Joe Brody
Well-known member
Attila the Professor said:It should be said, what I really like most about the new house are the Arts & Crafts stylings, all stained glass and hard wood and what not.
Interestingly, I take issue with any Arts & Crafts elements in any residence in the 1950's. From the Raiders residence, we can infer that Indy was into modern/Art Deco in the late 1930's. Arts & Crafts predates modern/Art Deco. I just find it hard to believe that someone who had modern tastes in the '30's would actually take a step back in the 1950's to Arts & Crafts -- especially since the contemporary offerings in the '40's & '50's were such a great culmination of the modern/art deco stuff from the '30's. If Jones went Arts & Crafts in the '50's, that's essentially saying that he chose to go backwards -- which seems reactionary. That's a tough pill for me to swallow: I'm still grappling with the guy still being a professor in his '60's after having gone through the War. It's tough for me to stomach him growing stodgier in this tastes.
Attila the Professor said:It's true, though. This new house, in some ways, resembles nothing quite so much as Donovan's penthouse mini-museum, and I sort of doubt anything will be made of that similarity. It certainly hadn't occurred to me until brought up here. The real question is whether this interpretation of the house will still somehow fit in with the portrayal of Indy we're given.
Sadly, I don't have any hopes for any new insights into the Indiana Jones character -- from his residence or otherwise -- in the KotCS. The Indiana Jones character went real vanilla in LC --and it is up to those around him to make things interesting. The KotCS residence is a jumbled mish-mash -- so much so that it doesn't say anything about Indiana Jones (other than to say that he's become a reactionary). The new residence reminds me of the set decoration in the lines of a Disney Indiana Jones attraction --give the masses what they want, not what the character deserves. It's the latest example of the dumbing down of the character.
Finn said:I'll throw you a bone - Indy's office in LC. It's full of all kinds of old junk. Yeah, it's his workplace and he is a professor of archaeology in college, but still. Besides, I'm quite sure that Indy knows by now how museums work - and if any of the pieces he has would be considered worthy of public display, they wouldn't be sitting on his shelf.
What is interesting is about the LC office is the pains to which the set designers went to make sure that the office was perceived as a true workplace (the rough shelving, odd shape, etc.). There is no vanity or ego at work in that office. The LC office belongs to either a teacher who truly loves his work or an academic who is one step from being kicked out (I'll take either). The LC office is a true workroom and an interesting contrast with Donvan's (aptly named) mini-museum.
And as for Indy hoarding items in his LC office that should be on public display, most museums display only a fraction of their collections -- so I don't think Indy would be doing anything wrong if he kept a distinctive (and valuable) article in his office if he was doing work on it.
Finn said:Of course, to give this whole discussion a musing twist, I must wonder if the discussion's taken this direction because Joe's simply trying to look for that "darker Indy" he's been craving for quite some time now...
As I said above, I don't think the KotCS's Pottery Barn abode hints at anything dark about the character. Heck, many of those artifacts could be plaster duplicates -- which was a common practice back in the day.