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Laddar... Serendipities: Language and Lunacy (1999)av Umberto Eco
Italian Literature (192) Laddar...
Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. A bit heavy but something to think about especially the essay conclusions. ( ) Umberto Eco is best known for his book, "The Name of the Rose" which was made into a movie starring Sean Connery. He was, however, a literary critic and university professor. For this book, he has his philosopher's hat on. It is a fascinating collection of five essays about language revised from lectures Eco gave in the 1990s. The lectures can be read separately, but they are related and make a good set. In them, Eco speculates on aspects of language, including the efforts over the ages to search for an original Hebrew, language of Adam; the evolution of language through misunderstandings, conquests and exchange; creation of a universal dictionary (much like the universal language of mathematics). Although there is much to absorb here, Eco's arguments are well laid out with broad cultural references, and beautifully written. Somewhere in an earlier Alomodovar film, maybe Flower of the Secret, a character describes a scenario for a film, one which actually A would eventually create as Volver. I really like that, the inclusion. Eco anticipates his Cemetery of Prague with a devilish delight in this one, little surprise as nearly all of PC, outside of the protagonist, is grounded in historical evidence. I liked this dizzying book, though the final section did leave me grasping, if not gasping. inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
Best-selling author Umberto Eco's latest work unlocks the riddles of history in an exploration of the "linguistics of the lunatic," stories told by scholars, scientists, poets, fanatics, and ordinary people in order to make sense of the world. Exploring the "Force of the False," Eco uncovers layers of mistakes that have shaped human history, such as Columbus's assumption that the world was much smaller than it is, leading him to seek out a quick route to the East via the West and thus fortuitously "discovering" America. The fictions that grew up around the cults of the Rosicrucians and Knights Templar were the result of a letter from a mysterious "Prester John"--undoubtedly a hoax--that provided fertile ground for a series of delusions and conspiracy theories based on religious, ethnic, and racial prejudices. While some false tales produce new knowledge (like Columbus's discovery of America) and others create nothing but horror and shame (the Rosicrucian story wound up fueling European anti-Semitism) they are all powerfully persuasive. In a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, Eco shows us how serendipities--unanticipated truths--often spring from mistaken ideas. From Leibniz's belief that the I Ching illustrated the principles of calculus to Marco Polo's mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn, Eco tours the labyrinth of intellectual history, illuminating the ways in which we project the familiar onto the strange. Eco uncovers a rich history of linguistic endeavor--much of it ill-conceived--that sought to "heal the wound of Babel." Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, and Egyptian were alternately proclaimed as the first language that God gave to Adam, while--in keeping with the colonial climate of the time--the complex language of the Amerindians in Mexico was viewed as crude and diabolical. In closing, Eco considers the erroneous notion of linguistic perfection and shrewdly observes that the dangers we face lie not in the rules we use to interpret other cultures but in our insistence on making these rules absolute. With the startling combination of erudition and wit, bewildering anecdotes and scholarly rigor that are Eco's hallmarks, Serendipities is sure to entertain and enlighten any reader with a passion for the curious history of languages and ideas. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Är det här du?Columbia University PressEn utgåva av denna bok gavs ut av Columbia University Press. |