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Thursday, January 1st, 2009
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I have recently created ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) sign_studies, a semiotics community devoted to the study of signs and semiosis (sign-action, sign-processes). Since semiotics is an inherently interdisciplinary field of inquiry, as well as a perspective that should appeal to anyone interested in phenomenology, cognition, communication, meaning, language, etc.,* I hope to attract a diverse group of intelligent and reflective thinkers to this community. Please peruse the community profile for more info.
*And the work of Umberto Eco!
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
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Didn't Professor Eco do a full review of The Da Vinci Code once (as opposed to the short, but admittedly hilarious, comparison of Brown to Aglie and/or Belbo in the NYT interview)? If so, does anybody know where I can find it?
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Friday, December 14th, 2007
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Sunday, November 25th, 2007
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I am wondering if you read Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,” which some critics see as the pop version of your “Name of the Rose.”
I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it. My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel, “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which is about people who start believing in occult stuff.
But you yourself seem interested in the kabbalah, alchemy and other occult practices explored in the novel.
No, in “Foucault’s Pendulum” I wrote the grotesque representation of these kind of people. So Dan Brown is one of my creatures
Umberto Eco interviewed at the New York Times about Turning Back the Clock
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Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
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Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
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| Posted by: | qoelet. |
| Time: | 2:38 am. |
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Hi every. :)
I never hoped that I could find a community about Umberto Eco, but that's the fact - and I'm glad.
First, you have to forgive me: my English is really bad. I'm Italian, 21 years old, girl who puts Umberto Eco on the top of her personal writers' list. I know him as novelist. (But I not yet read La misteriosa fiamma della Regina Loana; the book is there, on the bedside table, and sooner or later I'll read it.)
I have to admit my curiosity: what non-Italian think about Umberto Eco? I'll be grateful if you'll allow me to understand. In exchange for your helpfulness, and whatever happens, I would give you what I can. Umberto Eco is a great writer, I mean: he exploits his mother tongue. I don't envy his translators (in fact I know he take part in the translation of his books), then if you have some questions about his books in the original language (we know that a book loses nuances when it speaks in another language), ask me. I'll glad if I'll help you.
In the meanwhile, I hope we could have a good exchange of views. :)
(Above all: Il pendolo di Foucalt. Damn, I love that book.)
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Comments: Read 32 or Add Your Own.
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Thursday, December 7th, 2006
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I just got a copy of The Three Astronauts, one of Eco's few children's books. While it was cute and the illustrations were interestingly done, it was not really anything special. But I'm glad to have it in my Eco collection in any case.
Three astronauts from America, Russia and China go (separately) to Mars. They don't like one another very much because they are too "different". On Mars, they meet a Martian who is far more different from them than they are from one another. At first they band together to try to kill it, but they come to realise that just because the Martian looks different doesn't mean it's not a person with feelings very similar to theirs. A bit saccarin for Eco, really.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Sunday, October 15th, 2006
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I don't know if you've seen this already, but Eco write an essay in which he mentions Dan Brown and The DaVinci Code.
G K Chesterton is often credited with observing: "When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn't believe in nothing. He believes in anything." Whoever said it - he was right. We are supposed to live in a sceptical age. In fact, we live in an age of outrageous credulity.
The "death of God", or at least the dying of the Christian God, has been accompanied by the birth of a plethora of new idols. They have multiplied like bacteria on the corpse of the Christian Church -- from strange pagan cults and sects to the silly, sub-Christian superstitions of The Da Vinci Code.
It is amazing how many people take that book literally, and think it is true. Admittedly, Dan Brown, its author, has created a legion of zealous followers who believe that Jesus wasn't crucified: he married Mary Magdalene, became the King of France, and started his own version of the order of Freemasons. Many of the people who now go to the Louvre are there only to look at the Mona Lisa, solely and simply because it is at the centre of Dan Brown's book.
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Comments: Read 16 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
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...but tonight, at 21:00 GMT+1, Radio 4 - a new adaptation (in two parts, Part 2 tomorrow afternoon at 15:00 GMT+1) of The Name of the Rose.
More information via the BBC's website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4
Technical footnote: Because it's been broadcast before, overseas readers may be interested to know that they can listen to the production online (streaming) via Radio 4's "Listen Again" feature.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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Does anyone know where I can find a reliable latin to english translator type thing? I always have to look up words while reading Eco's novels, but the latin kills me. For example, I'm reading The Name of the Rose and here's two alreaday that I can't find.
" usus facti" pg 13 -> this one particularly gives me trouble, as even goggling it bring sup nothing that would tell me what it means in english.
" Cum inter nonnullos" pg 13.
Anyone can help I'd appreciate it.
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, December 21st, 2005
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I just got The Mysterious Flame Of Queen Laona on cd from the library. Ripped it onto my iPod and we're good to go.
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Comments: Read 12 or Add Your Own.
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Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
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Sunday, November 6th, 2005
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Hi, Everyone!!!! I'm crazy about Umberto Eco and his books. I read The Name of the Rose in Russian, but my English is too bad and I have a task to describe the portaits of William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk in English. HELP!!! Please!!!!
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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Monday, September 26th, 2005
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I recently visited Prague, and I just wanted to give a mention to the Alchemy Museum in Kutna Hora and all the little silver figurines of Rabbi Loew's golem that can be had. As a fan of Foucault's Pendulum, these things made me very happy.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Monday, August 22nd, 2005
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Hello! Decided to share my opinion about Eco's novels. I am currently reading The Island of the Day Before which I believe is the weakest of four (not counting The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana). As for the other three I would say that the Name of the Rose is the most philosophic thing. Thoughtful and profound. Foucault's Pendulum is the wittiest and ingenious in respect of style. Baudolino is simply romantic and that makes it so easy to read.
Well that's all. English is not my native so I prefer to be brief =)
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Comments: Read 17 or Add Your Own.
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This past Saturday, despite 11th hour notice, a conflicting schedule on my part, low finances, and no reservations for the event, I was finally able to fulfill a long-standing dream: I finally got to see Umberto Eco in person!
When The Island of The Day Before was originally released, Eco was scheduled for a signing at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, California, but not long after the scheduled appearance California enacted its tough public smoking laws. As a result, the Vroman's appearance was cancelled. As far as I know ALL California appearances were cancelled as well. Furthermore, I believe he avoided any touring of California for Baudolino as well. . .
So I didn't believe it was ever going to happen. According to one person waiting in line with me, Eco is no longer able to smoke due to obvious health reasons. Now, as a result, any choice to avoid California (with the possible exception of the Madonna Inn) seems moot.
Dr. Eco was hosted at the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library by Glen David Gold, author of Carter Beats the Devil which was one of a handful of Southern California appearances. Eco not only gave a reading from the new novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, but also sat in conversation with Glen Gold, and took questions from the audience, albeit with moderate success.
The conversation focused on some fascinating ideas including the soul as memory, distinctions and importance of high and pop culture, the focus of life in adulthood, and much more. Eco's offered two readings from the new novel, the first in English was of moderate success, and detailed Yambo's first thoughts on his attic. The second, was in Italian, and was a great success. He read one of the last passages from the book where Yambo experiences his personal apocalypse as characters from his memory descend a staircase. The reading was not only done a specific rhythmic pattern, but when song lyrics were read in the melodies from which they came.
My biggest joy and heartbreak of the day, came from the story he related about movie adaptations. According to Dr. Eco, after the adaptation of The Name of the Rose, he was greatly disappointed that any filmic adaptations of resulted in the coloring of viewer's interpretations of any subsequent readings of his work. He preferred that readers would come to his work as a blank slate, and with only the expectation of Eco's own work to serve as inspiration to the reader. Eco informed Harcourt that all future rights to his work were hereby unavailable. That is until one piece of news came forth from the publisher. According to the publisher (and I have heard this from other sources as well) Stanley Kubrick was entertaining the idea of adapting Foucault's Pendulum into a major motion picture. By the time Eco himself expressed an interest in that possibility, Stanley Kubrick had died.
I told Dr. Eco as he signed my books that his story of Stanley Kubrick "broke my heart", to which he admitted, "mine too."
According to some sources, Queen Loana may be his last novel. I have trouble believing this, but not even my question about "his future as a storyteller" revealed any sense of his future as a storyteller. So this for one reason or another may have been my first and last opportunity to see Dr. Eco speak and have a book signed. I felt very lucky, as I have such a short list of "notables" of whom I actually get excited about the possibility of meeting. The event was short and sweet, and undoubtedly will be tucked away somewhere in the attic of my mind for a long time to come.
x-posted in my personal journal
 It's Probably Me (feat. Eric Clapton) - Sting - Lethal Weapon 3
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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amused.
annoyed.
disappointed.
busy.
geeky.