Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Dr Moore wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:46 am
Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:18 am
That’s right. I remember Nibley claimed he once met Hitler coming out (or going in) of a bathroom in Germany.
Alright, I'll play.

As an undergrad student (early 1990s) I met Hugh Nibley, in his office, entirely by accident, in the Harold B. Lee library.

You see, I had gotten turned around after going to the bathroom, looking for a study room where fellow students and I had been studying. A door appeared around one corner, and it looked like the right place, so I opened the door and walked right in. Well, I was in a good mood that day, so I more like whooshed in, like Kramer entering Seinfeld's place. And there was Hugh, sitting behind a small desk in a small office, looking up at me. I couldn't tell if his look was puzzlement or annoyance. I didn't really look at him for more than a moment, as my eyes were instantly distracted to the piles of books and papers on his desk and floor space - like piled so high that I just wondered how it all stood in place. So I took it all in in a few seconds, looked back at him and simply said, "oh gosh, I'm sorry!" To which Hugh Nibley replied, "hrmmphh." And then I closed the door and wandered through the library to find my friends. None of them believed I'd just met Hugh Nibley.

ETA: I looked online and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Nibley says that "Retiring from a staff position in 1975, he continued working as a professor emeritus until 1994. He maintained a small office in the Harold B. Lee Library, working on his magnum opus, titled One Eternal Round, focusing on the hypocephalus ("Facsimile 2") in the Book of Abraham."

If only I knew then what I know now, I might have been brave enough to ask him the King's Name!!!!!! Damn.
Awesome story Dr. Moore! It’s exactly the kind of story that is told during sacrament meetings in hushed, reverent and sacred tones.
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

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Shulem
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Shulem »

Dr Moore wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 12:46 am
If only I knew then what I know now, I might have been brave enough to ask him the King's Name!!!!!! Damn.

Knowing what you know now, you could have devastated the poor chap! He probably would have lunged at me!

:lol:
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Gadianton »

fyi; Dr. Moore told me this story in person a couple years ago. So if he made it up, it wasn't just recently. If only RTM had done some basic research to create a plausible scenario for his flaming aircraft story.

I was a huge Nibley fan as a Freshman at BYU, although I read my last Nibley book on my mission, a little later. Many years later, all my Nibley books I think are in a landfill somewhere in San Bernardino.

I'd learned enough about Nibley as a teenager, and had enough self-awareness, to realize that Nibley would likely not be kind to me in the least if we were to meet, and so it was never even a slight temptation as a Freshman to pursue it. I had some connections that could have gotten me halfway there had I really, really wanted it.
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Dr Moore
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Dr Moore »

Gadianton wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 1:40 am
fyi; Dr. Moore told me this story in person a couple years ago. So if he made it up, it wasn't just recently. If only RTM had done some basic research to create a plausible scenario for his flaming aircraft story.

I was a huge Nibley fan as a Freshman at BYU, although I read my last Nibley book on my mission, a little later. Many years later, all my Nibley books I think are in a landfill somewhere in San Bernardino.

I'd learned enough about Nibley as a teenager, and had enough self-awareness, to realize that Nibley would likely not be kind to me in the least if we were to meet, and so it was never even a slight temptation as a Freshman to pursue it. I had some connections that could have gotten me halfway there had I really, really wanted it.
I remember that dinner, Dean Robbers! We should do that again in 2022.
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Tom wrote:
Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:11 pm
Lem wrote:
Fri Apr 09, 2021 6:40 pm

Wow, Tom. Is this the first quarter missed in six years since the Interpreter started paying for Volume 3? Do you think it is related to the multiple retractions recently posted? The planned parts of volume 3, including the official retractions, haven't all been published yet, If I recall correctly.
Lem, yes to your first question. I don't know the answer to your next question. There is a possibility that the Foundation is continuing to fund the Project but has simply reclassified the expenses as "Book Projects and Conferences" in the latest statement.
What this means is that Bond...James Bond has been vindicated, in a sense. While "Interpreter" still technically *exists,* it has failed to drum up money for a project that the Interpreter President himself called a "landmark, and which would allegedly "benefit the Saints and the Church for generations to come." Well, it won't benefit anyone if it doesn't have funding! I guess the "Witnesses" movie is more important at the moment?

In any case, let me extend my congratulations to Mr. Bond for his seemingly clairvoyant perception.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Kishkumen »

Gadianton wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 1:40 am
fyi; Dr. Moore told me this story in person a couple years ago. So if he made it up, it wasn't just recently. If only RTM had done some basic research to create a plausible scenario for his flaming aircraft story.

I was a huge Nibley fan as a Freshman at BYU, although I read my last Nibley book on my mission, a little later. Many years later, all my Nibley books I think are in a landfill somewhere in San Bernardino.

I'd learned enough about Nibley as a teenager, and had enough self-awareness, to realize that Nibley would likely not be kind to me in the least if we were to meet, and so it was never even a slight temptation as a Freshman to pursue it. I had some connections that could have gotten me halfway there had I really, really wanted it.
Mine are in the garage. I still want to get One Eternal Round. If I recall correctly, it had an interesting looking chapter on Alexander the Great. I had mostly positive interactions with Nibley, but he could be a grouch. Once I saw him looking for his car in the parking lot, so, desiring to help, I asked him what his car looked like, the idea being that I would look with him. He gruffly barked, “I know what my car looks like,” and he walked away to continue his search. I thought it was a really odd way to treat someone who was offering to help, but perhaps he didn’t want help.
Last edited by Kishkumen on Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Moksha »

Shulem wrote:
Sat Apr 10, 2021 1:13 am
He probably would have lunged at me!

:lol:
You could have whispered, "I know the secret of the bees", flashed a Reformed Egyptian gang sign, and walked out. It would have been interesting to see how fast he would have followed you.
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Gadianton
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Gadianton »

The Rev wrote:Mine are in the garage.
Where yours are now, mine once were. The one thing that you and I, and DCP have in common, is that none of us are going to read a Nibley book anytime soon. Now, this new book on Nibley's life? That's a different story. That's probably the best Idea Interpreter has had in a long time. It's ROI will blast the Critical Text project's back to the 15th century.
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Hugh Nibley’s crankiness, gruffness and rude behavior are legendary. Let’s call a spade a spade and just admit that Hugh Nibley was a complete asshole to many people.

It’s no wonder why he is held in such high regard by DCP and the Mopologists.

The kind and gentle Truman Madsen one commented to my father that Hugh Nibley could be very “unpleasant.” For Truman Madsen to criticize anyone was no small thing.

Maybe a more appropriate title for Nibley’s last book would have been, “One Eternal Frown.”
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Re: Latest Numbers from the Interpreter Foundation

Post by Philo Sofee »

If one can ignore his apologetics in "One Eternal Round," (and you really ought to) I found his esoterics in it really decent. I rather liked the book and I have read it a few times through the years. It IS one of his better books. I say the same about his "Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri," the KEY is ignore his obvious Mormon bias and apologetics, and get to the cultural, and religious ideas on their own, and it is a good read. Gee, amazingly enough, in the 2nd edition even made it better. You read that right, it is better.
Nibley's apologetics are flawed, of course, but his esoteric, dare I say "spiritual" ideas are quite enjoyable to read. His cross cultural interpretations and parallels still cause me to go hmmmmm, not because they are supporting Mormonism, but because they legitimately exist as such in themselves, and I find them far more useful to broaden my view instead of into confirming Mormonism, of seeing other esoteric systems and how I can see them in a new view. For that, Nibley's broad range of parallels are quite interesting.

Look, for one thing, he actually did put 30+ years on that "One Eternal Round," (to say its just junk is simple stupid bias) and for the second thing, amazingly enough, he included many other views, Hermetic, Egyptian, Jewish, Jewish Kabbalah, Alchemy, etc. in an LDS book?!? He is one of the only scholars to do so, and in a positive manner. Perhaps it is because it was Nibley and he could get away with it without too much repercussion from the idiots in charge of the religion. But more, much more of this simply must happen in my opinion. There is vastly more... I mean vastly majorly more to religious ideas, variational themes, and multiple validities than what Mormonism looks at or sees or talks about.

It's own narrowness is its pure damnation as far as I am concerned. Nibley said take a look, all these others have some really great ideas too. It is precisely this that Mormonism stupidly down plays in order to imagine its own chosen specialness and priesthood magnificence, and it is this that will be its own downfall. God doesn't just wake up every morning, ignore the world, and go have coffee in Salt Lake City before he runs back home to his Celestial throne as so very ridiculously many Mormons imagine He does. Mormonism has never been the only game in town throughout all of history. Nibley was trying to show its more than just O.K., it is spiritually uplifting and delightful to look into all others esoteric materials also because they have something for us to learn also.

If you ignore "One Eternal Round," no worries. I am a better person for having read it from my point of view.
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