3May/01Off
Raining Frogs?
Please help me understand... why did it rain frogs? What does it mean?
Update: Ian and Daniel respond...
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May 4th, 2001 - 01:24
I personally didn’t read too much into the frog storm. I think it was merely deus ex machina; the director had no other way to tie the disparate plotlines together. Even a film student friend of mine who claimed to really like the movie admitted that this was more or less true. I dunno, though. I could be viewing it in too cynical a light. I rarely think of movies in terms of “character development” and such, but this is one occasion where I can say that the characters were underdeveloped. I don’t think I’d be as hard on the thing if it hadn’t eaten up so much time.
May 4th, 2001 - 08:42
The frograin is a biblical reference. In Exodus 8:2 god punish the egyptians for enslaving the hebrew by letting it rain frogs. Why frogs ? well the egyptians belif in one of theirs gods with a frog-like face prevented them from killing frogs.
What’s the relevance ? I don’t know. But there are a number of other 8:2 references in the movie. Could be something about the sins of the father not affecting their offspring. We are all responsible for our sins. We should recognize our sins and seek for forgivness. something like that…
May 7th, 2001 - 14:46
Yes, there is the biblical reference, but I think the more direct lineage is to Charles Fort. He claims to have collected (among other oddities) 247 reports of showers of living things, including many of frogs (pg. 79 “The damned Universe of Charles Fort” by Louis Kaplan.) He is a reporter of the bizarre and coincidental. Magnolia is rich in Fortean references. A good site for more is: http://www.sacred-texts.com/fort
May 8th, 2001 - 08:30
>The frograin is a biblical reference. In Exodus 8:2 god punish the
>egyptians for enslaving the hebrew by letting it rain frogs.
Actually, Exodus 8:2 doesn’t say anything about raining frogs. It just says that frogs would be everywhere, and do great damage to the land.
In fact, the next verse specifically says that the frogs would come out of the river (Nile) “abundantly”. Since that’s where the frogs lived anyway, that’s where you’d expect them to come from, right?
That’s the King James version, but the ASV, RSV, and YLT all say the same thing (not word-for-word, of course).
Sorry Jim, I know this probably isn’t where you wanted to go with it, but I don’t think the “rain of frogs” was a biblical reference at all. There’s nothing in the bible about frog-rain.
May 8th, 2001 - 09:47
Not at all Seth, I am agnostic but that doesn’t mean I want to be ignorant of what’s in the Bible. I find it very interesting, actually.
I wanted to know why it rained frogs, and people are telling me! I’m happy to hear anything on this subject, and on any related tangent…
Couldn’t the frogs have come FROM the Nile but have actually rained, picked up by a water spout or something similar?
Jim
May 8th, 2001 - 15:16
So, I subscribed to a list and not just Jims posts by turning on the
email interface… cool.
Anyway. Seth is very right, the bible doesn’t say anything about frog
rains. I read the bible some 15 yrs ago so I kinda remembered Moses
adventures and then filled in the gaps, wrongly so apparently…
But I still think a great start for analysis of the movie is that the
fathers have commited “sins” (I’ve christian parents, but I do no longer
belive myself so I don’t really ack. the word). The present troubles for
many of the characters are because of past (some present, eg. the whiz
kid) actions by other characters in their surrounding.
Many of the characters are very hard pressed but are still struggling to
do the right thing. The pouring of frogs comes when most of the
characters are about to come to some sort of conclusion to their
troubles. Also the two most prominent fathers in the movie die shortly
after. So maybe the frograin sort of represent the end of the effects of
the fathers sins? Simple rain can certainly represent a fresh start. If
I recall right the movie is quite dark from beginning right through to
the end when after the frograin the sun shines for the first time.
I’d love to hear others interpretations…
cheers.
– daniel
On tisdag, maj 8, 2001, at 06:37 , Seth Dillingham wrote:
>
>> The frograin is a biblical reference. In Exodus 8:2 god punish the
>> egyptians for enslaving the hebrew by letting it rain frogs.
>
> Actually, Exodus 8:2 doesn’t say anything about raining frogs. It just
> says that frogs would be everywhere, and do great damage to the land.
>
> In fact, the next verse specifically says that the frogs would come out
> of the river (Nile) “abundantly”. Since that’s where the frogs lived
> anyway, that’s where you’d expect them to come from, right?
>
> Exodus 8:2,3
> 2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy
> borders with frogs:
> 3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up
> and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed,
> and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine
> ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs:
>
>
> That’s the King James version, but the ASV, RSV, and YLT all say the
> same thing (not word-for-word, of course).
>
> Sorry Jim, I know this probably isn’t where you wanted to go with it,
> but I don’t think the “rain of frogs” was a biblical reference at all.
> There’s nothing in the bible about frog-rain.
>
May 8th, 2001 - 10:40
On Tuesday, May 8, 2001 at 1:53 PM, Jim Roepcke wrote:
> Not at all Seth, I am agnostic but that doesn’t mean I want to be
> ignorant of what’s in the Bible. I find it very interesting, actually.
>
> I wanted to know why it rained frogs, and people are telling me! I’m
> happy to hear anything on this subject, and on any related tangent…
>
> Couldn’t the frogs have come FROM the Nile but have actually rained,
> picked up by a water spout or something similar?
Um, sure… I guess so… but there’s no evidence of that, so why think it? It just says that the frogs came out of the river, and nothing at all about them coming down from the sky.
It’s easier to just accept that it means what it says, I think, rather than trying to invent something extra fantastic. The previous writer was correct: the Egyptians worshipped a frog-god, and the plague of frogs was intended to show them that their frog god couldn’t save them. They also worshipped the Nile, or actually a god of the Nile, and so this (along with some of the other plagues) was a double-whammy.
Seth
May 8th, 2001 - 11:55
creatures getting picked up by freakish weather disturbances and plopped down
elsewhere. The cow in the movie Twister was perhaps unrealistic, but funny
as all get out.
idea.
May 8th, 2001 - 11:06
> Um, sure… I guess so… but there’s no evidence of that, so why
> think it? It just says that the frogs came out of the river, and
> nothing at all about them coming down from the sky.
Well, actually, reports suggest occurances of the phenomenon of raining
frogs are typically associated with wind storms that literally force
relocate frogs from rivers/ponds/etc.
http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/1996/decoi/3.html
Not that that means much in relation to the symbolism.
Gotta admit, the only thing I remember upon viewing Magnolia, was that it
symbolized that the movie was finally over! Phew.
( Funny side note…the Gourd’s Magnolia just came up in shuffle play on my
MP3 player as I wrote this! )
g.
June 14th, 2001 - 06:01
Since it actually can and has rained frogs, I think the end part of the movie is in the same vein as the beginning, where they showed you some circumstances that are really strange, but DID actually happen. Like the SCUBA diver found in the tree and the boy trying to committ suicide, but instead being shot. What ’strange circumstance’ has to do with the rest of the movie I’m not to sure about.