Foucault's Pendulum

Brilliant, but not for everyone

This book has been described as the "thinking man's Da Vinci Code." Eco's writing generally, and this novel especially, is extremely deep, sophisticated, and intellectually involved. Thus, it's not for everyone: no thrilling sex, murder, and intrigue. Eco draws from the works of Jorge Luis Borges, which I recommend for some background into the intellectual workings of this novel. For example, there is much underlying discussion of various "secret" societies that strain to utilize all manner of tenuous conspiracy theories, historical shortcuts, and intellectual assumptions that cause fantastic conclusions, which in turn leads to the groups' sense of self-prophised legitimacy (or even preceived omniscience). Borges' writing alludes to this only vaguely, whereas Eco is much more specific, developing this idea and applying it to modern "secret" societies and conspiracy theories. <BR/><BR/>Again, reader be warned: this novel takes much effort, multiple readings, and contemplation to fully appreciate. You will see right away that Eco does not think highly of "Da Vinci Code" conspiracy theories, but much more though-provoking is whether Eco (or the narrator) believes in any creative or faith-based believe systems at all. For example, a principal character in the novel utilizes the BASIC computer programming language to produce "poetry." Does this character, the narrator, or the novel thus imply that creative works such as poetry are so easily contrived and devoid of deeper meaning? I'm unsure myself, therefore requiring another read of the novel.<BR/><BR/>An intellectual approach to this novel will yield great appreciation both for the work and for the author. Do not pick up this novel expecting to have your heart racing! Also, I strongly recommend "In The Name of the Rose" by Eco as kind of a "Introduction to Eco's World 101" course.

7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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A Fun Book!

Massively detailed, pleasantly convoluted, and surprisingly humorous - a rollercoaster for the mind!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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What's real and what's not

Foucault¿s Pendulum starts with Casaubon, a student studying the Knights Templar. He connects with Belbo who works for a book publisher and they hit it off and start planning a series of books mainly dealing with historical conspiracies. Before long they¿re writing one of their own. The Kabbala comes in here and Masons, Napoleon and mainly the Knights Templar and a huge centuries-long conspiracy they think they¿re finding. ----Watching it all come together is astonishing, and then, just when you think you¿ve got it, you start asking whether the book your reading is part of the conspiracy or something else. When you¿re finished with Foucault's Pendulum, I doubt you¿ll be sure about exactly what happened. To an extent, that¿s the main idea.----The other recurrent idea here is that everything in the past is relative to the witness who sees it, even to the point where you can¿t know what¿s real or not, which must be a hard lesson for someone like Eco to teach since he¿s invested so much in learning about the past.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Nook app stopped working on iPad2

It started good, then the NOOK app stopped working

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Fang

Hello.

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C

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We'll Believe Anything...

One of my all time favorites.

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I skipped almost two hundred pages in the beginning, just skimmed them. They are full of garbage that is not related to the story. If you do this it will help you finish the book. Only the last 350 pages are worth reading in detail.

A Colonel Ardenti sells to three editors a coded message about a centuries-old Knights Templar plan to tap a mystic source of power greater than the atomic energy. The editors: Jacobo Belbo, Diotallevi, and Casaubon (the narrator), bored with rewriting absurd manuscripts on the occult, and amused by Colonel Ardenti's claim, decide to create a Plan of their own. From a message coded in the method of Trithemius the plan is as follows: "Thirty-six after the hay wain, the night of St. John of the year 1344, six sealed messages for the (Templar) knights with the white cloaks, the relapse knights of Provins revenge. Six times six in sis places, twenty years each time, for a total of one hundred and twenty years, this is the Plan." (p. 372). Researching the Templars, and their history and associations with other faiths-they deduce the following diagram: Portugal - 1344; England - 1464; France - 1584; Germany - 1704; Bulgaria - 1824; and Jerusalem - 1944.

They assume that the power of all the undercurrents of the planet are ruled by The Conservatoire's Focoult's Pendulum in Paris. The pendulum will reveal a map...which was carefully calculated and for six hundred years someone has always taken care to keep it as it is. At sunrise on a given day of the year...which can only be the dawn of June 24, Saint John's day, feast of the summer solstice...yes, on that day and at that hour, the first pure ray of sun that comes thought the windows strikes the floor beneath the Pendulum, and the Pendulum's intersection of the ray at that instant is the precise point on the map where the Umbilicus can be found." (p. 441).

Eco's book takes a story that is totally false and by believing in it, it becomes real enough. Real enough that the three protagonists are engulfed in it and convince forces of evil that the plan is real and only they know where the map is. This results in terrible consequences for our heroes.

In the beginning you will not understand a thing, what is going on, who are these people, what are they trying to do. Eco meant the book to be this way! Enjoy the book and if you don't understand some historical remarks never mind, just continue, don't stumble upon the little details and the dates, get the big picture. You will have plenty of time to think about it after you have finished but the main thing is to go entirely through the book and finish it. The prose is horrible-the points of view are intermingled and you never know what's real and what's invented.

Eco writes his books this way, they are only meant for the strong of spirit, people with perseverance that are willing to struggle in order to reach the ultimate truth that only the very few have mastered. His novels are deliberately cryptic but only to the point that they discourage the faint of heart. For the few strong men that are willing to engage into the battle, all the mysteries and the hypes reveal themselves at the end, you'll realize you should have read another book instead. Eco is crazy and it takes a lot of patience to read his books. I skipped almost two hundred pages in the beginning, just skimmed them. They are full of garbage that is not related to the story. If you do this it will help you finish the book. Only the last 350 pages are worth reading in detail.

0 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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AMAZING THRILL

It was a great book that 5 thoroughly enjoyed, a little slow and hard to read but still the best book I have read in a while

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Notice how the reader reviews never talk about the plotline?

Umberto Eco has a delightful writing style and you can tell that he's incredibly smart with his numerous, frequent allusions to occultism and esoteric history, but halfway through the book you get tired of the fact that very little is happening in the way of the actual plot. What you're left with to enjoy then is the aforementioned writing style and occult references, but it's hard to believe that you're learning anything since you don't know if any of the occultism is actually true. Foucault's Pendulum is great literature but the kind of book that you want to read just to prove to yourself that you're smarter than you actually are. Or if you're already familiar with occult history.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Good book, for the initiate.

Some here have complained that you need to keep consulting a dictionary while reading the book. An encyclopedia would be the better choice, if you have one lying around. If you already have a fascination with gnosticism, pseudohistory, and cabala, the book can serve as a starting point for however many endless investigations into the bottomless pit of esotericism that you want to pursue. I found it mildly confusing and tiring at times, even when I did know what they were talking about. If this were new territory for a reader it might be gibberish. Hard work, at least. For a scholarly road-map of Templar legends, Holy Blood, Holy Grail is more direct. For an enjoyable bit of dumb fun, any of Dan Brown¿s books will do. Foucault¿s Pendulum is great literature because it makes a point, subtle yet compelling, even if you only figure it out a week later. It explores the hard truth about imagination and creation, fantasy and reality, knowledge and power, and probably many other things that would make good school book reports. I, for one, really enjoyed it, well worth the time (and considerable effort)

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Near Unreadable

Translates poorly into English. Interesting text is few and far between.

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Excellent (but not light reading)

This book is excellent. With the Da Vinci code's popularity, this is a must for readers seeking better writing and more depth to their mystery. Eco at times tends to digress quite a bit and the average reader may find the historical references over their head and the writing wordy, but Foucault's Pendulum will keep the patient reader enthralled.

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The 'Catch 22' of Arcana

I believe this book is to arcana what the novel 'Catch 22' is to war. It is more timely now, in the age of 'The Davinci Code', than when first published. It is funny, sometimes hilarious, and sad, and serious, and bizarre. Amazingly effective, for me at least, in translation. The more rested and alert I was while reading this book, the more I was able to appreciate the humor, satire, and pacing (tempo) which I believe makes Foucault's pendulum a work of art. It should be read with attention to maximize appreciation. I could reread it and benefit from it the second time.

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Smashing HIT !

Positively fascinating! Intelligent and suspensefull. this was my second reading and still love it. occult and magic and paranoia. highly recommended!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Entertaining and Educational

I found this book on a bookrack at my place of employment. In other words it was free. The price was right and I took it home and enjoyed two weeks of the most enjoying reading since The H. Allen Smith's 'Joe The One Armed Tennis Player'. Thank you Umberto Eco.

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wonderful

I have read this book two times once in French the second in English. Both times I read it was great. It is a wonderfull book which means if you don't understand something don't do it.

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A fantastic novel, if I were esoteric.

This book contains an overwhelming amount of knowledge on the occult organizations. The problem is that Eco spends too much time addressing these organizations. Much of the time there are no descriptions as to what the organizations are about. I've never spent much time reading about the occult throughout history. I believe the more you know about the occult, the more you may enjoy this book. In my opinion, it needs less reference and more action.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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way too dense

Read the Da Vinci Code and you have Eco's Foucault's Pendulum without all of the unnecessary labor and effort. Eco's book is way too top heavy on secret societies and allusions to mysticism and the occult. Much of his references are unnecessary and severely complicate the plotline making reading the book less than pleasurable. Even for aficionados of mysteries and puzzles, this book is so convulted that the reader expends more time trying to decipher Eco's writing style and less following his story. Eco is a great master of semantics, but he tries too hard to show it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Interesting

I enjoyed this book but I thought that Eco could have done better. I was disappointed in this book because I have read some of his other books and was expecting writing of the same quality as Baudolino and The Name of the Rose. Many facts are given and this helps you to understand what they are talking about, but he seems to repeat information that has already been supplied numerous times before in the book. The story however is interesting and I would still recommend this book but not nearly as highly as his others.

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