Author: William Von Weise

The structure of “My Name Is Red” by Orhan Pamuk is ver interesting in that, with each chapter change, the narrator also transitions with it. Each chapter is relatively short, lending a hand to the fast pace of the novel. Furthermore, this frequent change in perspective presents the story in a fragmented way. They are like pieces of a puzzle that have to be added together in order to fully understand all sides of what is happening. In a sense, this separated narrative is almost like the making of an illuminated manuscript. There is a general, overarching idea. But each separate part has to be crafted with fine detail before the full picture can be seen; the letterings, the color, the images and the gold leaf all come before the final product. Each separate portion of the manuscript gives the viewer (or in this case, the reader) a glimpse into what the finished product will look like. It builds off of each piece.

Not only does this fragmented narrative style make reading the novel very fast-paced, it allows the reader to analyze multiple perspective. Other less typical narratives are used as well, such as a dead person and the color red. However, these lend a hand in helping shape the novel, as well as further intertwining all the separate narratives. But, these stories are not the only thing that this split narrative joins; various themes throughout the story are brought together through this literary usage.

The Images within the Très Riches Heures are not very religious. In fact, they are secular of nature. This is very interesting seeing as it is a book of hours in which, ideally, the owner of it would pray to every day. The owner and commissioner of the Très Riches Heures was the Duc de Berry, who was extremely wealthy at the time and controlled vast amounts of land. This is all displayed in one form or another through the Très Riches Heures, seeing as each miniature is a landscape in which a different castle is shown each time, as well as the great detail in the illuminations. However, I am not fully convinced that the Très Riches Heures is the best example of a book of hours – even if it is extremely lavish in its quality and detail – because it is a secular book.

In my eyes, books of hours should depict scenes that remind the reader of certain events that are religiously important. On the other hand, the miniatures in the Très Riches Heures show the seasonal events of the peasants and wealthy, not of religious scenes. Not to say that the Très Riches Heures is not valuable, because it is. But it gives more of a glimpse into how seasonal changes affected the population in and around modern-day Paris than it does with a proper religious book of hours, because one is secular and the other is not.

The Secret of Kells is a very imaginative film in the sense that it creates an origin story for the Book of Kells. What is particularly interesting about this film is that it is animated. What that allows is for a much younger audience to become engaged with illuminated manuscripts as a whole. Illuminated manuscripts are something that most likely appear dull to a younger generation of people. And the Secret of Kells makes these manuscripts more appealing through its utilization of things like fairies and mythical monsters.
Furthermore, the film employs an idea of the illuminated manuscript that takes on somewhat of a magical characteristic. The Book of Kells in the film literally “illuminates” the reader, taking on a quite literal approach to the illuminated manuscript. The Secret of Kells depicts these manuscripts as being work of angels and being able to shy away sinners from reading it. Obviously this is a very religious take on illuminated manuscripts, and rightly so. Heavy notions of Christianity are not mentioned in this film, although the basics are. This makes it very easy for young people who are not entirely educated on the Christian faith to comprehend and process.
Something that the film does is paint the authorities of the monastery as being stern and unimaginative for most of the story. Brendan – a young boy and the main character of the film – has an uncle who is head of the monastery. He routinely refuses Brendan to partake in the making of the pages of illuminated manuscripts as well as exiting the monastery, which ends up being a vital part of the story towards the end. While this tactic that the filmmakers used makes The Secret of Kells more appealing to a younger audience, it is not entirely true. In fact, many young people in monasteries were educated on how to create illuminated manuscripts and continue the work that was being done.
While The Secret of Kells may not be historically accurate, it is an entertaining film to watch. It has the ability to appeal to and educate a younger generation of people on illuminated manuscripts, whilst illustrating them in a tasteful, enjoyable light. Overall, The Secret of Kells does a nice job with this and is an interesting film to watch regardless of ones age.