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Théo d'Or 's Reviews > Le Pendule de Foucault
Le Pendule de Foucault
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Reading " Le Pendule de Foucault ", I understand where Dan Brown and the other amateur writers of sensationalist literature, with esoteric flavor - were inspired. I would never have thought that Eco was the initiator of these tendencies to revive interest in the mysteries of the Templars, and in what is supposed to be behind religious " truths ", on a extensive book, built in a multiple way, combining history with mystery, and finally with a postmodern irony.
The frame story is simple : three friends and a colonel passionate about the history of the Templars, interprete the message from a found sheet, ( here I had a little fun, going back about 25 years ago, when I was vibrating at this stuff..) - as an indication of the " Plan" - a secret mission of the Knights Templars, begun in 1308.
Initially a pastime, the interest of the three slips more and more into the obsession of deciphering the message, which occupies about a quarter of the book. From the second half, the narrative takes the undoubted form of a thriller, the plan captures entirely the three, and destroys their lives, for once this plan is imagined - it gets out of control, the signifier no longer sends to any meaning, as long as the initial assumptions were based on an overturned logic. The meaning becomes meaningless, everything floating in the absurdity of the Sign, which has only the power to destroy its creator.
If so far, Eco has kept me in some lethargy, well, the end part of the novel has really stunned me. Eco demolishes the entire building he so meticulously built.
It's all a big farce, brought to life by the power of words, formulas, variants of interpretation,which give the feeling of a relentless logic. In a kind of postmodern death of the Author, the so-called plan - born rather from the need of the characters to believe in mystery - devours its creators, accentuating the absurdity of the insistence of giving meaning, even to the vacuum.
After so much effort in keeping up the appearance of logic and seriousness, Eco does not hesitate, in the end, to expose the perfidy of reason, and the absurdity of our stubborness to see connections, and to impose meaning where there is not even the beginning of a connection.
" But if you want to find connections, they are everywhere, and in everything, the world explodes in a network, in a whirlwind of kinship , and everything sends to everything, everything explains everything. "
The frame story is simple : three friends and a colonel passionate about the history of the Templars, interprete the message from a found sheet, ( here I had a little fun, going back about 25 years ago, when I was vibrating at this stuff..) - as an indication of the " Plan" - a secret mission of the Knights Templars, begun in 1308.
Initially a pastime, the interest of the three slips more and more into the obsession of deciphering the message, which occupies about a quarter of the book. From the second half, the narrative takes the undoubted form of a thriller, the plan captures entirely the three, and destroys their lives, for once this plan is imagined - it gets out of control, the signifier no longer sends to any meaning, as long as the initial assumptions were based on an overturned logic. The meaning becomes meaningless, everything floating in the absurdity of the Sign, which has only the power to destroy its creator.
If so far, Eco has kept me in some lethargy, well, the end part of the novel has really stunned me. Eco demolishes the entire building he so meticulously built.
It's all a big farce, brought to life by the power of words, formulas, variants of interpretation,which give the feeling of a relentless logic. In a kind of postmodern death of the Author, the so-called plan - born rather from the need of the characters to believe in mystery - devours its creators, accentuating the absurdity of the insistence of giving meaning, even to the vacuum.
After so much effort in keeping up the appearance of logic and seriousness, Eco does not hesitate, in the end, to expose the perfidy of reason, and the absurdity of our stubborness to see connections, and to impose meaning where there is not even the beginning of a connection.
" But if you want to find connections, they are everywhere, and in everything, the world explodes in a network, in a whirlwind of kinship , and everything sends to everything, everything explains everything. "
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August 10, 2020
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Michael
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rated it 3 stars
Aug 11, 2020 01:59PM
Have you also read Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose?
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" But if you want to find connections, they are everywhere, and in everything, the world explodes in a network, in a whirlwind of kinship , and everything sends to everything, everything explains everything. "Isn't this the definition of GoodReads on a more specific level? ;) Thanks for the review!
Not yet, Michael. I guess it's just as recommendable, thanks for the question.
Hmm, vraiment, Pierre, on dirait que nous ne sommes que de petites particules dans un gros engrenage. Parfois,cependant, le système de cet engrenage me rend irritable :))
Theodore, yes it's just as recommendable is right. In fact Name of the Rose led me to look for other books Umberto Eco wrote and I came across this one you read. Had planned to read it at the time though in the passage of time I forgot about it.
P.E. wrote: "" But if you want to find connections, they are everywhere, and in everything, the world explodes in a network, in a whirlwind of kinship , and everything sends to everything..."Was about to make the same comment when I saw P.E. had already made it! How's that for wires crossing, connections happening!
O yes , Fionnuala, and if somebody believes most in connection, I know exactly who might be :))
Yes should we hold this dude responsible for D Brown, the way some pundits hold Marx responsible for Stalin? ;) Then we'd also have to string Thomas Pynchon up, whose Crying of Lot 49 is the novel of hyperconnection (or, perhaps, absent of all connection) par excellence, if you haven't yet read it.
Thank you for recommendation, W.D.Ha ! Good analogy with Stalin. I think everyone takes responsibility, after all. But especially the one who puts the idea into practice. The rest is monke(y) ry.
Btw, should we hold also Guillotine responsible for all the beheadings ?
Excellent review. I've only read the two novels of his - Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery. Loved both of them, though not unconditionally :) I can find some parallels between them and the story you've described. Especially this sounds very characteristic:"But if you want to find connections, they are everywhere, and in everything, the world explodes in a network, in a whirlwind of kinship , and everything sends to everything, everything explains everything."
Thank you, Nika. You are ahead of me, I've only read this book. Looking forward for " Prague Cemetery ", looks promising. Eco is an original, that's one of the assets that cannot be neglected.
