Beyond The Walls

Whether code breaker or spiritualist or amateur historian, the Voynich speculators are linked by their common interest in the past, in this quasi-occult mystery, and the insoluble problems of authenticity.  It has been said that it is “for a mysterious but learned reference to past mysteries that somehow hold important meaning for the present.” We will probably never stop forming communities based on the manuscript’s secrets.  We are fond of weaving narratives like doilies around gaping holes, so that the holes won’t scare them. And objects from premodern history—like medieval manuscripts—are the perfect canvas on which to project our worries about the difficult, the frightening and the arcane, because these objects come from a time outside culture as we conceive of it. This single, original manuscript encourages us to sit with the concept of truth and to remember that there are mysteries at the bottom of things whose meanings we will never know. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ben-james/mes