Umberto Eco: "The Prague Cemetery"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-11-10/umberto-eco-prague-cemetery
Author and academic Umberto Eco set his first international best-seller, "The Name of the Rose" in a medieval monastery. His latest novel takes place in 19th century Europe. Eco says all of its characters - except the protagonist – really existed. He describes this character as the most cynical and disagreeable in the history of literature. A spy and forger, he acts as a murderous double agent within Garibaldi’s army, presents an eyewitness account of the Paris Commune, helps to falsely incriminate Captain Alfred Dreyfus and eventually produces the fraudulent anti-Semitic text which Hitler used to justify his "Final Solution." Umberto eco and Diane discuss the role of fiction, consipracy and true events difficult to believe actually happened.
Guests
Umberto Eco
author of five novels, including "The Name of the Rose" and "Foucault's Pendulum," as well as numerous essays.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
When I was a young Congressional functionary working at the Capitol I carried around "Foucault's Pendulum" for about a year, reading as much as I could at breaks and while awaiting events. I came to see all the apparatus of civilization as games devised for explicit purposes. All systems of organization are optional variations on a wide range of possibilities, and the worst ones are conspiracies involving millions of involuntary victims. That is why I still assume at age 55 that most all large scale organization in the USA today consists of games and scams unnecessary to human well-being. Umberto Eco, by constructing a book about illusions, made me a more skeptical and sophisticated person. I never respected authority figures and was never awed by celebrity after that year with his thick novel (1990). The most important thing is that I learned was when to blame my bad decisions and when to blame pre-ordained structural outcomes above my pay grade.
I do not believe Eco could write another masterpiece like that, but I suppose there always exists that possibility. Thanks Umberto.
secret- all above pay grade
and none as God volunteer
duality of life
so much more
but have to choose
battles carefully
do what needs done
and see what become
of a life too short
ITS all a Ponzi scheme
no one gets OUT alive
last one kill the lights
hide whats left behind
I understand the author's comments about growing up under a fascist regime. My father experienced this time in quite similar way, only he did not even enjoy access to Mickey Mouse. Critical books and degenerated art were banned. The news were vetted and twisted to conform to ideology rather than reality. He experienced a great awakening when the regime fell and hated those who had deceived his generation for the rest of his life.
I profoundly delight in Prof. Eco's novels for bringing clarity to the fact that we are easily deceived by the figments of our imagination and how facilely our fictions can influence our actions, thus becoming part of actuality.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger once so aptly noted that a sense of history bestows a sense of being. History in all its distortions constitutes an integral component of our mind. Prof. Eco helps us unravel our complex relationship with it and why history matters for our theories of mind.
The author may enjoy reading more here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2010/09/prologue-to-theory-of-mind.html
Peter M: I think our audience should know that Martin Heidegger became a Nazi university administrator. He also taught and loved Jewish Hannah Ahrendt.
He was contradictory and so can his genre of phenomenology be.
If one believes in a Thousand Year Reich this negates any alternative ideology and behoves one to go along. "What is" becomes the exclusive possibility. Heidegger probably saw late 1930s USA as a probable Hitler ally, at least as compatible in Elite goals and methods. So many opponents on this site tell me "Live and let live" but what they mean is "Die and leave me to my fascist tastes." I prefer resisting and exposing banal evil. So if I had a sense of history it would only handicap my efforts. In short, Peter and I mostly agree.