Umberto Eco is no longer

[PeterL]

This is a very sad day.

Article about Eco's death
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/20/arts/international/umberto-eco-italian-semiotician-and-best-selling-author-dies-at-84.html?_r=0

[YesNo]

Which book of his do you recommend?

[PeterL]

It depends on what you like. Lots of people like The Name of the Rose, but I thk it was too simple, especially if one had already read Eco's Theory of Semiotics, which I had. For fiction I think his beast Was Foucault's Pendulum.. His writing about literary interpretation are all good, The Role of the Reader comes to mind. His theory of Semiotics was great in its day, but that was decades ago, and he moved on from there. Most of his non-fiction since sometime in the 1970's is worth reading. His fiction is good, but "different", but some of his non-fiction is also different, "On Ugliness" for example. Click on Bibliography on the homepage, and you will see the complete bibliography, and he wrote a lot.

http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/

[YesNo]

Thanks! I see from the online catalog at the local library that there are many titles. I'll probably pick a nonfiction one.

[mortalterror]

Witness.

[Lokasenna]

A great shame - Eco was one of my favourite living novelists, as well as being a titan in my field of medievalism (amongst other things).

The Name of the Rose would be an excellent starting point for his work, though I read Foucault's Pendulum first and really enjoyed it.

[Helga]

Yes very sad, I have only read The Name of the Rose but I bought The Prague Cemetery last year, maybe I'll get to it. I have also been thinking about reading his children books, I don't think any of them have been translated here on the ice.

[kev67]

I have read The Name of the Rose, Focault's Pendulum and The Island of the Day Before. I liked The Name of the Rose. There were long digressions into Medieval heresies, which I found pretty interesting. It was somewhat different to the film, which I also liked. I did not like Focault's Pendulum so much, because it took an extraordinary long time for things to start happening. It was mainly two or three people from a publishing house discussing in very great depth historical secret societies. I was blown away by the intelligence of the characters, but I wanted something to happen. I was really annoyed by The Island of the Day Before. It had a main plot, and a second plot that the protagonist in the main plot was writing himself. The book kept switching between the main story and the protagonist's story. I wanted to find out what was happening in the main story, because that was quite gripping, but it kept switching to the story the protagonist was writing. As I was getting to the end of the book, I realized there were not enough pages for the main plot to be resolved, and sure enough, it was left dangling. I decided to stop reading Umberto Eco after that.

[PeterL]

I have read The Name of the Rose, Focault's Pendulum and The Island of the Day Before. I liked The Name of the Rose. There were long digressions into Medieval heresies, which I found pretty interesting. It was somewhat different to the film, which I also liked. I did not like Focault's Pendulum so much, because it took an extraordinary long time for things to start happening. It was mainly two or three people from a publishing house discussing in very great depth historical secret societies. I was blown away by the intelligence of the characters, but I wanted something to happen. I was really annoyed by The Island of the Day Before. It had a main plot, and a second plot that the protagonist in the main plot was writing himself. The book kept switching between the main story and the protagonist's story. I wanted to find out what was happening in the main story, because that was quite gripping, but it kept switching to the story the protagonist was writing. As I was getting to the end of the book, I realized there were not enough pages for the main plot to be resolved, and sure enough, it was left dangling. I decided to stop reading Umberto Eco after that.

I understand what you about The Island of the Day Before. I would put it at the bottom of the list of his novels, but I think you just missed the depth of Foucault's Pendulum, but his writings in literary interpretation and semiotics are where he really stood out.

[PeterL]

A great shame - Eco was one of my favourite living novelists, as well as being a titan in my field of medievalism (amongst other things).



That's what really made him a Titan. Medievalism was just a sideline with him; I wouldn't have even thought of it as one of his fields.

[Calidore]

Witness.

Mortalterror, I think this is the shortest list I've ever seen you post. :)

[mortalterror]

Mortalterror, I think this is the shortest list I've ever seen you post. :)

I was just referencing Mad Max: Fury Road. Whenever someone was about to die in a heroic blaze of glory they'd call out for people to witness them. "I am the man who grabs the sun, RIDING TO VALHALLA! I live. I die. I live again. Witness me, Bloodbag!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4cafPOBubc