I’ve been reading a bit about Umberto Eco and his novel, the Name of the Rose. While I’ve not yet read any of Eco’s books (I do plan to, however), it seems that one of his main goals with these works of fiction is to present in metaphorical story-form the workings of his philosophical system, semiotics. Semiotics is one of those areas of study which is rather obtuse when it comes to actually defining just what it is:

Semiotics is the study of signs, both individually and grouped in sign systems, and includes the study of how meaning is transmitted and understood.

If you have some background in the area, then this might make sense to you. But it seems that what Eco’s novels do is to take this definition and make it live through embodiment, through characters. The Name of the Rose is a medieval murder mystery, of which Wikipedia writes:

At the conclusion of that novel, we are left with a monk attempting to reconstruct a library based on scraps and attempting to create meaning by the combination of random pieces of information. This monk is fulfilling the role of a reader.

This got me thinking about other popular stories and what, if any, philosophical systems are encoded within them. Indiana Jones strikes me as particularly relevant in this sense. And the more I began to think about it, the more I began to wonder if this perhaps was a hidden purpose within these stories. What I mean by that is that in one way, the Indiana Jones myth could be taken as a pattern of religious inquiry. As a college professor, Jones undertakes an academic study of religions and cultures around the world. But as a whip-cracking adventurer, Jones knows that what’s really important is direct experience in these areas. His academic knowledge, however, serves him well in these adventures, but even more than that does his heart. It’s interesting that so many of Jones’ adventures center around the quest for religious relics: the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, those glowing rocks of Kali, magic idols, etc. It’s also worth noting that his arch-enemies are usually Nazis or people who are intent on plundering these treasures and using their power in unwise or unholy ways. While Jones is, in many regards, something of a plunderer himself, he’s driven partly by the noble drive of “This belongs in a museum”. That, of course, combined with a certain degree of adventure-lust. But the underlying message, if you look at it on one level, is to say to people: Go and find the ancient treasures, whether they consist of knowledge or experience or both. This is the greatest adventure.