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Foucault's Pendulum

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  • 22-04-2011 4:02pm
    #1
    Monty Burnz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,455 ✭✭✭✭


    Has anybody read this great book by Umberto Eco? It's full of Rosicrucians, Illuminati, Knights Templar, etc. etc. - just about all of the main CT organistations are in there.

    It's a drastically superior book to 'The DaVinci Code' which is good fun but is full of ridiculous stuff and is written in a fairly patronising way. I think it's pretty clear that Foucault's Pendulum played a role in inspiring Dan Brown though - the central character in the DaVinci code is a professor of 'symbology' - whereas in real life Umberto Eco is a professor of semiotics (the study of signs, symbols and meaning).

    So, has anybody read Foucault's Pendulum? Any thoughts about it?


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    #2
    Talk E
    Closed Accounts Posts: 461 ✭✭Talk E


    Interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it. Actually I heard that the Da Vinci code book was partly based around the findings and research of Jordan Maxwell.

    Edit:
    Little known fact: During the filming of The Da Vinci Code movie, this book was special ordered as reading material for all cast and crew.

    http://www.jordanmaxwell.com/storeFull.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R67VASi2Hg


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    #3
    Hookah
    Closed Accounts Posts: 850 ✭✭✭Hookah


    I read it years ago.

    It's brilliantly written, like all of Eco's books, with Dan Brown being a pale shadow alongside him.

    It's a brilliant literary distillation of apophenia, the finding of patterns in random sets of numbers or events etc. of the type of thread which pops up here frequently. (I see there's another illuminati symbolism one today)

    It also contains a lot of interesting arcania and glimpses at alternative histories.

    An excellent read.

    (I spotted it for sale, secondhand, in a little music/bookstore in Merchants Alley, if someone is interested)


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    #4
    Di0genes
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,005 ✭✭✭Di0genes


    Talk E wrote: »
    Interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it. Actually I heard that the Da Vinci code book was partly based around the findings and research of Jordan Maxwell.

    Edit:



    http://www.jordanmaxwell.com/storeFull.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R67VASi2Hg


    I think that's Jordan Maxwell's ego talking.

    The writers of Holy Blood Holy Grail also tried the same shtick and even took Dan Brown to court over it, and lost.

    Foucault's Pendulum was more of parody of idiotic conspiracy theories than anything else.


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    #5
    Pete M.
    Registered Users Posts: 1,082 ✭✭✭Pete M.


    Yeah, great read. As with all of Umberto's work.

    I have the Monad Hieroglyph tattooed on my arm.

    Have also seen the Pendulum swing in gay Paree.

    And so the world keeps on spinning...


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    #6
    Monty Burnz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,455 ✭✭✭✭Monty Burnz


    Pete M. wrote: »
    Have also seen the Pendulum swing in gay Paree.

    And so the world keeps on spinning...
    Me too, made a point of going to see it, although I believe they have moved the Musee des Arts et Metiers (sp?) since the book was written.
    Hookah wrote:
    It's a brilliant literary distillation of apophenia
    Exactly this.


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