To me, the whole point is that the sort of knowledge the characters obsess over in the first 500 pages is just finite vanity. Knowledge does not bring understanding. The characters are driven mad by the human need to see patterns where patterns don't exist, to see significance and meaning in a world that Eco (through Casaubon) explicitly refers to as a "harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as if it had an underlying truth". Once he sees Belbo murdered, Casaubon has his realizations in the denoument. Faith means NOT looking for signs of God. Beauty and his son are what matters. Belbo's transcendent moment was the simple trumpet-playing moment in his youth. Wisdom lies in recognizing this, not in agglomerating facts.
Foucault's Pendulum is my favorite book ever. It's a book I read already may be 8 times because every time I read it It's different. This book have a soo much layers that you will never uncover all of them. For me book itself is biggest secret as stories inside. And you need to be in some mental state to be able to read this book. And that long start is to synchronize you with the clock of author mind.
I think you're definitely right about being in the right mindset. Instead of calling this book dense, rich might be the better term. Plenty to uncover. It was the favourite book of the person who recommended it to me as well. He's a big history nut lol. Thanks for the recommendation!
Eric I just finished FP your analysis is spot on. I am an Eco devotee so naturally I was going to love the book. You can get lost in the minutia of names and places. But I think Eco proves his point that if you want to create mythos/legend lore it's really not to difficult.
Half of the pleasure of reading this book, and Eco’s other novels, is the extra information rabbit wholes you fall into. Personal, this ‘story’ was more of an experience and an education that a ‘plot’. You really need the time and patience to find pleasure in deepening your knowledge with the historical, occult, human references. To my memory, Eco states in an interview he does not write his books with the intention of being ‘easy’ for people to follow or understand. It is a harsh motivation, but it (and his books) push you out of your intellectual comfort zone.
This is very true. By far the most difficult book I've read. To your point, he briefly mentions a scene that he describes along the lines of "befitting of Alhazen". I ended up researching Alhazen and watching a documentary about him and the scholars of the Islamic Golden Age. And that was just a small throw away line. It's an enriching novel for those willing to really invest in it. It would take me countless reads to truly appreciate it for what it is. Like an intellectual exercise whose reward is commensurate with its difficulty. For anyone historically inclined with a penchant for academia or occult, I'd point them right to this book.
Lia is awesome and the best of all of us. When she tears apart the secret is one of the few places where my attention was effectively grabbed. I just finished this book last night (7/5/2022) and I skimmed a LOT of the last hundred-ish pages. Because of how bloated the novel is, there are some really interesting and affecting emotional beats that don't get a chance to resonate: Belbo's search for courage and Diotallevi's fatal lesson. Ultimately, I think the novel is "The Secret(tm) (for Straight Boys)."
it took me literally 20 years to read it, started with somewhere in the 90's. Stopped. Started again. Stopped. Repeat that process 3 or 4 times. Then, as I got older and my sight deteriorated a bit, I bought a hardcover with larger letters , as I has a small paperback version. That helped, I finally finished it. Indeed one reads it more for the encyclopedic bombardment of facts, mystery and lore and old history . I did like Casaubon, he has the emotional distance that a good narrator has and I liked the banter between him and Belbo and Diotallevi. To be honest the deeper philosophical meanings went beyond my head, but I'm glad I finished it any way.
I completely understand where you are coming from with your analysis. I had a very similar experience the first time I read FP. At the time, it required a much greater commitment from me, as a reader, than I was able to commit. About two years later, during a vacation, I read it again and was able to commit more of my time and intellect into the read and I was able to get much more out of it and a much better reading experience.
I read Foucault's Pendulum (twice!) in 1989 - 90, so it's been a while. I really loved it back then and found the thriller aspect with the diabolicals engrossing. I remember a co-worker read it around then and said they learned a lot from the book, which I was kind of shocked by as all the connections they come up with for the Plan were invented. The Da Vinci Code was a watered down version of Foucault's Pendulum. I should give it another go.
I loved this book the second time reading as much as the first. i spent much time googling the stuff I was fuzzy on or oblivious to but that made the second read a wonderful journey. I have read all of his novels and marvel at the depth of scholarship exhibited. No, they are not for everyone but to me, each one is a masterpiece. Incidentally, the final chapter of Foucault's Pendulum was most gratifying as well as edifying with tension and his typical departure by leaving to our imaginations, the very last syllable. Bravo to those who dare and do read his works and despair Umberto's shuffling of this mortal coil. i expect to read all of his books a second and third time just to wallow in their intellectual depth and breadth of learning.
Hi Eric. I really appreciate this review. You've pretty much described it really, really well. I read the book entirely in approximately 1994. For me, it was totally awesome. I used it to journey into further research...took a fair while to read it all. It got me 'living the life'...going in to our 'State Library'...I don't read much! Many books I try to read disappoint. I do regard it as the most enjoyable thing I've ever read. Wasn't going to comment, but since you asked for input from anyone who really enjoyed the book...I'm in. Cheers from Sunny Australia.
I started listening to the audiobook recently. I read The Name of the Rose, when I was younger and I was somewhat put off by the long-winded discussions, but in the meantime I came to appreciate Eco's breadth of knowledge, his ability to pour it into a book without it losing its cohesion and indeed his verbosity, although some of the long expositions have me lose my focus. Furthermore, I am interested in conspiracy theories (not that I would believe in them afaik, but I find them a fascinating subject of study) and Eco in this book offers a view into a conspiracy mindset while also delivering something like an overview and „best-of“ of the history of conspiracy theories involving secret societies.
Read childhoods end based on a recommendation from this channel and loved it. Literally couldn’t find the channel yesterday because I forgot the name. Won’t forget again! Will watch this video later 👌🏿
So glad to hear it! It's a fun read. Honestly Foucault's Pendulum was a little tough for me. However if you enjoy sci fi, I recently read Three Body Problem and absolutely loved it. th-cam.com/video/a_Jor-OWozk/w-d-xo.html
I felt that Lia was the iron hand of realism swatting down the musings of Casaubon and friends. Though I must say she seemed kind; poor things, maybe wanted to celebrate the feast day by making themselves nice little hats of roses. She seemed fully grounded. Casaubon, on the other hand, was living dangerously between two worlds, Lia's and the Plan's. It speaks well of you that Lia is your favorite character.
Hi Eric, Thanks for doing this video. I'm always interested in hearing different interpretations of this book. The book has some subtle humor (mostly exposing some follies of blind reading, a method that was overused during the 60s and 70s in some academic literary criticism). And is filled with parodies on arguments like "no text is an island." The book as a novel may be less frustrating for casual reading if the reader also has some interest in postmodern literary theories. I think The Prague Cemetery is more of a novel one could read with less frustration.
Interesting! I was definitely missing this context before and during the read. It definitely is an academic's book given there are so many nods to these things that a casual reader would struggle with. Thanks for the perspectives and recommendation.
@@erictheread9409 Prague Cemetery is certainly thematically similar, but an easier read and more narrative-y (but also more serious in tone and less humorous). Like a lot of Eco's books it is best understood if you have some historical, cultural and philosophical background knowledge of what Eco is covering (his books can be considered interpretations or statements about these ideas).
6 Minutes into this and I’m already snoring. As Belbo would say: Ma gavte la nata!. You gotta read it again and find the charm you erased from it.
2 ปีที่แล้ว +1
I read this book for the first time years ago, and it had taken me 6 months to finish. Fast-forward to this year, I've read it 4 times and I'm reading it for the fifth time this year. It intimidated me the first time I read it, but few days after I had finished it, I kept thinking about the characters and I wanted to re-visit them again. One thing I noticed after my third read was that the first part is like a disorienting summary of the whole book and it was then when I "understood" that part better. This novel revolves around so many things, namely and not limited to: philosophy, history, esoteric doctrines, alchemy, kabbalah... It is not a light read because of all the references sprinkled here and there, but since it's a character driven narrative, it makes it exciting (to some extent).
I'm really glad to hear this. There is so much to this book (in a good way). It might have been a slight case of right book at the wrong time for me, because I do enjoy dense reads given the mood. I think now that I've digested it, I can return to it another time with better appreciation for what it does, not to mention some more familiarity with the myriad historical references that left me out of my depth. Thank you for sharing your experience! I look forward to revisiting this one day.
2 ปีที่แล้ว +1
@@erictheread9409 also, it's like revisiting a bunch of characters you already know. Like, you know them from the first read but you weren't paying attention to everything they were saying, and your second (third or more) is you actually listening and digesting the topics discussed since pretty much the core elements of the narrative are familiar now... I don't know how much sense this makes, but it was insightful in my mind 😅 Anyway, hope you'll enjoy reading this gem the second time around-I recommend reading it in winter!
Infinite Jest is the only book I really loved but couldn’t finish - I made it about a quarter through and was exhausted. Really felt like your Jazz comparison - it was a great ride but so dense I needed a break after reading it. Compared to that, Foucaults Pendulum is pretty straightforward, there’s enough humor to break up any dry bits, and he tries to tell history in a relatable way, to various levels of success (love the characterization of kinghts Templar told over whiskeys near the beginning for example) Surprised that you put War and Peace in that list of “big book flexes” - well it’s long and not much happens in the foreground but the characters are just so well fleshed out that the book feels really alive, found it easier than FP - though I enjoy characters more than plots so I may not be the typical reader
This makes a ton of sense as a character driven reader. I think people struggle with War and Peace because they are looking for a plot that isn't quite there. That was, admittedly, my own fault with reading FP. It is a remarkable book but I was anticipating something different and fitting a square peg into a round hole. I also haven't read War and Peace. When I delve into Tolstoy I suspect it will be with Anna Karenina. Infinite Jest has been mocking me from my bookshelf for years. I have read quite a bit of DFWs short fiction and non-fiction and love it. IF seems like a different animal. Once I'm finished House of Leaves, either Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow will be my next big PoMo read (if I have the endurance for it!).
It's not on my radar just yet. I absolutely loved Blood Meridian and really liked Child of God. I don't know where I'll go next with McCarthy but I'll keep The Road in mind.
I listened to the audiobook and I admit there were times I was zoning out but overall I loved it. I’d been researching secret societies and the occult for a while and I very much appreciated Echo’s kind of birds-eye perspective on it all, as well as the often snarky attitude towards it all that bleeds through the pages. (All while being very accurate and in a way respectful of the history and concepts). I mean a lot of the stuff they talk about is really weird and out there (like the whole section on alchemy) and i enjoyed the characters’ musings on it all.. but it’s all up my alley and yeah the climax was crazy but it worked for me. It’s an accurate portrayal of the madness and chaos that can result in messing around too deeply in conspiracy theories and the occult
I consider this maybe my favorite book. When I read it... about 20 years ago now (so it might need a rereading at some point), I read it when I really had a lot of time on my hands in a place where I didn't know the local language and just decided to run down all those rabbit holes. I was a lot of fun learning about all the various groups mentioned in the book and enjoyed the story. I can see as I type this that my grasp of explaining why I love the book so much is similar to when I describe my favorite wine, I like it... taste good and I'm never picking out notes of oak or whatever... I just enjoyed it. I can tell you why I did love other books though.. like The Count of Monte Cristo or the Idiot... but, maybe its just because this was so long ago.. I just remember I loved it. I just said a lot of nothing maybe.
I've read it twice now, and on both reads, I found the ending to be so good that it redeemed the entire book. The idea it talks about of their being a vacuum is my jumping off point. It feels to me as if each of the three characters have a yearning to find meaning, particularly Belbo. He's a failed writer and turns to Abulafia to fill that need, writing self-indulgent diatribes and making up stories. The stories we get of his past, particularly the trumpet scene, really make us see where that feeling of malaise comes from for Belbo, and I feel like he got closure on that at the end. I won't say any more for fear of plot spoilers. Diotallevi does seem rather superfluous throughout. He's just a foil for Belbo and Casaubon to bounce ideas off. There were large chunks of the novel where I zoned out and I even found myself skipping pages where I could see big info dumps that didn't move the plot along at all. I'm not quite learned enough to get what most of it was referring to, and I'm actually in the masonic order of Knights Templar myself, as well as being quite advanced in some other masonic degrees. I was going to like your video, but I saw it had 333 likes and thought I'd better not!
Great review. I’m currently reading and enjoying the rabbit holes it seems to go down, but I am finding it difficult to follow the narrative, it requires careful reading to pick out important plot points from the other (interesting) tidbits. I’m also working my way through Ulysses and have noticed a few similar references in Foucault’s Pendulum. I will go on.
Vous etes fou. Such a simple line, but wraps the plot so well. Also contains my favorite passage ever written, about the moron, the fool, the creton, and the lunatic. And crowd psychology in the Sahara 😂😂 guy is funny as well as thorough.
Not having read that book and just having heard from the commentator "Eric the Read", I can say that I truly enjoyed that review of it. I have read previously a collection of conferences by Eco (1977-198x) and enjoyed them, as much as I could understand them... Admittedly Eco's encyclopedic knowledge is overwhelming to me but challenging, which is a good thing!.
Strange that nobody mentions The Illuminatus Trilogy by Wilson and Shea, a satirical take on conspiracy theories, also includes a detective, a computer etc, clearly elements that Eco used for fhis book, which is also a satire.
To anyone that appreciates such a book but would also appreciate a more literary book which has a more beautiful plot I would highly recommend ‘The discovery of heaven’ by Harry mulisch. It is quite simple but beautiful and an absolute experience to read through.
Oookay I must say, War and peace, with all the French fragments (how is it translated for you guys, is the half of the book also in French? Because the original is), was definitely easier to read. I couldn’t finish Eco for around NINE months. War and peace was maybe around a months on summer vacation, and it was a completely different kind of “hard”, was hard to follow the storyline, but not Brain-burning hard 😂 my point is: Tolstoi is not a bookshelf flex!
That's really interesting, I've never heard feedback regarding the audiobook. When I looked it up, I was surprised to see it narrated by Curry but when I checked how long it was I knew that there was no way it was the full length of the book. They must have omitted a lot. What did they keep out? Did it affect the story? I imagine that a lot of the intricate details and discussions that readers loved about this might be left out in the audio version.
@@erictheread9409 Oops I should have mentioned that the audiobook is like a Reader Digest version. I still enjoyed it even though book is obviously a lot better. I wish I could find an unedited audio version of the entire book. I guess it just doesn’t have the fan base to justify cost. Eco also wrote an essay on Fascism. Fascinating read. He lived thru the Mussolini years. Btw good luck getting thru Infinite Jest. Now that one does have a full length audiobook. It’s like 56 hours. A book suggestion for you is Shadow of the Wind.
I love the Tim Curry narrated abridged version. It is basically the plotline of the book with the basics of the philosophies, but it works great. Tim really reads it with humour and subtelies with hos grandiose voice. Really does put a soul into Belbo, Lia, Aglie and all the others. Its a true gem on audible U.S. that I would recommend to everyone. It listens like a movie.
Please don’t spend too much time looking up references and connections when you read this book for the first time! The point isn’t to get all the references and understand everything the first time. The point is to overwhelm you with loosely connected erudition to the point where you become like the characters and start to see connections where there aren’t any. It’s designed to make you paranoid about conspiracies, so the ending completely destroys you. It’s actually a better read the second time, with Lia’s explanation at the back of your mind.
Foucault's is a book that will challenge the reader. Don't read it unless you want your mind to grow, either in knowledge of history - specifically obscure European schools of mysticism (which I found incredibly fascinating) or as a six hundred page meditation on the dialectic between knowledge and belief to create 'meaning' - the ancient distinction first voiced by Plato that is the foundation for all western thought. Between the two lies the realm that humans call 'Magic' and it permeates every culture, for magic exists as a byproduct of human consciousness itself as a means to justify one's own place in the world so full of infinite questions. Eric is right, this book is DENSE, and at times it feels like Eco is crushing the reader beneath such multitudes of knowledge, but that is the point. The characters are playing genius games and attempting to recontextualize all human history according to a hidden Plan. But what happens if the Plan if real? What does it even mean for something to be Real?
A year ago, after discouraging a friend from tarot, I was asked to argue my point in writing, which I did, in what snowballed into 200 pages of wading through 19th century occultism, various mesmerisms, rosicrucianism, numerology, angelology, and assorted kabbalisms and various precursors all the way back to the bronze age. So it was flattering to get the references in the book, although I f*cking hated the subject. But I think it is a bad book as far as books go. First of all, most people who are justifiably unwilling to study so much nonsense, will not get most of the references, and the show of erudition may even strike one as vanity. Secondly, it is a -very- slow book that will keep its payoff until several hundred pages into it. Then there are the characters, who feel more like paper-thin plot devices than real people, especially the women. The dialogues are so forced that if actual people talked like that in public someone would be tempted to slap them. And a lot of dialogues and jokes are so specific to Italian language and (broadly left-wing post-68) culture that they translate very poorly for foreigners. I do appreciate Eco's intention in writing this and it certainly wasn't an easy book to write. I just think it's not a good book to read, either.
I adored this book. For me it is conspiracy theory sina qua non and the point was they made a conspiracy theory so good that THEY bought it. Conspiracy theorists may be mad, bad or jokesters but they all end up crazy
This was a great read, but if you feel unsatisfied with the ending then the jokes on you. You kind of missed the point of the book. You wont get a satisfactory ending, because its a "mystery box" story like lost but intentional. I give you credit for not giving up the secret though.
300 pages too much. Interesting topics, but Causabon is a stiff protagonist. Belbo’s supposed to be the protagonist but he gets into dire straits, and then the rest of the book you are waiting for the moment the book begins to happen so the book can proceed, haha. The Templar history list is very cool that they make when re-establishing history, but I agree with your assessment that there is no plot. The rest is filler.
Easily one of my top ten favorite books. My understanding of it was that Belbo & Co.'s cynicism (among other things) led them to create 'the Plan', which in turn affected people who were so much slaves to tradition that they blindly believed it no matter how illogical aspects of it were. And I think while the ending may not be to everyone's satisfaction, I drew two conclusions from it: no one gets answers to all their questions, and the issues don't always get resolved.
Don't forget that Eco, apart from being a philosopher and dealing with semiotics, was also an extremely knowledgeable medievalist and for me the way he juggles all those pieces of information from real source materials to make up this patchwork of ideas and clues is in itself quite entertaining - also because it is all done with generous amount of humor, wit and irony which makes me think that the author must have had great time while composing the novel. I first read this book long time ago, when I was about 17 y.o. and that wasn't probably the best idea. Now, at almost 40, I just started again. I'm over 200 pages into the book and will report back when finished.
A friend of mine is a history major and absolutely loved this book. When discussing it with him, we realized my weakness is historical context/reference was a big component to the difficulty in tackling this book. Please let me know how the reread goes as someone in the comments mentioned their experience rereading it was a drastic improvement from their first time through. I'm sure the same will go for me when I eventually revisit it down the road.
Humans have not changed much. We have imagination and like creating narratives that give a purpose to our lives. In short, if we found a book from 3,000 years ago talking of aliens or robots, it doesn't mean people then had contact with aliens or made robots. It only means they also had science fiction. By the way, the oldest robot in myth are the mechanical crafting tables created by Hepahestus in ancient Greek myth, able to follow the craftsman around carrying his tools, like sentient beings. The story is well over 3,000 years old.
To me, the whole point is that the sort of knowledge the characters obsess over in the first 500 pages is just finite vanity. Knowledge does not bring understanding. The characters are driven mad by the human need to see patterns where patterns don't exist, to see significance and meaning in a world that Eco (through Casaubon) explicitly refers to as a "harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as if it had an underlying truth".
Once he sees Belbo murdered, Casaubon has his realizations in the denoument. Faith means NOT looking for signs of God. Beauty and his son are what matters. Belbo's transcendent moment was the simple trumpet-playing moment in his youth. Wisdom lies in recognizing this, not in agglomerating facts.
“ knowledge does not bring understanding” thanks so much for that.
Foucault's Pendulum is my favorite book ever. It's a book I read already may be 8 times because every time I read it It's different. This book have a soo much layers that you will never uncover all of them. For me book itself is biggest secret as stories inside. And you need to be in some mental state to be able to read this book. And that long start is to synchronize you with the clock of author mind.
I also suggest you to read the book from Patrice Chaplin "City of Secrets" there is connection and you will understand "Foucault's Pendulum" more ;)
I think you're definitely right about being in the right mindset. Instead of calling this book dense, rich might be the better term. Plenty to uncover. It was the favourite book of the person who recommended it to me as well. He's a big history nut lol. Thanks for the recommendation!
Best book ever! When I first read it there was no google...😂
Eric I just finished FP your analysis is spot on. I am an Eco devotee so naturally I was going to love the book. You can get lost in the minutia of names and places. But I think Eco proves his point that if you want to create mythos/legend lore it's really not to difficult.
Half of the pleasure of reading this book, and Eco’s other novels, is the extra information rabbit wholes you fall into. Personal, this ‘story’ was more of an experience and an education that a ‘plot’. You really need the time and patience to find pleasure in deepening your knowledge with the historical, occult, human references. To my memory, Eco states in an interview he does not write his books with the intention of being ‘easy’ for people to follow or understand. It is a harsh motivation, but it (and his books) push you out of your intellectual comfort zone.
This is very true. By far the most difficult book I've read. To your point, he briefly mentions a scene that he describes along the lines of "befitting of Alhazen". I ended up researching Alhazen and watching a documentary about him and the scholars of the Islamic Golden Age. And that was just a small throw away line. It's an enriching novel for those willing to really invest in it. It would take me countless reads to truly appreciate it for what it is. Like an intellectual exercise whose reward is commensurate with its difficulty. For anyone historically inclined with a penchant for academia or occult, I'd point them right to this book.
Have you read the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson?
It’s structured a bit like Foucaults pendulum.
Lia is awesome and the best of all of us. When she tears apart the secret is one of the few places where my attention was effectively grabbed. I just finished this book last night (7/5/2022) and I skimmed a LOT of the last hundred-ish pages. Because of how bloated the novel is, there are some really interesting and affecting emotional beats that don't get a chance to resonate: Belbo's search for courage and Diotallevi's fatal lesson. Ultimately, I think the novel is "The Secret(tm) (for Straight Boys)."
it took me literally 20 years to read it, started with somewhere in the 90's. Stopped. Started again. Stopped. Repeat that process 3 or 4 times. Then, as I got older and my sight deteriorated a bit, I bought a hardcover with larger letters , as I has a small paperback version. That helped, I finally finished it. Indeed one reads it more for the encyclopedic bombardment of facts, mystery and lore and old history . I did like Casaubon, he has the emotional distance that a good narrator has and I liked the banter between him and Belbo and Diotallevi. To be honest the deeper philosophical meanings went beyond my head, but I'm glad I finished it any way.
I have just found (as weird as it sounds) humour in reading the parts I did not understand a lot.
I completely understand where you are coming from with your analysis. I had a very similar experience the first time I read FP. At the time, it required a much greater commitment from me, as a reader, than I was able to commit. About two years later, during a vacation, I read it again and was able to commit more of my time and intellect into the read and I was able to get much more out of it and a much better reading experience.
I read Foucault's Pendulum (twice!) in 1989 - 90, so it's been a while. I really loved it back then and found the thriller aspect with the diabolicals engrossing. I remember a co-worker read it around then and said they learned a lot from the book, which I was kind of shocked by as all the connections they come up with for the Plan were invented. The Da Vinci Code was a watered down version of Foucault's Pendulum. I should give it another go.
Da Vinci Code is actually a rip off of Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent et al. Eco did one better than Dan Brown in making a parody.
I loved this book the second time reading as much as the first. i spent much time googling the stuff I was fuzzy on or oblivious to but that made the second read a wonderful journey. I have read all of his novels and marvel at the depth of scholarship exhibited. No, they are not for everyone but to me, each one is a masterpiece. Incidentally, the final chapter of Foucault's Pendulum was most gratifying as well as edifying with tension and his typical departure by leaving to our imaginations, the very last syllable. Bravo to those who dare and do read his works and despair Umberto's shuffling of this mortal coil. i expect to read all of his books a second and third time just to wallow in their intellectual depth and breadth of learning.
Hi Eric. I really appreciate this review. You've pretty much described it really, really well. I read the book entirely in approximately 1994. For me, it was totally awesome. I used it to journey into further research...took a fair while to read it all. It got me 'living the life'...going in to our 'State Library'...I don't read much! Many books I try to read disappoint. I do regard it as the most enjoyable thing I've ever read. Wasn't going to comment, but since you asked for input from anyone who really enjoyed the book...I'm in. Cheers from Sunny Australia.
I started listening to the audiobook recently. I read The Name of the Rose, when I was younger and I was somewhat put off by the long-winded discussions, but in the meantime I came to appreciate Eco's breadth of knowledge, his ability to pour it into a book without it losing its cohesion and indeed his verbosity, although some of the long expositions have me lose my focus. Furthermore, I am interested in conspiracy theories (not that I would believe in them afaik, but I find them a fascinating subject of study) and Eco in this book offers a view into a conspiracy mindset while also delivering something like an overview and „best-of“ of the history of conspiracy theories involving secret societies.
Read childhoods end based on a recommendation from this channel and loved it. Literally couldn’t find the channel yesterday because I forgot the name. Won’t forget again! Will watch this video later 👌🏿
So glad to hear it! It's a fun read. Honestly Foucault's Pendulum was a little tough for me. However if you enjoy sci fi, I recently read Three Body Problem and absolutely loved it.
th-cam.com/video/a_Jor-OWozk/w-d-xo.html
I felt that Lia was the iron hand of realism swatting down the musings of Casaubon and friends. Though I must say she seemed kind; poor things, maybe wanted to celebrate the feast day by making themselves nice little hats of roses. She seemed fully grounded. Casaubon, on the other hand, was living dangerously between two worlds, Lia's and the Plan's.
It speaks well of you that Lia is your favorite character.
I keep reading this book over and over again over the years.
It never bores me and I always doscover something new.
I’ve had this book on my shelf for over 13 years and I still haven’t finished it lol
I find several parallels between Foucault's Pendulum and Moby Dick to much to explain in a few lines.
I’d love to hear it
What camera, setting and post-processing did you do for this video?
Hi Eric,
Thanks for doing this video. I'm always interested in hearing different interpretations of this book.
The book has some subtle humor (mostly exposing some follies of blind reading, a method that was overused during the 60s and 70s in some academic literary criticism). And is filled with parodies on arguments like "no text is an island."
The book as a novel may be less frustrating for casual reading if the reader also has some interest in postmodern literary theories.
I think The Prague Cemetery is more of a novel one could read with less frustration.
Interesting! I was definitely missing this context before and during the read. It definitely is an academic's book given there are so many nods to these things that a casual reader would struggle with. Thanks for the perspectives and recommendation.
@@erictheread9409 Prague Cemetery is certainly thematically similar, but an easier read and more narrative-y (but also more serious in tone and less humorous). Like a lot of Eco's books it is best understood if you have some historical, cultural and philosophical background knowledge of what Eco is covering (his books can be considered interpretations or statements about these ideas).
6 Minutes into this and I’m already snoring. As Belbo would say: Ma gavte la nata!. You gotta read it again and find the charm you erased from it.
I read this book for the first time years ago, and it had taken me 6 months to finish. Fast-forward to this year, I've read it 4 times and I'm reading it for the fifth time this year. It intimidated me the first time I read it, but few days after I had finished it, I kept thinking about the characters and I wanted to re-visit them again. One thing I noticed after my third read was that the first part is like a disorienting summary of the whole book and it was then when I "understood" that part better. This novel revolves around so many things, namely and not limited to: philosophy, history, esoteric doctrines, alchemy, kabbalah... It is not a light read because of all the references sprinkled here and there, but since it's a character driven narrative, it makes it exciting (to some extent).
I'm really glad to hear this. There is so much to this book (in a good way). It might have been a slight case of right book at the wrong time for me, because I do enjoy dense reads given the mood. I think now that I've digested it, I can return to it another time with better appreciation for what it does, not to mention some more familiarity with the myriad historical references that left me out of my depth. Thank you for sharing your experience! I look forward to revisiting this one day.
@@erictheread9409 also, it's like revisiting a bunch of characters you already know. Like, you know them from the first read but you weren't paying attention to everything they were saying, and your second (third or more) is you actually listening and digesting the topics discussed since pretty much the core elements of the narrative are familiar now... I don't know how much sense this makes, but it was insightful in my mind 😅 Anyway, hope you'll enjoy reading this gem the second time around-I recommend reading it in winter!
Infinite Jest is the only book I really loved but couldn’t finish - I made it about a quarter through and was exhausted. Really felt like your Jazz comparison - it was a great ride but so dense I needed a break after reading it. Compared to that, Foucaults Pendulum is pretty straightforward, there’s enough humor to break up any dry bits, and he tries to tell history in a relatable way, to various levels of success (love the characterization of kinghts Templar told over whiskeys near the beginning for example) Surprised that you put War and Peace in that list of “big book flexes” - well it’s long and not much happens in the foreground but the characters are just so well fleshed out that the book feels really alive, found it easier than FP - though I enjoy characters more than plots so I may not be the typical reader
This makes a ton of sense as a character driven reader. I think people struggle with War and Peace because they are looking for a plot that isn't quite there. That was, admittedly, my own fault with reading FP. It is a remarkable book but I was anticipating something different and fitting a square peg into a round hole. I also haven't read War and Peace. When I delve into Tolstoy I suspect it will be with Anna Karenina.
Infinite Jest has been mocking me from my bookshelf for years. I have read quite a bit of DFWs short fiction and non-fiction and love it. IF seems like a different animal. Once I'm finished House of Leaves, either Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow will be my next big PoMo read (if I have the endurance for it!).
I am a retired technical writer. Do you think I would like this book?
Have you ever considered reviewing Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" ?
It's not on my radar just yet. I absolutely loved Blood Meridian and really liked Child of God. I don't know where I'll go next with McCarthy but I'll keep The Road in mind.
@@erictheread9409 it’s a quick read with an incredible dystopian mood
I also suggest Guy G. Kay's "Tigana".
I listened to the audiobook and I admit there were times I was zoning out but overall I loved it. I’d been researching secret societies and the occult for a while and I very much appreciated Echo’s kind of birds-eye perspective on it all, as well as the often snarky attitude towards it all that bleeds through the pages. (All while being very accurate and in a way respectful of the history and concepts). I mean a lot of the stuff they talk about is really weird and out there (like the whole section on alchemy) and i enjoyed the characters’ musings on it all.. but it’s all up my alley and yeah the climax was crazy but it worked for me. It’s an accurate portrayal of the madness and chaos that can result in messing around too deeply in conspiracy theories and the occult
I consider this maybe my favorite book. When I read it... about 20 years ago now (so it might need a rereading at some point), I read it when I really had a lot of time on my hands in a place where I didn't know the local language and just decided to run down all those rabbit holes. I was a lot of fun learning about all the various groups mentioned in the book and enjoyed the story. I can see as I type this that my grasp of explaining why I love the book so much is similar to when I describe my favorite wine, I like it... taste good and I'm never picking out notes of oak or whatever... I just enjoyed it. I can tell you why I did love other books though.. like The Count of Monte Cristo or the Idiot... but, maybe its just because this was so long ago.. I just remember I loved it. I just said a lot of nothing maybe.
I've read it twice now, and on both reads, I found the ending to be so good that it redeemed the entire book. The idea it talks about of their being a vacuum is my jumping off point. It feels to me as if each of the three characters have a yearning to find meaning, particularly Belbo. He's a failed writer and turns to Abulafia to fill that need, writing self-indulgent diatribes and making up stories. The stories we get of his past, particularly the trumpet scene, really make us see where that feeling of malaise comes from for Belbo, and I feel like he got closure on that at the end. I won't say any more for fear of plot spoilers. Diotallevi does seem rather superfluous throughout. He's just a foil for Belbo and Casaubon to bounce ideas off. There were large chunks of the novel where I zoned out and I even found myself skipping pages where I could see big info dumps that didn't move the plot along at all. I'm not quite learned enough to get what most of it was referring to, and I'm actually in the masonic order of Knights Templar myself, as well as being quite advanced in some other masonic degrees.
I was going to like your video, but I saw it had 333 likes and thought I'd better not!
Great review. I’m currently reading and enjoying the rabbit holes it seems to go down, but I am finding it difficult to follow the narrative, it requires careful reading to pick out important plot points from the other (interesting) tidbits. I’m also working my way through Ulysses and have noticed a few similar references in Foucault’s Pendulum. I will go on.
I was making a reference over it, picked it up, and fell in love with it once again. Born again, the book and I..
Vous etes fou. Such a simple line, but wraps the plot so well.
Also contains my favorite passage ever written, about the moron, the fool, the creton, and the lunatic.
And crowd psychology in the Sahara 😂😂 guy is funny as well as thorough.
Not having read that book and just having heard from the commentator "Eric the Read", I can say that I truly enjoyed that review of it. I have read previously a collection of conferences by Eco (1977-198x) and enjoyed them, as much as I could understand them... Admittedly Eco's encyclopedic knowledge is overwhelming to me but challenging, which is a good thing!.
Strange that nobody mentions The Illuminatus Trilogy by Wilson and Shea, a satirical take on conspiracy theories, also includes a detective, a computer etc, clearly elements that Eco used for fhis book, which is also a satire.
Dude! You look exactly like a young Marlon Brando! :-) Thanks for the analysis, it really helped me go for reading the book.
To anyone that appreciates such a book but would also appreciate a more literary book which has a more beautiful plot I would highly recommend ‘The discovery of heaven’ by Harry mulisch. It is quite simple but beautiful and an absolute experience to read through.
Concise analysis
Because I've never read a book, I've never read this book - however, about 2 years ago a part of the plot of FP manifested in my life
What part..?
cool!
Oookay I must say, War and peace, with all the French fragments (how is it translated for you guys, is the half of the book also in French? Because the original is), was definitely easier to read. I couldn’t finish Eco for around NINE months.
War and peace was maybe around a months on summer vacation, and it was a completely different kind of “hard”, was hard to follow the storyline, but not Brain-burning hard 😂 my point is: Tolstoi is not a bookshelf flex!
I enjoyed the book but told myself I will read it again when I had time to Google the references in every other paragraph.
It’s my favorite book. Have read it multiple times. Audiobook is good too. Narrated by Tim Curry.
That's really interesting, I've never heard feedback regarding the audiobook. When I looked it up, I was surprised to see it narrated by Curry but when I checked how long it was I knew that there was no way it was the full length of the book. They must have omitted a lot. What did they keep out? Did it affect the story? I imagine that a lot of the intricate details and discussions that readers loved about this might be left out in the audio version.
@@erictheread9409 Oops I should have mentioned that the audiobook is like a Reader Digest version. I still enjoyed it even though book is obviously a lot better. I wish I could find an unedited audio version of the entire book. I guess it just doesn’t have the fan base to justify cost. Eco also wrote an essay on Fascism. Fascinating read. He lived thru the Mussolini years. Btw good luck getting thru Infinite Jest. Now that one does have a full length audiobook. It’s like 56 hours. A book suggestion for you is Shadow of the Wind.
I love the Tim Curry narrated abridged version. It is basically the plotline of the book with the basics of the philosophies, but it works great.
Tim really reads it with humour and subtelies with hos grandiose voice.
Really does put a soul into Belbo, Lia, Aglie and all the others.
Its a true gem on audible U.S. that I would recommend to everyone.
It listens like a movie.
The book is fantastic due to references and connections between minds
Please don’t spend too much time looking up references and connections when you read this book for the first time!
The point isn’t to get all the references and understand everything the first time. The point is to overwhelm you with loosely connected erudition to the point where you become like the characters and start to see connections where there aren’t any. It’s designed to make you paranoid about conspiracies, so the ending completely destroys you.
It’s actually a better read the second time, with Lia’s explanation at the back of your mind.
I’m about to delve in.. wish me luck 😂
Sounds very interesting. Thank you man.
Foucault's is a book that will challenge the reader. Don't read it unless you want your mind to grow, either in knowledge of history - specifically obscure European schools of mysticism (which I found incredibly fascinating) or as a six hundred page meditation on the dialectic between knowledge and belief to create 'meaning' - the ancient distinction first voiced by Plato that is the foundation for all western thought. Between the two lies the realm that humans call 'Magic' and it permeates every culture, for magic exists as a byproduct of human consciousness itself as a means to justify one's own place in the world so full of infinite questions. Eric is right, this book is DENSE, and at times it feels like Eco is crushing the reader beneath such multitudes of knowledge, but that is the point. The characters are playing genius games and attempting to recontextualize all human history according to a hidden Plan. But what happens if the Plan if real? What does it even mean for something to be Real?
My lesson from this book is to be more careful about sacred knowledge.
My favorite book.
A year ago, after discouraging a friend from tarot, I was asked to argue my point in writing, which I did, in what snowballed into 200 pages of wading through 19th century occultism, various mesmerisms, rosicrucianism, numerology, angelology, and assorted kabbalisms and various precursors all the way back to the bronze age.
So it was flattering to get the references in the book, although I f*cking hated the subject. But I think it is a bad book as far as books go. First of all, most people who are justifiably unwilling to study so much nonsense, will not get most of the references, and the show of erudition may even strike one as vanity. Secondly, it is a -very- slow book that will keep its payoff until several hundred pages into it. Then there are the characters, who feel more like paper-thin plot devices than real people, especially the women.
The dialogues are so forced that if actual people talked like that in public someone would be tempted to slap them. And a lot of dialogues and jokes are so specific to Italian language and (broadly left-wing post-68) culture that they translate very poorly for foreigners.
I do appreciate Eco's intention in writing this and it certainly wasn't an easy book to write. I just think it's not a good book to read, either.
I adored this book. For me it is conspiracy theory sina qua non and the point was they made a conspiracy theory so good that THEY bought it. Conspiracy theorists may be mad, bad or jokesters but they all end up crazy
This was a great read, but if you feel unsatisfied with the ending then the jokes on you. You kind of missed the point of the book. You wont get a satisfactory ending, because its a "mystery box" story like lost but intentional. I give you credit for not giving up the secret though.
300 pages too much. Interesting topics, but Causabon is a stiff protagonist. Belbo’s supposed to be the protagonist but he gets into dire straits, and then the rest of the book you are waiting for the moment the book begins to happen so the book can proceed, haha.
The Templar history list is very cool that they make when re-establishing history, but I agree with your assessment that there is no plot. The rest is filler.
Easily one of my top ten favorite books. My understanding of it was that Belbo & Co.'s cynicism (among other things) led them to create 'the Plan', which in turn affected people who were so much slaves to tradition that they blindly believed it no matter how illogical aspects of it were. And I think while the ending may not be to everyone's satisfaction, I drew two conclusions from it: no one gets answers to all their questions, and the issues don't always get resolved.
'The Plan' is basically one big self-fulfilling prophecy indeed.
What a depressing book this was. Left me with a really sour taste.
Don't forget that Eco, apart from being a philosopher and dealing with semiotics, was also an extremely knowledgeable medievalist and for me the way he juggles all those pieces of information from real source materials to make up this patchwork of ideas and clues is in itself quite entertaining - also because it is all done with generous amount of humor, wit and irony which makes me think that the author must have had great time while composing the novel.
I first read this book long time ago, when I was about 17 y.o. and that wasn't probably the best idea. Now, at almost 40, I just started again. I'm over 200 pages into the book and will report back when finished.
A friend of mine is a history major and absolutely loved this book. When discussing it with him, we realized my weakness is historical context/reference was a big component to the difficulty in tackling this book. Please let me know how the reread goes as someone in the comments mentioned their experience rereading it was a drastic improvement from their first time through. I'm sure the same will go for me when I eventually revisit it down the road.
@@erictheread9409 I will.
Thank you for taking your time to answer.
Humans have not changed much. We have imagination and like creating narratives that give a purpose to our lives.
In short, if we found a book from 3,000 years ago talking of aliens or robots, it doesn't mean people then had contact with aliens or made robots. It only means they also had science fiction.
By the way, the oldest robot in myth are the mechanical crafting tables created by Hepahestus in ancient Greek myth, able to follow the craftsman around carrying his tools, like sentient beings. The story is well over 3,000 years old.
Wanna see something????
The book was trash