Time background and original plot

Aidan 2021-12-08 08:01:46

In the first half of the 14th century in Europe, the threat of the invasion of the Eastern nomads was slightly reduced, but another threat-the Black Death began to spread; politically, the power of the Eastern Roman Empire was declining, and it was finally wiped out by the Turks a few years later; In the Catholic Church, the religion was growing but becoming increasingly corrupt. At that time, the prevailing theological thought was the complicated scholastic philosophy, but in this era, the humanistic thought also began to sprout, and finally contributed to the later Renaissance.

Against the background of this era, the Franciscan friar William from England and his apprentice came to the Benedictine monastery in the mountains of northern Italy. The murder happened here. In the next few days, a debate on theological doctrines will be held here. Regarding the conference, William must investigate the homicide case clearly before then, so as not to expand the situation; however, during the seven days he stayed here, several homicide cases occurred one after another. These deaths were all librarians. All these incidents seem to be related to a strange book in the library with the richest collection of books in the whole Christian world. Therefore, on the one hand, William has to investigate these matters, on the other hand, he has to fight against conservative forces from the church to find out. The truth about the whole thing.

This is the story of the book and the movie "The Name of the Rose". I read the original work of this book ten years ago. I have always wanted to look at the movie of the same name starring Sean Connery. Thanks to China’s piracy. Finally, I found this unpopular film 20 years ago. Although the original is a little cumbersome and difficult to adapt, the film also visualizes this story to the greatest extent, showing that era to the audience with a cold tone.

William of the Franciscan, played by Sean Connery. If you understand the history of Western philosophy, you know that this role is based on William of Occam. As the last group of scholars in the era of scholastic philosophy, it is precisely because of his erudition. Recognizable, he is known as the "Invincible Doctor" in the history of church and thought. But the era of scholastic philosophy was also the era of "philosophy is the handmaid of theology." At that time, the prevailing thought was based on Thomas Aquinas, integrated with Aristotelian philosophy, and attempted to use Asian rationality to reason. Way to prove the existence of God, so the thought system is huge and cumbersome.

In addition, the ideological world at that time was also caught up in the dispute between nominalism and realism. The mainstream idea of ​​the church is realism, that is, things in ideological rationality are truly perfect things, and things in reality are imperfect. ; But there are also a few supporters of nominalism, such as William Okan, who instead believes that the things in these thoughts are abstract, just names, and he believes that only the things we really feel are real. Because ordinary realists continue to add more and more explanations and explanations to the things in their thoughts in order to make their theories explain the problems. This is the problem of scholastic philosophy, which leads to more and more cumbersome.

In order to solve this increasingly cumbersome ideological dilemma, William Occan proposed a very famous method of thinking-Occam's Razor (Ockham's Razor). This method of thinking can be summarized as a sentence "If not necessary, "Don’t add entities", only recognize the things that do exist. Those empty and universal methods are useless and cumbersome. Why do you have to extend so many questions to explain and disturb yourself? This method has been widely used in various fields for thousands of years. In any field, if there are two or more programs that can achieve the same goal, that is, the simplest solution is the best solution. Don't complicate things. For example, if you chase a girl, you have been working hard. She's so diligent that she doesn't necessarily fall in love with you? Or directly shout to her I love you, if you choose the latter option, if you fail, you will get a slap at most. If you succeed, it will save you time and effort. Okan's Razor is such a thought tool. The activities that are really effective when we do things are only a small part of them, and they are usually hidden in complex things. Find the key part and remove the extra activities. Success is not that complicated.

This method of thinking also caused trouble for him, because as soon as the razor came out, it also opposed the mainstream Aquinas’ theological methods at that time. This method turned the question of God into pure faith, which is a kind of faith. To believe in things that can be deduced by rational deduction, shaved off the status of "God" from the process of logical deduction; therefore, he almost spent the rest of his life in persecution by the church, but he This is where the achievements in the history of thought are located. The proposal of this method led to the collapse of scholastic philosophy, which completely liberated philosophical thought from theology and became the pioneer of modern philosophy.

In the film, William brought his apprentice to this monastery in 1327; but according to historical facts, William was in jail in the church prison in Avignon, France, and did not escape until a year later and ran to the Holy Roman Empire. Accept the emperor's protection, but the story seems to assume that he has been released at this time, so there is a mention in the film that he was imprisoned in Avignon. The Franciscan Order to which William belonged is a congregation. This congregation believes that the monks must learn from the way Christ was in the world and live a poor life, so that they can escape from the world so that they can not be seduced by the world and follow Christ intently. They also believe that the monks should Donate everything to the poor and live by begging. ; In the film, William and a group of Franciscan monks wear gray robes. This is the characteristic of Franciscans and represents simplicity and poverty. The seminary that William came to was the Dominican seminary, which was dominated by hermits, and the monks were featured in black robes.

When a series of murders occurred in this Dominican seminary, the monks panicked. It is believed that the disasters of the end times in the "Revelation" began to come. Among them, only William was calm. He observed the correlations. We have concluded that all of this is caused by man; we don’t have to laugh at the seeming "ignorance" of those monks. The age and environment they live in will make them think of divine enlightenment for granted, which William used when investigating It was the razor method. He investigated all the connections, and completely removed the "sacred enlightenment" perspective from the investigation process, and then slowly deduced the truth from a modern perspective. This method of investigation is a matter of course, but it must be said that it was a victory for human reason in the era when the story took place.

The clues to every murder case point directly to a banned book. Every deceased has read this book. This book is the second volume of Aristotle's Poetics. It is generally believed that Poetics. The second volume is about comedy (the existing first volume is about tragedy). Comedy makes people laugh, which contradicts the religious traditions of the Dominican Church at that time, and even conservative Christian ideas. Because joy makes people overcome suffering, then human beings no longer need religious beliefs. At that time in Europe, only aristocrats and monks had the right to receive education to absorb knowledge. Whoever mastered knowledge had power. Knowledge also made people more wise to think about things and pursue the truth; therefore, although people who read the book died one after another, they still blocked it. There can be no more monks' desire for knowledge.

Halfway through the investigation, the theological debates began. Representatives of different religious congregations and denominations launched a great debate on kingship, rituals, and the rich and poor of the church with their own theological opinions. The view of property, historically, was also because the Franciscans had disagreements with the Pope on the issue of church property at that time. In terms of rituals, the mainstream thinking of the church at that time believed that rituals came from God, so they can be saved by rituals, but William Okan believes that people's salvation mainly depends on their own faith, which also became the ideological basis for the later Martin Luther Reformation; in terms of kingship, the Kaiser and the Pope at that time had differences on some issues, so the debate also revolved around this difference. William Okan wrote an essay on this issue mainly to discuss whether the pope can become a legal supremacy in both the church and the state; the question that arises is whether secular authority directly originates from God? The next question will inevitably arise: Does the pope have the authority to grant the emperor or monarch the power of the secular world? He mainly believed that the church should not manage secular affairs and maintained the rights of the Kaiser to the greatest possible extent. These debates are actually the result of William Okan’s life experience. The original author will show all his thoughts in this debate regardless of time. In the film, it may be for the sense of rhythm. And the time limit only presents a scene discussing church property.

The truth of the story is that it turned out to be the blind and conservative archbishop who put poison on the book in order to fear that someone would see the content of the book. However, the blind archbishop must be familiar with the content of the book and fear that others would also see it. Why allow yourself to know the content but not others? On the one hand, it is based on wanting to master the right to speak of knowledge; on the other hand, based on the arrogance generated by defending Tao, it seems that only he in the world knows what truth is, and everyone else will have doubts about the doctrine after reading it; Can people think? If the belief is true, why are you afraid of the challenge of the content of these books? The description of the blind bishop is like an irony to today’s intellectuals. We have absorbed more knowledge, but we have lost our way, but we think that we have the truth and have the arrogance of knowledge; people are all in Continue on the road of pursuing truth, but in the end, you often find that your truth is not my truth; your kingly way is not my kingly way. In this case, if you can’t emancipate your mind, it will form a closed system. The most extreme result of communication, as William said in the film: "Be wary of prophets and those who are ready to dedicate their lives for the truth, because they usually pull many people to die with them, often first. With them, sometimes it’s to die for them.”

This is a movie that uses suspense as a carrier, but actually discusses many socio-political and ideological and theological issues in the Middle Ages. If you have read a novel, you know how difficult it is to adapt this movie. ; The original author is a semiotician, so the original novel is full of brilliant semiotic reasoning. The film is limited by rhythm and time, and has been adapted to the greatest possible extent, but for readers who have read the original, there is still It's not good enough, but it's also worth seeing.

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Extended Reading
  • Alexzander 2022-04-23 07:02:07

    The suspense runs throughout, and the environment has a high degree of reduction, which feels a little anticlimactic. Kristen Slater was also the wife back then. It's really not easy to get so many other supporting characters who look crooked. They are all the main characters who can act in monster movies without makeup.

  • Kenton 2021-12-08 08:01:46

    When I was studying, I wondered why there can be no suspenseful classics on Buddhist teachings. The original work of "The Name of the Rose" is worth rereading, but the movie may not.

The Name of the Rose quotes

  • Adso of Melk: Do you think that this is a place abandoned by God?

    William of Baskerville: Have you ever known a place where God WOULD have felt at home?

  • Adso of Melk: And what was the word you both kept mentioning?

    William of Baskerville: Penitenziagite.

    Adso of Melk: What does it mean?

    William of Baskerville: It means that the hunchback undoubtedly was once a heretic. Penitenziagite was a rallying cry of the dolcinites.

    Adso of Melk: Dolcinites? Who were they, master?

    William of Baskerville: Those who believed in the poverty of Christ.

    Adso of Melk: So do we Franciscans.

    William of Baskerville: But they also declared that everyone must be poor, so they slaughtered the rich. Ha! You see, Adso, the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is all too brief.

    Adso of Melk: [looking at the Hunchback] Well, then, could he not have killed the translator?

    William of Baskerville: No. No, fat bishops and wealthy priests were more to the taste of the dolcinites, hardly a specialist of Aristotle.