Saski’s Comments (group member since Nov 10, 2013)

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

"these kind of ideas don't stay in books, they spill into real life in odd and generally unpleasant ways too."

Yup, Jan-Maat, that thought occurred to me also and made me more and more uncomfortable the further into the book I got.

Traveller wrote: "Cool observations.
Ruth, you might be shocked to know that girls were actually subjected to public examinations to find out if she was really a virgin, usually by a midwife underneath her clothing..."

Nope, not shocked, though I am glad to hear that 'checking' in the Middle Ages was done by a woman and the subject was not deflowered in the process, unlike the Turkish police about a decade ago, where it was quite the opposite.

Exactly, J :)

It's been a while since I read that part so I can't remember if I laughed or rolled by eyes as the Colonel rambled on.

As for virgins, I never quite got that. I mean, once you make sure one is a virgin, she isn't any more, right? Reminds me of a joke of two virgins waiting on the edge of a volcano to be swallowed up as a sacrifice. One virgin looks at the other and says, "Boy, is he in for a surprise."

I have been going through and checking the names and places, almost everything checks out, except the info on the maps. Here is a link to Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi Historia. worth a peek but at 700+ pages I haven't looked at it all yet.

https://archive.org/stream/utriusquec...

If you are still there, Traveller, you have my heartfelt sympathy.

FUN! :) Thanks, Michele

Thank you for getting the photo up there, Traveller! :)

Up to chapter 20, not crazy about the colonel, much as our heroes are not, I imagine. Did notice that Odin came up briefly and as he is the god of wisdom, among other things, I thought I'd mention it.

Just a few things for chapter 16 (I do wish I could post photos -- here are the links anyway).
- "Thus wisdom creates cowards."
- cool photo of Struwwelpeter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:H_H...
- photos of 'camauros' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camauro

And a question. To which of the 387 events for Sept 8 is Belbo refering?

Yes, the School of Comparative Irrelevance is my favorite so far as well. New courses now on the brain and coming soon to a GR website near you.

Traveller wrote: "Jonfaith wrote: " I like how Casubon baits the woman in a controversialist manner, just as opinion remained so flexible concerning the Templars. "

Yes, and she didn't even know exactly what she wa..."

Typical, in my experienc, unfortunately.

I'm surprised that pataphysics did not come up in the discussion for courses in the School of Comparative Irrelevance, or did I miss it?

Beards have come up a couple of times so far. I only noticed it because they are in quotes I marked. The first is in Chapter 11: You are God, you wander through the city, you hear people talking about you, God this, God that, what a wonderful universe this is, and how elegant the law of gravity, and you smile to yourself behind your fake beard (no, better to go without a beard, because in a beard God is immediately recognizable).

The second is in Chapter 13: This was the dawn of great changes in style. Until the beginning of the sixties, beards were fascist, and you had to trim them, and shave your cheeks, in the style of Italo Balbo; but by '68 beards meant protest, and now they were becoming neutral, universal, a matter of personal preference. Beards have always been masks (you wear a fake beard to keep from being recognized), but in those years, the early seventies, a real beard was also a disguise. You could lie while telling the truth -- or, rather, by making the truth elusive and enigmatic. A man's politics could no longer be guessed from his beard. That evening, beards seemed to hover on clean-shaven faces whose very lack of hair suggested defiance.

Traveller wrote: "When he talks of Ariosto and Joinville, I think it is of this Joinville: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_...

and this Ariosto : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovico...

, although..."
Definitely the Joinville is that Joinville. I can't see any other Ariosto that fits.

and one more: Hermes Trismegistus is called a "divine source of wisdom".

And back to wisdom again... Demiurge's mother is Sophia

Comparing the second chapter to the list in Wikipedia, well, it doesn't match up so well. Here's a few I've found:

draisienne
Hmmm, what a shame. There were these wonderful photos but it seems copy paste doesn't work the same way here. So here's the link to said photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draisienne

alembic
Cool photos here too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alembic

Hmmm, Muslims don't drink but do deal in distillation....

Another link to wisdom, Alhazen the Persian polymath mentioned in the second chapter, in 1038 in Cairo, contributed to the work of Dar-el-Hikma, the city's "House of Wisdom". Earlier he performed experiments in optics in Bagdad's House of Wisdom.

J. wrote: "I think my head just exploded..."

?

and to Derek, yeah, that underwater line confused me too. Still does, in fact. If you have figured it out, please explain (unless it is a spoiler, of course :) ).

Can anyone visualize a 'sentry box for a periscope'? I can only picture periscopes on a submarine....a sentry box there seems redundant.