Dolors’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2013)

Dolors’s comments from the Foucault's Pendulum group.

The inscription behind Lorenza's photograph Casaubon finds in Belbo's apartment makes me wonder about the portrait of the feminine archetype Eco might be trying to paint:

"For I am the first and the last, the honored and the hated, the saint and the prostitute. Sophia."

Sophia?
Six letters?
I searched the web to find the source of these lines and gnostic Nag Hammadi's gospels came up:

http://gnosis.org/naghamm/Pagels-Gnos...

A taste on the gnostic gospels:

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic_...

In these gospels Sophia represents the exiled bride and mother of Demiurge and Nag Hammadi describes her with the lines above.
Could this be a prelude of a volcanic and passionate woman?

Oh, I also found this passage in chapter one really intuitive of what we can expect of this journey:

"You cannot escape one infinite, I told myself, by fleeing to another; you cannot escape the revelation of the identical by taking refuge in the illusion of the multiple"

I find your post about Lavoisier's equipment and his mirrors fits perfectly well the idea of "the illusion of the multiple". Will Eco be playing a game of mirrors to the reader? Starting at "Keter" the beginning of the universe, which might turn out to be the end?

I read the first chapter yesterday night and I am already drowned with uncountable scientific references and sophisticated descriptions of foreign mechanisms.
Thanks for the summary of the first 5 chapters Trav, that was handy indeed.
I have noticed the quotations at the beginning of each chapter might be more than simple preludes of what is coming. Couldn't help noticing Casaubon (I still didn't know his name) mentioning Francis Bacon at the end of the first chapter and the second one starts precisely with one of his quotes from New Atlantis.
Going to study the Tree of Life of the Kabbala now, thanks for the info again Trav.
This is going to be fun.

Thanks for giving form and organizing the discussion thread Trav. Starting to warm up for this long-distance race! :)

Sure, an open structure is practical and easy.
I need to finish my current readings, the 26th is just around the corner! :)

Hi everybody, forgive me for joining late to the party. I think we can make it work both ways, as Michelle points out, Trav. If we leave all the threads open and settle it for 6 weeks people can read and comment following their own reading pace. 108 pages per week isn't that much after all, even for a dense novel like this one. I usually combine a couple of books but I can always focus on this one and make it a fast reading.
I was recently in "The Magic Mountain" group which took 13 weeks, but I also read other novels in the middle. The good side is that there's more time for discussing, the bad side is that some people get tired and comments start winding down in the end.
I am perfectly fine with both options.
Whatever you decide will be fine, but maybe Trav is right and it's better if we try faster approach this time.

Launched google and I found out it's León Foucault's 194th birthday today!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9o...

Happy Birthday, mate! :)

Traveller wrote: "What we COULD do is move the start date on to Nov 26, spend the first week on preparation, the first few chapters and getting acquainted with the arcane aspects of the material to give time for latecomers to catch up and then start moving faster from start of December. "

Seems like a perfect plan to me, Trav.
Great seeing Kris and Marina here! I also read "The Name of the Rose" ages ago and remember being quite shocked with the end. The movie adaptation with Sean Connery was also wonderful. I don't know why I never paid much attention to "Focault's Pendulum" before. I remember having read some reviews saying that it was a complex novel and felt not up to the task at the time.
It's the perfect occasion to change that! :)

Hi there,

My copy must be sailing the seas towards Barcelona right now (I know, I need a kindle), really glad to see more people joining in.
Thanks again Trav for orchestrating this group reading.

Impressive Trav, you are an industrious lady and an endless well of wisdom! ;P