bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Removal of the Ḥakham Bashi of Baghdad, David Pappo, by the Young Turks
Authors: Harel Yaron
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the appointment of Rabbi David Pappo as ḥakham bashi in Baghdad, and his removal by the Ottoman rulers after coming under suspicion of involvement in seditious political activity. Rabbi Pappo took up his new post in Baghdad armed with an official firman from the sultan — the first ḥakham bashi of the city to be so recognized since Rabbi Elisha Dangoor over twenty years earlier. The arrival of this new leader, adorned with official trappings of honour from the Sublime Porte, seems to have given the new communal board an influx of confidence and energy. Its financial matters were put on a sound footing, and relations with institutions of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) improved. Even the issue of the curriculum in the community's educational institutions seemed to be on the path to resolution, with the ḥakham bashi declaring his willingness to discuss the implementation of educational reform. The chapter then considers the Young Turk Revolution and the events that form the crucial background to the removal from office of the governor of the Baghdad district, Nazem Pasha, which ultimately led to the deposition of the ḥakham bashi, Rabbi Pappo.
Sa’adyah, Polemicist and Publicist
Authors: Brody Robert
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at polemics and the propagation of doctrines that constitute an important area of Sa'adyah Gaon's wide-ranging literary activity. It reviews Sa'adyah's works that were intended primarily as polemics and were not restricted to a single topic, which is often incorporated with a wide range of subjects that contributed to his polemical argument. It also surveys Sa'adyah's debates with members of other religions and his struggles over the leadership of Rabbanite Jewry in Babylonia. The chapter discusses how Christians and Muslims alike believed that God had transmitted the Hebrew Bible to the children of Israel through his prophet Moses, but they also believed that its authority had lapsed long ago. It looks at the concept of a Divine unity in three persons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that surpasses human comprehension.
Jesus and the Origins of Christianity
Authors: Ben-Shalom Ram
Published: February 2021

This chapter takes a look at contemporary Jewish understandings of Jesus Christ and Christianity during the Second Temple period. It showed that this period was often the subject of debate between Jews and Christians in the Middle Ages. The reason for this is clear: Christians regarded it as the time of their messiah, while Jews rejected their claims and continued to await the messiah's coming. Polemicists, Christian and Jewish alike, believed that clarifying the history of the period would support their positions. Thus, between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries Jews held a variety of opinions on the life of Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity, which can reveal much about how they saw Christian culture during the Middle Ages.
History of the Iberian Monarchies
Authors: Ben-Shalom Ram
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Jewish interest in the history of Spain and its kings—a preoccupation which intensified throughout the centuries. It shows how the kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, Castile and Aragon in particular, loomed large in Jewish historical consciousness through the multitude of Jewish writings on the topic. In addition, the chapter reveals the oral historical traditions of the Jewish courtiers which express the fusion of Jewish and general history in the historical consciousness of Spanish Jews. There does not seem to have been a clear division between the two. The Jews of Spain dealt with both Jewish and Spanish history, and the images of the past of the Iberian peninsula created a single history in their consciousness.
Conclusion
Authors: Ben-Shalom Ram
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter discusses the major insights of the previous chapters to present a multifaceted picture of Jewish perceptions of Christianity during the Middle Ages. The Jews held both positive and negative perceptions of the Spanish kingdom and of Christianity in general. Moreover, attraction to and repulsion from Christian culture played an important role in Jewish historical consciousness. The attraction and repulsion can be explained by the Jews' status during the Middle Ages as a minority in a mainly Christian society. Yet the chapter also reveals that the mechanisms of integration and co-operation functioned in Spain and southern France. It was a situation unique to these countries during the Middle Ages, and led to adoption, acceptance, and approval, which furthered acceptance by the majority.
Introduction
Authors: Huss Boaz
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Zohar. The Zohar is one of the most sacred, authoritative, and influential books in Jewish culture, and it has also attracted the interest of many non-Jews. It is a collection of texts which were probably written by several Castilian authors in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Soon after their first appearance, these texts came to be perceived as part of a literary work attributed to the tana R. Shimon bar Yohai (Rashbi) and called ‘the Zohar’. From its earliest appearance, several kabbalistic circles invested the Zohar with a status of authority and holiness. Yet it only became widely accepted as a pre-eminent source of doctrines, laws, and customs after the finalization and printing of the zoharic corpus in the sixteenth century. However, conflicting approaches to the Zohar have persisted to the present day. There are those who believe in its sanctity and authority, while others appreciate its literary and historical value. Interest in the Zohar has grown significantly in recent years, and its study, ritual reading, research, commentary, translation, and printing have proliferated.
The History of Zohar Criticism
Authors: Huss Boaz
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at those Jewish scholars who rejected the value of the Zohar altogether and did everything in their power to subvert its revered status. It surveys the criticism of the Zohar, focusing on the measures the maskilim took against kabbalah in general, and against the Zohar in particular, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Such criticism was part of the maskilic struggle against traditional Jewish circles, especially the hasidic movement in eastern Europe. The rejection of the Zohar played an important role in their endeavour to create a modern European, enlightened Jewish identity. It also allowed them to distinguish themselves from traditional east European Jewish culture, in which that work had gained canonical status.
Studying Pan's Labyrinth
Authors: Jones Tanya
Published: February 2021

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) is a film of extraordinary technical achievement and intense emotional impact, garnering acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. Such a rich cinematic text demands close scrutiny and comprehensive study. This book begins with a close study of Pan's Labyrinth as a very challenging piece of film-making. It talks about Pan's Labyrinth's stunning visual beauty, haunting lullaby theme that evoke the tragedy of the protagonist Ofelia, and masterful combination of fantasy and horror conventions to produce a barbed, threatening, but beautiful, cinematic landscape. The book guides the reader through a detailed analysis of the film, concentrating on the generation of meaning for the viewer. It maps technical choices and how they capture human experience and political conflict. It also details the processes of production, distribution, and exhibition. Specific examples from a range of film texts enable a vivid grasp of technical vocabulary, therefore providing readers with the tools to analyze other films as well.
Studying Hammer Horror
Authors: Walden Victoria
Published: February 2021

When Hammer Productions was formed in the 1920s, no one foresaw the impact this small, independent studio would have on the international film market. Christopher Lee's mesmerizing, animalistic, yet gentlemanly performance as Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Mummy were celebrated worldwide, and the Byronic qualities of Peter Cushing's Dr. Frankenstein, among his many other Hammer characters, proved impossible to forget. Hammer maintained consistent period settings, creating a timeless and enchanting aesthetic. This book treats Hammer as a quintessentially British product and through a study of its work investigates larger conceptions of national horror cinemas. The book examines genre, auteur theory, stardom, and representation within case studies of Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Twins of Evil (1971), and Hammer's latest film, Beyond the Rave (2008). The book weighs Hammer's impact on the British film industry, past and present. Intended for students, fans, and general readers, this book transcends superficial preconceptions of Hammer horror in order to reach the essence of Hammer.
Hammer and British Cinema
Authors: Walden Victoria Grace
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the relationship between Hammer Films and British cinema. The history of British cinema has been characterised by a strong dedication to realism, in its many forms. From the documentaries of the 1930s with a focus on social responsibility to the gritty kitchen sink dramas of the 1960s, and even the naturalistic aesthetic of television police dramas, the British moving-image industries have a strong heritage of realism. If this is the case, Hammer horror, despite its international fame as a specifically British brand of filmmaking, does not seem characteristic of British national cinema at all. On one hand, Hammer's horrors are clearly fantastical; on the other hand, they amalgamate infrequent and abrupt moments of gore with a 'neat unpretentious realism'. Moreover, the films were lambasted in the press for not exhibiting 'good taste' or restraint. The chapter then assesses to what extent Hammer horror can be understood as British.
Hammer After the ‘X’
Authors: Walden Victoria Grace
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses how the success of The Quatermass Xperiment (1953), despite, or because of its X rating, enabled Hammer Films to test the British Board of Film Censors' (BBFC) boundaries of taste. Correspondence between the censor and Hammer illustrate the studio's desire to shock audiences, while still ensuring films received a certificate. Their move into colour enhanced the shock appeal and distinguished Hammer's works from earlier cinematic reincarnations of gothic characters. The chapter presents readings of X the Unknown (1956) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), considering the impact of the X certificate and colour on production. It examines how these two films represent a transitional period in the studio's history, establishing many of the tropes that would appear in the studio's classic films.
Messages and Values: Rape and Moral Ambiguity
Authors: Hughes Emily
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses moral ambiguity and the representation of rape in Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (2002). On first screening of the film, the spectator is placed in an unusual and morally ambiguous position. One grows to feel sympathy for Benigno and see him as the protagonist of the film. As the audience never sees the rape, they are spared from upsetting imagery and as Alicia is in a coma and thus unable to resist, they are protected from the violence and force that usually accompanies cinematic depictions of rape. Added to this is the challenging fact that Benigno feels that the sex was an act of mutually understood love rather than a carer taking advantage of a patient. Moreover, the film delivers the highly problematic message that rape is somehow beneficial for Alicia. Talk to Her, as with other art films, asks the spectator to reflect and engage with their own attitudes and values, and controversially, to consider whether some types of rape are 'worse' than others. The rape in Talk to Her can also be considered as a metaphor or symbol for several things, notably the symbolic rape of Spain under the dictator Franco, or as a symbol for Benigno reaching a delayed adolescence.
Introduction
Authors: Billson Anne
Published: February 2021

This chapter introduces the Swedish vampire film, Låt den rätte komma (Let the Right One In), which not only stands out from contemporary vampire films, but ranks among the very best vampire movies of the past century. The chapter mentions director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist, who adapted Låt den rätte komma from his own novel of the same name. It also mentions a song by the lugubrious British rock singer-songwriter Morrissey as Lindqvist's inspiration for the title of his novel 'Let the Right One Slip In'. It recounts Let the Right One In's world premiere on 26 January 2008 at the Göteborg International Film Festival in Sweden and screening at other festivals in Europe, North America, Australia and South Korea. The chapter explains why Let the Right One In stands head and shoulders above other recent horror movies like Twilight from 2008.
The Vampire as Serial Killer
Authors: Billson Anne
Published: February 2021

This chapter introduces the term 'serial killer', which refers to someone who murders people one at a time and was reportedly coined by FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. It recounts how the term 'serial killer' came into vogue around the time of the release of The Silence of the Lambs (1991), which featured the hunt for a serial killer called Buffalo Bill. It also reviews a number of serial murderers that have been called 'vampires' by the press, such as Peter Kürten who was charged with nine murders and was dubbed 'The Vampire of Düsseldorf '. The chapter discusses movie vampires, who tend to leave trails of drained corpses behind them, which qualify them as serial killers. It refers to Martin's youth in the film Martin, which marks him out as a missing link between Dracula and teen-orientated vampire movies, which would exploit the vampire's bad-boy appeal for younger audiences.
The Vampire’s Assistant
Authors: Billson Anne
Published: February 2021

This chapter explains why vampirism is often seen as a metaphor for capitalist exploitation as vampires are often portrayed to prey on the weak. It analyses movie monsters, especially vampires, that have always offered a multiplicity of metaphors that are sometimes overlapping or purely subjective. It also explores the metaphors in Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In, which are less obvious than usual films and leaves deeper meanings open to individual interpretation. The chapter focuses on the need of a vampire for human assistance as it is a creature unable to tolerate sunlight, but nevertheless wants to live among humans inevitably. It emphasizes the many tasks of a vampire's human assistance, such as Oskar's character in Let the Right One In who guards Eli against her enemies during daylight hours.
Vampire Rules
Authors: Billson Anne
Published: February 2021

This chapter probes the public fascination with vampires caused by the panoply of rules and rituals that have arisen around them, such as drinking blood, casting no reflection, or turning into other creatures. It demonstrates how vampire films and novels often ring changes on the rules and rituals, but still pay lip-service to some or all of them to some degree. It also describes Eli in Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In, whose condition of drinking blood and avoiding sunlight to survive is explained by a non-supernatural medical condition, such as porphyria. The chapter reviews one of the key scenes in Let the Right One In when Oskar asks Eli what would happen if she came into his flat without an invitation, and she proceeds to show him. It explains the vampire's need for an invitation as an invention of Bram Stoker.
Introduction
Authors: Cooper Ian
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Michael Reeves's Witchfinder General (1968), which occupies a unique place in British cinema. Based on the 1966 novel by Ronald Bassett, the film stars Vincent Price as the title character. On the one hand, it is frequently cited as a landmark film, well-regarded, influential, and critically acclaimed. Critic Julian Petley describes it as ‘one of the towering achievements, not simply of British horror but of British cinema tout court’, while David Pirie suggests it ‘brings UK horror to some kind of maturity’ and compares director Michael Reeves to the poet John Keats. However, for many critics, it remains a disreputable work with a troubled history. Nevertheless, both Witchfinder General and its director continue to resonate, being frequently discussed, studied, and referenced.
The Place of the Film
Authors: Cooper Ian
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents a background of Michael Reeves, the director of Witchfinder General (1968). Perhaps the best way to understand Reeves is to regard him as a home-grown ‘Movie Brat’. This was the name given to the geeky American cinephiles who were inspired by the critics-turned-directors of the French New Wave. These film-school-educated ‘Brats’ would make a number of innovative genre films which were to revolutionise Hollywood in the 1970s and beyond. Witchfinder General is not notable solely due to its strange status as ‘a disreputable classic’. It also draws on a number of British and American popular forms (such as the costume melodrama, the horror film and the Western). Moreover, it is a striking example of an auteur sensibility in what Robin Wood calls ‘that most discouraging of areas — the British commercial cinema’. Reeves' love of mainstream, Anglophone cinema went hand-in-hand with a rejection of the then-voguish European art cinema.
Fight Club’s Critical Reactions and Cultural Contexts
Authors: Ramey Mark , Ramey Mark
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the critical reactions to Fight Club (1999). Fight Club has a complex, postmodern approach to genre and narrative; it is a generic hybrid that resists categorisation and a narrative that avoids precise resolution. Critical responses were wide ranging but the most vociferous and aggressive were from renowned critics like Roger Ebert and Alexander Walker who found the film repellent and nihilistic. Many critics linked the film to an infantile reading of Nietzsche, which further raised the spectre of the Nazis and helped endorse the view that Fight Club was politically dangerous and morally repugnant. However, critical opinion was split, with some reviewers seeing Fight Club as a brilliantly effective critique and biting satire of contemporary life. The film also created censorship issues for the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) who insisted on minor cuts to two scenes of fighting. The chapter then considers the cultural contexts of Fight Club. In 1999, the fear of the ‘Millennium Bug’ was indicative of a general anxiety over many aspects of Western culture. These were focused on notions of gender and in particular male anxiety of emasculation and feminisation, as well as generational mistrust and unease.
Introduction
Authors: Poole Benjamin
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of SAW (2004). SAW is a horror film that is entirely representative of the era that created it: the early twenty-first century witnessed a threatened America whose national confidence was shattered, and shady Middle Eastern wars played out in abject images of torture and suffering. Like the aeons of horror tales that precede it, the film is an essay in morality as well as mortality; its antagonist cleaves to a logical, if bloody moral code, while no victim is wholly without guilt. As with all of the best horror, SAW is interested in the spiritual and physical potential of the human body and soul. This aspect of gratification is abundantly evident in the gross extremities of SAW's survival horror. The particular focus is sadism and body trauma, which the film details with surgical precision.
SAW and Sequels
Authors: Poole Benjamin
Published: February 2021

This chapter describes the sequels to SAW (2004). The SAW spin-offs have the distinction of being both sequels and prequels to the original film. There is the implication, reinforced by marketing, that the original experience will be consolidated with each new instalment. Indeed, following the franchise, each instalment offers new narrative information that supplements one's understanding of the original plot. With each instalment's promise of 'revealing the full story', the franchise is at least distinctive in the way it recycles already familiar narrative pleasures, delivering them in 'novel' ways. And, as well as providing a unique, ever-unfolding plotline, which is in itself attractive and rewarding for fans, the retroactive narrative allows the film-makers the luxury of covering over their own plot holes.
Tobe Hooper and the Making of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Authors: Rose James
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides a biographical sketch of film director Tobe Hooper. What emerges from the various biographies written on Hooper is the idea that the young Hooper was a film obsessive, watching as much cinema as he possibly could and, by doing so, become familiar with the language of film to the extent that he could replicate the narratives he had watched. Hooper himself has suggested that he made his first film at the age of five using the family's Super 8 camera. The chapter then looks at his debut feature film, Eggshells (1971). As a first feature film, Eggshells offers an entry point into Hooper's dynamic as a film director. Finally, the chapter details the development, production, and financial problems of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the BBFC
Authors: Rose James
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses how the succession of events surrounding the British censorship of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is perhaps one of the longest in the annals of the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) history. Before the film was submitted for classification at the then titled British Board of Film Censors, Chain Saw Massacre had already garnered a growing global reputation as being one of the most frightening films ever made. While this would seem to imply that such a film would be statured in scenes of graphic violence and bloodshed, this imposed status for Chain Saw came about from the very fact that there was so little violence and gore within it. Instead, audiences and critics were affected by the film's sheer emotional intensity, experiencing the horrific events, almost in real time, alongside protagonist Sally Hardesty. With the majority of films across all genres, such a reputation serves only to stimulate an increased audience curiosity and anticipation, potentially indicating larger audience figures (and therefore larger financial return) on the film than initially expected. Indeed, Chain Saw was eagerly anticipated but its most effective quality would impede its UK cinema release for nearly twenty-five years.
Jonathan Demme’s the Silence of the Lambs
Authors: Forshaw Barry
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The synthesis of elements that create the look and identity of a film come from a variety of talents: from the director's original conception, to the cinematographer's realisation of the same; to the production designer. In the case of The Silence of the Lambs, these three elements are in perfect harmony, producing a visual signature for the film which is highly distinctive and very specific to Demme's vision. The chapter then details the first meeting and the subsequent interviews between Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. The initial meeting between Clarice and the murderous psychiatrist Lecter is one of the great set pieces of modern cinema. While clearly adhering to the imperatives of popular cinema, the sequence is shot and acted with a rigour worthy of the ‘chamber cinema’ of the Swedish master Ingmar Bergman in his late 1960s films — and this is not the only occasion in which the more rarefied agendas of art cinema are evoked by Demme and his collaborators. Another popular sequence is a perfect concatenation of all three elements of acting, writing, and direction, in which Lecter makes his devastating (and cruel) character analysis of Clarice. The chapter also explores the horror film credentials and accoutrements of the film.
Chicks with Picks
Authors: Marriott James
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses what difference it makes that Neil Marshall's party is women only, and investigates The Descent's contribution to the thorny issue of the representation of women in horror films. Marshall admits that his original concept for the film involved a mixed group, and that he was attracted to a colleague's off-hand suggestion of making the cavers an all-female group for its novelty. This highlights the first, obvious point: it is a selling point, a distinguishing feature. As Marshall points out in 'The Making of The Descent', the film is unique among what Marshall describes as 'action horror' films in having an all-female cast. Given that the cast is all-female — and young, athletic and attractive to boot — Marshall's treatment of them is remarkably desexualised, arguably working against this selling point, for at least some of the film's audience. The decision to present the women neutrally — not only desexualised but also, perhaps, defeminised — relates to the underlying themes in the film.
Gangland UK
Authors: Elliott Paul
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the British gangster film. Unlike the vaguely romantic and detached violence of the Tommy-gun toting mobster, the British gangster of the 1940s fought with razors, vitriol and fists, at once a more prosaic and more hands-on method of violence — a reality that was reflected in the cinema. From its beginnings in the post-war period to the epic violence of The Long Good Friday (1979), the British gangster film has always adapted itself to the surrounding social milieu. Very often it has none of the mythic quality of its Hollywood counterpart and is certainly lacking in the budget or the star names. However, it also avoids the sentimentality of the Hollywood film and, aside from a few exceptions, tends to resist the glamorisation of its violence. Death in the British gangster film is brutal and ugly and retribution is often quick.
Working Girls
Authors: Elliott Paul
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on how prostitution is figured in popular British cinema. Like many areas of crime cinema, prostitution provides a fairly accurate barometer of how the British public views itself. If the cinematic gangster offers insights into the nature of masculinity and the heist movie gives insights into greed and economics, then the prostitute film sheds light on the changing face of sexual morality The chapter is divided into three main periods — the 1950s, the 1980s, and the 1990s — and traces how the working girl was presented in each of these. The picture that emerges from this exercise is one of slow change; from the paternalism of the 1950s, through the permissiveness of the 1960s, on to the politicisation of the 1980s. Representations of prostitution are also ineluctably tied to gender politics and the concomitant power relationships of socio-economics. Films about prostitution are almost always written, directed, and produced by men but most often feature women; films that depict male prostitution are few and far between and contain radically different socio-politics as those that feature female sex-workers. This means that any study of cinematic prostitution must always consider the means of production, its context, and its consumption.
Juvenile Delinquency
Authors: Elliott Paul
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores British delinquency films. The phrase ‘juvenile delinquent’ has been used to describe criminal children since the mid-nineteenth century. Although an endlessly prescient and emotive area, the subject of the juvenile delinquent represents both continuity and change for British society and cinema — on the one hand offering an ever present folk devil and barometer for social mores and, on the other, lending a constantly evolving image that forever allies itself to other problems. It also offers special insight into how successive generations view themselves and their successors. The first manifestation of the juvenile delinquent in British films could be thought to be characters such as Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock (2010) or Ted Peters in Dancing with Crime (1947). However, it would not be until the 1950s and 1960s that the British juvenile delinquent made a full appearance on film and then it would always be under the watchful eyes of a responsible adult. The chapter then considers Lewis Gilbert's Cosh Boy (1953) and Basil Dearden's Violent Playground (1958), as well as the films Scum (1979), Made in Britain (1982), and Scrubbers (1983).
‘I know how this one ends’
Authors: Conolly Jez
Published: February 2021

This chapter gives a detailed outline of the film's plot. It disambiguates between the titles of the various Thing film versions. It describes John Carpenter's version of The Thing as a film that is all about the loss of identity. The chapter also gives a few descriptive conventions and shorthand terminology for some of the key concepts and characters involved in the analysis. These are commonly used terms in Thing fan culture. The chapter gives a detailed summary of the film. It carefully describes how each character is introduced and how each meet their unfortunate demise, and chronologically narrates the events in the film.
‘What is that… is that a man in there… or something?’
Authors: Conolly Jez
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses how the Thing in human form is ultimately the greatest instigator of fear. Simply not knowing who is who, but knowing what happens when a Thing is hidden inside a man contributes to the film's suspenseful, horrific effectiveness. The chapter gives a brief history of plant-based monsters on the big screen and how the The Thing might be part-plant. It discusses how the word 'man' on the tagline of The Thing may actually refer to 'mankind' which suggests a rapid and complete subsuming of all human life on Earth should the organism be allowed to reach civilization. The chapter relates the characters and how they are constructed to the political atmosphere at the time the movie was released citing the Cold War and the rising fear of Communism in the United States. It also discusses the gender politics that play out in the film.
‘Weird and pissed off whatever it is’
Authors: Conolly Jez
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about the special effects of The Thing. It defines Body Horror and explores its antecedents beyond filmic reference points. The chapter identifies the four key players of the film's special effects: Dale Kuipers, Mentor Huebner, Mike Ploog and Rob Bottin. It describes their resultant work as an all-consuming venture, a benchmark in special effects that would stretch the film's finances and also its production schedule. It describes Bottin's effects as having the amazing ability to generate animacy from inanimacy. The chapter discusses how the Body Horror films of the 1980s specialised in gruesome transformation sequences of one kind or another, which tended to be presented as extended visual party pieces, in order to achieve what most of the films in the genre craved: a reaction similar to that of the audience reception to the works of the pioneers of pre-cinema with their deliberately fright inducing magic lantern shows. It states that The Thing's parade of effects sequences neither interrupt nor dominate the beat of the film. In fact if anything they reflect and accentuate its confidently inexorable stride pattern.
Who Am I? Positioning the Spectator and Identification
Authors: Turner Peter
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the notion of identification in relation to The Blair Witch Project (1999). One of the primary reasons for the continued use of the found footage aesthetic, popularised in The Blair Witch Project, must be that it increases identification for horror film viewers. These fans of the horror genre search for films that will terrify them. Having a character hold a camera is the closest a spectator can get to living the film, but they get to experience it from the safety of their seat in front of the screen. Considering the positioning of spectators, and exploring the cognitive processes that lead to increased identification, is essential. Is it really as simple as suggesting that, because the cameras are in the hands of the characters, audiences will identify more with them, and therefore be more scared? Many film theorists have considered identification, empathy, and emotion and some have applied their findings to The Blair Witch Project.
Reading Maimonides' Mishneh Torah
Authors: Gillis David
Published: February 2021

This book demonstrates that the Mishneh torah, Maimonides' code of Jewish law, has the structure of a microcosm. Through this symbolic form, Maimonides presents the law as designed to perfect the individual and society by shaping them in the image of the divinely created cosmic order. The commandments of the law thereby bring human beings closer to fulfilling their ultimate purpose, knowledge of God. This symbolism turns the Mishneh torah into an object of contemplation that itself communicates such knowledge. In short, it is a work of art. The book unpacks the metaphysical and cosmological underpinnings of Maimonides' scheme of organization, allowing the reader to understand the Mishneh torah's artistic dimension and to appreciate its power. Moreover, as the book makes clear, uncovering this dimension casts new light on one of the great cruxes of Maimonides studies: the relationship of the Mishneh torah to his philosophical treatise The Guide of the Perplexed. A fundamental unity is revealed between Maimonides the codifier and Maimonides the philosopher that has not been fully appreciated hitherto. Maimonides' artistry in composition is repeatedly shown to serve his aims in persuading us of the coherence and wisdom of the halakhic system. The book sets in high relief the humane and transcendental purposes and methods of halakhah as Maimonides conceived of it, in an argument that is sure-footed and convincing.
In God’s Image
Authors: Gillis David
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the structural parallel between ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’ and ‘Laws of Ethical Qualities’, the opening sections of the first book of Maimonides' Mishneh torah, the Book of Knowledge. In dividing intellectual virtue and moral virtue, ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’ and ‘Laws of Ethical Qualities’ present an Aristotelian structure. Underlying this division of content, however, is a formal pattern whereby ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’ represents the macrocosm, and ‘Laws of Ethical Qualities’ represents man as a microcosm. Supported by the idea of likeness to God common to both sections, this pattern implies a more holistic view of perfection, and is a way of introducing Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas. Both kinds of virtue emerge as ways in which a person becomes inwardly analogous to God, fulfilling the potential of being created in God's image. In the process, it was suggested, what is gained is not only virtue, but also knowledge.
Return
Authors: Gillis David
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the second phase of Neoplatonic cosmogony: the idea of return. In a Jewish context, ‘return’ evokes the idea of repentance. Redemption is represented as a natural process through an expanding pattern of loss and restoration built into the structure of Mishneh torah's main divisions. With the inclusion of this second phase of Neoplatonic emanation, the form of Mishneh torah rationalizes the commandments as flowing from a first cause, God's existence (the form of forms), and towards a final cause, the realized microcosmic form of man and of the state. This structural rationalization stands in contrast to the summative explanation of the commandments in The Guide of the Perplexed. It also provides a solution to the problem of the authority of the commandments, and a positive answer to the question of whether the commandments can be cognitive. The positioning of ‘Laws of Mourning’ as the work's penultimate section is both a tempering of messianic hopes, signalling that the reality of death will remain after the redemption, and an encouragement to hope, signalling, in alliance with the pattern of loss and restoration, that national mourning will be lifted.
The Law of Idolatry
Authors: Novak David
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates the law of idolatry, highlighting the tension between biblical and rabbinic attitudes towards gentile idolatry. The Bible consistently forbids idolatrous actions for Israelites while distinctly not excluding such behavior among gentiles. As gentiles are not participants in the Sinai covenant, they cannot be guilty of idolatry, even if their cult is consistently scorned in the Bible. Contrary to the biblical permission of pagan idolatry, the rabbis forbade anyone, Jew or gentile, to practice idolatry. According to one rabbinic line of thinking, all gentiles are idolaters, while another distinguished between contemporary and ancient idolatry. In either case, a radical innovation was introduced: idolatry was to be removed everywhere. For medieval Jewish thinkers, idolatry was believing that something finite was in fact infinite, and worthy of worship.
The Law of Homicide
Authors: Novak David
Published: February 2021

This chapter argues that the law prohibiting murder is the Noahide commandment most immediately and rationally evident. The rabbis considered its prohibition from two distinct points of view, the theological and the political. In theological terms, murder is the intentional taking of another human life, a life created in the image of God. In political terms, murder wrecks social life. Regarding murder at the individual level, the rabbis differentiated criteria for the punishment of Jews and gentiles. For Jews who commit murder, the death penalty is employed only under the strict standard of “hatra'ah,” or forewarning. Such a dispensation was not available to non-Jews. The law of homicide also deals with the morally knotty issue of abortion. Rabbinic Judaism permitted abortion only when the mother's life was in danger, but for Noahides, abortion was proscribed in every case.
Justifying Interreligious Pluralism
Authors: Sagi Avi
Published: February 2021

This chapter explores the philosophical justification for religious pluralism and provides a critique of religious exclusivism. The crucial challenge to religious exclusivism is what can be called ‘Hume's dilemma’. The source of Hume's dilemma is the existence of mutually incompatible religions; it conveys the problem evoked by interreligious pluralism. The chapter presents two central strategies for dealing with this problem. The first offers a modified version of validation in general and of religious justification in particular. The second offers a modified version of the concept of religious truth. These strategies make pluralism a position more defensible than exclusivism. The chapter then looks at the concept of religious loyalty, and assesses whether the endorsement of pluralism implies the breakdown of religious traditions in general and of Jewish tradition in particular. It argues that endorsing pluralism requires a religious revolution and while it exacts a heavy religious price, it is pluralism more than toleration that is compelling to contemporary Jews living in a modern democratic world.
Pluralism out of the Sources of Judaism
Authors: Jospe Raphael
Published: February 2021

This chapter argues for the legitimacy of Jewish religious pluralism, citing precedents and conceptions that arise indigenously ‘out of sources of Judaism’. As for the Christian challenge of equating pluralism with relativism, it constructs a paradigm of religious pluralism that avoids moral relativism, while at the same time avoiding the kind of extreme epistemological relativism of radical deconstructionism. As for Jewish precedents, there is ample evidence for both internal and external pluralism in the sources. In his comments on Genesis 33:20 and Exodus 6:9, Rashi cites this verse to justify diverse, internal pluralistic interpretations. Rabbi Yishma'el interpreted this verse as alluding to both internal and external pluralism. Such pluralism, even if it entails a degree of moderate epistemic relativism, does not imply a strong relativistic conception of multiple truths, but of multiple perspectives on the truth, or what the rabbis called the ‘seventy facets of the Torah’.
Respectful Disagreement
Authors: Kellner Jolene S. , Kellner Menachem
Published: February 2021

This chapter focuses on the rational and universalistic notion of metaphysical truth, which according to the authors' understandings of Maimonides and Jewish theology precludes accepting religious pluralism. Raphael Jospe's position consists of two claims: first, one can be a theological relativist (that is, a religious pluralist) without being an epistemological relativist; second, one can responsibly ground this position in normative Jewish sources. The chapter disputes these two claims and sketches out an alternative position: while not giving up on the idea that revelation teaches truth in some hard, exclusivist sense, putative addressees of revelation ought to be modest about how much of it they understand, and restrained in the claims they make on and about adherents of other religions. It argues that religious pluralism in a strong sense — that adherents of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can each affirm the truth of the others' revelation — renders the notion of revelation, in any classic sense of the term, incoherent. There is nothing in Jospe's argument that refutes this claim. Rather, he argues that Jews, Christians, and Muslims can respect each other on the level of moral behaviour.
The Violence of the Neutral in Interfaith Relations
Authors: Sendor Meir
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the common and unfortunate trend in interfaith dialogue of ‘neutralizing’ the Other. In an attempt to find commonality, neutralization introduces syncretism and relativism into interfaith discourse. Worse still, it does violence to the unique character of each religion and its practitioners who participate in the dialogue. According to Emmanuel Levinas, to proceed in this way is to doom the possibility of real relationship from the start and to fall prey to the most insidious and destructive habit of Western thought: the deception of the Neutral that derives from the tyranny of the Same. Meanwhile, Jacques Derrida repeatedly explored the nature of hospitality at length, employing it as a paradigm for the dynamics of interfaith relations. Finally, Paul Ricoeur's notion of the conscience, of the reciprocity of Otherness, of the response within responsibility, contributes an essential element to the groundwork for an authentic relationship outlined by Levinas and Derrida.
Jewish Liturgical Memory and the Non-Jew
Authors: Langer Ruth
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the power and construction of Jewish memory as well as the image of the religious Other in Jewish liturgy, which has been so heavily conditioned by adversarial biblical narratives and the experience of historical persecution. In the memory shaped by Jewish liturgy — be it the daily Amidah, the High Holiday prayers, Passover and Purim texts, or the Ninth of Av piyutim (liturgical poems) memorializing the destruction of the Temple, the tragedies of the Middle Ages, and the Holocaust — the religious or political Other is portrayed as almost universally negative. The non-Jew — usually considered in the impersonal abstract, rather than the particular other — is a threat to Jewish uniqueness. It disrupts God's covenantal plan for Israel. The chapter then looks at the ongoing tension between making historical memory part of Jewish identity and an openness to allowing history to unfold into a future that may move beyond tragedy.
Rethinking Christianity
Authors: Korn Eugene
Published: February 2021

This chapter identifies four distinct stages in the evolution of Jewish religious thinking about Christianity under different historical circumstances. In the first and second centuries, Jewish Christians came to be regarded as heretics (minim) or apostates from Judaism. For Jews to believe in Jesus and the ‘new covenant’ was considered avodah zarah. In the Middle Ages, when Jews lived in small communities in Christian Europe and were dependent on economic interaction with Christians, most Rishonim in Ashkenaz ruled that Christians were not idolaters, but they still considered belief in Christian doctrine to be illegitimate avodah zarah. In the late Middle Ages and early modernity, the majority of Aharonim did not consider Christianity to be avodah zarah for non-Jews. From the seventeenth century to the twentieth, when Christian toleration of Jews grew, a number of rabbinic authorities began to appreciate Christianity as a positive historical and theological phenomenon for non-Jews that helped spread fundamental beliefs of Judaism and thus advanced the Jewish religious purpose.
Maimonides’ Treatment of Christianity and its Normative Implications
Authors: Novak David
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses Maimonides' treatment of Christianity. Since Maimonides is the most theological of all the halakhists and the one most interested in the ideas that underlie religious praxis, it also examines how informed he is about the ideas underlying the non-Jewish practices he approves or disapproves of. Maimonides' rulings about Christianity always deal with it in comparison to Islam and to ‘paganism’. Islam and Christianity are, for Maimonides, the two other rival religions his contemporary Jews must still take seriously, just as paganism was the rival religion Jews had to take seriously before the rise of either Christianity or Islam. The question of whether paganism is still present in Christianity or Islam is of great concern to Maimonides when differentiating between these two other religions and their adherents. All paganism, whether involving the worship of a plurality of gods (polytheism) or the use of images in worship (idolatry), is to be combated in every way. But are all non-Jewish religions polytheistic and are all their adherents idolaters? The chapter also looks at the normative implications of Maimonides' treatment of Christianity for Jewish praxis today.
Towards the Future: Religious, Educational, and Cultural Reconstruction
Authors: Weinberg David H.
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses how the Jews of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands dealt with the unprecedented religious, educational, and cultural needs of their diverse constituents. The sharp increase in the number of alienated and unaffiliated Jews was a source of deep concern to rabbis and religious educators. In response, Orthodox institutions initiated liturgical changes that they hoped would make religious services more attractive. Liberal Judaism also made new inroads. Many young Jews had lived through the war years without any access to Jewish learning or Jewish communal life. In addressing the needs of this ‘lost’ generation, local Jewish educators not only had to develop innovative pedagogical techniques, such as informal classes, public lectures and discussion groups, and the use of radio, television, and film but also had to find ways of reintegrating young people into Jewish and general society. Thanks to funds received from the Claims Conference in the early 1950s and with the assistance of teachers and curricula supplied by American and Israeli agencies, Jewish pedagogues, rabbis, and administrators in western Europe not only formulated creative strategies to educate children, but also set about training new administrators, spiritual leaders, and schoolteachers.