Monday, February 22, 2016

Eco and Foucault

LARRY HURTADO: Umberto Eco: RIP.
It has nothing to do with the ordinary focus of this blog site, but news today of the death of Umberto Eco makes me want to post briefly about how much I enjoyed his novel, Foucault’s Pendulum. It’s by turns funny, thrilling, demanding intellectually, and always creative in characters and plot. I know he achieved fame for The Name of the Rose, but Foucault’s Pendulum struck me as enchanting in its own way.

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This is also outside PaleoJudaica's usual focus, except tangentially in terms of the ongoing battle with conspiracy theories. Personally, I found The Name of the Rose unreadable and I never made it through it, but I quite enjoyed Foucault’s Pendulum. The latter was a very entertaining, but dark take on where conspiracy theories lead. I am sorry to hear about Umberto Eco. Requiescat in pace.

UPDATE: An old post that involves Foucault's Pendulum is here.