Umberto Eco

[xylokopos]

Eco died on Friday. I have read and reread many of his books over the last twenty years and it is my belief that he was the last true European intellectual of a certain kind, a man with an extremely accurate and detailed mental map of the history of ideas in the West.

When I was 17, I read The Name of the Rose for the first time and it made me reconsider the value I placed in books. It became apparent to me that a fictional composition about murdering monks seven centuries ago had tremendously important and urgent messages for me. Reading the rest of his novels later on, I was amazed by the easy display of erudition, by his phenomenal ease in discussing everything, from 16th century cartography to 19th century French food menues. His theoretical work on semiotics, aesthetics and literary criticism has the stamp of serious brainpower all over it and his essays are pure delight. His work on media populism is still very timely.

Eco was not just knowledgeable on obscure or arcane or forgotten subjects; he displayed a kind of rare awareness and insight regarding trivial or unregarded matters. His analysis on how to tell whether you are watching a pornographic film before the sex scenes begin is fantastic fun and indicative of a mind that took pleasure in aspects of contemporary culture that are seldom given a scholarly treatment.

Like Baudolino, I have traversed the imaginary landscapes that Eco charted with words and have found great comfort in the scriptoria and the ships and the palaces of his world.

Farewell, Umberto. You are now fallen into the silent and uninhabited divinity, where there is no work and no image.

[miguel1984]

He will be sorely missed. I have read all of his novels, something that did not happen with any other author.

As much as I love The Name of the Rose (the film too), I think The Prague Cemetery is his best novel.

[marioneta]

I love Eco's work both in fiction and nonfiction.. He had a unique sense of humor. The Name of the Rose stands out,as does Foucault's Pendulum. he will be sorely missed.

[Revenant]

I was unaware he had passed away. Thank you for telling me because I had enormous respect for his intellect.

I am thoroughly depressed now.

[marioneta]

I too was depressed at hearing of his passing. I almost feel like I grew up with his works. I read most of his books in Spanish, which is the closest I could get to his Italian, of which my knowledge is sketchy. Later a friend sent me a copy of Il Nome Della Rosa to compare to the Spanish translation. I think that you always loose something in the process of translation. In that sense Ligotti's remarks that he tried to write as if his works were a translation of an Eastern European writer is interesting.
Eco was to some extent a pessimist. In the DVD of The Name of the Rose there is a special feature about the making of the film, which to director Jean-Jacques Annaud credit is labeled a palimpsest of the novel. Annaud says that he made the film with an upbeat ending because Eco is very pessimistic in his novel's finale.
Eco lives in his work. Take a book of his into your life. You will be richer for the experience.
I must mention also that Eco was a great admirer of Borges and played tribute to him throughout his novels. In The Name of the Rose, one of the main characters is a blind monk, a parody and homage to Borges.

[marioneta]

Eco wrote an essay, "Ur-Fascism", which is prescient. Fascism did not die at the end of the World War II. The word "fascism" is like the word "game', there are many ways and variations in Eco's analysis. The bottom line is that in reading this essay, Trump and his following came to mind and became clear as to the type of mass movement that it pretends to be, as well as the help it get from the stroking pulse of the mass-media.

"Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in civilian clothes." Eco writes. I would add that it can even be embodied in a business suit.

[xylokopos]

Umberto Eco: A Library of the World - Official Trailer - YouTube

Umberto Eco: A Library of the World

June 30: Film Forum - New York, NY
Jul 7-10: Guild Cinema - Albuquerque, NM
Jul 14-20: Smith Rafael Film Center - San Rafael, CA
Jul 19-23: Dairy Arts Center - Boulder, CO
Jul 21-23: Portland Museum of Art - Portland, ME
Jul 22: Cleveland Cinematheque - Cleveland, OH
Jul 23: The Beverly Theater - Las Vegas, NV
Aug 14-15: Laemmle Theaters - Los Angeles, CA
Aug 18: Lumiere Cinema - Los Angeles, CA