I recently had the pleasure of watching the fine documentary film Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. I highly recommend the film to those who haven’t seen it and consider it among the best documentaries I’ve seen this year. While I won’t give it a comprehensive review (that’s been done here), I do want to applaud the filmmakers for reminding us that mysteries are even more fun when they don’t pander to the paranormal.
Toynbee Tiles are colorful hand-cut tiles found sunken into the asphalt streets of major cities. They were first noticed in Philadelphia, where they are most abundant, in the 1980's. They have since been found in numerous other US cities including Washington DC, Pittsburgh, New York City, Baltimore, Boston, and St. Louis. There are also examples in South America; in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. To date, about 130 are known. The tiles all display variations of the same message:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK'S 2001
RESSURECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER
The source of the tiles, , remains a mystery. Resurrect Dead documents the steadfast investigation of that mystery by Justin Duerr, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik. The three are Toynbee enthusiasts who have spent years searching for clues to the origin of the titles.
Quite predictably, Toynbee Tiles and their bizarre messages have become a popular topic in the paranormal and conspiracy theory communities. Look through the forums and blogs popular in those circles and you’ll see the tiles being connected to an endless list of secret societies, Fortean phenomena and wild conspiracies.
We have become accustomed to Hollywood using claimed paranormal connections to sensationalize a subject (even in documentaries). What makes this film so compelling, however, is the fact that it uses such great restraint in avoiding any fanning of the conspiratorial flames. It stays remarkably focused on the intended subject, the search for the creator of the tiles. This makes for an excellent detective story with all the expected dead ends, false hopes, and mistaken identities. Resurrect Dead isn’t a film about contrived claims or shocking conclusions. In fact, the conclusion may seem a bit anti-climactic to some because the movie is less about the solution than it is about the process of getting there.
In the end, it doesn’t need the tiles to hide a real-life version of the Da Vinci Code or to have been placed in the pavement by visiting aliens. This film’s director knows what most kids understand and most Hollywood executives don’t; when it comes to making a story compelling; neither knee-jerk debunking nor irresponsible credulity have anything on the genuine search for truth.
The allure of spirited investigation and its natural narrative isn’t limited to the movie screen. For those of us who value the role of critical thinking in education, it offers an effective approach for promoting skepticism and the critical examination of various claims in the classroom. Skeptical educators really have the goods when it comes to making a topic interesting by sharing in the unraveling of a mystery through inquiry. We don’t have to be restricted to the mundane either. We have the great luxury of being able to bring the bizarre and mysterious into the classroom and, if done right, to make something meaningful out it. Just like the credulous, we can speak to kids about ESP, monsters, fairies, and UFOs. These topics will get their attention and keep it but we can’t just present the facts. If we are only in the business of debunking and starting with the answers, we are missing a great opportunity to give students their own tools for critical thinking and to demonstrate the appeal of the skeptical perspective. When an educator starts the class with “today we are going to talk about UFOs”, students will pay attention, when she follows it with “let’s get to the bottom of this”, the fun really starts.
Michael Blanford is the JREF's Director of Educational Programs.