We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die — Umberto Eco "like[s] lists for the same reason other people like football or pedophilia"
posted by blasdelf on Nov 19, 2009 - 99 comments

Historical fact follows historical fiction. Lick your fingers to turn the page. [more inside]
posted by WPW on Jun 30, 2008 - 10 comments

Have you read all these books? Hell, no. Yes, and many more. The answer is yes. No, these are the ones I have to read by the end of the month. Nay, I have written them. No, only four of them. No, and I never intend to live in a house where I can't find a book I haven't read. Not one-tenth of them. No, but I know why I bought each one. Probably not.
posted by mistersix on Feb 6, 2006 - 42 comments

"... Giordano Bruno might have been a pantheist. A pantheist believes that God is everywhere, even in that speck of a fly you see there. You can imagine how satisfying that is—being everywhere is like being nowhere. Well, for Hegel it wasn’t God but the State that had to be everywhere; therefore, he was a Fascist.”
“But didn’t he live more than a hundred years ago?”
“So? Joan of Arc, also a Fascist of the highest order. Fascists have always existed. Since the age of . . . since the age of God. Take God—a Fascist.”
Umberto Eco in the New Yorker
posted by matteo on Feb 28, 2005 - 36 comments

I found an American "Grand Prior Chevalier" Knight Templar challenging Osama Bin Laden to a sword duel in the sand while I was trying to find the cool Mac / Neverwinter Nights project Open Knights. The whole thing seemed so much like an outtake from the wonderful Foucault's Pendulum that I had to share.
posted by freebird on Apr 1, 2004 - 12 comments

Why Books Will Always Be With Us... along with almost everything else. Umberto Eco goes all encyclopedic on us (but in a nice way!) summing up (and reopening) the themes of a lifetime of reading, writing and watching. Though I'm sure what he says about the Web and electronic media will be picked to bits here, I'd say that would be a perfect vindication of this extraordinary exercise in common sense. [Via Arts & Letters Daily.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Nov 26, 2003 - 14 comments

A monstery mystery. A tale of confused monks, hoarded books, secret passageways, hidden cupboards and, ummm, CCTV.
posted by humuhumu on Jun 19, 2003 - 11 comments

Who was Count Saint-Germain? I was reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (discussed a bit here) and encountered the Count Saint-Germain, who I had vague recollections of from an episode of ...In Search Of. Turns out he is a pretty fascinating character, and has been labelled a genius, a charlatan, and even a vampire.
posted by synecdoche on Mar 25, 2003 - 5 comments