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The well-known Italian semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco discloses for the first time to English-speaking readers the unsuspected richness, breadth, complexity, and originality of the aesthetic theories advanced by the influential medieval thinker Thomas Aquinas, heretofore known principally as a scholastic theologian. Inheriting his basic ideas and conceptions of art and beauty from the classical world, Aquinas transformed or modified these ideas in the light of Christian theology and of developments in metaphysics and optics during the thirteenth century.

Setting the stage with an account of the vivid aesthetic and artistic sensibility that flourished in medieval times, Eco examines Aquinas's conception of transcendental beauty, his theory of aesthetic perception or visio, and his account of the three conditions of beauty--integrity, proportion, and clarity--that, centuries later, emerged again in the writings of the young James Joyce. He examines the concrete application of these theories in Aquinas's reflections on God, mankind, music, poetry, and scripture. He discusses Aquinas's views on art and compares his poetics with Dante's. In a final chapter added to the second Italian edition, Eco examines how Aquinas's aesthetics came to be absorbed and superseded in late medieval times and draws instructive parallels between Thomistic methodology and contemporary structuralism. As the only book-length treatment of Aquinas's aesthetics available in English, this volume should interest philosophers, medievalists, historians, critics, and anyone involved in poetics, aesthetics, or the history of ideas.

Customer Reviews (1)

St. Thomas comes alive
Many of us have heard of the masterpiece written by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, the Summa Theologiae.However, this very little known work by the Semiotician, Umberto Eco, writter of the novel In the Name of the Rose, presents in an easy to understand, and with great depth, the aesthetics and views of St. Thomas with respect to the beautiful, art, and music.Eco, allows the reader to understand with more clarity, the thought of Scholastic philosophical and aesthetic thought with reference to Thomas, Augustine, Boetheius, Plato, Aristotle and many other great thinkers found throughout the course of history.Furthermore, Eco interprets the Summa Theologiae to understand such concepts as:visio, musical theory, artist, and many others.

In simple to use language, Eco renews the inspiration and awe that was seen long ago in interpretation of the aesthetic.Thus, philosophy does not have to be something complicated, rather a basis for everything else we do.Therefore, when we see a painting, listen to a piece of music, read a poem, etc, we interpret the beauty that derives from that particular work and Eco, in this book shows us how we can do it by understanding the thought of one of the foremost thinkers of all time, St. Thomas Aquinas.

This book is a must have for philsophers, musicians, artists, and anyone who may be interested in interpreting art work, poetry, music, and the Beautiful with greater profundity. ... Read more

Product Description
Umberto Eco nos comenta la Historia de la Belleza, en un libro profusamente ilustrado, desde la noche de los tiempos hasta nuestros días.

¿Qué es la belleza? ¿cómo nació ese concepto? ¿cómo ha evolucionado a lo largo de los siglos? ¿quiénes fueron sus inventores?. A estas y otras muchas preguntas contesta Umberto Eco con su habitual erudición, pero también en un tono didáctico y ameno, asequible a todos los lectores. El libro, además, va acompañado de extraordinarias ilustraciones que dan luz a las palabras de Eco: reproducciones de pinturas y esculturas, el testimonio de la evolución de la belleza a través de los siglos. Eco escribe además según las teorías comparatistas y sugiere concomitancias entre los grandes maestros de distintas épocas, así Piero dell Francesca con Paul Klee. Este libro, de formato especial, es una verdadera joya, un texto imprescindible en cualquier biblioteca.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Belleza
Como su título lo dice, el libro es una belleza. Excelentes ilustraciones. La revisión histórica de la belleza es de gran valor.

Está bien, dependiendo para qué lo quieres
Compré La Historia de la Belleza para mi tesis sobre estética. Estudio Filosofía y al momento de hacer una tesis sobre estética creo que ya tengo algo de información al respecto, por este motivo sólo por este no recomiendo el libro; es decir no lo recomiendo si lo buscas con fines académicos, al menos que quieras algo muy genérico y amplio. Sin embargo, si deseas hacer una aproximación a "la belleza" es libro es ua maravilla, tiene un lenguaje muy ameno, directo y simple que no complica su lectura. Además, se trata de un libro perfecto para mesita de café en la sala de casa, porque está lleno de láminas e imágenes y los textos son bastante cortos, por eso se trata del libro perfecto para pasar el tiempo mientras alguie te dejó solo esperando en la sala.La Historia de la Belleza

INDISPENSABLE
Estudiosos del arte, periodistas culturales o sencillamente lectores y amantes de la belleza en cualquiera de sus formas, encontrarán en este texto la información histórica y conceptual necesaria para comprender cómo nuestra cultura manipula con y es manipulada por las diferentes formas de la belleza.
La edición es impecable, papel esmaltado, full color y excelente calidad de impresión: el más bello libro sobre la belleza.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF BEAUTY. ... Read more

Product Description
The limits of interpretation--what a text can actually be said to mean--are of double interest to a semiotician whose own novels' intriguing complexity has provoked his readers into intense speculation as to their meaning. Eco's illuminating and frequently hilarious discussion ranges from Dante to The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, to Chomsky and Derrida, and bears all the hallmarks of his inimitable personal style. Three of the world's leading figures in philosophy, literary theory and criticism take up the challenge of entering into debate with Eco on the question of interpretation. Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler and Christine Brooke-Rose each add a distinctive perspective on this contentious topic, contributing to a unique exchange of ideas among some of the foremost and most exciting theorists in the field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sheds insight on Eco's fiction
Umberto Eco's discussion of interpretation and overinterpretation sheds light on several of his fictional works.In the same way, his fictional works help us to better grasp his technical writings.I am thinking especially of Foucault's Pendulum.The lead characters illustrate how the "diabolicals" engage in gross overinterpretation as they try to use historical materials to feed their conspiracy theory construction.The lead characters take all of this a step further, illustrating Eco's technical discussion of how we often move from "interpreting" a text to "using" a text.The lead characters definitely begin "using" the materials gleaned from the work of the diabolicals, reshaping and reforming connections between disparate facts, observations, theories, guesses, and hopes to finally conjure a sort of "super" conspiracy theory that captures the imaginations and jealous desires of the diabolicals. Because of their long-practiced habits of overinterpretation, the so-called Diabolicals are unable to resist the results of the main characters "use" of the texts.They are captured by the occult metatheory that they construct, with disastrous results.The lesson in the story is two-fold, I think.The first is that overinterpretation is irresponsible, risky, and even dangerous because it lacks discipline and self-restraint.It puts you in the position of considering or belieiving whatever reading one chooses to make, as long as there are SOME sorts of connections (real or imagined) to cling to.The second lesson is that the move from "interpretation" of a text to crass "use" of a text is manipulative, seductive, and dangerous in the sort of backlash it can generate among those that do not recognize the sort of interpretive move you have chosen to make."Using" the work of another in a selfish or self-serving way can be trivializing at best and damaging at worst.Similar illustrations of Eco's work on "use," "interpretation," and "overinterpretation" of texts can be seen in many ways in The Name of the Rose, as well.This is especially true of the main character's interactions with the monks and their interpretations of what is happening in their monastery, including the legendary library, itself.Similar issues are at work with the Inquisitor, as well.I heartily recommend reading Eco's works on semiotics at the same time that you let yourself plunge into his works of fiction.The two help explain one another in a helpful manner.

Dense material in a very compact, readable form
When reading a text, how much does what the author intended count for, if anything? Is there any way to tell what a text "really" means, or can it be read however you like for whatever purpose you like? Simple as they seem, these are the fundamental questions this book is concerned with, and it is Eco's task to explain why he thinks there should be limits to interpretation - against the prevailing opinions of many modern critics and thinkers.

The book is laid out in eight sections. The first is the Introduction, which is substantial. If you're in the habit of skipping the introduction I would advise against it here, unless you consider yourself thoroughly familiar with the subject - it's helpful.

The next three sections consist of a series of lectures Eco gave on this subject, where he establishes his main points. It's quite accessible to the layman, and in the few places where the terms get a bit obscure you can usually figure out what he's talking about from the context. He uses several historical examples which keep things interesting, and his arguments are interesting whether you find them convincing or not.

Essays by Rorty, Culler and Brooke-Rose in response to these lectures make up the next part. Rorty, a self-described "pragmatist", makes the argument that we shouldn't concern ourselves with what makes a "valid" interpretation, and instead just use texts as they come before us for whatever purpose suits us best. Culler, coming from the side of the deconstructionists, argues that what Eco calls "overinterpretation" has a value of its own and reacts strongly to the implication that there should be any limits whatsoever imposed upon the critic. Brooke-Rose's piece on "palimpsest history" is not uninteresting but somewhat tangential, and you really have to stretch things to relate it to the argument going on between Eco, Rorty and Culler.

The wrap-up section is a response from Eco, mostly addressing Rorty's points though dealing somewhat with Culler's objections. There is no clear "winner", and you may not be swayed to Eco's point of view if you found one of the others more compelling, but there is ample food for thought.

Even for the non-academic, a great insightfull book
I don't have much background in literary theory, but I still found Eco's writing very accessible and very enjoyable. I think the topic would interest anyone that has ever tried to appreciate literature: up to whatpoint can we take events in a book/play/poem to be significant to the ideathe writer is trying to get across?

This book constructs its argumentsfrom the ground up, although at times the approach to interpretation takenby Eco is radically differentfrom how one would be accustumed to readinga book.

I believe that eventually one gets used to the differentapproaches suggested -- or better, exemplified -- by Eco, and the initialdifficulties in understanding his point of view are overcome to open agreat new horizon of ideas and literary enjoyment. ... Read more

Product Description

In this book Umberto Eco argues that translation is not about comparing two languages, but about the interpretation of a text in two different languages, thus involving a shift between cultures. An author whose works have appeared in many languages, Eco is also the translator of Grard de Nerval's Sylvie and Raymond Queneau's Exercices de style from French into Italian. In Experiences in Translation he draws on his substantial practical experience to identify and discuss some central problems of translation. As he convincingly demonstrates, a translation can express an evident deep sense of a text even when violating both lexical and referential faithfulness. Depicting translation as a semiotic task, he uses a wide range of source materials as illustration: the translations of his own and other novels, translations of the dialogue of American films into Italian, and various versions of the Bible. In the second part of his study he deals with translation theories proposed by Jakobson, Steiner, Peirce, and others.

Overall, Eco identifies the different types of interpretive acts that count as translation. An enticing new typology emerges, based on his insistence on a common-sense approach and the necessity of taking a critical stance.

Customer Reviews (1)

Simply beautiful
Quality book, typical Eco. What's so difficult about translation? Isn't it really just a matter of synonymy between languages, or if not synonymy, then propositional content? Short answer: no.

For Eco fans, this is a must have book. Interested in language, translation, and interpretation? Clicky. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

excellent transaction!
I am very impressed with the seller. The book was in very good condition (as described) and incredibly fast.
I strongly recommend it.

L`isola del giorno prima
As a tipical Eco Book , it hasa lot of information but it is stilla good book . It is needed patient and strong focusing . It is no t a typical novel .... ... Read more

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Satirical essays in which Eco pokes fun at the oversophisticated, the overacademic, and the overintellectual and makes penetrating comments about our modern mass culture and the elitist avant-garde. “A scintillating collection of writings” (Los Angeles Times). Translated by William Weaver. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Must Read: Misreadings
This is a mirthful little volume by Umberto Eco, author of some very long novels, including The Name of the Rose. Misreadings is a collection of fifteen small pieces of fun. Eco was hired, in 1959, to write a monthly column for Il Verro, an Italian literary magazine. He began submitting parodies of the ponderous contents of the magazine to the magazine itself. It says something of the editors that they published them all. One is a set of internal critiques, supposedly from apublishing company, on why they're rejecting certain books as unsuitable, including the Bible ("I must say the first few hundred pages of this manuscript really hooked me...sex (lots of it), murders, massacres and so on...but as I kept reading, I realized this is actually an anthology, involving several writers...I'd suggest getting the rights to just the first few chapters, but using a different title. How about Red Sea Desperadoes?"), Homer's Odyssey ("...remember in his first book, how the Achilles-Patroclus story, with its not-so-latent homosexuality got us into trouble?"), and a dozen or so others, including refusal letters to Cervantes and Dante. Another piece is an account of Columbus discovering America, accompanied by modern-day news media and their attendant host of experts, in this case including Leonardo da Vinci, who gets short-shrift from the reporters when he becomes too technical.

Any of the selections can be read in ten or fifteen minutes. The satire is rich, at times thick, written to mock scholarship which labors on the ephemeral and a society which concerns itself with the trivial. But I read it with such pleasure partly because the satire and mockery isn't bitter or angry or malicious. Eco's Misreadings holds up a mirror and lets us see ourselves; he helps us see how silly we can sometimes be when we make more of things than they are. I'm going to put this book on the bookshelf in my bedroom, so I can pick it up frequently for a refreshing sip.

Haute-Satire, not bedtime reading
This is a collection of short stories which are most definitely satire for the intelligentsia.Eco's mind is a database of cultural references, linguistic foolery and razor-sharp wit.

The stories include "Granita," a retelling of Nabokov's famous tale with a geriatric object of desire and "The Discovery of America" which chronicles Columbus' 1492 landing on terra firma via the newscasting techniques used for man's first walk on the moon.

Eco's creativity knows no bounds.As with his other works, an understanding of topics as diverse as Adorno's theories and a Who's Who in the Greek pantheon of classical philsophers is definitely helpful, but not required.Even if the reader does not recognize all the references, she will undoubtedly recognize the talents of one of the greatest authors of our time.If you like to think and read at the same time, try some Eco.

How boring the brilliant can be
I bought this book because I saw a chapter in which great classics of world- literature, the Bible, Homer, Quixote, Divine Comedy etc. are , as it were , critiqued by a reader at a publishing house who rejects them. I thought this might be interesting and amusing. There are some insights, but once one has the idea of the piece it is predictable and dull. Other pieces give the same kind of feeling. The Lolita parody in which the love- object is an old woman should have been confined to one- sentence.
Perhaps I am not being fair to Eco, but the kind of humor through parody and pastiche which makes up this book simply does not much appeal to me.
All of his great learning and knowledge seem to me here to be engaged in an exercise of 'playing with himself' which gives the reader little indeed.

An entertaining compilation of short stories
Eco, as is his form, provides a series of entertaining and poignant stories covering topics such as blue-jeans, media reports from the discovery of America and conversations with God.If you enjoy the rangeand depth of Travels in Hyperreality, then you will enjoy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
In this exhilarating book, companion and guide Umberto Eco--bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum--explores the intricacies of fictional form and method. Eco makes readers his collaborators in the creation of his text and the investigation of fiction's mechanisms. 14 illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

World as a forrest
It is entirely possible, that you, who are reading these lines, are far more advanced in the field of narratology and semiotics. If that is the case, you won't find much material here, because I'm guessing that you already know what you're looking for. For others, few words should be said.

Almost thirty years ago, when "Name of the rose" appeared for the first time in world markets, nobody could predict it's success. Complex story that read as a crime fiction, as a mere whodunit', but which held, in it's numerous layers, numerous worlds for competent reader to discover pushed it's author on the top of world's intellectuals. To distant observer, like myself, planetary success didn't seem to trouble Eco at all. He didn't comment on global politics, didn't meddle into affairs of state. All that he did was research and publishing of world of literature, aesthetics, beauty and lot's of other themes that may seem like a waist of time. And indeed, if Eco's impact, influence and success in scientific world should be measured with people who unlocked the human genome, one is tempted to say that his entire life was committed to futile things that interest few people borne and raised in Western tradition. Yet, that kind of reasoning would entirely wrong.

Eco's thoughts on literature, interpretation and signs influenced many reader out there who suddenly found themselves into the forest-world. Where everything was clear before, now lay a jumble of codes that needed to be deciphered and adapted into some kind of functional system. Where plain story existed, now appeared infinite vectors of interpretation, and reader gradually learned that there isn't one, correct way to move trough the forest-world. Eventually, one learned to look upon the world with different set of eyes.

This book here was written in late stages of Eco's thought, and it tends to show this what I'mtalking about. It explains the "Name of the rose". Not the way that it should be read. Rather, it explains the idea behind it, it shows how, and why it was put together. And, if you until now understood literature as a mere fiction, something to pass time with, it'll open your eyes. Now, there are hundreds of books, in every language, on literary theory and much of them are dry pieces of work written for advanced reader who dedicated much of his life to this kind of research. This bookisn't like that. On every page, you can almost feel Eco's enthusiasm with literature, his joy of reading. Maybe most important thing is that he doesn't put himself on an elevated position, preaching to the masses from it. He, like Socrates, takes his reader into a dialogue, with a single goal in mind - to discover undiscovered possibilities of fiction, to better understand the way every text (not just a literary one) is constructed, hoping in the end, to broad both minds that are set upon this trip. It seems to me that that is the way to write about literature, and I can but say that reading of this book was a great experience even though I was familiar with much of it from other sources. In any way, this is one of the better books on the subject, and it would be mistake to simply pass by it. As someone else said: "Stay awhile, and listen..."

more accessible than expected
Six Walks is more accessible than I had expected (my copy is now heavily highlighted, marked up, and loaded with the little plastic stickies I use to flag ideas and references). Eco is speaking to readers and, thereby, equally to writers. The six Charles Elliot Norton lectures begin with the role time plays in fiction and end with the importance (to our perception of reality) of accuracy in writing fiction. This is weighty stuff made accessible by Eco's illustration by example: Yes, Dante, Shakespeare, and Kafka, but the writers who give us Hercule Poirot, Agent 007 and Little Red Riding Hood as well. If you read fiction or write fiction, the material will be useful and the book will please.

Six Walks: A Sojourn in Eco's Fancy
Eco's "Six Walks in the Fictional Woods" smells like Italo Calvino's "Six Memos for the Next Millenium". Each essay, or walk, is an extended musing, in an informally scholastic tone of voice, of the author's preferred elements of fiction reading and composition. Most of the comparative material is taken from Nerval's, Joyce's and his own works, and given splashes of splendour with the special touch of brilliance to which we all know Eco has easy access. The essays lack the intensified beauty of his fiction ("Foucault's Pendulum," or "The Name of the Rose"), but demand consideration standing out as interesting thought material from the legendary linguist. --Alejandro Arevalo ... Read more

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Embracing the web of multi culturalism that has become a fact of contemporary life from New York to New Delhi, Eco argues that we are more connected to people of other traditions and customs than ever before, making tolerance the ultimate value in today's world. What good, he asks in a talk delivered during the Gulf War, does war do in a world where the flow of goods, services, and information is unstoppable, and the enemy is always behind the lines? What makes news today, who decides how it will be disseminated contribute to the widespread disillusionment with politics in general? In the most personal of the essays, Eco recalls experiencing liberation from fascism in Italy as a boy, and examines the various historical forms of fascism, always with an eye toward such ugly manifestations today. And finally, in an intensely personal open letter to an Italian Cardinal, Eco reflects on a question underlying all the reflections in the book - what does it mean to be moral or ethical when one doesn't believe in God? As thoughtful and subtle as they are pragmatic and relevant, these essays present one of the world's most important thinkers at the height of his critical powers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fantastical
To be sure, Baudolino is as fine an adventure from a different time and place as can be found. Stacked up to Umberto Eco's other works of fiction Baudolino is the most fanciful of the group. In Baudolino Eco Lends beauty to medieval times, and tells the most truth through a most prolific liar.

the most annoying book, ugh
I tried to read this book.I really tried.I got it on sale because I'd heard of the author and was curious.This is the first book in my memory that I have put aside because I hated every sentence in it.Normally I struggle through the first part of a "boring" book and become pleasantly surprised by the end.I just couldn't get past the first fifty pages, and not without lack of effort.The sad part is that I wanted to like this book and made an honest effort to, but the author made that impossible for me.My advice is don't read this one - there are better books out there.Who knows, in a few years I may even be willing to try one of Eco's earlier works.Then again, I hate this book so much that I doubt I'll even be willing to concede to that.If you like "historical" fiction, try Carter Beats the Devil or the Venus Throw, which are a lot more fun to read.

Tiresome, tiresome, tiresome . . .
Though I was intrigued by the novel after reading Eco's The Name of the Rose, I found the book unbearably dull. It took me about six months to finish it, just because I kept picking up other more interesting books to read. I eventually suffered through it. I have seen this book numerous times on bargains shelves in various stores, and I always have to fight the urge to complain to management about having the nerve to sell such a laborious read.
The Name of the Rose receives high marks from me. Baudolino -- not so much.

Baudolino the Opportunist
I've recently started reading Umberto Eco's Baudolino, a rambunctious tale of a thirteenth century opportunist. "The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things."

Although I'm only 120 pages into this 500 page novel, I'm engrossed by the weaving plots and rich characters. Baudolino is an Italian peasant with a gift for languages and a bald-faced liar who is adopted by an emperor as a boy and falls in love with the emperor's young bride as a teenager. He studies at the University of Paris in its first years, and befriends a wannabe poet and a moorish scholar, and the three of them are off now on worldly quests, befuddled by alcohol and "green honey".

The thirteenth century was an influential time for so many elements of our modern society, seeing the usurpation of the church in Europe by the birth of the university, science, nationalism and capitalism, for all the good and bad that it all heralded. This book thus far does a great job of chronicling this from the perspective of someone entrenched in the middle of it all. It's great fun to compare our modern knowledge with that of a medieval persona.

I'll let you know what I think when I'm done with it, but so far, I'd highly recommend Umberto Eco's Baudolino.

Tedious
You can tell by this book that Eco really knows his medieval lore, but the long rambling descriptions become tiresome about halfway through. The only other Eco book I have read was "The Name of the Rose" which I enjoyed immensely. I was hoping that this book would be as gripping but instead I found the plot to be convoluted and occasionally the story veered off into sub plots that seemed to have no bearing on the actual story. I found myself skimming over big sections near the end in an attempt to get to the conclusion. After I finally finished this book, I wished I had put it down a lot sooner and just started on something that was actually worth my time. ... Read more

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More than twenty years after its original appearance in Italian, The Open Work remains significant for its powerful concept of "openness"--the artist's decision to leave arrangements of some constituents of a work to the public or to chance--and for its striking anticipation of two major themes of contemporary literary theory: the element of multiplicity and plurality in art, and the insistence on literary response as an interactive process between reader and text. The questions Umberto Eco raises, and the answers he suggests, are intertwined in the continuing debate on literature, art, and culture in general.

This entirely new edition, edited for the English-language audience with the approval of Eco himself, includes an authoritative introduction by David Robey that explores Eco's thought at the period of The Open Work, prior to his absorption in semiotics. The book now contains key essays on Eco's mentor Luigi Pareyson, on television and mass culture, and on the politics of art. Harvard University Press will publish separately and simultaneously the extended study of James Joyce that was originally part of The Open Work, entitled The Aesthetics of Chaosmos: The Middle Ages of James Joyce. The Open Work explores a set of issues in aesthetics that remain central to critical theory, and does so in a characteristically vivid style. Eco's convincing manner of presenting ideas and his instinct for the lively example are threaded compellingly throughout. This book is at once a major treatise in modern aesthetics and an excellent introduction to Eco's thought.

Customer Reviews (2)

Critical Work for Critical Scholars
Most post-modernist scholars, especially critical scholars, have probably already read The Open Work. It is considered a seminal work. Eco advances the theory that literary works necessarily leave much of the details of a story to the reader. Taking Moby Dick as an example, he notes that the book never mentions that the sailors on the Pequod have two legs. It is the work of the reader to reach such a conclusion based on the context of the novel. While Captain Ahab is mentioned as having only one leg, Melville never says which one, again leaving to the reader to fill in the details. In this sense, literature is "parasitic," according to Eco, because it requires the reader to fill in many of the details of a given story.

This corresponds with other post-modernists who claim that meaning resides in the receiver of a text. However, Eco establishes his own ground in claiming that authors can limit the reader's options for interpretation. For Eco, while much meaning resides in the interpretation of a text, the symbols employed by an author also have some meaning that a reasonable interpreter should understand. The "open work" then, is not an absolute condition. Some works will be more open than others.

While this may sound like a repudiation of many post-modernists (and it is), readers should rember that it was originally published quite some time ago. At the time, it was considered revolutionary. It stands today as a still-important work in the field of semiotics and critical theory. I gave it four stars not because it isn't excellent (it is) or well-written (it is, and far easier to read than, say, Foucault) but because it is no longer cutting edge.

Enlightened book
After i read this book i could draw so much paralleles, concise ones, between the artists that i liked that i had never realised before that this was the real appeal to me in reading this book. I could see i line crossingbetween James Joyce, Bretch, Kubrick and Kafka. And all the modernismmovement really took place in my mind. And it's a easy-reading book, besidethe parts about semiology, wich are necessary to make some points clear.The two final parts of the book, about the zen mania of the 50's and theother about Marx, don't seem to be at the center of matter but are alsogood reading. I think anybody interested in arts should look at this book. ... Read more

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"... an excellent collection... " -- Journal of Language & Social Psychology

An important collection of original essays by well-known scholars debating the questions of logical versus psychologically-based interpretations of language.

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A mind-expanding discussion of millenarianism by four brilliant thinkers -- now in paperback.

There is nothing special about the year 2000, yet the start of the third millennium proved a focus for many deep anxieties and expectations. Four of the world's boldest and most celebrated thinkers offer a vast range of insights into how we make sense of time: paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould on dating the Creation, evolutionary "deep time," and the need for ecological ethics on a human scale; Umberto Eco, novelist, medievalist, and Web fanatic, on the brave new world of cyberspace and its likely impact on memory, cultural continuity, and access to knowledge; screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière on "the art of slowness" and attitudes toward time in non-Western cultures; and Catholic historian Jean Delumeau on how the Western imagination has always been haunted by ideas of the Apocalypse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Diversity is not all
This work does not really hang together very well. Each of the respective contributors does his own thing.
The work contains according to the book - jacket these essays. " Paleontologist Stephen Jay Goud on dating the Creation, evolutionary ' deep time' and the need for ecological ethics on a human scale. Novelist, medievalist and Web fanatic UmbertoEco on the breave new world of cyberspace, and its likely impact on memory, cultural continuity and access toknowledge. Catholic historian Jean Delumeau on how the Western Imagination has always been haunted by ideas of the Apocalypse. ScreenwriterJean- Claude Carriere on the 'art of slowness' and attitudes towardtime in non- Western cultures.'
The work nonetheless contains much interesting information and speculative matter.
One small piece from the work, the great Paleontologist Goud is asked " How do you see earth looking in a thousand years time? '
His answer is humble and refreshing.
" I don't see it. The things one can actually predict are not very interesting. The sun will continue to shine.. But the history of human beings-and that's what your question is about - consists only of unpredictable events. What we are least weel- placed to predict is technological evolution. I can't predict what will happen in fifty years, let alone in a thousand.. Culture evolves in a Lamarckian way, in that it allows the transmission of acquired characteristics. We directly transmit what we have learned to subsequent generations, which is why technological evolution is ultra- powerful, cumulative , directional ..

Conversations About the End of Time
Conversations About the End of Time is a a discussion of questions and answers given by four thinkers.Stephen Jay Gould, Umberto Eco, Jean-Claude Carriere and Jean Delumeau all answer questions and are given a chapter in this book to espouse their respective answers.

Just think of a coffee table discussion, of a one on one discussion and you get to read the answers on questions of import.Each answering these questions with their respective insights and down-to-earth style.Each having their respective life experiences to draw from to unravel perplexing questions.

With fascination you read the thought-provoking answers.The answers will suprise some, others may be right inline with what you'd expect, but nerver boring... challenging, educational, lucid and erudite are more what you'd expect and you are not dissapointed.

This book reads fast and the questions are cogent with the general topic.Each respective thinker answers in a style of their own and the reader does not feel irrelevant.This is an interesting book in that questions asked make the reader think as well.

I found the book to be highly interesting and it has a fascination woven throughout the text captivating the reader.

Good guides!
Surely, we can't talk and think enough
about the state of mankind!
But these are hazardous waters! Where should we begin
and where do we want to go from there? So, Having
Gould and Eco as guides seems like a clever start!

According to the book, the hebrew language has
no exact present tense?? The infinitely brief, the
very essense of the present, is not to be found - it
can be neither fixed, nor measured. It is therefore
completely justifiable, grammaticale speaking,
to leave out the present?

Yet, obviously, it is from the present we look at the
past and towards the future.
Stephen Jay Gould is always a pleasure to listen to -
and the right one to put time into perspective.
For a palaeontologist, like Gould, 7000 years
(timespand of human culture) is really no more than
the twinkling of an eye. So all we know is really in
the present - which hardly exist!

From this position we look out into concepts like
the eternity - which we obviously really can't grasp.
And into ourselfes were e.g. DNA was discovered as recently
as 1953. Mystery upon mystery.
So, we struggle to discover instances of regularity and
to fit them together with the help of stories. We throw
in a little religion "were religions do not
ask questions, they answer them". Still we are far
removed from any real "understanding".

And that is what these conversations are about.
With Umberto Eco and Stephen Jay Gould - it is
of course an ok read. But only an appetizer.

-Simon

Hey mr. Gould stop making teachers into liars.
---------- ----------

I'm talking about that Darwinian theory of Natural Selection you keep telling as if it were true. It is "differential reproductive success". So then that means I need at least 2 different things to call some event NS. So then I ask myself what do these 2 different things have to do with each other? So then I say well either they influence each other's reproduction some way, or they could as well be in different environments. So they must influence each other's reproduction some way. So then I ask, what ways can the one influence the reproduction of the other?

+/- increase reproduction at cost of the other +/+ mutual increase of each other's reproduction -/- mutual decrease of each other's reproduction +/0 and so on -/0 0/0

but what you do, is pretend like there are only +/- relationships. You ignore all other type of relationships with NS. Your natural selection theory is false, for being unsystematic in describing the relationships between living beings. You make teachers into liars by it.

Intriguing thoughts about nature and the future of the world
Four thinkers (Gould, Eco, Jean Delumeau and Jean-Claude Carriere) cometogether to ponder questions about the end and beginning of the world andthe state of mankind and the planet in Conversations About the End of Time.Philosophy blends with science to provide some intriguing thoughts aboutthe nature and future of the world. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

lightweight musings
I like Eco, but this is just lightweight stuff. The book is a collection of various newspaper articles, and it shows:
they are light fare, not much to chew on. There is a little article on neo-warfare, which comes to mind, but even that was strained and unsubstantiated; in order to make his case, he had to mis-represent the Kosovo war as one in which there was no clear enemy (and no defined front lines). His acid remarks and criticisms on Berlusconi were amusing, but I've read harder-hitting pieces elsewhere. On the whole, he comes across as a well-read man, possessed of proper instincts; a civilized man, well-educated and moderate, but not a very penetrating thinker. I'm sure that is the result of having to fit your ideas into the format of a newspaper column, but there is a reason why newspapers are thrown into the trash can after you read them: they tend to be brain candy. They certainly don't warrant being a book, unless, that is, you'd want to capitalize on the author's fame to sell a few copies.

an excellent collection
While all things written by Umberto Eco are a delight for the mind, this collection might be his best since Travels in Hyperreality. His genius continues to amaze me.
I'd say that the best essay (in an amazing bunch) would be those referring to the Great Game and power struggles in Central Asia.

Umberto, Thank You for your Insightfulness
This series of essays and columns, as well as a lecture or two, was an eye-opening cultural experience.Thinking I was going to get a "Foucault's Pendulum" view of the world, instead I get a "Behold the Man" view, and an Italian one at that. Truly a wide-ranging, philosophic, and very humorous range of opinions and observations.If I had any problems whatsoever, they would have centered on my lack of European experience (which Signor Eco at least made me aware of), and his obvious (well-deserved) distaste for Silvio Berlusconi (the George Busch/Rupert Murdoch-doppelganger President of Italy).But his overall opinions reflect a man of intelligence and wit, and for that I am thankful that he took the time to publish these articles.They were very enlightening and broadened my perspective on our world-shared commonalities. Thank you, Mr. Eco.

Wide Ranging

This is a collection of columns and a few speeches by a noted scholar and novelist of the medieval period.As in all collections, some pieces are better than others, but in this volume, all are good.

Of particular note is the opening piece with thoughts on paleo and neo wars.These terms were new and provocative for me.

Another highlight is the section on the media. Italy's experience in media concentration, having a media entrepreneur to take the reins of government and conflate his interest with that of the country, stands as warning.(For more on this I recommend The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi.)Eco describesBerlusconi's campaign to weaken the judiciary to serve his own interests.Italy, if it is ever going to control situations such as those described in Gomorrah needs a strong legal system.

Eco explains how in Italy, vibrant print journalism means nothing since everyone is watching a Berlusconi owned channel.Using TV, Berlusconi can state a popular policy, (media populism) but since it is not official, need never implement it or take it to Parliament. It can easily be denied. Sometimes it can be a decoy to get a debate on something so that something else can take place without attention. Foreign affairs can be run this way too.

Other ruminations that impressed me included thoughts on the Miss World pageant in Nigeria, Dr. Watson's experiences in Afganistan, Eco's hate mail, dictators building consensus and Eco's thoughts on living to be 100+.

I was unaware that Eco was a columnist.Throughout this period, he has been right on target.I doubt that many US journalists will publish their columns of 2000-2005 in this way.

Umberto Eco essays, articles, speeches
"Turning Back the Clock" is the title of an admirable and entertaining collection of essays, articles, speeches, etc. by famed Italian writer Umberto Eco. Most of these are articles written as a columnist for La Repubblica, and the collection is organized by content, not chronology. Fortunately, it is not necessary to have read any of Eco's novels to enjoy this book.

Eco is of course a gifted writer, and not just in the realm of fiction. While it is perhaps necessary, in particular for the political essays, to have a fairly substantial knowledge of Italian politics and history, one can on the other hand also learn a lot about Italy from Eco's essays. And this is not limited to Italian topics: Eco discusses everything one would expect from him, politics, science, technology, history, philosophy, literature, and art. Consistently reasonable, balanced, and witty, Eco may not be the most provoking and startling of essaysists, but he is sure to be informative and challenging.

In my opinion, the most interesting articles are those where Eco does not directly address current events, but rather talks more generally about the situation of modern European culture(s), about historical and philosophical subjects, and the use of language. The high point here are perhaps the final articles, one of which is a speech given to the Milanesiana in 2001 where he discusses the phrase "dwarves on the shoulders of giants", as well as one on how to accept one's mortality. I can definitely recommend this book to intellectuals. ... Read more

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'Translation is always a shift,not between two languages but between two cultures. A translator must take into account rules that are not strictly linguistic but, broadly speaking, cultural.' Umberto Eco is of the world's most brilliant and entertaining writers on literature and language. In this accessible and dazzling study, he turns his eye on the subject of translations and the problems the differences between cultures can cause. The book is full of little gems about mistranslations and misunderstandings.For example when you put 'Studies in the logic of Charles Sanders Peirce' through an internet translation machine, it becomes 'Studies in the logic of the Charles of sandpaper grinding machines Peirce'. In Italian 'ratto' has no connotation of 'contemptible person' but denotes speed ('you dirty rat' could take on a whole new meaning!) What could be a weighty subject is never dull, fired by Eco's immense wit and erudition, providing an entertaining read that illuminates the process of negotation that all translators must make. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Diplomacy of Translation
To judge by its premise, the respected Professor Eco wrote one of the most brilliant books. Many authors before him (George Orwell, e.g.) and including him (Eco, 'On Literature') attempted to answer the question 'how I write', but hardly anyone asked themselves 'How am I being translated into foreign languages, and what do I think about it'. Admittedly, to ask this question one needs to be able to answer it, and without Eco's knowledge of foreign languages it is impossible. If, however, like him, a reader knows at least one more language, apart from his native one, then 'Mouse or Rat?' will be an engaging, at times merely hilarious, reading. Bearing in mind Eco's long-standing research into semiotics of language, literature and philosophy, this monograph of his is at times a curious self-assessment of Eco the linguist, philosopher, writer and, in fact, translator.

This 'personal' aspect must always be remembered. In spite of drawing general conclusions, the book is often an analysis of Eco's own experience in engaging with professionals who translated his works. Eco argues - powerfully and convincingly - that translation is a negotiation between two cultures, and not merely two linguistic systems, which thesis cannot, of course, be regarded as the new word in Translation Studies. Strictly speaking, he does not attempt to formulate any new ideas, and shows great respect to Steiner's `Before the Babel'. His main goal is therefore to illustrate the application of different translation techniques (ekphrasis, rewriting, foreignising and domesticating of the source text, adapting for screen, etc.) to a variety of texts and then to analyse the results from the point of accuracy and equivalence.

As I indicated above, if a reader commands at least one foreign language, then Eco's book will be an interesting reading, not to mention the fact that the reader's awareness of the limitations and opportunities of his first and second languages may become more acute. However, bearing in mind his belonging to the so-called Joycean tradition in literature, one cannot help thinking at times, how much each of Eco's readers benefited from the author's availability for consultation and advice, as it is evident how many gems of the Master's unrivalled erudition could be lost (or, indeed, were lost).

Among the book's most inspirational and engaging passages are the analysis of Joyce's extract from 'Finnegans Wake' and its translation into French and Italian; the analysis of a poem `A Silvia' by Leopardi and its rendering into French; the exploration into the pains of a translator working on Dumas's novels, etc. The only problem the reader may encounter is the layout of the book, mainly the alteration between regular and bold fonts and italics, for purposes of highlighting various instances of translation.

Nevertheless, for an unexperienced reader 'Mouse or Rat?' will possibly be one of the best introductions to Translation and Language Studies, and even to Litetary Criticism. Despite its complexity and the monstrous abundance of examples, its basic idea is terribly simple - besides the knowledge, the key to a successful translation (and, in fact, writing) is one's sensitivity to language. This ability to 'sense' the opportunities and limitations of the source language and of the target language, so as to achieve the best possible equilibrium, makes a translator a true diplomat, a messenger between his own cultural milieu and that of the source text. ... Read more

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Eco returns to the Middle Ages with Baudolino - a wondrous, provocative, beguiling tale of history, myth, and invention. It is April, 1204, and Constantinople, the splendid capital of the Byzantine Empire, is being sacked and burned by the knights of the fourth Crusade. Amid the carnage and confusion, one Baudolino saves a Byzantine historian and high court official from certain death at the hands of the crusading warriors, and proceeds to tell his own fantastical story. Born a simple peasant in northern Italy, Baudolino has two major gifts - a talent for learning foreign languages and skill in relling lies. One day, when still a boy, he met a foreign commander in the woods, charming him with his quick wit and lively mind. The commander - who proves to be the emperor Frederick Barbarossa - adopts Baudolino and sends him to the university in Paris, where he makes a number of fearless, adventurous friends.Spurred on by myths and their own reveries, this merry band sets out in search of Prester John, a legendary priest-king who was said to rule over a vast kingdom in the East - a phantasmagorical land of strange creatures with eyes on their shoulders and mouths on their stomachs, of eunuchs, unicorns, and lovely maidens. As always with Eco, this abundant novel includes dazzling digressions, outrageous tricks, pages of extraordinary feeling and poetry, and vicarious reflections on our postmodern age. Baudolino is an utterly marvelous tale by the inimitable author of The Name of the Rose. ... Read more

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There is a wealth of critical commentary on Umberto Eco in scholarly books and articles; this collection provides up-to-date and thought-provoking insights into topics that have attracted a great deal of attention in the past without repeating many of the arguments found in earlier publications on Eco. Representing the most active scholars writing on Eco from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, the international panel of authors provides sophisticated engagement with Eco's contributions to a wide range of academic disciplines (semiotics, popular culture, linguistics, aesthetics, philosophy, medieval studies) as well as his literary production of five important novels. From the impact of the detective genre on Eco's literary work to his place as a major medievalist, New Essays on Umberto Eco covers a variety of subjects of interest not only to a wide audience interested in Eco's fiction, but also to the serious student delving into Eco's more esoteric writings. ... Read more

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Perfect methodology tricks
Eco is, foremost, a professor. Here he gives practical advice, and makes a completely case for the student in need of a practical path. ... Read more

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Umberto Eco is known among academics for his literary and cultural theories, and to an enormous international audience through his novels The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum. Peter Bondanella offers the first comprehensive study in English of Eco's works. In clear and accessible language, he traces the development of Eco's interests, from medieval aesthetics to semiotics to popular culture, and shows how Eco's own fiction grows out of his literary and cultural theories. Bondanella also provides a full bibliography of works by and about Eco, arguably the most famous Italian writer since Dante. ... Read more