Talk:Umberto Eco

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The article's current reference to "hypertextuality" links to the article on hypertext, which does not mention the postmodern literary concept of "hypertextuality".

Seems strange, yes. I linked to hypertextuality instead. I don't know the concept though, but if you do, please create the article and explain! Thanks. ✏ Sverdrup 13:50, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I suggest removing that bit. IMO this article should be about his life, works, etc, but should refrain from detailed literary criticism. The paragraph referring to 'hypertextuality' means nothing to anyone but a specialist. johnsemlak 8:35 28 Febrary 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Pedant

I read in some Italian site comments on his political articles (on 9/11?). The commenters thought him a pedant showing off his culture but giving no solutions. Is that an extended opinion?

Yes, it definitely is. Fleurbutterfly 20:41, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Opening sentence

Eco is a "novelist and philosopher, best known for his novels and essays." That's like saying he's a piano player known for playing the piano, it's ridiculous. Shouldn't the opening be a paragraph, including brief highlights of his life, work (Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum pop to mind) and such, instead of saying he's a novelist who (gasp) writes novels? LeoDV 21:30, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Eco a freemason? Even if he is (sources?), it definitely shouldn't come before medievalist, philosopher and novelist, or University professor, for that matter.

[edit] Influenced by ?

Having admired Eco's works for many years, I have recently stumbled upon J.L Borges. Its worth seeing the wickipedia pages on Borges, in particular the part one Eco and his work "The Name of The Rose". I found both share a love of the philosophical meander, pardoxes, taught narrative and academic parody. However, given the amount of other authors they both reference, where do we end on the matter ... under a large heap of musty books.

I don't know if Jorge Luis Borges should be mentioned since he can be mentioned as an influence for almost every 20th century author. Indeed, many authors do point to him as an inspiration, even when the styles and motifs are of a totally different nature. It would sort of be like saying a philosopher is somewhat influenced by Aristotle or Plato.--Rousseau

[edit] pretentiousness + lack of biography

The fact that Eco's writings are sometimes occasionally pretentious doesn't mean this page has to be as well. It would be more beneficial for the readers if the author of it was more interested in writing a dictionary entry than a school paper.

More important, however, is the fact that the "Biography and opus" part is all opus and no biography. I'd like to write the biography myself, but don't know enough about Eco's personal life to be capable of it.

What happened to the rule that we have to sign our every post on WP? Fleurbutterfly 20:46, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] /* Pedant */

No, this is by no means the popular view over here in Italy at any rate!! He has a weekly series in the extremely presitigious and extremely popular magazine L'Espresso which is widely read. I, personally , think that he is often prententious and offers no solutions, etc.. But that does not seem to be a widely shared view OVER HERE. Perhaps his political and social commentary should be mentioned in the Main text??

lacatosias

you said "I, personally" right? You answered your own delimma. That's your own point of view, and clearly, Umberto Eco is widely respected. Most of us just don't share your sentiments. Fleurbutterfly 20:52, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Homepage, publisher

Does anybody know if Eco has an official homepage maintained endorsed either by him or his publisher? I'm not finding much with Google.

Also no mention is made in the article of his publisher in Italy, Bompiani in Milan. — Hippietrail 19:45, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

éé== doctorate ==

What does doctarate mean? It could not be a "dottorato", the equivalent of the English PhD., since it was introduced in Italy only in the late 1980s. I suppose that degree to be more appropriate. AnyFile 22:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm also unsure, but my Italian teacher once told me that the "normal" Italian doctorate equals a MA. February, 21st, User:prorokini

Anyfile is right. That's a BA. Cf the French version: "diplomé" USER:FOKWH

[edit] This page has been edited by Eco himself

In a recent article by Eco on Wikipedia, he mentions disagreeing with a description of one of his books, and says that he personally corrected the text

According to the article he corrected an interpretation that can't be found on this article, but on Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition. Shouldn't that paragraph be moved to that article? SncBlue 14:34, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Eco wrote also that he corrected something about his biography that was not correct (on this page, I presume) --Ggonnell 10:20, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Was he talking about Italian WP?--Shtove 22:14, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] beauty

[edit] Missing works

Has anybody here yet seen Librarything.com? Have a look at Umberto Eco's page there and you'll see there are a few works missing from the bibliography here. The page includes works in many languages and many collection, which don't always map 1:1 with collections in other languages:

http://www.librarything.com/author/ecoumberto

— Hippietrail 16:49, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] a question

The study of Eco's works - ecology?

sorry - bad joke

andreas_td 17:40, 1 May 2006 (UTC+2)

Here's another bad joke:
The study of Andreas' works - andrology?
Geir Gundersen 13:51, 1 June 2006 (UTC)


hahaha! breather...Fleurbutterfly 20:55, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quote on christianity

I came across a reflection of his in the intro to a book of studies c.2000. It ran something like this: If christianity is not the truth, then the beauty of its concept is at least strong evidence for the existence of god. Does anyone know the citation for this?--Shtove 21:40, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Umberto Eco is agnostic and he has lost his faith long time ago, so I doubt he said that. Ciacchi 15:23, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
A cynical, optimistic agnostic. Sounds like Eco to me. Phyte (talk) 00:53, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
But he writes better than Dan Brown. He makes you think.Fleurbutterfly 20:57, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] People like complicated stories with arcane figures

I changed "Although his novels often include references to arcane historical figures and texts and his dense, intricate plots tend to take dizzying turns, he has enjoyed a wide audience around the world, with good sales and many translations." into "Because his novels often include references to arcane historical figures and texts and his dense, intricate plots tend to take dizzying turns, he has enjoyed a wide audience around the world, with good sales and many translations." I don't think people really prefer novels with only references to TV figures and sparse, simple plots which are straightforward. Geir Gundersen 13:49, 1 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Atheist?

He's listed in the Italian atheists category - is this accurate? My impression is that he's an agnostic.--Shtove 16:18, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

You are correct. Eco is an agnostic, and actually states that "one should not have the arrogance to declare that God does not exist." (See [1]) --Banderman11 06:02, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

I don’t know what his position is. But the wikiquote reference is unfortunately worthless: the article claims he said that, but gives absolutely no indication of where or when. —Ian Spackman 15:56, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm. Richard Dawkins has never claimed that god definitely does not exist, and I'm sure it's agreed that he is Athiest rather than Agnostic. Think you need to understand what the term Athiest means (Wikipedia essentially gives two views, one of which I don't buy into). 81.159.235.154 22:43, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spoiler

Don't know if I'm doing this right - never edited Wikipedia before. But... Currently reading Foucault's Pendulum and decided to check the author. Although I could be wrong as I haven't finished it yet the paragraph about it seems to be a minor spoiler. Can we get a spoiler warning in there or possibly jst reomve the spoiler? "The game turns dangerous when outsiders learn of The Plan, and believe that the men have really discovered the secret to regaining the lost treasure of the Templars." - THats the particular sentence

Meh. We know this from the first few pages when the narrator is hiding in the museum: a group of nastymen are out to get Hero Protagonist. The entire story is told in flashback. The "spoiler" is no worse, and probably less culpable in wrecking the plot development, than any good movie trailer. You ask a valid question, but it's probably not a real problem.

I think the sentence "We know this from the first few pages when the narrator is hiding in the museum: a group of nastymen are out to get Hero Protagonist." is an oversimplified and unjustified statement. It obviously IS a GIANT spoiler. If you knew it beforehand, how could you complete reading the book and enjoy it? It is obviously one of that "oh! That ending was obvious" statements, which are, 99% of the time, a plain fabrication on the part of the concerned person. I think we need to remove this spoiler or insert a spoiler warning. It certainly ruined any suspense for me. Ntveem 11:06, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] postmodernist

I know Eco "has been labelled" a postmodernist author. However, much like with categories like "gay people", I doubt is sufficient to categorize him as such. We would ideally need evidence that he self-identfies as a postmodernist, or at least evidence that the classification is undisputed. He is certainly (very much) aware of postmodernism, but that's irrelevant. dab (𒁳) 18:04, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Questionable start and source

I don't agree with (almost) starting the article with the sentence

Recently his 1988 novel Foucault's Pendulum has been described as a "thinking person's Da Vinci Code,"

since Focault's pendulum is much superior to Da Vinci Code. Citing a source is alright, but the sources must be of some quality, too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.50.160.90 (talk) 21:45, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Much superior, well written, well planned, than Da Vinci Code. Fleurbutterfly 21:01, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
And may i add that The Name of the Rose is also superior. Fleurbutterfly 21:02, 20 May 2008 (UTC)