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In the film Hereditary, Anne finds her grandmother's books and flips through them to read up stuff about Paimon.

We see this:
enter image description here

Now this is an Indian script, possibly Devanagri or Gurmukhi. Paimon is Mesopotamian in origin and has no connection at all with India.

Was this the use of a wrong script in the film? Or is there something I got wrong?

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    The script didn't have to be "right", it just had to look mysterious to Western audiences. – Michael Harvey Apr 20 '20 at 17:18
  • I think there is some Jewish origin deity that have book in latin instead of old arameic. – SZCZERZO KŁY Apr 21 '20 at 12:35
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    @MichaelHarvey, picking up a random language from the east is a technical mistake. Paimon wasn't made up, it's from actual Mesopotamian mythology. Good filmmaking needs details to connect. Details need to be right. – MovieMe Apr 21 '20 at 12:41
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    MovieMe - who said Hereditary was "good filmmaking"? – Michael Harvey Apr 21 '20 at 13:39
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    He also writes: "...those lured in by the quivering quotes on the posters run the risk of being underwhelmed by Hereditary, which, for all its stylistic strengths and subversive subtexts, scares only sporadically." Having seen the film I agree with him 100 per cent. – Michael Harvey Apr 21 '20 at 18:37
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There's no reason her grandmother couldn't have books in other languages referencing Mesopotamian deities. For example, I love vintage matchbook graphics, and I have books in Japanese that reference old European matchbooks.

A person with deep interest in a subject might have books about that subject in many languages; even languages they don't read (sometimes it's the iconography that is important).

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  • The mythological characters are connected to their culture. Each culture has its own mythological characters. Each culture has its own ancient text detailing what they believed in. Rituals that are alien to one culture would not be detailed in their script. – MovieMe Apr 21 '20 at 12:49
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    @MovieMe there are books in English (and Latin script) that talk about various mythologies and their alien rituals, among them Mesopotamian, and there's no reason why there would not be books in India about mythologies and rituals of neighbouring regions. The script used restricts the intended target audience of that book, it does not restrict the topic or content. – Peteris May 20 '20 at 21:39
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    @MovieMe Let me ask you something. How did you first learn about the Minotaur? Did you learn Greek and find an ancient book in that language? Do you write it as Μινώταυρος? Are you seriously saying that no person has books about myths or rituals that originated outside of his or her own culture? If you are trying to say in ancient times people were unaware of other cultures, then fine, but there's nothing to indicate she's looking at an ancient text. In fact, it looks in pretty good shape to me. – aryxus May 21 '20 at 23:13

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