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Foucault'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
by fenomas 11y ago
Foucault'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.
- pmoriarty 11y ago"Plus it's as brilliant a takedown of conspiracy-theory-thinking as ever the world will see." How does it compare on that score to The Illuminatus Trilogy[1], written more than a decade before Eco's book? [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminatus
- mcguire 11y agoThe Illuminatus Trilogy is a couple of guys getting stoned and screwing around with various goofy ideas. Like a lot of postmodern stuff, it doesn't take much of anything, especially its subject seriously. Foucault's Pendulum is a very smart guy who knows a lot, pointing out that, if you peel an onion you won't find anything in the center.
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- toupeira 11y agoIlluminatus! is a work of satire, so it not taking itself seriously is part of the point. If you want to really get something out of it you have look beyond the psychedelic sillyness, and read up one some of the countless philosophical/occult concepts and historical oddities referenced in the story.
- anigbrowl 11y agoI think there's rather more to the Illuminatus trilogy than that. And I say that as big fan of Eco who has enjoyed his deeply obscure stuff as well as his more well-known works.
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- trevelyan 11y agoConspiracy thinking is a cancer: it will destroy you.
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- coliveira 11y agoI also suggest Baudolino. It is a fantastic story exploring the world of war and religion in the Middle Ages.
- wobbleblob 11y agoThat book made me feel stupid and uneducated. There was hardly a paragraph without a word I had to look up or a reference I couldn't get. The translator utterly defeated me. I never finished it.
- bambax 11y agoWhich is the direst critique one can address to any book! It's the book's (and author's) failure, not your own, to be incomprehensible and pedantic.
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- msutherl 11y agoGod bless this way of thinking has come to its end place in the greatest work of American writing ever made: https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/ https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/.
- wobbleblob 11y agoNaa, I was just not the intended audience, and maybe a few decades too young.
- wanderer2323 11y agoIf a child cannot understand the scope and themes of, say, Montaigne's Essais, is this a fault of Montaigne's? The Pendulum is similarly loaded with concepts and ideas.
- bambax 11y agoMontaigne isn't pedantic and doesn't use fancy words.
- tomjen3 11y agoIt is a reason for not reading it and worthwhile information. Your comment however was arrogant and uncalled for.
- YeGoblynQueenne 11y agoFor me it was the only book ever where, once I'd put it down, I couldn't remember where I had been when I picked it up again (after some time had passed). That's because it keeps jumping from subject to subject, revisiting some, and sometimes even repeating the same information in different ways. I was completely lost after a while, but I didn't have the heart to start from the beginning. It's a very big book. I did enjoy it though, in a way because I got so lost in it, that after a while it didn't make any difference where I was and what I'd read. It was a bit like floating into someone's dreams. Also, it put me off my New Age books for ever - you know the ones, Alistair Crowley, Dion Fortune and the like. I'm much happier with technology than magic, thank you. Thank you professor Eco, that is.