It's very seldom that I give up on a book after I've read a couple hundred pages. I used to be a "completionist" slogging on to the end, but as I've grown older I find myself bailing out more quickly on books and visual media.
I didn't know what to expect from Foucault's Pendulum, but since the book was written by the author of The Name of the Rose, my expectations were high. What I encountered was a 600+ page display of extensive erudition, harvesting centuries of history, culture, religion, and the fine arts in an effort by the novel's protagonist to come up with a sort of "theory of everything" - a syncretism where all items can be "connected" by various mental gymnastics.
I'll transcribe one passage which seems to exemplify my disappointment. At the end of chapter 30, the protagonist is in bed with a young lady. They have spent the night discussing Galileo, Richelieu, John Dee the English court astrologer, Torricelli inventing the barometer, fireworks in the Hortus Palatinus in Heidelberg, the burning of Comenius' house and library in Prague, the Rosy Cross and Rosicrucians, the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Thirty Years' War, Ashtoreth, Descartes, the immortality of the Count of Saint Germain, and the canonical Gospels. Then they turn toward each other as follows...
"Amparo, the sun's coming up.""We must be crazy.""Rosy-fingered dawn gently caresses the waves...""Yes, go on. It's Yemanja. Listen! She's coming.""Show me your ludibria...""Oh, the Tintinnabulum!""You are my Atalanta Fugiens...""Oh, my Turris Babel...""I want the Arcana Arcanissima, the Golden Fleece, pâle et rose comme un coquillage marin...""Sssh... Silentium post clamores," she said.
That is literally the closing of the chapter. The ellipses are in the text, not my modification. I presume they represent the interrupted conversation of rising passion, and that the protagonists proceeded to have wild and crazy sex.
Maybe I'll try a re-read of The Name of the Rose instead.
You are no more obligated to finish reading a bad book than you are to finish eating a bad meal.
ReplyDeleteCodex: eco was mischievous. Had a disdain for pseudo-intellectuals. I don't remember this scene skip over it if you try again. He had an encyclopedic mind and this book is part prank on discovering a great mystery and conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeleteFamously called social media an invasion of idiots.
I'd give it another try. Really enjoyed it. He's playing with the reader.
That matches my memory of the book - everything meant nothing but it all was of existential importance. Conspiracies and connections everywhere, even though none of it was probably real.
DeleteThere are a number of books that I wish I had had the sense to quit reading.
ReplyDeleteLord of the Rings (easily replaced by Bored of the Rings, all the action, none of the tramp tramp tramp), Dune (I was insensed by the ridiculously impossible physics of the sandworm), Moby Dick (the only parts I liked were the whaling technology chapters that everybody says you should skip), the incredibly self-indulgent tedium of everything that Neil Stevenson has written after Snow Crash and Diamond Age.
Also eminently quittable - Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga. It did win a Nobel Prize, but was incredible dreary for me to grind through in high school. I don't have high hopes for the upcoming PBS version, which I plan to avoid.
DeleteCodex: Since we're off topic. I'm well read, including world literature. But I think that Ulysses is my McGuffin. Three times and no further than a 100 pages.
DeleteI am definitely quitting unreadable books more often as I get older, I don't mind it too much, usually I can tell after a couple of chapters. But sometimes an otherwise good book's momentum/plot/coherence falters toward the end—those really irk me.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I often read the last chapter long before I get to it!
DeleteThere's too many books out there to waste time on ones you're not enjoying. Quitting one (hard as the habit is to break) leaves more time or something better.
ReplyDeleteSandra
re: "Tintinnabulum" A word the I was unfamiliar with and that I encountered twice yesterday. The first time was in the new James Lee Burke novel, The Hadacol Boogie, and then again in your post. Had to look it up.
ReplyDeleteHeu! Tintinnuntius meus sonat!
DeleteMy aunt’s strategy: If you are younger than 50, read 50 pages before giving up on a book. After 50, subtract a page for every year you exceed that age. The older you are, the less time you have to waste slogging through tedious things.
ReplyDeletePS I had the same reaction to Foucault’s Pendulum.
I remember reading the Pendulum and thinking it was a drag. I was much younger and trying to get into smart literature. I didn't get it. To be honest, I didn't care much for the Name of the Rose either, although that was much more bearable.
ReplyDeleteI too have got more ruthless in stopping reading books. I've realized that while many other people might like something, it's just ok if I don't. And there does not have to be a scientific literary reason for it. Bad vibes is enough.
Reading is for fun. It's relaxation. If a book is not achieving that, back to the library it goes.
I don't claim to be intellectual, but I have found throughout my life that many people who claim to be one, don't know shit more than the surface they're showing. This quote about Musk comes to mind:
"He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software & Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit I've ever heard anyone say, so when people say he's a genius I figure I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets."
This applies to a lot more people than Musk. They're just show-offs that know a fraction more than the general audience and get away with it. Do not take these people serious on any subject. They're charlatans. Frauds. Snake-oil salesmen.
And don't make them president.
Codex: Like the quote, Nepkarel. Eco was highly intelligent and a history prof and historian. He got tired of conspiracy theorists looking for mysteries as well as pseudointellectuals who argued with him. Foucault was the result.
DeleteHarlots Ghost by Norman Mailer was one for me. I did actually finish it. The first 100 pages were great, the last hundred pretty good, but everything in between a bit of a slog.
ReplyDeleteThe killer was the last 3 words..."To be continued" lol
Codex: correction professor of semiotics not history.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the "Codex:" at the beginning of your comments stand for?
DeleteIt's her name. Amanda Codex. She's famous.
DeleteI presume this is some type of librarian humor? It sailed over my head...
DeletePretentiousness is when one tries too hard to appear intellectual. Whether it is professors with hair askew or wanting us to think the couple spent all that time in bed discussing high and heady things, the real world shakes its head and rolls its eyes.
ReplyDeleteCodex: @drabkikker it's a username referring to old manuscripts etc.
ReplyDeleteSince your blog is private why the name drabkikker?
Thanks for the clarification. I knew what a codex is, I was just wondering why you opened your conments with it.
DeleteAs for Drabkikker: it's an anagram of my real name, but also means something like "muddy frog" in my language. You can find my blog at https://drabkikker.com
I don't know whether it's a coincidence or a reflection of my perhaps selective memory, but it seems to me that an unusually high proportion of readers of this blog are Dutch.
DeletePedantry as sexual misconduct.
ReplyDelete