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Umberto Eco has died
- davidw 11y agoI trust that dang et al will replace the link with one in English when it becomes available. (Which he/they have, transporting/merging the comments with this story... that was kind of weird)
- jacquesm 11y agohttp://www.euronews.com/2016/02/20/italian-author-and-intellectual-umberto-eco-has-died-at-the-age-of-84/ http://www.euronews.com/2016/02/20/italian-author-and-intell... :(
- greenyoda 11y ago- This story claims it's a hoax: http://en.mediamass.net/people/umberto-eco/deathhoax.html http://en.mediamass.net/people/umberto-eco/deathhoax.html "On Friday (February 19) the author's reps officially confirmed that Umberto Eco is not dead. “He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He's still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet,” they said." - Wikipedia reverted the notice of his death, saying it was a false rumor: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Umberto_Eco&action=history https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Umberto_Eco&actio... Edit: Now Wikipedia is saying that he's dead. Edit2: Now the BBC is reporting his death: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11137855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11137855
- runn1ng 11y agoMediamass is a terrible website. They flood their site with "X dying is a hoax", so they build high pagerank on that phrase, and when someone actually dies, they are first. So like content farms, only with deaths.
- davidw 11y agoFrom: http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2016/02/20/news/morto_lo_scrittore_umberto_eco-133816061/?ref=HREA-1 http://www.repubblica.it/cultura/2016/02/20/news/morto_lo_sc... > La conferma della scomparsa dell'autore de "Il nome della Rosa" e de "Il pendolo di Focault" è stata data dalla famiglia a Repubblica. La morte è avvenuta alle 22.30 di ieri sera nella sua abitazione. Which says that his family has confirmed it to La Repubblica, which is a respected Italian newspaper.
- chc 11y agoMediamass is a parody site, similar to The Onion but not as funny. If you look on any of their articles, they contain a disclaimer, "UPDATE: This story appears to be false," which links to a page[1] explaining that everything is made up. [1]: http://en.mediamass.net/blog/mediamass-project http://en.mediamass.net/blog/mediamass-project
- runn1ng 11y agoNot really funny, more like fake articles to get pagerank that tries to pass as a satire.
- kh_hk 11y agoHearing the news I couldn't help but think about the first game I've ever played, "La Abadia del Crimen", a version of "The Name of the Rose", for Amstrad CPC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Abad%C3%ADa_del_Crimen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Abad%C3%ADa_del_Crimen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDBDAVxwIxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDBDAVxwIxo
- pklausler 11y agoI'm going to re-read The Name of the Rose this weekend and raise a glass in thanks to all the pleasure that this wonderful writer has added to my life.
- Ologn 11y agoGreat book!
- blackdev1l 11y agoIt's 1:45 am here in Italy and this news is a true shock.
- vermontdevil 11y agoI liked the book, The Name of the Rose. Got me hooked on historical fiction books after such as Sarum among others. Not a bad film too with Sean Connery and Christian Slater.
- zorpner 11y agoUmberto Eco on operating systems and religion, in 1994: The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counterreformist and has been influenced by the "ratio studiorum" of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach - if not the Kingdom of Heaven - the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation. DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment. You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counterreformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It's true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions..... And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and is Talmudic and cabalistic. (from here: http://jowett.web.cern.ch/jowett/EcoMACDOS.htm http://jowett.web.cern.ch/jowett/EcoMACDOS.htm )
- vanderZwan 11y agoDid he ever say something about Linux?
- Shog9 11y agoLet's go with Mormons.
- Fordrus 11y agoAnciently, there was the UNIX. But the UNIX was held close by those who had received it, and the world trembled in darkness, because there was no UNIX to light the way. But then came Linus Torvalds, attempting to discover which of the systems was true, and, as he reviewed the ancient operating systems, discovered wisdom enough to seek the UNIX. And BEHOLD, as Linus went forth to meditate on which operating system was best, he was visited by the UNIX in a pillar of Code. The UNIX told him that all operating systems had departed from the best way, and informed Linus where he must go to seek a restoration of the true ways of UNIX. And Linus was led to the side of the hill Codemorah, wherein he discovered golden algorithms and clear glass compilers. And will the clear glass compilers, he translated the golden algorithms into this: the Linux operating system. It is evidence of his prophesional calling, and any who use it can attest the Linus was truly shown the best way, through the Spirit and Power of UNIX. (I will show myself out now :) )
- officemonkey 11y agoHarper Lee and Umberto Eco in the same day. It's like when Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day.
- pklausler 11y agoA search engine tells me that Cervantes died on April 22nd and Shakespeare died on the 23rd (1616).
- trollingineer 11y agoYou must do really well in life. Search engining and correcting people all the time and all.
- officemonkey 11y agoIt's even worse than that... According to Wikipedia: "Spain had adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, but England was still using the Julian calendar. Shakespeare's death on 23 April 1616 (Julian) was equivalent to 3 May 1616 (Gregorian). This was 10 days after Cervantes was buried and 11 days after he died."
- schoen 11y agoOne remarkable thing about The Name of the Rose is that the characters in it don't think and talk like modern people who happen to have been transported into the Middle Ages. They seem to think differently -- about what's possible, what people can expect from life, how you know things, what counts as an argument... Possibly my favorite part: "What you say is very fine, Adso, and I thank you. The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless. Er muoz gelîchesame die leiter abewerfen, sô er an ir ufgestigen . . . . Is that how you say it?" "That is how it is said in my language. Who told you that?" "A mystic from your land. He wrote it somewhere, I forget where. And it is not necessary for somebody one day to find that manuscript again. The only truths that are useful are instruments to be thrown away." The "mystic from your land" was Ludwig Wittgenstein, who said that in his Tractatus 591 years after that conversation was set, in modern rather than medieval German ("Er muss sozusagen die Leiter wegwerfen, nachdem er auf ihr hinaufgestiegen ist") - "he must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up on it".
- coliveira 11y agoUmber Eco was one of the greatest scholars of Middle Age's philosophy. It is a great delight for all of us that he decided to share his knowledge in the form of a Novel. I don't think you can find any other writer capable of translating the thinking of ordinary men from Middle Ages into a book like he did.
- ArkyBeagle 11y agoTo be able to translate that into novels that are as accessible as his novels are is a rare gift.
- wobbleblob 11y agoMost would describe Eco's work as 'challenging' rather than accessible.
- Retric 11y ago
- fenomas 11y agoFoucault's Pendulum was maybe the most transformative book I've ever read - it changed how I think about literature (and of course the Knights Templar). Ah well, guess it's time to reread it. :(
- johnhattan 11y agoIt took me four months to get through that thing, what with its weird random digressions. One chapter would be talking about the Knights Templar building treasure-tunnels under France, and suddenly the next chapter would open with a paragraph explaining why a woman's physiology is better suited for playing pinball than a man's. A compelling read, but I was never quite sure what facts would end up being important to the plot. (FWIW, the pinball fact was not)
- coldtea 11y ago>A compelling read, but I was never quite sure what facts would end up being important to the plot. The plot is seldom the main point in literature, especially good literature -- it's mostly a vehicle to convey thoughts and observations about life, the universe and everything as opposed to the end goal (as in a (common) detective story or a pulp thriller).
- coliveira 11y agoI wish writers (and readers) really understood that. It is so boring to open a book that reads just like a Hollywood movie script and has no depth to justify reading.
- fenomas 11y agoWell, yeah. Foucault's Pendulum is to me what Finnegan's Wake is apparently to many others - certainly not a casual read; more something to pick apart slowly and ponder the subtle mysteries of. But even underneath all the digressions and metaphysics, I still find the core story enjoyable as well. Plus it's as brilliant a takedown of conspiracy-theory-thinking as ever the world will see.
- rcurry 11y agoI can't believe how many legendary people have died in the last few months. I still remember reading Foucault's Pendulum when it came out in English - I was too young to really dig the story at the time, but I can recall struggling to get my head around some his prose because he was just on a whole different level from the other books I had been reading back then. I read Baudolino some years ago, but didn't come away from it with the same sense of awe that I got from reading Name of the Rose, or Foucault's Pendulum.
- hodwik 11y agoI started reading Numero Zero for the first time a few days ago, and decided to stop, because I had a feeling he might be dying soon. It's the last book of his I have left to read, and I wanted to make sure I had something to read of his after he passed. Sorry I don't have to wait. RIP -- Mr. Eco. Your books instilled in me the love of reading when no one else could. I will always owe you one.
- jplahn 11y agoWe read Name of the Rose in my 10th grade English class and it was a tome that challenged us all for the couple of weeks that we pored over it. I love that book. I've read it one other time since then and it's amazing the number of layers that continue to appear when you read it a second (and, presumably, a third) time. When you spend so much time dissecting somebody's work, you develop a sort of relationship with them, one that forms easily when you have a teacher that distills a deep appreciation for the work you're knee deep in trying to understand. Mr. Eco you will be missed.
- schoen 11y agoI had kind of that experience with the Aeneid, and my friend had kind of that experience with the Divine Comedy. There's a lot of it out there to be had when people are lucky enough to get into the right situation with the right people!
- anigbrowl 11y agoAfter the 10th or 11th reading of Rose I had internalized the book well enough that I wasn't finding anything new and could recall whole pages of it from memory, but I keep rereading it every year or so because of the sheer sensual pleasure it evokes. I must be up to about 25 readings now and I was just thinking it was time for another.
- pg_is_a_butt 11y agoRobert Paulson has died
- PavlovsCat 11y agoI didn't read any of his novels (yet), but this I consider one of the most important documents I'm aware of. http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf If we still think of the totalitarian governments that ruled Europe before the Second World War we can easily say that it would be difficult for them to reappear in the same form in different historical circumstances. If Mussolini's fascism was based upon the idea of a charismatic ruler, on corporatism, on the utopia of the Imperial Fate of Rome, on an imperialistic will to conquer new territories, on an exacerbated nationalism, on the ideal of an entire nation regimented in black shirts, on the rejection of parliamentary democracy, on anti-Semitism, then I have no difficulty in acknowledging that today the Italian Alleanza Nazionale, born from the postwar Fascist Party, MSI, and certainly a right-wing party, has by now very little to do with the old fascism. In the same vein, even though I am much concerned about the various Nazi-like movements that have arisen here and there in Europe, including Russia, I do not think that Nazism, in its original form, is about to reappear as a nationwide movement. Nevertheless, even though political regimes can be overthrown, and ideologies can be criticized and disowned, behind a regime and its ideology there is always a way of thinking and feeling, a group of cultural habits, of obscure instincts and unfathomable drives. Is there still another ghost stalking Europe (not to speak of other parts of the world)?
- anigbrowl 11y agoNormally I tell everyone to read The Name of the Rose first and be happy, but for you I think you should start with The Mysterious Flame of queen Loana, even though it's one of his less accessible works. Much of it is a fictionalized memoir on how fascism became embedded in the fabric of daily life during Mussolini's reign, although this concern with mass movements and the dangers they pose to thinking individuals is a consistent theme in his work.
- PavlovsCat 11y agoOh, thank you so much! I will be sure to check it out.
- wazoox 11y ago
- ZephyrP 11y agoFoucault's Pendulum is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. He'll be missed.
- zouhair 11y agoFrigging 2016. The hecatomb year.
- JoeDaDude 11y agoIn addition to literary works, Umberto Eco also had a hand in designing a card game. The game used custom designed cards to represent characters and verbs which the players would use to tell a story. Some information (and photos) are available at Board Game Geek: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104411/fabula-il-gioco-di-lei-e-di-lui https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104411/fabula-il-gio...
- Udik 11y agoThanks. The idea reminds me of another great Italian novelist, Italo Calvino, and his 1973 novel "The Castle of Crossed Destinies". From Wikipedia: "Its narrative details a meeting among travellers who are inexplicably unable to speak after travelling through a forest. The characters in the novel recount their tales via Tarot cards, which are reconstructed by the narrator." (that is, the narrator observes the sequence of cards chosen and reconstructs the stories after them).
- patkai 11y ago"The Antichrist can be born from piety itself, from excessive love of God or of the truth, as the heretic is born from the saint and the possesed from the seer. Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them." Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose, p. 491.
- nappy 11y agoIt's sad to lose such a great thinker. For those who haven't read anything by Eco but want something more digestible on a Friday evening than a novel, I highly recommend his essay Ur-Fascism. Eco was brilliant and had a clear-eyed view on the lasting impact of the Middle Ages into today... and it's pretty clear how growing up in a fascist society impacted his views. http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf His reflections on fascism remain as important as ever.
- neemsio 11y ago:(
- koevet 11y agoIt's probably worth mentioning that very recently Eco, along with other writers such as Hanif Kureishi and Tahar Ben Jelloun, decided to leave his long-time publisher, Bompiani, and start a new publishing house, named "La nave di Teseo" (Theseus' vessel). It did that at 83, investing 2 millions euros in the process. Remarkable.
- imrehg 11y agoThe concept of the anti-library definitely shaped my approach to knowledge a lot. Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilibrary/ https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/03/24/umberto-eco-antilib...