Take 1: Among literati, words turn language into magic. In The Secret of Kells a boy transcribes a book that holds good and evil in balance, and the magic of his world comes from hand drawn animation with scene transitions like stained-glass fragments.
Take 2: The Secret of Kells is a parable of literacy in a time of savages, as lived by an Irish lad on the way to becoming a celibate monk.
–April 30, 2024
