Flash: A Stellar Performance, the In-N-Out of the Universe.

[Nolan Hofstadter]

Is the Yin Yang symbol of Dudeism just a coincidence? 

          3 Finger Holes West: The Trinity:  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
          3 Finger Holes East:  The Trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.<sup>1

          1</sup>see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti

I'm just sayin' . . .

________

Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths. 
                                         -- Joseph Campbell

________

I apologize in advance (and too, most belatedly) for my neophyte understanding of any and all religions, including Dudeism ("[T]he religion for our time and place is Dudeism." [Rev. Dwayne Eutsey, The Take it Easy Manifesto, Dudeism.com]). And please understand that my certitude as to my ideas are underscored by the fact that I believe I have only touched upon a tiny corner of the totality of religious allusions/references 'enscripted' in The Big Lebowski. I call upon all Brother's Shamus. "Maybe we could pool our resources!"

Ok, so let's get started.

____________________________

New information just continues to come to light. So, "[w]hat in Gods' holy name am I talking about?" In addition to the leagues of Judaism, Taoism, Christianities (Protestant, Quaker, Catholic, and Mormonism), Paganism, and Islam, I have discovered a major reference to Hinduism (in addition to the Dude's Shiva pose on his new carpet).

In TBL-DVD Chapter 15 A Stellar Performance, the Dude, Donny, and Walter watch Martin's cycle, his dance quintet. At Little Larry Sellers' home we hear the In-N-Out breathing of the iron lung, an allusion to the universe's dynamism. No wonder Walter is verklempt. (I don't get the relevance of Arthur Digby Sellers [Branded, other than the etymology of 'Brandt' references "fire/sword"], Larry Sellers [the Louisiana Purchase and Robert R. Livingstone], Radford, and/or Camrose. Need help from Dudes acquainted with Hinduism.). So we have: 1, A Stellar Performance, 2, In-N-Out Burgers, and 3, breath of the universe.²  Fucking A! The Koan Brothers are outrageous!
   
"In a number of stories from the Puranas the continual creation and destruction of the universe is equated to the outwards and inwards breaths of the gigantic cosmic Maha Vishnu.<sup>2

2</sup>Hindu Cycle of the Universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_cycle_of_the_universe

That's as far as I have gotten, here.

____________________________

And this just in, hot off a manic high.

153  With reservations! (See below revised table)


Fuck! That's a pretty cool effect, man. Don't get out much!

Gospel of John 21:11 (Darby Translation) "Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty-three (153); and though there were so many, the net was not rent."  Now remember, both works of art--Gospel of John and The Big Lebowski--have 21 chapters.

There are exactly 153 spoken iterations of 'Dude' in The Big Lebowski: not counting Walter's "Come on. You're being very "un-Dude.", not counting Dude's faltered 'Dude.' and not counting answering machines "Dude"s.

Add this to 

     Midrash of the Gospel of John
     http://dudeism.com/smf/under-the-influences/a-midrash-of-the-gospel-of-john/

and aside from plausible deniability on the part of the Coen Brothers, the Dude is (among other influences) a Latter Day John. And his carpet has most definitely (and most propitiously) been micturated upon by the reverberations of leagues across the sea. No wonder the Other Lebowski got his legs taken from him from some Chinaman in Korea! 


'Dude' iterations in The Big Lebowski (DVD by Chapter)

New  Old    #       Chapter Title

           6     1   Tumbling Tumbleweed
           1     2   Mistaken Identity
           0     3   Opening Credits
         12     4   The Rug           
           6     5   The Other Lebowski
  10     9     6   Over The Line         
           5     7   A Kidnapped Bunny
    6     5     8   Jesus                     
  24    34     9   The Ringer                            Walter, "un-Dude"
  14      6   10   Stolen Car               
    1     0    11   Maude                                  Answering Machine               
    8     7    12   Bunny's Toe           
  18   16    13   A Visit From The Stranger       Answering Machine
           1   14   The Dude's Checkup       
    7     6   15   A Stellar Performance     
         10   16   Smut Business               
           1   17   The Gutterballs                      "The Dude" In Title         
         11   18   Chances of Conception 
    5     4   19   Day of Rest                     
    6     7   20   Ashes to Ashes                      Dude falters in his name.               
           6   21   The Dude Abides           
158  153
  -5
153 Ok! So now I'm getting into sketchy territory. 


Again, I'll be glad when this transmitter induced haze is over!
 

[meekon5]

Instances of 'Dude' iterations in The Big Lebowski (DVD by Chapter)

    6     1   Tumbling Tumbleweed
    1     2   Mistaken Identity
    0     3   Opening Credits
  12     4   The Rug           
    6     5   The Other Lebowski
    9     6   Over The Line         
    5     7   A Kidnapped Bunny
    5     8   Jesus                     
  34     9   The Ringer                          (Very interesting!)
    6   10   Stolen Car               
    0   11   Maude                                (Very, very interesting!)                     
    7   12   Bunny?s Toe           
  16   13   A Visit From The Stanger
    1   14   The Dude?s Checkup       
    6   15   A Stellar Performance           (Larry Sellers is 15 years old.)     
  10   16   Smut Business               
    1   17   The Gutterballs               
  11   18   Chances of Conception 
    4   19   Day of Rest                     
    7   20   Ashes to Ashes               
    6   21   The Dude Abides           
153                                                 


I'll be glad when this transmitter induced haze is over!

Sorry more rubbish where you are just making the numbers fit your meaningless blatherings.

There are 162 instances of the word Dude in the film:

20131104_210813[1] by meekon5, on Flickr

From the blu-ray (the number by the Dude picture).

You do realise this rubbish is just getting boring now.

[Nolan Hofstadter]

That's funking interesting man. That's fucking interesting.

I am tempted to invest in Blu-ray player (The Big Lebowski, Blu-ray 119 min). Naw, I think I'll stick with my old copy (DVD 117 min). Then again, I can't help but wonder about possible additional scenes. 

I stand by my count, Dude.

[The_Sleevez]

Dude I think you are completly missing the point of the whole religion. The point is don't take anything seriously you are so over analyzing the movie that your missing the real point. Missing the trees for the forest kinda deal. Step back take deep breath do a jay and relax.

[Nolan Hofstadter]

The_Sleevez Dude,

You are right, man. 

I am going to take your advice. It'll be hard though. This has been quite a ride. The Big Lebowski worked itself into my brain like a benign astrocytoma, with tales in every which direction. All I have to do is slip into my 'imaginarium' (the shower) and STRIKE! It would be more to point to say that TBL did this to me, than I to it. It only started up again this year because I put the damn thing in the player as I was working.

Before I take my leave, let me say a thing or two about what I've learned. I now know without a doubt the Coen Brothers wrote levels-of-story into their script. And it is just that about which I have been blathering. What really strikes me--right in the Lebowski--is the realization that that second level steps down to an even deeper level of meaning that ultimately informs the characterological qualities of His Dudeness. And writing of that, as I have said before, is a line I will not cross. It must be experienced Koan-like for the Lotus to bloom. A process of Jungian individuation, as it were. And then, my Dudely friend, the forest though the trees may ecstatically manifest.

And to other Brothers Shamus, one last clue. The Nihilists have nothing to do with atheism. They're Christian! They join the Misanthropic Jesus garbed as he is in Papal Purple. "Fucking Quintana! He can roll, man." They appear first in Inquisition Garb, threatening to cut of the Dude's 'Johnson.' They then appear in Cardinal Red, with institutional size scissors, with which to cut off the Dude's 'Johnson.' We next find them observing The Shrove (lingonberry pancakes, a Finnish tradition). And lastly we see them in Roman Soldier like garb threatening to fuck Walter, Donnie, and Dude in the ass (just as the Misanthropic Jesus earlier).

Misanthropic Protestants, don't think you got off easy! What did you think the Other Lebowski was all about. That hole in his sole, photographed with Nancy and all. "This aggression will not stand, man!" Goodbye Falwell. Goodbye Freddie.   

The Royal We, man! We are all of the Little Lebowski bloodline.  We just needed to wake up, man.

I'm just sayin' . . .


Bye . . .

P.S.: DigitalBuddha, I think your a righteous Dude
   

[jgiffin]

Fuck me, man. This dude is insane but he's not entirely wrong.

[Yeti]

This is a stellar trolling performance. If it's Icon, he's upped his game.

[meekon5]

I am going to take your advice. It'll be hard though. This has been quite a ride. The Big Lebowski worked itself into my brain like a benign astrocytoma, with tales in every which direction. All I have to do is slip into my 'imaginarium' (the shower) and STRIKE! It would be more to point to say that TBL did this to me, than I to it. It only started up again this year because I put the damn thing in the player as I was working.

"imaginarium" is the correct term.

All you've done is attempt to christianise various parts of TBL by badly linking scripture to misinterpreted incidents in the film, and badly counting aspects, even a simple google of the word Dude in TBL gives 161 not 153, and that's not due to "extra scenes" on the blu-ray.

Of course you stick with you're count, because if the correct count is right then none of you're waffle has any purchase.

You're just reading what you want to see there not what actually is there. It's a contrivance to make the film fit you're interpretation.

Again we are not a branch of christianity, if anything we are a branch of Taoism, more a none religion.

A lot of people here are more atheist than anything, which is no contradiction with Taoism, but hugely at odds with the type of "meaning" you have tried to read into the film.

I will be honest with you, I do not care if this is your interpretation or not, what I care about is the insistence that you have with trying to force it on the rest of us, actually billing your own posts as "pearls of wisdom".

Look if this works for you fine just stop waving it in our faces.

[Rev. Gary (revgms)]

Hey, what if we replaced Humphrey Bogart in one of those great detective movies, like the Maltese Falcon, with one our stoner buddies ?

Hmm, but what would he be searching for?

How about his rug, remember that guy in college who always went on about how much he loved his rug, how it 'tied the room together'?

Who'd play the detective?

How 'bout Jeff Bridges, he could call himself the Dude.

Fuck yeah Ethan/Joel, let's do it!



Paraphrased from actual comments made by the Coen brothers, nothing about secret codes or symbolism, they leave that up to Dan Brown.

[Masked Dude]

You can find secret meanings in anything. Problem is, it's always anecdotal, since that's the name of the game.

As an experiment I once "divined" a prediction from a fiction book. Guess what? I was always right. Give me any book or movie, and I can make a prediction.

If you find meaning, that's fantastic. But the writer brothers have said there's no secret or special or hidden meanings in TBL.

[jgiffin]

Well, we just don't know, Dude. The idea that a movie has only the singular meaning it's writers/directors/gaffers intended (i.e., the intentional fallacy) isn't tenable. The experience of any artistic medium is an interaction between the artist, the art, and the viewer. No single element is dispositive. For example, Animal Farm would be no less symbolic (although much less likely to have been written) if Orwell knew and intended nothing of communism.

I don't agree with, or even understand, a lot of Nolan's hypothesisi (we officially need a plural for hypothesis) and at times he's obviously pounding a parabolic peg into a hexagonal hole, but I do appreciate some of the parallels and possible symbolism he's identified. For example, I didn't connect In-and-Out Burger with the Iron Lung at all. I'm not sure there's much profit to the linkage but I'ma gonna ponder on it for a while.

[Nolan Hofstadter]

I had to come back to post a correction.

Meekon5 Administrator Dude, you were right and possibly wrong about 'Dude' counts. I was most certainly wrong. Apparently don't text when you drive applies to not counting when you watch. Live and learn. I have updated my table above should some interested Brother Shamus want to check out my most latest count. This time, I'm not going to declare my certitude as to the correct count.

My my new provisional count is 157 total iterations: 154 spoken in dialogue, 2 from the Dude's answering machine, and one in titles form in The Gutterballs. From the total, I would like to subtract all those not spoken by on-screen actors. I would then like to subtract the instance of "un-Dude," largely out of principle. However, all that maneuvering does leave me very vulnerable to your charge of my having cooked the books. My proof lies in ruins! Oh well, fuck it. Let's go bowling.

One last thing (of course ) and then I will take my leave. The best way to count 'Dude' iterations as I found out the hard way is to listen to the dialogue only. Funny what you hear.

Maude, "Tell me about yourself, Jeffrey."
The Dude (striking a match), "Well, not much to tell. I was, uh, I was one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement--the original Port Huron statement. You ever hear of the Seattle Seven? That was me. Uh and there were six other guys."

Jesus and the Disciples makes thirteen. Alone, this suggestion is patently ludicrous. Aggregated however to the family of familiarities implicating the Gospel of John, it fits right in there. Even the match light! This Gospel is euphemistically known as the 'Gospel of Light.'   

Having even said that, I take umbrage at the accusation that I am Christianizing The Big Lebowski. Not so! What I think I am doing is pointing to a deeper level of connotative meaning for which the Coen Brothers are absolutely known. I know. I know. They plausibly deny all. Yet beneath it all, TBL is in the least a film utilizing the very natural collision of religions to tell a story about a present day Dude (a Latter Day John) who fits right in there.

The Stranger, "I guess that's the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuating itself down through the generations. Westward the wagons, across the sands of time until we --- Oh, look at me. I'm ramblin' again."

I suspect the Dude did in fact get his rug back. At least I'd like to think so.

[Rev. Gary (revgms)]

Well we are programmed to see patterns, and assign meaning to those patterns, whether real or imagined.

I for one see "hidden" Buddhist symbolism and meaning everywhere, in fact I have tossed the idea around about "revealing" the Buddhist (and by proxy Dudeist) meaning in Warm Bodies. I mean c'mon, you have to "wake up" to compassion to stop being a zombie? Or how the zombie's are really the un-awakened  of the world. Milling about without meaning or joy, just living by the numbers, trying to achieve that warm kill, for a moment of false experience. How very undude.

Sure, maybe that was in the back of someone's mind making the film, but I think maybe they were actually plying of Romeo and Juliet. (LOL freudian typo, wrote Emeo and Juliet, fucking emmos)

But the idea that the human brain sees patterns and connections, even ones that are not actually there, well, it's par for the course. That is just the way we are built. Hey it may be fun to shoehorn Christianity into TBL, it just can't be claimed as a fundamental truth is all, there are so very few of those as it is.

[jgiffin]

Emeo and Juliet

I'd pony up the bucks to go see that movie.

[meekon5]

Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

The term is attributed to Klaus Conrad by Peter Brugger, who defined it as the "unmotivated seeing of connections" accompanied by a "specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness", but it has come to represent the human tendency to seek patterns in random information in general, such as with gambling and paranormal phenomena (or the big lebowski).

And if the mountain was meant to be a symbol of life's challenges, and the loss of limbs a metaphor for sacrifice, the software guy's not going to get it, is he? Cos he didn't do an arts degree, did he? He should have. Arts degrees are awesome. And they help you find meaning where there is none. And let me assure you, there is none. Don't go looking for it. Searching for meaning is like searching for a rhyme scheme in a cookbook: you won't find it and you'll bugger up your soufflé.

Care of.