https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=etzXY-glLIU
A couple more things on that note. One, I want to share an image of the film Arrival. Have you watched the film? Yes. Okay. So as you know, I was able to write so far, one essay on Arrival pulling out the structure of the story is primarily leaning upon Exodus, you know, climbing the mountain and whatnot. But something that is really a predominant theme in the movie is the palindrome, right? And it’s this like circular pattern where the beginning is the end. And we also see this palindrome in the naming of the child, Hannah. So H-A-N-N-A-H. But then it’s like, it’s in their language. And the argument that the book makes is that language is something that shaped our worldview. It’s how we see the world. And so if you learn a new language, you see the world in a different way. And in this case, these are like transcendent deity type beings. And if you learn their language, then you have a higher or a transcendent way of seeing the world and getting outside of linear time and seeing it, I guess more teleologically, you could say. And so I’m just wondering like, in light of what we were saying, like, can we tell, how can we tell stories in this way? And then the other thing I wanna lean upon is a few icons because I’m really fascinated with icons in that, let me just pull up one, if I can, is that they don’t make a whole lot of sense. Let me zoom on. They don’t make sense? So like from a modern person’s point of view. So like you look at this picture of the resurrection, right? And a picture is supposed to be like a snapshot, right? And it’s a snapshot of what’s happening right then in that moment of history. And when I look at this icon, that is not happening, like not even close. No, that’s not how icons work at all. Like they don’t work as snapshots for sure. So like, for example, and I’ll let you take it from here because you’re the icon carver and can add a whole lot more to this. But like, and I apologize for the blurry image, but I wanted to get this image because at the very bottom, it has this like chained figure down here, which is pretty cool. And then on the right and left, you have an old Adam and Eve coming out of a grave. But then you have like King figures of like what Solomon, you have a shepherd over here. Yeah, David and Solomon usually. Yeah, and then John the Baptist, and then like prophet figures, or maybe this is, you know, Abraham. Anyway, my point is that these things are happening across thousands of years of history. If we approach it that way. So like, can you help a modern person out and understand what is like the purpose of this art form and what is the art trying to communicate? Okay, so you have to understand the icons as being, I really is, it’s a language. And so it’s a language and it’s very much like scripture. So stories fit into each other and then refer to each other. All of this is going on. So you can understand this image, an image of the Anastasis, although it’s based narratively on the gospel of Nicodemus, which describes Christ going down into Hades. It also is something like that, which is secretly happening during the crucifixion. And so if you look at a crucifixion image, you see Christ on the cross. And then at the bottom of the cross, there’s a cave. And in that cave, there’s a skull. And the blood of Christ is flowing down the cross and is going onto the skull of Adam, which is in that cave. Okay, so you can imagine that this image, the Anastasis is a closeup of what’s going on in that little image in the crucifixion, right? Of Christ saving the dead Adam, okay? That’s interesting. So it’s almost like a nested fractal or something. Exactly, that’s exactly what it is. It is very much a nested fractal. So within one tiny portion of that other image you’re describing of the crucifixion, if you were to like zoom in and expand out, it would be this. It’d be that. And so what I’ve tried to explain to people is that in the very icon of Christ, so just Christ’s blessing and holding a book, there’s basically all of iconography is compressed into that one icon if you are able to read it properly. And then you kind of expand out of the image of Christ into all these different aspects of Christ and all these different aspects of iconography. And so this is what’s also happening in the icon itself. So now this icon is also doing what I’m telling you. So Christ comes down and he pulls Adam and Eve out of their grave. And in pulling Adam and Eve out of their grave, he’s pulling man out of his grave, man with a capital M, humankind. Okay, okay. Okay, and so in that gesture, he’s gathering into Adam and Eve, you could say, all the people that are standing next to Adam and Eve now. That is, he’s not just saving Adam and Eve, but we show him saving Adam and Eve because they’re the father and mother of all of us. He’s gathering all those other people in with him. And so he has, so basically in Adam and Eve, as they’re being brought out of death, is also King David and King Solomon and the St. John the foreigner. And the person you see with the crook is Abel, right? So the first person to die basically, okay? And then the two, I don’t know, like I’d have to see, it’s hard to tell. But usually like you said, it could be prophets. So you would have the prophets and the kings. Then you have the first person to die who is Abel and the last person to die who is St. John the Baptist. Yeah, yeah, wow. So obviously there are other people died, but in terms of narrative, right? You have the person that died just before Christ and was calling to Christ and the first person that died in the story of mankind. So you can understand that all of this is being gathered into Adam and Eve as Christ is bringing them out of death. Does that make sense? I mean, it’s fascinating. So there could be different ways of representing it. You don’t always have exactly the same figures in Hades as Adam and Eve are being taken, but usually it’s some version of that. And then in terms of the structure, it basically has a basic structure of the image of everything. So at the top of the image, you have the glory of Christ and Christ in his glory kind of moving up. At the bottom, you have darkness and death, and you have death, which is chained at the bottom of death as an, let’s say, imaged as a person who’s down there at the bottom. And then you have the residues of technology and the residues of civilization, which are all those little white squiggles that you see. Those are all bolts and springs and things that hold the door of death that hold the door of death together. Oh, there you go. That’s a much better version. Yeah, so I pulled this one up, a much better version, but see, like you mentioned, the bottom is different. You don’t have death chained up. Yeah. You have two figures down there. So here you would have, so sometimes it’s death, sometimes it’s the notion of death, and Hades almost has two different figures. So you have the God of death and death, and sometimes it’s like death and the devil. So it depends on the versions of the icon that are chained up. And so all these little squiggles, you see the white squiggles? Yeah. Those are springs and bolts and things from the doors of hell that Christ has broken to go into hell. Cool. So the things that are under his feet, like these wooden panels that are there, sometimes they make a cross under his feet, and sometimes they’re down at the bottom of the image. Those are the doors of hell, which I’ve smashed. So the doors of hell that are smashed are important because what’s happening on the cross, right? What’s happening, one of the things that’s happening on the cross is that the veil of the temple is being ripped. And so Christ at the same time is ripping the veil of the temple and is smashing the doors of hell at the same time. So he’s moving into both extremes simultaneously, going into the holy of holies, and then going down into the pit simultaneously. And so all these images are important because you have to understand that they’re kind of playing on each other and they’re reflecting each other. Yeah. And to that extent, the way that you described that, it’s similar to what I was noticing with the gospels as a written literature, where they write it in a way where they expect the reader to know the end from the beginning. Like they under, like- There’s no surprise. Yeah, so like there’s no surprises. So that’s why like in the gospel of Luke, I was reading very early and it’s like, oh, he said that because of his death. And so in that way, it’s like, I look at this icon and I’m thinking, you know, like it’s telling the whole picture and it’s not just a picture of time or a timeline of history, but of meaning and themes. And it’s like trying to pack as much in to one single frame as simply as possible. And it’s really, it’s just one version. If you could say it like a lot of the icons, the more successful icons, they’re basically this idea of this image of everything where they tend to contain all of reality in them, depending on the frame of what they’re talking about. Like one version of the whole pattern of being in the one icon. Just pointed slightly in a different direction, depending on what aspect you’re emphasizing. So that’s the image of the Anastasis. That’s why it’s so sad. It’s, how can I say this? Looking at that image is extremely satisfactory. It gives you a strange sense of wonder and peace. You know, I’ve had a lot of people tell me this is their favorite icons. And the funniest thing has been to have like Protestant ministers that I respect quite a bit telling me like, this is their favorite icon. And me thinking like, that’s amazing because this is definitely not in scripture. Like this is not a, this is an icon which is based on an apocryphal text. But the truth of it is so strong that it kind of shines through. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, it’s like, he’s pillaging Hades, right? I mean, this is like cooler than any Marvel superhero. Like he’s- And this is, it’s like an epic, you can try to imagine it as like an animation. It’s like Christ going down, banging people up in like a, you know, like a rocket going out of going up. Blasting the hinges off the doors of death and chaining all of the demons and yeah.