Foucault's Pendulum

May 03, 2008 Will rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dethpakt

Imagine three sarcastic, over-educated editors who work at a vanity publisher. Owing to their occupation, they naturally end up reading an abundance of books about ridiculously grand conspiracy theories and occult societies - the Freemasons, the Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati (Bavarian and otherwise), and so on. So they start to play a sort of free-association game: Let's connect all these things, using the same half-mad logic as the authors of these books, into one grand design. Thu...more Imagine three sarcastic, over-educated editors who work at a vanity publisher. Owing to their occupation, they naturally end up reading an abundance of books about ridiculously grand conspiracy theories and occult societies - the Freemasons, the Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Illuminati (Bavarian and otherwise), and so on. So they start to play a sort of free-association game: Let's connect all these things, using the same half-mad logic as the authors of these books, into one grand design. Thus The Plan is born.

But they're too good at it. The Plan starts to get away from them. After so long immersed in the dream-logic of conspiracy theories you can form seemingly-natural (and ominous) connections between any pair of things. So when strange and ominous things do happen, when the pieces seem to start falling into place, is it just coincidence? Are the things they thought they were making up real?

Yes, as others have said, you'll get more out of this book if you know multiple languages, have a dictionary handy, have some background in the occult, etc. Considering that the author and the protagonists are all polyglot intellectuals with doctorates in literature and/or medieval history, it'll naturally help you if you are similarly educated. But I don't think that's necessary to enjoy the book overall. It is wry and intellectual but at its heart it's a detective thriller: A friend goes missing and Our Hero needs to find out why. And he finds a lot more than he bargained for.

Some notes for readers: this book follows the pattern "Our Hero, just before the Final Confrontation, takes a moment to flash back to all the circumstances leading him to this moment." So you start out right near the end. You will be confused and overwhelmed. Press on, dear reader. All the important things will be explained. Don't worry too much if you don't know everything about Kabbalah or Socialism in Italy in the 1960s - they are not vital to the story. But reading about them does add to the enjoyment.

In fact, I think that might be one of my favorite things about this book: the sheer breadth of the references and allusions - medieval history to James Joyce to the Beatles. I could probably spend a couple of months plugging everything I didn't understand from my first reading into Wikipedia and seeing what I find out.

Which I plan to do. On my second reading.(less)

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Apr 04, 2009 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery

This book consists of predominantly two things: (1) Endless dialogue by mentally unbalanced paranoid conspiracy theorists; (2) Endless dialogue by scholars who study mentally unbalanced paranoid conspiracy theorists. This is not a bad book, but its not an easy read, and not really a particularly enjoyable one. My enjoyment, or lack thereof, was tempered by the fact that I was apparently trying to read one story, but the author was trying to tell a different one. Put another way, I was trying to...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Jason added it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2008

Between his home and his summer home, Umberto Eco has some 50,000 books to his name. I believe that he has read every one of them, some probably twice. Which is to say that this is an erudite novel. A warning to the reader: you will be wading into lists of reference materials. You are about to be presented with conversations that run for pages that are dedicated solely to the minutiae of conspiracies, most about the Templars. I warned you.

But this book is not just about secret societies and the...more Between his home and his summer home, Umberto Eco has some 50,000 books to his name. I believe that he has read every one of them, some probably twice. Which is to say that this is an erudite novel. A warning to the reader: you will be wading into lists of reference materials. You are about to be presented with conversations that run for pages that are dedicated solely to the minutiae of conspiracies, most about the Templars. I warned you.

But this book is not just about secret societies and the practices of their members and those that wish to be members. This is a book about learning and knowledge. How do we come to know something and how do we come to believe something? How do these two interact and how do we come to believe something that we do not necessarily know? These are the questions that arise in this tale of three editors and their journey down a path, a game to them at first, that leads them deep into the secret plot that they, themselves, created.

Told mostly in flashback, the story is thickened with tales of the end of the second world war, loves and loves lost, the changing of regimes and the changing of revolutionaries as they age, often without grace. The story gets down to it, eventually, leading the end of the book at quick pace down the road of conspiracy. But it seems to be strongest when it is sitting around at a bar, discussing history and historical anomalies. While this is about about occultists an it is a book full of facts, it is really a book about people, three people in particular, but us in general: the way we learn and the way we fraternize and the way we love and the way that we fail to understand.

Understanding is what this boils down to, in the end. So I recommend that this book be picked up and a severe hunk of time dedicated to reading it (it will take quite a bit of time). You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about the supposed plots of the Templars, middle to late medieval history and the like. You will also learn, however, about the act of learning. And that alone is worth the price of admission.
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Jul 19, 2007 Nathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Adults with large vocabularies

Shelves: fiction

The best book I have ever read. It is the creepiest, deepest, and most brilliantly executed piece of literature. Umberto Eco is a genius, and if I could have a conversation with anyone, it would be him.

The book, however, is very difficult to read. The language is dense, and in the first 200 pages, it beats you over the head with history of the Knights Templar and the Rosicrucians. All of this history is necessary to make the second half cause you to shit your pants. It's basically about these gu...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Giuseppe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-italian, 1980-s, genre-historical-fiction

In uno dei cablogrammi rilasciati da Wikileaks (non ricordo esattamente quale) v'era scritto che gli italiani sono un popolo con una tendenza un po' paranoide di vedere complotti e poteri forti nascosti un po' dappertutto. Un parziale riscatto a tale frase era presente nella susseguente: "è anche vero che tale convinzione è fondata storicamente".

Il che la dice lunga sul popolo italico, costretto a vivere all'ombra di grosse masse d'influenza come il Vaticano, la Mafia (la m maiuscola non è casua...more In uno dei cablogrammi rilasciati da Wikileaks (non ricordo esattamente quale) v'era scritto che gli italiani sono un popolo con una tendenza un po' paranoide di vedere complotti e poteri forti nascosti un po' dappertutto. Un parziale riscatto a tale frase era presente nella susseguente: "è anche vero che tale convinzione è fondata storicamente".

Il che la dice lunga sul popolo italico, costretto a vivere all'ombra di grosse masse d'influenza come il Vaticano, la Mafia (la m maiuscola non è casuale), Berlusconi o chi fa per voi. E' vero anche, però, che queste storture della nostra nazione hanno fatto sì che proliferassero come funghi figuri se non proprio loschi, sicuramente non cristallini. Gente che, anche grazie ai mezzi attuali come la rete (e qua invece è la r minuscola ad essere voluta), hanno creato un vero e proprio network di para-informazione. Para-informazione perché, prendendo spunto da notizie vere circolanti e non nel mainstream informativo, con un misto di ottusità e insinuazione "fabbricano" complotti che non hanno alcuna fondatezza. Ed è anche vero che gente di tale risma, ahimè, fa anche parte di quella che potremmo chiamare "classe dirigente". Penso ai deliri del nostro (?) europarlamentare Borghezio contro il "mondialismo" e la "massoneria", oppure le farneticazioni di Giulietto Chiesa contro l'"ordine delle banche".

Tutto questo per dire che a queste persone bisognerebbe far leggere e rileggere, in maniera imperitura, Il pendolo di Foucault di Eco. Infatti questo romanzo, opera seconda del maestro, tratteggia quel fare morboso, prendendo spunto dalle vicende dei templari, per cui si tende a costruire una para-storia nella quale le ombre la fanno da padrone e di luce non ve n'è alcuna. Ovvio che stiamo parlando di persone la cui componente psicopatologica è superiore a quella razionale. Al di là di tutto quello che si è detto di questo romanzo (ed io sono l'ultima voce in capitolo, figurarsi), Eco tratteggia benissimo all'interno di esso questo spirito. Per cui ci si rende conto alla fine come un divertissment come quello del congetturare su quello che non è dato sapere possa diventare pericoloso nelle mani (o menti) sbagliate, anche se si rivela completamente infondato. Benché quindi tutto il romanzo sia volto alla costruzione di una para-storia (dove ovviamente non possono mancare gli amati Rosacroce), il finale è una condanna di questa. O meglio, del voler prendere sul serio la stessa (non casuale che lo smantellamento delle congetture sia ad opera di una donna).

Concludo dicendo che se da un lato il libro ha un valore pedagogico (per chi abbiamo detto manca di giudizio critico e si "beve" qualsiasi cosa) dall'altro rappresenta un'inesauribile fonte di spunti storici e filosofici (a patto che si abbia un giudizio critico molto sviluppato).

E' quindi un romanzo per il quale, bisogna dirlo, si deve essere "attrezzati". Evasa questa premessa, letteralmente si vola sulle pagine (non proprio sulle prime cinquanta ;-) ).

Buona lettura.(less)

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Jul 27, 2010 40 Forte rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-really-really-good

Eco once said that author Dan Brown (Angels & Demons, DaVinci Code, etc) might have very well been one of the characters he created in Focault's Pendulum. Eco uses Focault's pendulum to showcase the absurdity in over analyzing ancient legends or secret societies and in the process creates an intellectual and dizzying tale that stands in direct contrast to the Dan Brown's of the world writing for the pop culture masses.

The work is a discourse in secret societies (Templar Knights, Freemasons,...more Eco once said that author Dan Brown (Angels & Demons, DaVinci Code, etc) might have very well been one of the characters he created in Focault's Pendulum. Eco uses Focault's pendulum to showcase the absurdity in over analyzing ancient legends or secret societies and in the process creates an intellectual and dizzying tale that stands in direct contrast to the Dan Brown's of the world writing for the pop culture masses.

The work is a discourse in secret societies (Templar Knights, Freemasons, Jesuits, Rosicrucia s, etc), religions, political revolutions, and the basic tensions of confronting and conquering one's fear.

But unlike most conspiracy works, we are let in on the secret from the beginning....that namely, the main characters do not believe the story they are creating-and they are essentially creating this story to mock those who have tried to dedicate their lives to the concepts of world domination through the occult.

Specific plot details are difficult to relay since there are really 2 stories one encounters when reading this. The 1st story is those of the men in the book and their interactions and personal growth, and the second is the actual "plan" those characters create in massive and at times very perplexing detail.

The "plan" itself is simply a fictional plan for world domination which will explain most of the secret societies throughout history and their efforts to control the earth. It's created by the main protagonists in the story to mock others who so easily believe such things and to make profits off the sale of the "plan" in book form.

But nothing about the "plan" remains simple-for the reader we get a massive-and I mean massive amount of information from the mythology and reality of all cultures...and for the characters creating the "plan" becomes an obsession which threatens their existence.

This is one book that I don't mind re-reading or researching specific facts or people further....because it only lends to the incredible depth of the work.

When Eco writes he expects you to put a little effort into your reading....and if you do, you'll find it well well worth it (even if you do miss a reference here and there.)(less)

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Jul 07, 2008 Quentin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A critique of post-modern history, wrapped in one hell of a funny historical mystery. Taught me critical theory before I knew what that was.

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Apr 09, 2008 Gerard rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of those books where the author tediously says next to nothing, and all the semi-litterati can't figure out what he's trying to say, so they conclude he must be brilliant. A wasted effort by an otherwise talented (so I hear) author, and that portion of the gullible public that assumes that something profound is being said so long as they can't understand it.

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Jul 21, 2009 Ben Babcock rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, translated, 2009-read, didactic-fiction, favourites, historical-fiction, literary-pretentious, religion-fiction, 2009-best10

I read a lot, and the people around me are used to seeing a new book in my hand every day or couple of days. Naturally, they ask me what I'm reading, usually in a way that implies I should divulge more than just the title and the author, which are plainly visible on the cover. How do I respond when I'm reading something so sublime and transcendental as Foucault's Pendulum? It defies ordinary description of plot, because Umberto Eco has again unified his narrative with his themes and characters t...more

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May 15, 2007 Philip rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is without doubt my favorite book of the last 20 years. I re-read it every couple of years, but I no longer suggest it to friends. Too many people see me reading it and I have been so enthusiastic about it, they gave it a try but couldn't make it past the first hundred or so pages which are thick with historical and literary references.

It is a roller coaster ride through historical patterns, filled with wonder and human longing and error. Eco sets up the idea of patterns early, finding the...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, mystery, historical-fiction, conspiracy, european-literature, literary-fiction, meta, post-modernism, 1980s

Foucault’s Pendulum may not be for everyone and I will try not to give away any of the story. Personally, I really enjoyed the way it was written. I went into the book knowing it was about Secret Societies and conspiracy theories, but as I kept reading the book, I started to think it was real. I had to snap myself out of this thought process. The story follows a group of publishers who started deconstructing and analysing what they knew about the Templers, eventually they were drawing connection...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: Libby Weber

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, philosophy, novels, suspense

I started Foucault’s Pendulum with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. Anticipation because I loved Eco’s historical mystery The Name of the Rose and a friend whose literary judgement I respect loved Foucault’s Pendulum and rated it five stars. Trepidation because I had heard it was a “difficult” book, the kind where you need a dictionary handy--not just unabridged English but dictionaries in various other languages--and a book filled with modernist techniques and esoteric and complex sub...more I started Foucault’s Pendulum with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. Anticipation because I loved Eco’s historical mystery The Name of the Rose and a friend whose literary judgement I respect loved Foucault’s Pendulum and rated it five stars. Trepidation because I had heard it was a “difficult” book, the kind where you need a dictionary handy--not just unabridged English but dictionaries in various other languages--and a book filled with modernist techniques and esoteric and complex subject matter. All of the above is true more or less but for whatever reason I didn’t find it a difficult read at all. Maybe that’s because after reading James Joyce and William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, this is easy. But I think the big dividing line with me and modern literary fiction is this, is there a sense of humor or not? Does the author feel like a pompous show-off, or is he gleefully playing with words and the reader? That made a world of difference, for instance in my enjoyment of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which I hated, and her Orlando, which I loved. And maybe this makes me officially geeky and weird, but at least at first I thought the narrator in Foucault’s Pendulum was hilarious, that from the beginning Eco was exuberantly messing with me tongue firmly in cheek and I found the first third of the book fast-reading. I’ve heard this described as a “thinking man’s DaVinci Code” and even though it predates it, it does play with a lot of similar themes--conspiracy theories, the Grail, the eternal feminine, the Priory of Zion, the Templars--it’s all here. Only Eco can write beyond a grade school level--and gets his facts right. Well, even if they’re the “facts” regarding a wealth of crackpot theories--including the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and they made babies creating a bloodline:

"Nobody would take that seriously," Diotallevi said.

"On the contrary, it would sell a few hundred thousand copies," I said grimly.

Hee. That said, at times I felt this book had diarrhea of the mouth, and Eco would go on for much too long in his detailing of esoterica--I kinda realize that pile on is part of the design, but there were also times I was rather impatient with it, and found much of the last two-thirds a slog, and that lost it one star. The other star was lost because in the end I just didn’t care much about the characters, including Casaubon, our first person narrator. I never connected with him the way I did with the characters in The Name of the Rose, which I can’t remember ever not finding absorbing. But there were things I did love here, which is what kept this book from slipping lower in my estimation. I loved at times how it examined the mindset behind conspiracy theories and occult beliefs, how one can slowly lose “that intellectual light that allows you to always tell the similar from the identical and the metaphorical from the real” and keep from connecting things that do not belong together. I loved how a certain password eventually fit into the theme. So no, this didn’t wind up a favorite like The Name of the Rose, but I’m glad I read Foucault’s Pendulum.(less)

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Jun 21, 2012 Juan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Foucault’s Pendulum centers around three editors working for a small publishing company. Casaubon is our narrator, Diotallevi is the oddball character, and Jacopo Belbo, the novel’s most important character, is, as the book says, a man with a healthy sense of irony and a knack for enjoying the ridiculous. Because of their position, they receive an influx of manuscripts from conspiracy theorists (whom they affectionally call the Diabolicals), and as a joke, start playing a game they call the Plan...more Foucault’s Pendulum centers around three editors working for a small publishing company. Casaubon is our narrator, Diotallevi is the oddball character, and Jacopo Belbo, the novel’s most important character, is, as the book says, a man with a healthy sense of irony and a knack for enjoying the ridiculous. Because of their position, they receive an influx of manuscripts from conspiracy theorists (whom they affectionally call the Diabolicals), and as a joke, start playing a game they call the Plan, which consists of trying to tie facts cherry-picked from the scripts of the Diabolicals and from historical sources. Belbo himself uses a computer named Abulafia to make connections between facts. Eventually, the team develops a complex plot involving medieval European history and the Crusades, secret societies, cabalistic texts, ancient esoterica and mysticism, and even Hitler and the Nazis at one point. Because of certain events that occur at the beginning of the book, the bulk of the story focuses on Casaubon going through Belbo’s files in Abulafia, containing his thoughts during the process of creating the Plan in the form of fictional texts and random prose sections. In my opinion, the fictional stories do not work that well narratively: they become tedious, rambling, and indulgent because of their length and the frequency with which they appear in the novel. On the other hand, the prose sections are very insightful: the character of Jacopo Belbo is a man filled with a perpetual sense of cowardice due to his perceived inability to seize the moment and do the right thing in several critical moments in his life. Said inability is part of the reason why he decides to become a literary editor: his incapacity to create causes him to choose a life where he only arranges other people’s works, thus relegating himself to a vicarious existence.

As the plot unfolds, the Plan begins to take a life of its own, and it draws the attention of actual members of a secret society who believe that the Plan is true. The book has a very good pace for the first 300 pages or so: the characters are well developed, and though a bit verbose, their interactions are very engaging and interesting. Where Eco shines, though, is in his skewering of the conspiracy theorist mindset: the attitude that everything is connected with everything else in a way that is both ill-defined in structure yet highly effective in execution, that vagueness and eccentricity are equivalent with wisdom, and that having an unjustified sense of persecution and an incredible stubbornness towards changing your opinion somehow validates your views. Over the years, I’ve read my share of conspiracy theory literature: books like The Jesus Papers, Genesis of the Grail Kings , Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy. Although I understand that these books come from a well-meaning sense of skepticism about the world (history is written by the winners, any recollection of a previous event will be biased in some way, yada yada), most of them are atrocious: patently ahistorical, obsessed with finding extraneously put together patterns and completely obnoxious in their certainty of the truth. Eco’s caricaturing of the thought process of these people is easily the most enjoyable part of the book.

Despite my praise for the first 300 or so pages, this is an over 600-page book. After the characters, their personalities, and quirks are established and the Plan begins to take shape, the book completely lost me. This middle section, this critical “Two Towers” portion of the story, where what was important about the setup is developed so as to build towards the third act, was very unengaging. It is ironic that a book whose central theme is skewering overly convoluted conspiracy theories somehow became an overly convoluted conspiracy theory itself, or at least it started to read like one. When the characters start to add up theories about the Templars, the Rosicrucians, the Teutonic Knights, Gnostics, Freemasons, and other groups, the book just became a succession of obscure medieval references being painstakingly joined together to make some sort of lineage or connection between these groups based on ancillary information. Although thematically that makes complete sense given that that is what a lot conspiracy theorists do, at this point, I almost felt like I was reading Numbers, Deuteronomy, or any Biblical text where the author pummels you with a series of related names and numbers: “…and Fulano begat Sotano, who begat Perengano”. I kept zoning in and out of this section of the book, and the continuous diversions into Belbo’s computer did not help. By the time the third act started, my interests had switched from enjoying the book to trying to reach the end.

This book is a conundrum for me: it does a very good job of describing the mindset of the type of person who feels drawn to conspiracy theories while managing to feel about as weighty and labyrinthine as the ideas it tries to expose. It superimposes modern technology with ancient religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas, showing them as links in a centuries-long catena of concepts, but that connection eventually becomes uneven and turns the plot into an endless succession of medieval concepts, secret societies, and ancient texts that begin to sound interchangeable and lose all narrative impact. The story can even be taken as a satiric take on the development of historicity and how our understanding of historic facts might be more subjective than we would honestly admit. Despite that potential, the story keeps getting bogged down by too many overly long excursions into Belbo’s computer files and a rambling, unengaging middle section filled with too many details about medieval esoterica. So, despite my relative enjoyment of a large part of the book, why do I give it 3 stars instead of 4 or 5? Well, frankly because I feel that, as a whole, the book is far too narratively imbalanced. Re-readability is a large part of what makes a novel great, and though I will revisit some of the very enjoyable passages contained in the book, this is a novel, not a reference book, and there are at least 200 pages that are keeping me from taking in the book as a single narrative again. The parts that work are well-written, entertaining, and informative, but the book is simply too inconsistent, convoluted, and lengthy to justify a higher rating. Those who enjoy medieval history and conspiracy theories can certainly give it a try, but Eco’s previous offer, The Name of the Rose, is a much more cohesive, interesting and ultimately rewarding experience.
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Jul 04, 2009 Andreea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my second attempt at Umberto Eco's novel, the first time I only got through about half of the book before giving it up in favor of, simply put- more "exciting" books. I picked it up again because I had to read a book about secret societies for the Summer Challenge on The Next Best Book Club and the only alternative was Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (and I'm not that keen on Dan Brown's writing style). In the end, once I tried to think everything through, the book proved to be amazing an...more This was my second attempt at Umberto Eco's novel, the first time I only got through about half of the book before giving it up in favor of, simply put- more "exciting" books. I picked it up again because I had to read a book about secret societies for the Summer Challenge on The Next Best Book Club and the only alternative was Dan Brown's Angels and Demons (and I'm not that keen on Dan Brown's writing style). In the end, once I tried to think everything through, the book proved to be amazing and completely worth my time and patience.

i.

I think that one of the things that drives people away from this book is the fact that they take it much to seriously, its charm lies in mockery and sarcasm. The fact that Eco mocks popular historical thrillers is undoubted and many readers pick up on that, or at least expect the book (written by an European scholar) to be like that, but what a lot of people don't see is that the mockery expands much beyond that. More than a book about secret societies, it's a book about books- writing books, editing books, publishing book, reading books. After a lifetime spent making the world a juster place through editing books, Belbo buys a personal computer and names it Abulafia not because he wants to play around with Kabbalah, but because he wants to write. They years haven't made him give up his teenage dream of becoming a writer. Diotallevi on the other hand is the editor. He loves his job because it allows him to pretend he's a Kabbalist, the same way the fact that he's an orphan allows him to he claim/pretend to be a Jew. Mr Garamond introduces us to the world of vanity publishers and you can't help but laugh at the things he says. Actually, I think you should laugh at all the characters because they all take themselves much too seriously -they're all intellectual independent middle aged men, yet they all behave like children. The first three hundred pages of the book where almost nothing happens are much easier to digest if you look at things in a lighthearted manner, instead of trying to find some complicated connections between Eco's novel and Foucault's philosophy (and by the way, he did say that the pun was not intended, but he's a very cunning author so I have my doubts).

But, of course, Eco mocks you too, for being a reader of historical thrillers and for expecting his book to be an exciting read. I'm almost sure he feels a great deal of pleasure whenever somebody tells him the book is boring and that he should've gotten a better editor, the author doesn't feel the need to hold the reader's attention because he doesn't want to produce a "page turner", he wants to tease you. Although it was published before The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, I think we as witnesses of their phenomenal popularity can enjoy Eco's book all the more. Because in Foucault's Pendulum we encounter all kinds of people who blindly believe in all kinds of books. How many people do you know who believe that Dan Brown's novels hold some truth?

ii.

If you look at the book even deep you discover it's very ingenious and funny. I'm quite proud of my theory about Casaubon the narrator-character and judging by the book's complicated structure (memories are involuntary) also the author (and editor) of the text. The first thing that doesn't tie in with the plot is the book's structure itself. When did Casaubon have the time to write such a complicated long novel? He says he arrives at the the Canepas house/mannor at six in the evening and that as he's writing the last two chapter of the book it's already three a.m. But how is it possible to write a 600 pages novel in 9 hours? The answer is very simple- it's not. Let's assume for the sake of the argument that Casaubon only has to write 500 pages and the rest are Belbo's documents, let's also assume that each pages has on average 250 words and we'll reach the conclusion that the novel has 125 000 words. A good average handwriting speed is 20 wpm, thus 1200 words per hour, at which you could write 10 800 words in 9 hours. Casaubon couldn't finish the book in 9 hours even if he wrote ten times faster than that. Also odd are the numerous refrences to books and scientific papers, unless you're Funes you just can't remember Latin title of book if it has more than 20 words.

I don't think that Umberto Eco can be that sloppy about his writings, I read his Six Walks in the Fictional Woods a few weeks ago and I simply can't imagine how somebody who understands how important time and temporal clues are in a story to completely ignore time in his. I've read that some people think Casaubon is so caught in the Plan and that he imagines/hallucinates all the events in the last part of the novel, but I prefer a more innocent theory. I think Casaubon really is an unreliable narrator, but in the sense that the whole story he tells is false. Obviously, we usually think that fiction is made up, but here the narrator is trying to trick us into believing that the story he tells is true at least in the context of the novel. Moreover, Foucault's Pendulum tells so much about people who thought books were true, when they were actually made up. Either way, I think Eco manages to make the reader a character in the novel beautifully because whether you believe Casaubon is telling the truth or that he's trying to trick you you've fallen under the books spell- either by believing everything you read, or by seeing conspiracies and theories everywhere.

There are more than one way of reading a book, the first time I tried reading Foucault's Pendulum I read it as a "serious" book, but when I picked it up again I looked at everything with a more incredulous eyes and excepted sarcasm and jokes, I hope that in the future I'll read it again and find something else in it.
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Jun 10, 2007 Andy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Very patient Eco fans (is there any other kind?)

This book is a conundrum to me. I liked the story of three book editors accidentally enmeshing themselves in the world of conspiracy theory. I liked the philosophical discussion of why we believe in things like Great Global Conspiracies. I even thought some of the history was interesting.

But LORD, did Eco need an editor. In parts of this book, the signal-to-noise ratio is distressingly low as Eco's talking heads sit and discuss the intricacies of Templar and Rosicrucian history for page after p...more

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Apr 11, 2013 thegift rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pomo, italylit, umbertoeco, xlong-over-100kwords, translated, favoritefiction

i think of this as a corrective to pynchon’s work, where everything is involved in a massive conspiracy, this book offers a sort of ‘theory of conspiracy’. that disparate events can all be made to connect, that once you begin with conspiracy it quickly becomes an article of faith and not argument, that there is no escape from suspicion and possibility, that- my favorite bit- the entire world is turned inside-out and every evidence contrary is part of a worldwide deception, for me this is even mo...more

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Oct 19, 2007 Heidi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe this will make me look stupid... but this book was far too brainy, academic and philosophical to be a really engrossing read. I had to make myself slog through certain portions of this book -- Eco is clearly brilliant, but needs to learn to keep a plot together. Too much extraneous information, too many digressions, too much detailed background information, and you distract from the plot.

This is not an easy read. This book will take patience, ambition, and perseverence to read. It's worth...more

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Mar 03, 2012 Peter Greenwell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What we have here is x amount of pages that can be ultimately distilled down to "yes, all conspiracy theories are for real, haha". In the meantime, you get to experience the lives and times of three very cardboard ciphers named Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon as they oh-so cleverly dick their way around northern Italy and the world. Vapid inconsequential human parodies.

Mind you, this is "literary fiction", which means, inter alia that it's a free-form exercise in cramming as many pages as you can...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Cam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

Foucault's Pendulum was a great read for me; I really liked it. That said, I might not read it again. The publisher's summary gives you an idea about what's going on here, but leaves out something major. I was expecting a thriller, but I got an extended treatise on the real and fake history of the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Illuminati, Cabbalistic Jews, Druids, Catholics, and more, with a healthy dose of philosophy, physchology, literary theory, science, and a smattering of philology. Don't...more

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Jan 06, 2011 Halik rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, thriller, unfinished, fiction

what can i say? Bit over my head. Picked it up cause i heard this was 'an intellectual's Da Vinci Code' not that i'm much of an intellectual but this notion challenged me.

But what we have here is a thriller probably meant almost exclusively for those with a steady background in occult sciences and European religio-mythical lore.

Eco explores how human desire to explore the 'world beyond senses' or reality beyond what we perceive leads them to create all forms of manifestations, beliefs and pract...more

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Nov 02, 2007 Roberta rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In my next life I want Umberto Eco's brain, but after struggling to read this novel (highly recommended by a friend who also loves Eco's work), I have to class it as unreadable. I enjoy challenging literature, but was unable to engage with the plot or the characters nor did I find their philosophical issues very compelling. So sad -- I want to love his novels but the only one that did it for me was The Name of the Rose.

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Feb 11, 2012 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: conspiracy, mystery, should-be-classic, templar-treasure, underlying-message

Casaubon, Belbo and Diotallevi work for a vanity publisher in Milan, and they are used to reading manuscripts with conspiracy theories. Eventually, they get bored and decide to create their own conspiracy. They use many historical mysteries and with some fantasy and creativity connect the dots between them. It's called "The Plan" and at first they have no idea how they could make people believe in it. But, scary as it seems, the longer they work with the story, the more they realize that there a...more Casaubon, Belbo and Diotallevi work for a vanity publisher in Milan, and they are used to reading manuscripts with conspiracy theories. Eventually, they get bored and decide to create their own conspiracy. They use many historical mysteries and with some fantasy and creativity connect the dots between them. It's called "The Plan" and at first they have no idea how they could make people believe in it. But, scary as it seems, the longer they work with the story, the more they realize that there are too many coincidences. The Plan becomes real.

It's interesting to follow the change in the characters when The Plan totally consumes them. The obsession isn't healthy. What really happens to people who need something to make them going? To fuel their lives. What happens when there is nothing left?

You stand no chance to understand it all. Even though I've read some books about the Knights Templar, one of the main things in The Plan, I didn't catch some of the details of the other stuff. There's probably something from every mystery on earth in The Plan, and Eco doesn't bother to explain the historical events or characters, which demands a lot of the reader.

The character I found most interesting was Belbo. Here are some of his universal truths:
1. Never run in a straight line! (When someone is chasing you with a gun)
2. There are four kinds of people. Cretins, fools, morons and lunatics. A genius uses one component in a dazzling way, fueling it with the others.
3. "A pompous, self-important, overweening individual is thought to hold himself the way he does because of a cork stuck in his sphincter ani, which prevents his vaporific dignity from being dispersed. The removal of the cork causes the individual to deflate, a process usually accompanied by a shrill whistle and the reduction of the outer envelope to a poor fleshless phantom of its former self."

I know it's a well written book, and there is much to think about after finishing it. But there were too many slow parts and there were too many names without introduction. Apart from that, Eco keeps digressing, and it's not so exciting after a while.(less)

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May 05, 2012 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-fiction

It's always nice to find little things in used books: Appears to be a quiche recipe and a pressed leaf.

Done. And unsatisfied. Three ambiguous stars that could as easily fall towards one as they could to five. Perhaps it might have been better to have read this when it first came out, the sensational topics of conspiracies and Knights Templar having been all done to death in the past 20 years. Perhaps I should have waited until I was assured of a week of uninterrupted days at a beach house at the...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Alastair rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is what happens when an exceptionally clever person applies said cleverness to crafting a good story.

The basic rundown: three academics at a publishing firm, stuck reading endless Dan Brownesque conspiracy theories about the Knights Templar, entertain themselves by creating The Plan: a way to link practically every ancient historical order, religious text, ancient secret and pseudoscience into a single cohesive story. What starts as a game costs them their minds, their health, and - when ac...more This is what happens when an exceptionally clever person applies said cleverness to crafting a good story.

The basic rundown: three academics at a publishing firm, stuck reading endless Dan Brownesque conspiracy theories about the Knights Templar, entertain themselves by creating The Plan: a way to link practically every ancient historical order, religious text, ancient secret and pseudoscience into a single cohesive story. What starts as a game costs them their minds, their health, and - when actual secret societies get wind of it - a great deal more.

But before these connections can be made, and before it can all go thrillingly pear-shaped, we need context. Hundreds of pages of context.

This is not an easy book, and even throwing difficulty aside, it's simply not for everyone. Umberto Eco is not afraid to show off his (frankly intimidating) wealth of knowledge, even if it means halting the story's momentum for a meandering history lesson and adding drastically to the page count. Some portions are gripping; others were bewildering, esoteric, alienating, and had my eyes still glazing over, much to my shame, on the fourth re-reading. It's well within your rights to find this excessively intellectual tone a deal-breaker.

With this out of the way: Eco's mastery of language is an absolute joy to read. And amazingly, it does pay off. Every seemingly tangential lecture adds that little bit of extra weight to the insane and gutting payoff.

The true heart of the story, though, lies with the supporting character of Jacopo Belbo. As the narrator sifts through his friend's "mechanical brain", the computer he left behind, we find journal fragments, word games and frustrated attempts at fiction. Piece by piece, we get an intimate look at a man's entire life: his loveable quirks, the neuroses that crippled him, and the actual triumphs he never gave credit. Only in the final pages does the true message of his story - and the book as a whole - become clear.

This was well worth the effort. Mr. Eco, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.(less)

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Feb 16, 2011 Weni rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Luar biasa...
Maksudnya luar biasa lama waktu yang saya butuhkan untuk menamatkan buku ini :D
Mulai dibaca ketika malam tahun baru di Bandung, selesai pada hari Valentine.
*Hari valentine disini maksudnya versi umum tanggal 14 Feb, bukan versi sesepuh jaduler bernama Tomo yaitu tanggal 13 Feb dengan alasan muhamadiyah biasanya 1 hari lebih cepat*

Tidak seperti Qui yang tanpa ragu memberi 5 bintang, saya bingung ketika akan me-rating buku ini. Sebagian kisahnya terasa bertele-tele sehingga membuat bo...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Raisu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: humour-and-satire, mystery-and-horror, read-in-2012, novels, 20th-century

The three star rating is misleading, because I greatly enjoyed reading Foucault's Pendulum. But there were a few things that ended up bugging me a bit.

1. The length. Normally, I wouldn't presume to tell Eco that he needs an editor. Why would I, when I'm just a fan of big novels, sprawling plot-lines and digressions that go madly every which way? Neat and tidy minimalism has its uses, but it's good to have books like this in the world as well. Also, to me it always seems that Eco's asides always...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was dense and a bit of a challenge at first. I spent a lot of time with my iPad in my lap, looking up concepts and words and historical movements I just wasn't familiar with, as well as translating Latin, French, and German bits that I didn't want to miss out on. Eventually I put it aside because (strangely enough) I was working on a research project that involved the history of the Freemasons. The scholarship is exactly as murky, ludicrous, and riddled with conjecture as Eco describes...more This book was dense and a bit of a challenge at first. I spent a lot of time with my iPad in my lap, looking up concepts and words and historical movements I just wasn't familiar with, as well as translating Latin, French, and German bits that I didn't want to miss out on. Eventually I put it aside because (strangely enough) I was working on a research project that involved the history of the Freemasons. The scholarship is exactly as murky, ludicrous, and riddled with conjecture as Eco describes. He's not exaggerating at all.

I picked it back up when I had a lull in that project. I am so glad I did. The book is drily witty and pleasantly erudite. It really forced me out of my usual reading comfort zone. I learned so much, even after I decided to only look up the most interesting and confusing words, and to leave the history alone. Part of the reason it works is because enigma is central to the very nature of esoteric history, so I really didn't have to know exactly who was what and when to get through it.

AS a writer and historian, the book really made me think about the creative process and research. As an over-thinker, I began to analyze (ha, I hear it!) how I approach life.

One of my favorite quotes: "We were losing that mysterious and bright and most beautiful ability to say that Signor A has grown bestial - without thinking for a moment that he now has fur and fangs. The sick man, however, thinking 'bestial,' immediately sees Signor A on all fours, barking or grunting."

This speaks to how often, in trying to confirm our own bias (real or created!) we will go to depraved lengths of mental gymnastics simply to misunderstand a simple metaphor, rather than admitting we might simply be wrong. It also speaks volumes on the power of deception and creativity. Whether a lie is true or not, it has power, and while that power is not always lethal, very often it can be. How many wars are wars of perception, how many murders, how many misdiagnoses even by doctors?

I have so much to think on after reading this. Themes that are touched include the commonalities of man and the search for meaning and the place of God and what happens when the concept of God is rejected. I have been challenged to delve deeper than surface conjecture, especially as a writer, creator, philosopher, and historian, at the same time as being reminded that sometimes looking for hidden meaning is its own idol and nothing but folly.

All in all, it was delightful, funny, heart-breaking, and surreal. I found it to be worth the read. (less)

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May 27, 2011 Adam Floridia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Foucault’s Pendulum is like The Da Vinci Code on steroids. Not the kind of steroids that shrink your nuts, rather some sort of cerebral steroids that just beef everything up. I remember Dan Brown’s book being a non-stop action ride, each chapter ending in a scene that made it impossible not to keep reading. Eco’s book also had moments when I could read 100+ pages in one sitting, but it also had many parts that made me extremely thankful that each chapter was only a couple of pages, making it eas...more Foucault’s Pendulum is like The Da Vinci Code on steroids. Not the kind of steroids that shrink your nuts, rather some sort of cerebral steroids that just beef everything up. I remember Dan Brown’s book being a non-stop action ride, each chapter ending in a scene that made it impossible not to keep reading. Eco’s book also had moments when I could read 100+ pages in one sitting, but it also had many parts that made me extremely thankful that each chapter was only a couple of pages, making it easy to quit after a chapter or two.

Causobon’s adventures, although they weren’t really that adventurous per say, when tracking down occult information, exploring Diabolical rituals, and even just living his life as a publisher, were entertaining enough to keep my interest piqued. Once Causobon and his partners began piecing together their elaborate conspiracy theory, reading was like trudging through mire in brick boots. Pages upon pages read like a laundry list (readers of the book and mystics will appreciate that simile) of secret societies, names, and places. Causobon and cronies’ goal really is to show how everything is connected; however, it’s boring as hell to read about how every cult is connected. Peaks and valleys. Peaks and valleys.

What I find amazing about this glut of information is that Eco really did have to find it all and arrange it all and make the absurd connections that the protagonists do. That’s a ridiculous amount of research, especially for someone without Wikipedia! Hell, at first I enjoyed researching (ie: Wikipedia-ing) the various things mentioned in the book—the Sefiroth, Agarrtha, cabala, Abulafia, telluric currents. But just as I am giving up on writing the remaining dozens of “things,” I quickly gave up even bothering to look into them.

I feel that if this weren’t so long and dense it would be a better commentary on how perception and interpretation shape reality, how connections amongst random datum abound but that connections are not always meaningful, and how people need to make their own meaning in life and create their own mysteries in order to attribute events to some powerful “other.” Also, Vonnegut’s quotation from Mother Night kept running through my head: “Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.”
(less)

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Sep 27, 2010 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Back when the craptacular DaVinci Code was all the rage, someone recommended Foucault's Pendulum as an antidote to Dan Brown. Now, years later, I've finally read it, and I have to say that Dan Brown has nothing on Eco. Where Brown dabbles, Eco digs. Where Brown plants little puzzles, Eco builds labyrinths. Where Brown gets taken in, Eco finds the flaws. In a sense, Foucault's Pendulum, written in the late 1980s, is a critique of the very kind of conspiracy-mongering that Brown promulgated years...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Minakshi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a difficult book to get into and wrap your head around. The complexity of Eco’s work is mind boggling. Thick with historical and literary references, Foucault’s Pendulum is a well-researched distillation of every conspiracy theory – ever – connected in a single story. Being an overly intellectual paranoid conspiracy theorist or Templar fanatic is not a prerequisite for this novel, but it might help when it comes time to slog through hundreds of pages of dialogue attempting to connect cen...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Best Eco book to start with?	10	43	May 17, 2013 03:57pm
The Verge Book Club: Verge Book Club Podcast 002: Foucault's Pendulum	1	21	Nov 09, 2012 04:15pm
The Phrases Eco Uses	8	86	Aug 25, 2012 01:38am
The Phrases Eco Uses	1	34	Aug 23, 2012 03:14am
Goodreads Librari...: Wrong edition	2	27	Jun 20, 2012 02:21pm
was causabon set up?	10	139	Mar 22, 2012 05:31am

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