Decided to go for a comfort watch (I said what I said) of The Name of the Rose. One scene in particular always makes my bile rise, with Venerable Jorge's speech distilled from this passage in Eco's tome:
[T]he work of our order and in particular the work of this monastery, a part—indeed, the substance—is study, and the preservation of knowledge. Preservation of, I say, not search for, because the property of knowledge, as a divine thing, is that it is complete and has been defined since the beginning, in the perfection of the Word which expresses itself to itself. Preservation, I say, and not search, because it is a property of knowledge, as a human thing, that it has been defined and completed over the course of the centuries, from the preaching of the prophets to the interpretation of the fathers of the church. There is no progress, no revolution of ages, in the history of knowledge, but at most a continuous and sublime recapitulation.
Benedictine Jorge is not alone in his anti-intellectualism, as Franciscan Ubertino de Casale admonishes William of Baskerville (Connery in the movie):
[Y]our masters at Oxford have taught you to idolize reason, drying up the prophetic capacities of your heart...Mortify your intelligence, learn to weep over the wounds of the Lord, throw away your books.”
There is a tonal difference between the two monks, with the former just being a humorless old fuck, while the latter is gentle, loving, and (relatively) non-judgmental. Regardless, I guess we could boil these attitudes down to Ecclesiastes 1:18:
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
I mean, it's not entirely untrue. I'd much rather wallow in ignorance sometimes, given the state of the world. But it's probably no surprise that I'm more inclined toward Brother William, and think books (even the Internet!) are pretty good on balance. What's more, consider what William says about fellow Franciscan and scientific philosopher, Roger Bacon, during his friendly debate with Ubertino:
[He] spoke clearly and calmly of the Antichrist, and was aware of the import of the corruption of the world and the decline of learning. He taught, however, that there is only one way to prepare against his coming: study the secrets of nature, use knowledge to better the human race. We can prepare to fight the Antichrist by studying the curative properties of herbs, the nature of stones, and even by planning those flying machines that make you smile.
That makes me think of Proverbs 18, which suggests (the way I read it) that we ought to work together in community, and with humility, to learn how to get along in the world (whilst not heeding fools). Particularly, verse 15:
The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.
Or to put it another way:
Those who are wise eagerly search for knowledge. By paralleling "heart" and "ears," the verse stresses the full acquisition of knowledge: the ear of the wise listens to instruction, and the heart of the wise discerns what is heard to acquire knowledge.
I might also add that in a Republic such as ours, acquisition of knowledge is of foundational importance, which is why authoritarians hate it as much as Jorge does.
Selah.
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