Anyone read Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco?

[JBook]

I picked it up at a book-sale for a quarter, and I want to know if it's worth reading. I read a few pages and it seems like very dense prose. Additionally there are quotes in Hebrew, Latin, German, French, and Spanish that seem to have no translation in the book. Anyone know why this is?

Cheers,
-Jonathan.

 

[Stewart]

Because they don't need translation and you can enjoy the book without them.

Anyway, hee's the Hebrew passge from the start:

"When the Light of the Endless was drawn in the form of a straight line in the Void... it was not drawn and extended immediately downwards, indeed it extended slowly -- that is to say, at first the Line of Light began to extend and at the very start of its extension in the secret of the Line it was drawn and shaped into a wheel, perfectly circular all around.

You'll notice that if you look at the titles of the 120 chapters (not a coincidence) the first line is typically translated.

 

[Stewart]

And yes, it is definitely worth reading but you may be forced to give up at the start due to the hard science but it eventually opens up (like its author) and picks up pace. If you don't understand a reference then just ignore it; don't try to look it up.

 

[funes]

I very much agree. I read Foucault's Pendulum some years ago, and quite enjoyed it. Plus, I really liked the idea of the "cultural detective".
At any rate, I didn't try to track down any of the references or translate any of the foreign phrases. That way lies madness and ruin. Once you've read through it, you can decide how much research you want to put into it.

 

[mr_michel]

from umberto ecco i have only read "how to write a thesis" and didnt like i, although is quite useful

im starting name of the rose and later ill try folcaults

 

[Ainulindale]

I have seen a lot of questions about Ecco lately on various baords and that's a good thing. a GREAT author, and Focaults Pendulums is a GREAT novel. It's basically Dan Brown's Davinci Code only written by a quality author, not formualic or linear, and is giften with something much more than sophmoric, made for TV, like prose Brown uses.

 

[novella]

Foucault's Pendulum is intentionally very esoteric, so if you like that sort of thing . . . personally, I think Eco is jerking a lot of people off with the book (excuse my Italian). He is perfectly capable of writing an interesting straightforward novel with complex historic references (The Name of the Rose), but chose to write something with obscured obscurities. It's overwrought and cerebral and is a chore to read. But you might like it!

 

[Ell]

I enjoyed the complexity of it, but it was tough going, at times. All the foreign phrases drove me crazy. I have some knowledge of Latin and French, but I kept thinking I was missing all sorts of in-jokes because I couldn't decipher the rest. I have Name of the Rose on my shelf and keep putting it off because I'm not in the mood for another tough slog.

 

[funes]

Foucault's Pendulum is intentionally very esoteric, so if you like that sort of thing . . . personally, I think Eco is jerking a lot of people off with the book (excuse my Italian).

You are on to something there, Novella. I took that aspect of the novel to be a sort of trick that Eco was playing on his readership, and something of an homage to Borges. The big difference is that Borges' wonderful interweavings of "fantasy" and "reality" rarely were more than a few pages long. Trying to maintain that sort of trickery over the course of 400 or 500 pages is, more than likely, make the author seem like a smarmy ass at times.
However, as I said, I think that the complexity of the novel can be read as a trick Eco is playing on his readers.

 

[sexynbrains2]

Re. Pendulum

I read The Name of the Rose and thoroughly enjoyed it. (The movie is very good also.) However, I began to read Pendulum and thought it was pretentious, verbose and pedantic. The writing just didn't fit the genre.

 

[grav8e]

Personally, I loved it...and it got me interested in all of Eco's novels. Baudolino was disappointing, however..

And...if you go for bizarre or esoteric mysteries where there is not necessarily a comforting resolution, you may be interested in Thomas Pynchon (V., Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Mason & Dixon). Those are all mysteries that focus more on the journey than the destination...and they're all mind trips to boot..

 

[StillILearn]

I have tried to read "Baudolino" three times now, and couldn't get into it. Maybe I will try "The Name of the Rose".

 

[Stewart]

What is it about Baudolino that you find difficult to get into?

 

[Dogtanian]

I picked it up at a book-sale for a quarter, and I want to know if it's worth reading. I read a few pages and it seems like very dense prose. Additionally there are quotes in Hebrew, Latin, German, French, and Spanish that seem to have no translation in the book. Anyone know why this is?

Cheers,
-Jonathan.

I've got the book sitting unread at the minute. Bought it after someone recommended it after I told them I had enjoyed The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I'll get around to it at some point but got a bit of a backlog at the minute.....plus another 5 books on their way from Amazon as we speak!

 

[grav8e]

What is it about Baudolino that you find difficult to get into?

Honestly, if I can't enjoy any part of the first 30-50 pages of a book...why should I continue? I never got all the way through it primarily because I was never "sucked in" like I have been with Eco's other novels. I'm not sure if it was the language used or the story itself which annoyed me the most, but it did nothing for me. It's rare that I give up on a book that I've started, so this stands out...particularly because it was written by an author I admire. I say this also about Pynchon for Vineland...there are others I can't think of immediately, but those stand out because of my normal admiration for those authors.