The monks in Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose frequently debate one another on the finer points of scripture. Comically, these debates turn on such minutely fine points that the monks are in danger of entirely shaking off any proper perspective on Christ’s teachings. Whenever a monk is murdered, the blind monk Jorge takes it upon himself to interpret in these unnatural deaths signs of the forthcoming apocalypse, and is certain that they loudly echo warnings given in Revelations. In the novel, Jorge represents the over-literalist approach to interpretation, whereas the friar William of Baskerville represents the more liberal, and by implication more modern, approach. [Read more →]