Traveller’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2013)

Traveller’s comments from the Foucault's Pendulum group.

Kellyjosephc wrote: "Related to the above, about whether the quotes at the start of each chapter are real or not: if they were false (just made up by Eco), I don't think the novel's joke would be as powerful. By supply..."

Oh my goodness, I'm 5 years late on this reply! But yes, think about it, propaganda too, is built on half-truths. The best way to convince someone of a lie is to feed them a half-truth!

EdMohs wrote: "In a way it sort of appropriate
Licks finger and turns the page ;) ..."

I enjoyed the joke, but I hope you didn't lick that finger again! :P

Yes, speaking of other Eco works, I've actually been looking out for Eco's latest collection of writings, On the Shoulders of Giants, and found out how frustratingly many books have a similar title.

EdMohs wrote: "Like Casaubon-
I’m still stumbling through the terra incognita... ..."

Well, until and unless Amazon shuts us down, this group will always be open for new input, since I suspect we haven't even plunged the full depths yet, impressive as all we found out seems to me now in retrospect...

And besides, it's fun to go back and read the threads, it really makes my heart ache in a bittersweet way for all the good times we had in the past...

Able wrote: "I read the book twice, some 20 years apart and had very different experiences. It was the second reading that blew me, perhaps as a result of my own experiences and enlightenment in between.
The t..."
Thanks for adding your insights as well as referring to Eco's Open Text theory to the discussion - which seems oddly both appropriate as well as in some ways initially insufficient for this huge text.
Appropriate, because, exactly as you say, the text is so opalescent that each individual will carry away something different from it, based on their own personality and experiences in life, and insufficient in the sense of that of course, the text is hugely referential to actual tropes, movements and occurrences in the real world.
But, just like his fiction, Eco's theory is also multifaceted:
According to Eco, works of art can be read in three ways: the moral, the allegorical and the anagogical. Each is not only distinct but can be fully anticipated and directed by the author (or the artist) of the work.

Of course, my reply is only 5 years late - I apologize for that. And of course, poor Umberto is not with us in body anymore, although he will remain in our minds and memories for as long as we live.

You are very brave, EdMohs. "Tips hat"

Kellyjosephc wrote: "Good thread here. I have a few reactions about the book that I thought I'd share:
1) The pendulum: I see this as the dominant analogy running throughout the book, it's everywhere from the very obvi..."

Very interesting indeed, the spatial/geographical angle you bring in WRT the pendulum, Kellyjosephc! That increases my regard for this book as a work of genius...

EdMohs wrote: "Long Live Umberto Eco! "
Oh, he will, he will. He's given us too much not to live on in our minds and in Western culture.
Viva Umberto Eco! You live on in our minds and our hearts.

Ah, interesting. Hadn't thought of that! Thanks for that, Kellyj.
Had you heard that Eco passed away? I still feel pretty devastated by the news... :(

EdMohs wrote: "excellent Traveller !
first time I've seen this post

Casuabon moping! Classic!

With that sort of knowledge
certainly you've read the book more than twice?"

Ha, I am not THAT brave, EdMohs...

Befuddled most certainly, hehe heh.

Yeah, I think Diotallevi was gullible from the start. He was very into the Kabbalah.

I think Belbo was sceptical to the last, but I think he didn't have much of a choice in the end, and what a spectacular scene in which he becomes "the center of the universe" in a certain strange sense.

Well, I'm not saying with certainty that they actually 100% "believed" ...but they did start to doubt and wonder, didn't they? I mean, for example, at the end, it seems as if Causabon really believes that someone is out to get him...

Also,where his wife just sees a grocery list, he sees a map.

Hi Ed, I'm going to be thinking over the question you raised in the other thread.

Personally, I think Belbo, Casaubon & Diotavelli just started the thing as a joke, but then it kind of dragged them in and became 'real' as they followed up leads; as they started to believe things people told them about "conspiracies".

Ed, if someone else might still want to read the book and do this discussion as they go along, we would be putting out spoilers for them if we discuss the ending in this thread, so why don't we rather do that in this thread, please? (Just follow the link)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Ed wrote: "well I've read F.P at least 8 times.
I’m shooting for 36 reads!
Ha Ha

I'm not the one to be determine if a novel is a classic. But I consider it to rate like a Finnegan Wake. Sort of obscure bu..."

Oh wow, you're being serious? So many times? ..and here I felt tired after reading it only once! :D

I am a fan of Umberto Eco though; - of his work in general, including his scholarly works on semiotics and aesthetics. I think he has an amazing ability to draw together threads from his obviously vast knowledge of human history and culture.

The first book of his that I had read, was The Name of the Rose which I really enjoyed very much.
Have you read any other works by Eco?

Sure, I think the novel will still be read and relevant 120 years from now, because there is a timelessness in many of the things that Eco is saying in it about humanity.

Hi Ed, still reading, or are you done - oh, I see you gave it 5 stars?

Okay, you win! Gandalf lived long ago, so it must have been him. :)

Ed, no, I think we are mainly kidding.

Although, they both went on a quest, now you mention it...

Thanks for sharing, Ed!

I admit I'd have to go back to the book again myself, - it's been a while too long to be able to recall that in much detail.

Ed, about ¡No Pasarán! (They shall not pass) : it was used before that actually, Wikipedia says in World War I, but I have a memory scratching at the back of my mind that it might even have been before that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_sha...

Of course, copying the famous phrase, Gandalf also said it in the film version of Lord of the Rings, ha ha.

I admit I hadn't thought of the idea that Casaubon specifically was set up - you mean that Diotallevi and Belbo could also have been in on setting him up?

Frankly I suspected that all three of them might have been, to some extent, set up and that the publisher might have been in on it.