Foucault's Pendulum is a book by an Italian professor of philosophy named Umberto Eco, which has been described as "the thinking man's Da Vinci Code." It is littered with philosophical, historical, and literary references -- so many, in fact, that Anthony Burgess said it needed an index. None exist. Even Neuromancer has a high-page-ranked "study guide" on Google. Well, fair enough; these days, anyone can write a study guide.
Neuromancer merited a study guide for a variety of reasons, one being that the world in which it was set was as much a protagonist of the story as any of Gibson's actual characters. Another was that the informational overload in his prose style was symbolically meaningful as well as narratively load-bearing ; in the world of his creation, informational overload was the norm, as well as culture shock, generation gapping, and just about every other form of societal and personal alienation and neurosis that a world could inflict on a person. So it makes sense that you would feel like a foreigner, visiting his world.
Eco, on the other hand, littered his book with all these obscure references perhaps to make a point about the intellectual snobbery of people who, like his narrator, can argue about Kant in everyday conversation with a straight face but still believes that the world is united in this mystical enigma that has been a secret since the Middle Ages. Maybe he also did it to discourage casual readers, such as those who might enjoy the Da Vinci Code, for example, from reading his book. He liked Borges and wasn't above screwing with his readers in such a way, the entire premise of his book is that scholars of history invent a game that, unwittingly, changes history. The whole book is like a commentary about how even the most learned and elitist of intellectuals can still fall prey to the same beliefs in mysticism and magic that people in medieval times did. And then again, maybe he just actually writes like that.
So this is my poor man's Foucault's Pendulum study guide. I have no idea if I'm even going to be able to find all these references; I wouldn't even put it past this guy to just make some stuff up out of thin air. As usual, these posts will be more for myself than for anyone in particular. And you don't really need a study guide to enjoy the book, it's still a good read even if you don't know all the obscure people he name drops. You've been warned. So come, I dare you, turn the page.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment