Did anyone read Foucault's Pendulum? I willing to read but i would like to know someone who have actually read the book before buying it... You know, to know the opinion... in these sites like amazon only the people who liked the book publish their opinion. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...103-2444056-1835838?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Ever eaten cactus fruit? They're these redish pink nubs that grow on Mexican or Southwestern cactii. Delicious, but way too many fucking seeds. And so, I've compared reading Mr. Eco to eating one of those fruits. Its teeming with color and imagery- check this out: "O joy, O new vertigo of difference, O my platonic reader-writer racked by a most platonic insomnia, O wake of finnegan, O animal charming and benign........Your thoughts go too fast for your aching wrist...but with him your fingers dream, your mind brusehs the keyboard, you are born on golden pinions, and at last you confont the light of critical reason with the happiness of a first encounter........." - Diotevelli, pg 22 Fevered prose and lots of color, but only worth the hassle if you're brave enough to put up with the tangled show-n-tell of a pedant- which is what Eco comes off as in his writing. Try it. You can burn my house down if you don't like it.
This is my 8,000th post? 8,000 ... woo-hoo. Foucault's Pendulum is a beautiful novel. Even the early bit about vaginas. And the underlying irony is exquisite. Eco expounds on the philosophies of European politics, Italian culture, varied aspects of the occult and history, publishing, and pinball, among other things. There's a delicious bit about idiots and morons, as well. It can be a life-changing experience, especially if you try to take it too seriously and figure out your error before the end. In response to the tangled, pedantic show and tell ... well, Eco is a professor of semiotics. And wasn't the book in Italian to start with? Translation must have been nearly a spiritual experience, though we must bear in mind that visions of hell count as spiritual experiences as well.