CW: Rape, Incest
What’s in a name? An odd question, but a valid one in the sense that naming something isn’t quite as straightforward as a proponent of nominative determinism would make it out to be. In saying that, there’s usually nothing more to it than someone taking a particular liking to a certain name or some other sort of personal significance of a name. But in the case of our beloved Lot’s Wife, the choice of name is – to use the words of the men responsible – is “fraught with significance” and they weren’t kidding with an article from 1990 suggesting “the name Lot’s Wife has caused more confusion in the history of student newspapers than anything else.”
At the time, Lot’s Wife’s predecessor, Chaos, which by May 1964 was fully living up to the nominative determinism imbued in its name – as chosen by students at a general meeting in April 1961, though any suggestion that the name reflected the state of the paper or Monash at the time were strongly rejected. And so when its existing editors were removed from their positions, and replaced by Tony Schauble, John Blakeley, and Damien Broderick, it was decided in order to “tidy up” the paper, it ought to take a new name, or to use the words of Dr. Broderick “my cronies and I seized control of the rag [Chaos] and changed the name, on very similar principles to those which apply after the liberation of a third-world nation, but with considerably less justification.” Irrespective, after a lot of deliberation – which one article from 1987 suggests was alcohol fueled – the name Lot’s Wife was decided upon, having been thought up by Dr. Broderick, who, according to later editor PeteSteedman, “had a thing about not looking back.”
Lot’s Wife is a name taken from a legend that persists in all three abrahamic faiths, and for the most part serves to explain an eponymously-named pillar of salt present on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea. The story of Lot, and his family, can be found in Chapter 19 of the Book of Genesis, Chapter 19 of the Book of Jasher, and Chapter 51 of the Quran. In short, Lot and his family lived in the city of Sodom, which, along with the neighbouring city of Gomorrah, was soon to be destroyed by the wrath of God – in what can only have been a moment of heavenly rashness – akin to the biblical equivalent of a carpet bombing.
Having sent two angels forth to do His bidding, they threw themselves on Lot’s hospitality for the night before getting to work the next morning. However, before they could settle in, a mob of xenophobic locals turned up and demanded Lot turn the angels over to them. Lot refused, instead offering his daughters, who the mob rejected. Gracious to their host, the angels allowed Lot and his family to flee so long as they did not look back on the fire and brimstone they were moments away from raining down upon the cities.
As they were fleeing Lot’s wife – named Edith in the Book of Jasher – decides to look back upon the chaos that was enthralling the two cities, and in punishment for failing to follow orders, she was transfigured into a pillar of salt. Why a pillar of salt, no one is really sure, the Book of Jasher suggests it was because she had previously stolen salt from a neighbour and this was all some kind of belated punishment – talk about saltiness. As for Lot and his daughters, they lived an incestuous life in a cave, yet he was later canonised and a monastery in his honour opened near the pillar of salt that was once his wife – isn’t that just typical.
So now we come to the part where we break down just how “fraught with significance” the name of this hallowed publication is. Over the years many editors have sought to explain the name away, and I seek to piece together some of the better explanations for the name. At least better than Dr. Broderick’s analysis in a 1984 interview: “It is, of course, pure Dada, and has no further metonym.”
There is an obvious place to start and that is with Lot’s Wife’s core tenet ‘never look back’. Lot’s wife looked back on the chaos and was turned to a pillar of salt – clearly a warning against looking back at the mistakes made by Chaos. Or in a more general sense, it is a warning against nostalgia to quote our founding editors, “in another sense, the title can act as a warning. Lot’s wife didn’t have the sense to see that she was being given the chance to escape the bad old days, so she’s probably still gazing in stony affection at the remains of a culture that had well and truly had its day. Our moral: Don’t let this happen to you, or to Monash.” A moral that eventually morphed into today’s ‘never look back.’
Moving away from the story itself, there is even symbolism in the pillar of salt that still stands in Jordan, Messrs Schauble, Blakeley, and Broderick – like many of their contemporaries – believe in the importance of student media to campus life, going so far to say that a student newspaper was “one of the pillars of campus society, indubitably, but in a special sense.”, presumably a pillar of salt though, one that is unburdened with the notions of respectability, intellect, or preserving the status quo, all of which will crumble with the passing of time. For they saw Lot’s Wife as stronger than that, preserved for future generations of students by pushing the envelope, to make what they wish of Lot’s Wife.
The significance doesn’t quite end there, there’s all the significance of salt, a 2020 editorial suggests that “perhaps the greatest lesson to learn from Lot’s wife is to be salty.” Then there is the argument that the salt is there to keep us all painfully aware of the underlying significance of things in our everyday lives – such as the name of this very publication. Or failing that, perhaps the name was just chosen to describe the way student media adds a little bit of flavour to the occasionally bland existence of university life, after all salt makes most things better.
Finally, an interpretation of Lot’s Wife’s name that has emerged in the last 25 years, is based on its core tenet and the objectification of women in the early years of Chaos: “Lot’s Wife is so named as a warning, to not look back upon the sexism and objectification of women as occurred in the newspaper Chaos.” The content of Chaos was certainly of its time being described as “a laddish newspaper”. Yet the inherent message even within the tale of Lot is clear, here is an unnamed woman who is punished for disobeying an order meanwhile her canonised husband can get away with incest. So perhaps, as an editorial from 2020 suggests, “naming the magazine Lot’s Wife is a tribute to all women – and other marginalised people – who have been silenced and ignored by history.”
At the end of the day, what Lot’s Wife is, and the significance of its name is purely, what you make of it, after all “trying to determine the significance (or lack thereof) of the title reads like a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ of interpretation.” So perhaps the only question is what was the name of the woman who is the wife of Lot?
