The mystic bell

[randy_byers]

Lately I've been reading Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint's "different" novel, The Blind Spot, originally published in Argosy All-Story in 1921. I've also just watched William Cameron Menzies' 1932 adventure film Chandu the Magician, which is very pulpy in its own right. Both stories are heavily influenced by a hoaky Eastern mysticism, and both make use of the trope of a bell sound accompanying a mystic event. This is used to very dramatic effect in the movie, where it always signals the mystic arrival of a yogi. Look out behind you!

Does anybody know where this trope comes from? Is it just a pulp invention, or is it based on actual mythology or religious belief?

Comments

[spikeiowa.livejournal.com]

A single tap/ring on a bell is used in meditation sometimes, and here my experience is Buddhist practice. It's used to help a practitioner focus. There probably are other purposes, with levels of meaning. The movie maker may simply have chosen a sound that has a connection to Eastern traditions.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Hm, that certainly has less of a "premonition of impending evil" vibe to it!