5 ms·

Umberto Eco: Exploring Imaginary Lands With One of Italy’s Masters of Fiction

97 points by espeed 13y ago

astine 13y ago
This is just a rather superficial interview with Mr. Eco. He does touch on the medieval belief in a spherical world but they don't go into detail about such things. Interesting, but brief and not what the title promised.
- mcguire 13y ago
  But it does show some hints as to why Eco is so unbelievably great. "Every writer, every artist, every musician, scientist is profoundly interested in the survival of his or her work after their death. Otherwise they would be idiots." And, of course, "In the States, they publish an enormous collection of books called 'The Library of Living Philosophers.' It started with John Dewey and Bertrand Russell and the last book was about Richard Rorty. For mysterious reasons — probably because there is nobody else is around — they chose me for the next one. These are books of 1,500 pages. I am supposed to write 100 pages of philosophical autobiography. And there are 25 people, working at this moment, each writing a paper on my philosophical activity. And I am supposed to read all of them and to respond to each of them with at least three or four pages each. I think I have two years to work on it, and I am hoping to die before I have to do it."
nraynaud 13y ago
Why are there so many links towards this paywalled site? It's the only paywalled site that I see on HN, why is that?
- kej 13y ago
  Because it's the most prominent newspaper in the United States?
- 001sky 13y ago
  answer> delete your cookies and the paywall is porous
  - nraynaud 13y ago
    I use private browsing.
bananacurve 13y ago
Non-paywalled link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/international/umberto-eco-a-master-of-fiction-considers-historys-lies.html?hpw&rref=arts http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/international/umberto...
bradleyjg 13y ago
A terrific author whose philosophical work informs his fiction, but not in a heavy handed or didactic way. I only wish there were more novels. If you haven't read anything by him, I'd start with In the Name of the Rose. The beginning is a little tough to get into, but if you persevere you are amply rewarded (in the afterwords it is disclosed that this was a deliberate literary choice, I won't spoil it by explaining the rationale, but it does make sense). Foucault's Pendulum is the magnum opus. Edit: after In the Name of the Rose I'd probably go with Baudolino, but FP is a valid choice as well.
- SaulOfTheJungle 13y ago
  I've read _The Name of the Rose_ and really enjoyed it. What should I read next?
  - stevedub 13y ago
    definitely Foucaults Pendulum. it's like the DaVinci Code but for medieval history buffs plus the plot is wickedly clever
    - xioxox 13y ago
      I disagree - I found reading it was like being hit over the head repeatedly by the same point. The point isn't very profound either. It's more like a database dump of what Eco researched over the last few years on conspiracy theories. Huge sections could have been skipped without affecting the plot or anything else. I think he missed the point of writing a novel, which is telling a story. It came across more of an exercise in style, rather than a novel. It's one of the few books where I wish I'd never started reading it. I enjoyed the Name of the Rose, but not the other two books I read of his.
      - devindotcom 13y ago
        I rather agree with you, though I did enjoy the book. But, as I've had occasion to say about other books, I felt I "enjoyed it under false pretences," i.e. that I was enjoying it because I thought these flights of fancy, various subgroups, characters, etc, would be wrapped together tidily like The Name of the Rose (although it too was something of an, admittedly purposeful, anticlimax).
antiterra 13y ago
Much of Eco's work was translated by the great William Weaver who passed away earlier this month. I came to appreciate Weaver's translations through another Italian legend, Italo Calvino. Calvino had a way of incorporating scientific and philosophical concepts within passionate human drama. HN readers might enjoy his work as well. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/arts/william-weaver-influential-translator-of-modern-italian-literature-dies-at-90.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/arts/william-weaver-influe... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Weaver http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Weaver
- vanderZwan 13y ago
  > He had a stroke several years ago that severely hampered his ability to speak — an especially difficult hardship, friends and relatives said, for a loquacious man who had built his life communicating in words. That is sad to hear, but as Renoir supposedly said when asked why he spent three decades painting with painful arthritis: “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” Thank you for your translations, William Weaver. http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/astonishing_film_of_arthritic_impressionist_painter_pierre-auguste_renoir_1915.html http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/astonishing_film_of_arthr...
keithpeter 13y ago
"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." You need to read the whole column to get the joke[1]. I like to imagine that fully Libre Gnu/Linux would be Jain, and Android would be Baptist. Eco's routine journalism can be really funny. [1] http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html
meatsock 13y ago
if you like eco, check out 'Q' by luther blissett, which is given away for free on his website[1] along with all of his other works. 1: http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/biography.html http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/biography.html

97 points by espeed 13y ago

This is just a rather superficial interview with Mr. Eco. He does touch on the medieval belief in a spherical world but they don't go into detail about such things. Interesting, but brief and not what the title promised.

mcguire 13y ago
But it does show some hints as to why Eco is so unbelievably great. "Every writer, every artist, every musician, scientist is profoundly interested in the survival of his or her work after their death. Otherwise they would be idiots." And, of course, "In the States, they publish an enormous collection of books called 'The Library of Living Philosophers.' It started with John Dewey and Bertrand Russell and the last book was about Richard Rorty. For mysterious reasons — probably because there is nobody else is around — they chose me for the next one. These are books of 1,500 pages. I am supposed to write 100 pages of philosophical autobiography. And there are 25 people, working at this moment, each writing a paper on my philosophical activity. And I am supposed to read all of them and to respond to each of them with at least three or four pages each. I think I have two years to work on it, and I am hoping to die before I have to do it."

nraynaud 13y ago

Why are there so many links towards this paywalled site? It's the only paywalled site that I see on HN, why is that?

kej 13y ago
Because it's the most prominent newspaper in the United States?
001sky 13y ago
answer> delete your cookies and the paywall is porous
- nraynaud 13y ago
  I use private browsing.

bananacurve 13y ago

Non-paywalled link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/international/umberto-eco-a-master-of-fiction-considers-historys-lies.html?hpw&rref=arts http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/international/umberto...

bradleyjg 13y ago

A terrific author whose philosophical work informs his fiction, but not in a heavy handed or didactic way. I only wish there were more novels. If you haven't read anything by him, I'd start with In the Name of the Rose. The beginning is a little tough to get into, but if you persevere you are amply rewarded (in the afterwords it is disclosed that this was a deliberate literary choice, I won't spoil it by explaining the rationale, but it does make sense). Foucault's Pendulum is the magnum opus. Edit: after In the Name of the Rose I'd probably go with Baudolino, but FP is a valid choice as well.

SaulOfTheJungle 13y ago
I've read _The Name of the Rose_ and really enjoyed it. What should I read next?
- stevedub 13y ago
  definitely Foucaults Pendulum. it's like the DaVinci Code but for medieval history buffs plus the plot is wickedly clever
  - xioxox 13y ago
    I disagree - I found reading it was like being hit over the head repeatedly by the same point. The point isn't very profound either. It's more like a database dump of what Eco researched over the last few years on conspiracy theories. Huge sections could have been skipped without affecting the plot or anything else. I think he missed the point of writing a novel, which is telling a story. It came across more of an exercise in style, rather than a novel. It's one of the few books where I wish I'd never started reading it. I enjoyed the Name of the Rose, but not the other two books I read of his.
    - devindotcom 13y ago
      I rather agree with you, though I did enjoy the book. But, as I've had occasion to say about other books, I felt I "enjoyed it under false pretences," i.e. that I was enjoying it because I thought these flights of fancy, various subgroups, characters, etc, would be wrapped together tidily like The Name of the Rose (although it too was something of an, admittedly purposeful, anticlimax).

antiterra 13y ago

Much of Eco's work was translated by the great William Weaver who passed away earlier this month. I came to appreciate Weaver's translations through another Italian legend, Italo Calvino. Calvino had a way of incorporating scientific and philosophical concepts within passionate human drama. HN readers might enjoy his work as well. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/arts/william-weaver-influential-translator-of-modern-italian-literature-dies-at-90.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/arts/william-weaver-influe... http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Weaver http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Weaver

vanderZwan 13y ago
> He had a stroke several years ago that severely hampered his ability to speak — an especially difficult hardship, friends and relatives said, for a loquacious man who had built his life communicating in words. That is sad to hear, but as Renoir supposedly said when asked why he spent three decades painting with painful arthritis: “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.” Thank you for your translations, William Weaver. http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/astonishing_film_of_arthritic_impressionist_painter_pierre-auguste_renoir_1915.html http://www.openculture.com/2012/07/astonishing_film_of_arthr...

keithpeter 13y ago

"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." You need to read the whole column to get the joke[1]. I like to imagine that fully Libre Gnu/Linux would be Jain, and Android would be Baptist. Eco's routine journalism can be really funny. [1] http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html

meatsock 13y ago

if you like eco, check out 'Q' by luther blissett, which is given away for free on his website[1] along with all of his other works. 1: http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/biography.html http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/biography.html