Book Club Event on 03/11/2023: Inventing the Enemy by Umberto Eco

[Eugene]

Event is on March 11th, 2023. 4pm ET.
Follow Meetup link to online event:
https://www.meetup.com/inquiry-book-c...

Pages to read: 224
ISBN: 9780544104686 (Originally listed and edition I am Using)

While reading the book, consider the below questions:
•What is the raison d’etre of the book? For what purpose did the author write the book?
•What are some limitations of the book?
•Why invent enemies?
•What is the purpose of the enemy?
•How are values defined and their worth declared?
•Why is it difficult to consider complexity of information?
•What impact can a war have on social life?
•What is the absolute, and the relative? How are they connected?
•Among the elements, why does fire need an explanation?
•Why is there an interest in treasure hunting and finding secret islands?
•How to go about using astronomy?

Your questions are important and will take priority. If you have questions about the book's content or related ideas, either let me know what your questions are or raise them during the discussion.

My review:
https://www.inquiryreviews.com/2022/0...

Upcoming event:
https://www.meetup.com/Inquiry-Non-Fi...

Contribute:
The club has costs. If you get value out of the event, support the club. Contribute via:

Zelle, PayPal, or Venmo. Contribute to eugenefrominquiry@gmail.com.
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/adabd41c
Summary from Goodreads:
“Underscores the writer’s profound erudition, lively wit, and passion for ideas of all shapes and sizes . . . Eco’s pleasure in such explorations is obvious and contagious.” — Booklist

Inventing the Enemy covers a wide range of topics on which Eco has written and lectured over the past ten years: from a disquisition on the theme that runs through his recent novel The Prague Cemetery — every country needs an enemy, and if it doesn’t have one, must invent it — to a discussion of ideas that have inspired his earlier novels (and in the process he takes us on an exploration of lost islands, mythical realms, and the medieval world); from indignant reviews of James Joyce’s Ulysses by fascist journalists of the 1920s and 1930s, to an examination of Saint Thomas Aquinas’s notions about the soul of an unborn child, to censorship and violence and WikiLeaks.

These are essays full of passion, curiosity, and obsession by one of the world’s most esteemed scholars and critically acclaimed, best-selling novelists.

“True wit and wisdom coexist with fierce scholarship inside Umberto Eco, a writer who actually knows a thing or two about being truly human.” — Buffalo News

"Thought provoking . . . nuanced . . . the collection amply shows off Eco's sophisticated, agile mind." — Publishers Weekly