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Hadrian's Reviews > Foucault’s Pendulum
Foucault’s Pendulum
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What strikes me on reading this again is not just how much minutiae Eco loves to cram into his books - here we have a list of vintage French cars, histories of the Fourth Crusade, the Knights Templar, the Rosicrucian esoteric movement, and Afro-Brazilian religion, but what I keep thinking about was his description of the conspiracy theory and how people fall victim to it.
Our protagonists, a gang of layabouts at a vanity publisher, decide to invent a conspiracy theory as a joke. Eventually, people do in fact believe the joke, and the all-devouring conspiracy theory begins to tear them apart - where The Plan is a search for religious meaning. It all starts simply - taking random trivia from history, especially with political elites or secret organizations, mashing together snippets of text from a computer program, and then taking advantage of the human tendency towards pattern recognition and having the act of 'researching' or finding out more as a lure to draw more people in.
I thought of it as an intriguing novel several years ago, put aside, and in past years I realize with horror that some slob playing pretend on a 4chan offshoot has led thousands of people worldwide to believe in a pedophile conspiracy about fetal blood harvesting and a secret coup d'etat planned by Obama, the Clintons, and George Soros. That would be QAnon. The grotesque joke is real.
As the joke starts with the Templars and expands outward to include several centuries of history, the conspiracy theory explains everything -- and anyone who is credulous enough and lets their sense of pattern recognition overrun their skepticism is willing to believe more conspiracy theories and fold them into the grand plan. For Eco, a story about the Templars includes the Bavarian Illuminati, the Cathars, the Jesuits, the Bogomils, and whoever forged the vile slurs of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. For a conspiracy theorist today, well, take your pick.
Our protagonists, a gang of layabouts at a vanity publisher, decide to invent a conspiracy theory as a joke. Eventually, people do in fact believe the joke, and the all-devouring conspiracy theory begins to tear them apart - where The Plan is a search for religious meaning. It all starts simply - taking random trivia from history, especially with political elites or secret organizations, mashing together snippets of text from a computer program, and then taking advantage of the human tendency towards pattern recognition and having the act of 'researching' or finding out more as a lure to draw more people in.
I thought of it as an intriguing novel several years ago, put aside, and in past years I realize with horror that some slob playing pretend on a 4chan offshoot has led thousands of people worldwide to believe in a pedophile conspiracy about fetal blood harvesting and a secret coup d'etat planned by Obama, the Clintons, and George Soros. That would be QAnon. The grotesque joke is real.
As the joke starts with the Templars and expands outward to include several centuries of history, the conspiracy theory explains everything -- and anyone who is credulous enough and lets their sense of pattern recognition overrun their skepticism is willing to believe more conspiracy theories and fold them into the grand plan. For Eco, a story about the Templars includes the Bavarian Illuminati, the Cathars, the Jesuits, the Bogomils, and whoever forged the vile slurs of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'. For a conspiracy theorist today, well, take your pick.
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Quotes Hadrian Liked
“There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics…Cretins don’t even talk; they sort of slobber and stumble…Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation…Fools don’t claim that cats bark, but they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. They offend all the rules of conversation, and when they really offend, they’re magnificent…Morons never do the wrong thing. They get their reasoning wrong. Like the fellow who says that all dogs are pets and all dogs bark, and cats are pets, too, therefore cats bark…Morons will occasionally say something that’s right, but they say it for the wrong reason…A lunatic is easily recognized. He is a moron who doesn’t know the ropes. The moron proves his thesis; he has logic, however twisted it may be. The lunatic on the other hand, doesn’t concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars…There are lunatics who don’t bring up the Templars, but those who do are the most insidious. At first they seem normal, then all of a suddenâ€�”
― Foucault’s Pendulum
― Foucault’s Pendulum
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Rebecca
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rated it 4 stars
Sep 28, 2020 07:53AM
A book for our - and every! - time. On my physical shelf, waiting to get read. Thanks for the reminder review!
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Read years ago and one of my favorite Eco novels. Even then you could see it as a warning about our desire to believe in patterns and systems at all costs.
Great review, it’s my only Eco.
This is absolutely my favorite Eco, for many of the reasons you point out. Would make a wonderful trilogy with The Crying of Lot 49 and VALIS.
