Pure Imagination: Willy Wonka, Giraffes breaking secret combinations, the Chocolate Milk of Life, and more names

I guess due to it being President's Day on Monday here in the US, our school district made it an even longer holiday weekend by holding parent-teacher conferences on Friday.  Thus, no school for the kids

We are back to at least a few days of typical Minnesota February winter weather, and both my wife and I had a break from work, so we took the kids to the movie theater to watch the movie "Wonka" during the day.  Wonka is a movie that I think has been out for a few months now, and basically is a prequel to the Willy Wonka stories, books, movies, etc., in giving us the backstory about Willy Wonka (i.e., this is before Charlie is in the picture).

I thought it was actually a pretty entertaining movie.  The kids all liked it - our youngest has been going around the house walking and singing like an Oompa Loompa.  

Anyway, a random scene toward the end made me take notice just a bit, and then of course, my curiosity got the best of me and I thought through a few more things.  So, this post is going to follow some of that random walk.

Potential spoilers ahead, so be warned, though I am not going to go very much into plot or overall story, I don't think.

"Wonka" portrays a cartel of chocolatiers who are trying to keep Willy Wonka from setting up shop in their town.  This cartel actually has its common base of operations underneath a Catholic Church - the priest and the monks are chocoholics who are bribed off with chocolate.

In any case, for reasons that don't make much sense even if you have watched the movie, a giraffe is involved in the Good Guys' plan to break into the church and cartel, and steal a ledger (you know, where various 'reckonings' have been kept).  I mean it was such a completely random scene, particularly when, as the giraffe was running through the cathedral chasing the priest, the priest yells: "Judgement has come... in a most unexpected form!", I had to take notice.  The giraffe stuck out like a sore thumb.

Here is the scene.  It looks like it is a pirated clip (where somebody filmed it in the theater), so not very good quality, and likely won't last and be removed for copyright issues, but it will have to do for now as it is the only one I could find.

Where have we seen a giraffe before?  Several places, although it has been a few months.  I posted a music video for a song called "Keep Me Crazy" in a post of the same name.  It was a very short post, as I just wanted to highlight two shapes that were scene in the sky by the singers, before they ascended a ladder in the sky.  At the time, I did not know what a prevalent theme the Rabbit (as potentially a Faramir symbol in this tale of doors and travel).   At the time, the Giraffe was the main reason I posted the video and short intro.  Right before, I had read his blog post Giraffe on the "big fat planet"  and mention of giraffes in the context of a dream of his, but also with respect to the Toys R Us logo, and the character of Sirius Black from Harry Potter.

I had actually left a couple comments on his post, that in hindsight remain relevant, I think.  In my first comment, I mention black and white stars, a burned out core (the beginnings of a potential Black Hole if a star has a big enough mass), and heck even dwarves come up, though in reference to stars.  In my second comment, I mention the reversed R of Toys R Us (it is always backwards in the logo), as being potentially symbolic of El-Anor (the R pronounced backward is "Ra" - the Egyptian Sun-God, and the R was contained within a star shape).  Anyway, I won't repost those comments, but you can cruise over to William's blog and look at them if you want.

So, Giraffes were given in context of some things that potentially tie into this other, larger story.  I actually am starting to think that a Giraffe might be symbolic in a way of this second person who has come up as a doorkeeper in this story:  Thomas B. Marsh.  But I will get to that in just a bit.

In a later scene, close to the ending, where the bad guys have all been carted off and good has prevailed (by the correct ledger book being produced, and thus giving a correct accounting or reckoning of all fraudulent transactions, and naming those bad actors who were involved with the secret combination), the chocolate that had been hoarded by the cartel is released and seen to flow from the giant water fountain as if it were water.

This scene actually brought to mind the very similar story element in Mad Max:  Fury Road.  In that story, the bad guys were also hoarding water, and the ending involved that water being released to the people.  It was a strange, random connection, but it is pretty clear, I think.

And both of those scenes recall to me the milk or water of life, that has been kept from many Beings by the evil actions of some, though is at some future point freely released and given.  Wrong things are made right.

So, with all of that, I did what I do, and I looked up some names.  I started with Wonka.  That is the most prevalent name in the story - the movie ends with the Willy's factory being built, and the name "Wonka" appearing on the top.  It was also very pronounced on the bar of chocolate that his mother had given him - the last thing of hers that he had (and obviously the very first Wonka Bar).

Wonka would be pronounced in Elvish as "Wan-ka" (the 'a' is always the soft 'ah' sound).  

"Wan" can mean a few things in Elvish, but for this purpose, I am going to say it means "to depart, go away, disappear, vanish".

"Ka" here could mean something like either "home, house" or "later, afterward".  Either or both could work.   Keeping it simple with the first variation, we have Willy Wonka to mean something like "Willy to depart home".

OK.  What I found most interesting was that this was the second time in less than 24 hours that a name game I worked through gave the result of "to depart or go away".   On Thursday night/ Friday morning, WJT posted a dialogue that was a variation of a Sesame Street skit to which he inserted our friend Thomas B. Marsh in the post Thomas B. Bucket, the bucket of story -- oh, you know, the thing!.  He wrote that Shawarma, the last name for Thomas B. that had come to his mind, was not an anagram for Marsh.  I responded in part:

Disappointing that you didn't even try on Shawarma, William. Of course it is an anagram of Marsh!

Marsh Awa.

Awa, of course, would be Elvish for "to depart, go away", i.e., Marsh to depart. Given Marsh's (potential) upcoming 'exalted' journey and holding the keys to other-worldly destinations, this phrase could make a great deal of sense. Even your first sentence of this post where you say Marsh is 'in the air' is a funny phrase given the context, and my guess is you didn't even know what you were saying there. Though my own response to that statement is "No, not yet"

I found it at least a bit remarkable that Willy Wonka worked out to a similar meaning:  both 'awa' and 'wan' mean to depart.  And that these are associated with names or Beings.  In other words, I have those two name games that yield, if taken together, "Marsh to depart, Willy to depart home".  This would also be after I had landed on Marsh as being a second person or Doorkeeper who would be working with Faramir at some point in the future.

Thus, in this strange name game and in the weird workings of my mind, this seemed to support this notion of two Beings (Marsh and Faramir) as doorkeepers and interstellar travellers.  I don't know - I mean, I didn't create any of these names.  William Tychonievich came up with 'Shawarma' for Thomas B's last name, and Roald Dahl came up with Willy's last name.  I was just working with what was provided.

The Rabbit and the Giraffe

OK, so great - we have two Beings departing, Marsh and Faramir, and their departure means going up into the sky.  You can guess, then, if I refer back to that music video "Keep Me Crazy", that I where I have the Rabbit resembling Faramir (and have done so fairly consistently over some time and number of posts now), I now have the Giraffe resembling Thomas B. Marsh.

That scene from Wonka becomes even more interesting in this case, and surprisingly on target.  Refer back to Marsh's blessing in D&C 112, which I won't quote here in the interest of needing to get through the post, but I believe Marsh will go among the Gentiles, among which will be the Great and Abominable Church... and judgement will come upon that Church in an unexpected form!  As the Voice said to Marsh in that blessing, how great is his calling.  Anyway, I know the scene was captured in a Catholic Church, but it had to be some church, right?  The Catholic and Mormon institutions, which I have said are two sides of the same coin, are themselves just part of a larger 'church of the devil' that appears to span worlds and ages, so it will be interesting to see how Marsh will pull it off.   As a reminder, I am just referring to the institutions and corrupt Beings within them... not to probably the majority of Beings who belong to them who simply need to be set free!  This is a rescue mission for many, many souls, I believe.

Pure Imagination and Gene Wilder

I pay attention to actor names, too, because sometimes those are relevant, or at least become interesting.

So, in this analogy, I actually have Willy Wonka representing Faramir, if I didn't make that clear enough above.  This makes sense for a few reasons, one of which is that they are both wizards or magicians.  Willy, at least in this last "Wonka" movie, indicated that he was, above all else, a magician.  The chocolate and candies that he gave out were basically one means through which his magic was given to other people.  That magic had a strong tie to family, actually, in the story.  If you've seen the movie, you know what I am talking about.

Thinking of Willy Wonka as a magician isn't really a problem to visualize given his factory and chocolates.  Imagining Faramir, the character, as a magician might be a bit tougher.  But it is Sam, oddly enough, that sees him for what he is, or at least senses it.  After Faramir refuses to take the ring from Frodo once Sam lets the secret slip, Sam says this:

"... you said my master had an Elvish air; and that was good and true.  But I can say this:  you have an air too, sir, that reminds me of, of - well, Gandalf, of wizards."

Faramir doesn't know what to make of that, and it is the truth, I think, that we can't really see ourselves or each other clearly anyway, so who knows for sure if what Sam sees is true, or even what it fully means.  I just bring it up in support of the notion that Faramir might be a magician in his own right, and have a few tricks up his sleeve... or in his hat.

The hat is also an interesting connection between Faramir and Willy Wonka in this symbolism.  Rabbits are typically associated with the magic trick of pulling things out of one's hat - seemingly an empty one.  In the Wonka movie, Willy's magic first becomes apparent on his first night in town (after arriving off of a boat) where he produces a number of things from his hat which could not have possibly fit in there.  It was a pretty direct nod to the Rabbit, in my opinion.

Interestingly, some of the reviews of the film I read said the actor who portrayed Wonka, Timothee Chalamet, was miscast in the role.  Once I had sort of made this connection between Willy Wonka and Faramir, my thought to that was "Yes, of course - I mean, his name is Tim!".  As some readers will know, I have associated a Being by the name of Tim with none other than Saruman, who has proven to be somewhat of a nemesis or anti-hero to Faramir.   Like I said, I pay attention to actor's names.

Which brings me to Gene Wilder.  Wilder is commonly regarded as portraying the classic or ideal version of Willy Wonka back in the early 70's in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".  When I visualize Willy Wonka, at least, it is Gene Wilder who I picture, as I think most people do.  Johnny Depp gave it a go in 2005, but I believe most people don't believe he pulled it off well.

So, let's look at Gene's name.  Gene is short for "Eugene".  We have seen that name before, and I will get to that in just a second.  The meaning itself is something like "Noble or Well-Born".   "Wilder" is an English name that simply means, rather obviously I guess, "wild" or "untamed".  If I wanted to make that name a descriptor, I can simply rearrange the order, and we have "Wild Noble" or "Wild Well-Born"

I have made the strange claim that Faramir (Eonwe, Abinadi, etc.) is, along with Asenath, the child of Eru from a life long before this one, and that they would also be born to Aule and Yavanna in the story of this world.  I suppose, given that, it might not be a stretch to say that Faramir is "well born" or a noble son.

I mentioned Eugene as a name that has come up before.  Actually, it was a bit in disguise.  The movie "Tangled" (Disney's take on the Rapunzel story) was something I wrote about back in beginning of January with the post, Disney's "Tangled", Galadriel's Hair, and linking the Anor and Ithil Stones. 

In that post, I made several analogies to this Anor and Ithil Stone linkage story (as I seem to be in the habit of doing).  I brought up the character Flynn Rider (who is one of the protagonists with and future love interest of Rapunzel).  I went back to that post to see if I had made the connection clearly, but I don't think I did.  Anyway, to make it clearer now, I saw in the story of Rapunzel in the tower and Flynn needing to scale the tower, the story of Faramir and Eowyn.  I mean, I alluded to the linkage of the Anor and Ithil Stone with Rapunzel's magic hair that was lowered down, but I don't think I made the character symbolism clear.  And there is a slight difference in that Flynn never actually used the hair to reach the tower... ah, details.  

In any case, Flynn is held by the Kingdom to be an outlaw.  He even makes a big deal about them making his nose larger than it really is on the wanted posters (a potential allusion to others making him out to be a liar, in the spirit of pinocchio's nose).  Flynn's real name isn't Flynn, however.  It is Eugene, at least that is what he reveals to Rapunzel about halfway through the movie. So, here we have Eugene again - this is where we saw it.

There are a couple other interesting things about this character's name.  The name "Flynn" doesn't really mean anything to us, or a least me, in terms of an English name.  But, in looking it up in Elvish, bingo!

"Flinn" in Elvish means "fleet footed; swift".  Recall that I have compared Faramir with attributes of Hermes and Mercury, specifically the role of being a swift messenger of the Gods.  In addition, I have written that Faramir is also the Being Joseph Smith wrote of in his Alphabet and Grammar of the Egyptian Language as "Jah-ho-e-oop", which Joseph translates as meaning:

An ambassador: one delegated with Kingly power; one authorized to ex[e]cute judgement for the King; a swift messenger one whose power cannot be escaped; one next to supreme;

Anyway, those are some pretty direct hits with the names, I think.  There is even more.

Apparently, Flynn's real name at birth was Horace.  Horace, based on Latin could mean something like "time", which could be interesting, but I actually think we should think of this name as "Horus" - the Egyptian God.

Horus was the God of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky.  All of these I think are also fairly remarkable direct hits on the role I have explored here on this blog for Faramir.  In laying out what I believe is Faramir's role, Jesus tells those at Bountiful that this servant will rise with wings (into the sky) and that both healing and protection for Beings will be involved in following him.

I don't know - I was pretty surprised myself to see these various names for a Disney character come together so nicely, but there you go.  These name games have tended to work out, and usually not with too much, or any really, twisting.

I actually didn't expect to get that far into Flynn Rider's character in this post - both the Eugene name meaning and the Horus connection I learned as I have been typing this post.  So it was an unexpected but fun little tangent, which didn't really prove to be tangential at all.  Fairly on point.  Also of note, is a chameleon factors fairly heavily into that Disney movie, which has come up quite a lot lately, and is in fact the subject of WJT's most recent post Chameleons everywhere.

But back to Wild Eugene, Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka.. whatever we want to call this character.  I am actually here going to bring in Charlie, though, as well.  Charlie was the main protagonist in that 1971 movie with Gene Wilder.  He gets a golden ticket and ultimately he and his family are freed from poverty as Charlie is named heir to Wonka's Chocolate Factory.  Happy times.

Charlie's name literally means "Free Man" which is a phrase that has come up not so much on this blog, but did a bit over on William Tychonievich's blog.  However, his last name is even more interesting and is also a tie to Thomas B. Marsh, at least if you reference WJT's post on him - that same one I linked earlier in this post..   In that post,  William replaces Marsh's last name with Bucket, repeating a verbal slip that had been done in the radio show he had linked to.

Do you want to guess Charlie's last name?  Bucket.  His name is Charlie Bucket.  I've only watched the original movie, and not read the book by Dahl, but I think it is the same in the books.

Anyway, at the end of the movie, there is a scene where Willy Wonka takes Charlie and his father into the elevator, and tells them that this elevator can take them anywhere - any direction.  Willy wants them to push a button that he says even he hasn't yet pushed.  After pushing it, the elevator takes them up into the sky, breaking through the glass ceiling.  And they float around the sky, and everything is great.

What I propose, though, given everything above, is that this is representative of a future trip to the sky for both Willy (Faramir) and Charlie (Marsh... probably the Being we would know as Peter, also, but I am thinking through that still).

Could be a crazy thought.  I don't know.

Anyway, similar to how it worked after watching Xanadu, I now have a Willy Wonka song going through my head at all times.  It isn't, however, any song from the movie yesterday, or even more than one song.  It is actually from the 1971 film, and it is the song Wilder sings called "Pure Imagination".  In my memory, he sang this song while they were on the elevator ride I just wrote about.  However, in going back, that was not right.  They do play the instrumental to that song as they ride around in the sky, but Wilder actually sings it after he introduces the children to the Chocolate Room.

I mean, literally all day I have had Gene Wilder's voice in my head going "If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it...".  So much so, that I have been singing it audibly around the house.  This isn't completely out of character, though.  Both my daughter and I have this strange thing where people will say a word or phrase, and we will spontaneously sing it into a little jingles - mostly terrible ones that annoy everybody, but it's fun sometimes.  So my family isn't a stranger to weird songs coming out of my mouth - just not Willy Wonka songs.

I am going to include both the Chocolate Room clip of the song itself, as well as the clip of Willy and Charlie taking the elevator ride - so two different scenes below.  And I will call it a wrap for today with that as well.