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.
Delete