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Revision as of 07:06, 28 March 2006
In Christian tradition, the term Ivory Tower is a symbol for noble purity. It originates from the Song of Solomon (7,4) ("Your neck is like an ivory tower") and has also been later used (among others) as an epithet for Mary in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary ("tower of ivory").
Today, the term usually describes a methaphysical space of solitude and sanctity where most writers and scientists reside. The first reference to this meaning can be found in the texts by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, a French literature critic and author approximately in the mid-19th century. He used the term "tour d'ivoire" to describe an attitude of an author towards what happens around him and in his texts.
"Living in an ivory tower" usually depicts an intellectual (a researcher or an artist) who lives only for his work and doesn't care much about, or is ignorant of, or thought to have made insufficient efforts to understand the social and political consequences of it, concentrating his or her entire efforts on the quest for what they perceive to be scientific or artistic truths. Thus, there are two meanings mixed together: mockery of an absent-minded savant and admiration of someone who is able to devote his or her entire efforts to a noble cause (hence "ivory", a noble material).
However, it is also true that the term has a rather negative flavor today, since the specialists who are so deeply drawn into their scientific fields of study that they often can't find a lingua franca with "normal" people outside their "ivory towers". Moreover, this problem is often ignored and instead of actively searching for a solution, most scientists simply accept that even educated people can't understand them and live in literal isolation.
Academic elitism, a tendency to seclude oneself in an "ivory tower", is often considered to be a problem among European (and, specifically, German) scientists, whereas their Anglo-Saxon colleagues are seen as the contrary.
References in fiction
- In Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, the Ivory Tower is the palace in the center of Fantastica where the Childlike Empress resides.
- In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, an Ivory Tower is a human artifact that allows a Hero to instantaneously build a fully functional watch tower.
- In the video game Halo 2, there is a multiplayer arena called "Ivory Tower," which takes place in a public park converted from a mansion in a skyscraper.
External links
Other meanings
- Ivory Tower, a 1956 song in both the popular and rhythm & blues genres, popularized by Cathy Carr, Gale Storm, and Otis Williams and the Charms
- From The Ivory Towers, a 1986 play by Groningen University Theatre Society
- Ivory Tower, a 1998 movie
- Ivory Tower, a power metal band
- 'Ivory Tower' is the name of the long-running Harvard University soap opera, airing from its television station HRTV.