perhaps the most common and hackneyed role for the religious or biblical scholar appearing in horror movies, as Dr Repphun surmises above.

The old bearded scholar creates an ambivalent mix of scholarly erudition and mystical spookification. He provides the film with a rational (albeit contrived and ridiculous) explanation for the series of murders which is taking place – i.e. that they are mimicing the ten plagues of the book of Exodus. And he also heightens the sense of the uncanny within the film, that spine-chilling decentering which is the necessary fuel of any horror movie (and which in The Abominable Dr Phibes threatens to disappear underneath the film’s campy absurdity).

When we first view the Jewish scholar in his study, he appears through the frame of an iron gate, and is sitting behind a wooden and somewhat ecclesiastical-looking desk, with a colonnade in the background – a scene overdramatically mysterious and arcane. When the camera zooms in, the scholar is as wide-eyed as a lunatic – every part the mad academic. He is on the left-hand side of the shot, which foregrounds two huge feather quills in their respective inkwells and a collection of odd artefacts. On the right is a puzzled police detective, brow furrowed as he struggles to understand the scholar’s undoubted profundity.

The Abominable Dr Phibes - The Jewish Scholar

The Abominable Dr Phibes - The Jewish Scholar

While the scholar translates the meaning of Hebrew, he refers to the Hebrew word for blood as “the Hebrew symbol for blood.” As we know from Dr Langdon’s stated area of expertise in The Da Vinci Code, “symbols” are much more mysterious and profound than mere words. Again, there is a mix of rational explanation and mystification.

The greatest moment of spookification in this scene occurs when the police detective queries, concerning the ten plagues of Egypt, “But, ah, all of this would be myth, of course, Sir?” The scholar’s eyes open up wide, and he says, with a hushed reverence, “Oooooh, I think not… There is little doubt that the plagues did occur.” The scholar appears to know this for certain, and this can only be by some uncanny intuition which cannot be understood by the untrained. But absent is any hint of a scholarly method of arriving at such a conclusion. According to the rabbi, the stories of the plagues only “seem a myth.” When it comes to the great miracles of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the biblical scholar seems to be mystically in touch with reality in a way that transcends rational enquiry. Which is not too far from the MO of many current biblical scholars, I guess.

Top Posts

  • Family First NZ: Jokes About Sexy Jesus Still Not Funny
  • Job, Adolf Hitler, and the Ethics of the Hebrew Bible: Or, why Philip Davies and Deane Galbraith are More or Less Wrong
  • Job, A God Not Quite Beyond Good and Evil, Unlimited Semiosis and Limitations of Meaning: Or, James Harding is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, Wrongity Wrong
  • J.N. Darby's End-Times Family Tree: Is Dispensationalism from the Bible or Evangelical Tradition?
  • Dunedin's own Pruitt-Igoe: The Burns Building
  • The Antichrist Revealed! John Key has been Prophesised in the Word of God!!

Categories

  • Academics
  • Atheism and Agnosticism
  • Biblical Studies
    • Angels
    • Eschatology
    • Evil
    • Giants
    • Gnosticism
    • God
    • Hebrew
    • Hebrew Bible
    • Historical Criticism
    • Jesus
    • New Testament
    • Paul
    • Rabbinics
    • Reception History
    • Textual Criticism
  • Buddhism
  • Christianity
    • Theology
  • Conferences & Seminars
  • Dunedin School
  • Ecology
  • Ethics
    • Relativism
  • History
  • Islam
  • justice
  • Language
    • Metaphor
    • Reference
    • Rhetoric
    • Slang
    • Symbol
    • Translation
  • Living
  • News
  • Politics
    • Violence
  • Religion
    • Cults
    • Death
    • Exorcism
    • Faith
    • Fundamentalism
    • Healing
    • Prophecy
    • Purification
    • Rationalization
    • Visions
    • Worship
  • Texts
    • Cartoons
    • Comics
    • Film
    • Fine Art
    • Games
    • Greek
    • Internet
    • Literature
    • Media
    • Music
    • Philosophy
    • Photography
    • Pornography
    • Television
  • Theory
    • Capital
    • Children's rights
    • Continental Philosophy
    • Dialogic
    • Feminist Theory
    • Gender Studies
    • Intertextuality
    • Marx
    • Narratology
    • Postcolonialism
    • Psychoanalysis
    • Queer
    • Racism
    • Reception
    • Sex
    • Spectrality
    • Transhumanism
    • Universalism
  • Uncategorized
  • Zarathustrianism

Archives

  • September 2014
  • December 2013
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009

Recent Comments

  • Vridar » “Partisanship” in New Testament scholarship on Exposing Scandalous Misrepresentation of Sheffield University’s Biblical Studies Department and a Bucket Full of Blitheringly False Accusations: ‘Bewithering is Becoming Bewildering’*
  • Arthur Klassen on The Antichrist Revealed! John Key has been Prophesised in the Word of God!!
  • Anusha on Cinema as Exorcism (six): On Soft-Selling Lars von Trier’s Melancholia
  • Cary Grant on J.N. Darby’s End-Times Family Tree: Is Dispensationalism from the Bible or Evangelical Tradition?
  • Christian Discernment on The Antichrist Revealed! John Key has been Prophesised in the Word of God!!
  • fluffybabybunnyrabbit on Complementarians and Martial Sex: The Jared Wilson / Gospel Coalition Saga
  • lisawhitefern on The Antichrist Revealed! John Key has been Prophesised in the Word of God!!

Blogroll

  • Anthrocybib (Jon Bialecki and James Bielo)
  • Auckland Theology, Biblical Studies, et al
  • Dr Jim's Thinking Shop and Tea Room (Jim Linville)
  • Forbidden Gospels (April DeConick)
  • Genealogy of Religion (Cris)
  • Joseph Gelfer
  • Otagosh (Gavin Rumney)
  • PaleoJudaica (Jim Davila)
  • Religion and the Media (University of Sheffield)
  • Religion Bulletin
  • Religion Dispatches
  • Remnant of Giants
  • Sects and Violence in the Ancient World (Steve A. Wiggins)
  • Sheffield Biblical Studies (James Crossley)
  • Stalin's Moustache (Roland Boer)
  • The Immanent Frame
  • The New Oxonian (R. Joseph Hoffmann)
  • Theofantastique

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • The Dunedin School
    • Join 47 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Dunedin School
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...