Foucault's Pendulum

[tomwaits]

It's pretty funny that 14 years after this book was released and became popular, The Da Vinci Code suddenly took the world by storm and everyone was talking about how Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and went to France, etc. This book is about many of the same topics, although not in the same way.

This book isn't about how these conspiracies are true, instead they are about people who insist that it's true despite all contrary evidence. This book is a fantastic read with a great theme (the search for the BIG SECRET to life and history). The occult references are endless, but the confusion is part of the appeal.

<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thejamesrandi-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=015603297X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=890505&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr&nou=1" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>

[delphi_ote]

A book where mischievous scholars join forces to write the ultimate conspiracy theory written by a master of literary references. What more could you ask for?

I highly recommend The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino, and The Name of the Rose as well. Umberto Eco always makes me smile.

[Stir]

I too am a great fan of Umberto Eco, and have read all of his novels ... but I put Foucaults Pendulum at the bottom (Name of the Rose remains my favorite). I felt cheated by the ending. It felt a bit like the 'suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck' method of ending a story ... too abrupt and not in keeping with the feel of the rest of the book.

[tomwaits]

I too am a great fan of Umberto Eco, and have read all of his novels ... but I put Foucaults Pendulum at the bottom (Name of the Rose remains my favorite). I felt cheated by the ending. It felt a bit like the 'suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck' method of ending a story ... too abrupt and not in keeping with the feel of the rest of the book.

You sure? I'd say it fits in pretty well. There was no BIG SECRET, just a perceived one (which of course we knew the entire time). The ending just reinforces that...the silliness of it all gone totally amuck.

I've read Name of the Rose and I enjoyed it. I'm also currently reading Baudolino which I like so far.

[JMA]

I also think it's an amazing book.

The Da Vinci Code is just pure crap compare to it.

[tomwaits]

I also think it's an amazing book.

The Da Vinci Code is just pure crap compare to it.

No kidding! My family kept insisting I read Da Vinci Code, so I did and realized it was a Michael Bay script filled with really bad pseudo-history. Imagine how happy I was to realize Eco had written a book making fun of these people over 10 years before!

[bourgeois_rage]

Read it and had a great time looking up many of the more obscure references.

[Arthur Denton]

I have had a hard time reading it at first. I think the first few chapters are hard to follow if you don't know about the Sephiroth and 14 years ago, without the help of Wikipedia, I wouldn't follow it to the end. But I did, and it is a most rewarding book. Yay for Pendulum, all the way down with the Da Vinci's Code (laaaame!)

[Childlike Empress]

A book where mischievous scholars join forces to write the ultimate conspiracy theory written by a master of literary references. What more could you ask for?

Well, i would like to read the book that came out of that effort. The book inspired by strange CT letters written to the authors, those mischievous rascals managing to write the ultimate conspiracy theory ... but wait, it was already published 13 years before Foucault's Pendulum ... Illuminatus!

Eco's book is very enjoyable but it was written for european pseudo-intellectuals while Illuminatus! was written for universal pseudo-kooks, and quite honestly, i prefere the latter. ;)

[Fitter]

I have had a hard time reading it at first. I think the first few chapters are hard to follow if you don't know about the Sephiroth and 14 years ago, without the help of Wikipedia, I wouldn't follow it to the end. But I did, and it is a most rewarding book. Yay for Pendulum, all the way down with the Da Vinci's Code (laaaame!)
I once heard a radio interview with Eco where he stated he makes the beginning of his novels difficult because he believes the reader must make an effort as well as the author.

[Drudgewire]

I loved it, but holy cow getting through the first hundred pages was brutal. http://www.lethalwrestling.com/upload/sweatdrop.gif

[Diamond]

I read the Da Vinci Code to find out what all the fuss was about. It was the most contrived, formulaic pulp thriller I'd ever read. What a piece of crap.

[Piero]

I loved it, but holy cow getting through the first hundred pages was brutal.

It's tough-going. There is a sort of guide called "Dizionario del Pendolo di Foucault" by italian authors Luigi Bauco and Franceso Millocca. It might be available in English.

[Elizabeth I]

I am totally impressed by the translator of Eco's books. He has to be at least as skilled as the author - the translated books read and flow as if they were composed by a native English-speaker, not translated from another language.

[Mar\/in]

Foucault's Pendulum is a book I return to every five years or so just because it's so much fun. I haven't read or watched the Da Vinci Code (well, I read the first page in a drugstore while waiting for a prescription, and I had to restrain myself from burning down the entire display rack then and there). But when I saw ads for the DVC, I was instantly reminded of the Preacher series of comics. Preacher is some good crazy sh*t. :cool:

[Horza]

Just read it during a flu bout. Great stuff and yes, hard to break into at first. The ending was somewhat abrupt, and not quite in the subtly pisstaking vein that the rest of the novel masterfully mines. Poor Lia.

[dropzone]

Read it after reading Illuminatus! and much of its core material. My reaction was that Eco did not do enough research before writing it.

And that it seemed like he had reached his contracted word count and stopped writing.

Both are forgivable because they reflect on what drives a hack author who is not being paid by the word: his advance was running out and he had to eat, he was getting only so much for the book, and it wasn't like any of that $#!^ was TRUE.

[The Drain]

I loved it, but holy cow getting through the first hundred pages was brutal. http://www.lethalwrestling.com/upload/sweatdrop.gif


This gives me renewed hope. I've stalled and the book has moved onto the 'waiting to be read later' shelf. I'll give it another go.

[Eligbak]

It's a bit long-winded at times, but I love Foucault's Pendulum, too. No need to slam Dan Brown, though - I dig good conspiracies as long as they're relatively short and simple. I'm also a confessed fan of the National Treasure movies. :D And Eco must have been entertained by his stuff, or he wouldn't have bothered.

The book is not about how stupid these theories are, but how the protagonist is seduced, against his better judgment, by how easy it is to connect the dots of strange events and let them explain each other. He concocts an especially harebrained theory and nevertheless goes quasi-mad in the end, because he can't overcome the pattern-matching errors in his system, or the "wrong" way he's taught himself to think. You guys who think Eco wanted to make this just an exercise in debunking, read it again. That way, the ending fits perfectly.

Another lesson to take from it is that you can make conspiracies real, like Casaubon and friends created the Tres secret society by inventing them and talking about it. GWB arguably made a small, ragged terrorist group into the glamor stars of global security threats, simply by seeing them at work everywhere. Now their number is probably the first every would-be jihadist would call.