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On Symbolism
My parents, for reasons unknown to me, bought a copy of the movie National Treasure. Now, it wasn't a horrible movie or anything, but it's not one I'd pay more than the $5 it cost to rent and watch with my friends. Nicholas Cage is always interesting, but. It was like an adventure movie written by a US history school class. Though it was neat to see places I've actually BEEN in a movie.
But that's not what I feel like talking about. What I want to talk about is this book it came with, called The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill. I started reading the book over breakfast, and couldn't help but keep chuckling at it. It's not really a very well done book. It's pages of "this was once symbolic in such and such", all numbered. Maybe it get better later on, but I'm not holding my breath. He leaves out important things, like the fact that the "In God We Trust" was put on the back of the bill at the request of the Knights of Columbus, to differentiate us from the Evil Godless Commies. And there's lots and lots of numerology bull, which is like algebra without any rules, you just manipulate the numbers until you get the result you want. Or the Law of Five, which is "If you look at it hard enough, anything can be related to the number five."
What it really reflects, to me, is the fact that after thousands and thousands of years of history, there's nothing that HASN'T been considered symbolic by some group of people somewhere. Yeah, the seal was DESIGNED to be symbolic, because it's a symbol. And it was designed by people who had associations with Masons etc. So some of their symbols turn up in it! SHOCK! Heh. If you want a more interesting exploration of conspiracy and magical theories behind the dollar bill, and the Great Seal, read either Illuminatus! or Suppressed Transmission or volume 2 by Kenneth Hite, who's much more interesting when it comes to conspiracies than most people.
Tags: Writing, Mindscribbles, Books
But that's not what I feel like talking about. What I want to talk about is this book it came with, called The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill. I started reading the book over breakfast, and couldn't help but keep chuckling at it. It's not really a very well done book. It's pages of "this was once symbolic in such and such", all numbered. Maybe it get better later on, but I'm not holding my breath. He leaves out important things, like the fact that the "In God We Trust" was put on the back of the bill at the request of the Knights of Columbus, to differentiate us from the Evil Godless Commies. And there's lots and lots of numerology bull, which is like algebra without any rules, you just manipulate the numbers until you get the result you want. Or the Law of Five, which is "If you look at it hard enough, anything can be related to the number five."
What it really reflects, to me, is the fact that after thousands and thousands of years of history, there's nothing that HASN'T been considered symbolic by some group of people somewhere. Yeah, the seal was DESIGNED to be symbolic, because it's a symbol. And it was designed by people who had associations with Masons etc. So some of their symbols turn up in it! SHOCK! Heh. If you want a more interesting exploration of conspiracy and magical theories behind the dollar bill, and the Great Seal, read either Illuminatus! or Suppressed Transmission or volume 2 by Kenneth Hite, who's much more interesting when it comes to conspiracies than most people.
Tags: Writing, Mindscribbles, Books
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(And I was sooo close to working on that movie, stupid production company not calling me back)