I loved Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Unlike The Name of the Rose, it is almost comprehensible from the beginning of the book. The author tempts you in with a modern cyberplot. Apparently this deceives some people who then wonder what they are doing running all over Europe and through the Middle Ages skimming so many different topics they don't know where they are going.
If this appeals to you, it is the best kind of escapist fiction, not too heavy, pointless entertainment, with a little glitz, a false patina of intellectualism, and dash of true critical thinking, etc. So when I heard Foucault's Pendulum being described as a thinking man's Da Vinci Code, I thought, no way will I down scale. FP was downright well written and I won't lower my standards for DVC, won't read it, won't see the movie, won't talk about it.
But if I want to relax and get away from it all - I will reread Foucault's Pendulum. It all starts at the keyboard and moves back in time. Read the reviews on Amazon and decide who you are.
Then when someone asks you about the DVC you can say, "Have you read FP, it is the thinking man's DVC, you know." The thinking woman's too.
The real point is that Foucault's Pendulum is about how conspiracy theories get started. It critiques and uncloaks the very essence of the Da Vinci Code. It is a novel about perception and meaning. This is another book I heartily recommend.
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6 comments:
I read that.
Did you enjoy it?
Not that much. I found it quite heavy. I tend to prefer lighter novels for light reading.
God Bless
Matthew
I see from your blog that we both like Far from the Madding Crowd. That has more appeal, I agree.
Thanks for the tip, Suzanne. This morning (at 9.00 am, really!) I watched The Da Vinci Code film, and I was then in an audience for a local radio discussion - my pastor was on the panel. Both the book and the film are reasonably good as thrillers and fiction, but not the thinking man or woman's anything. But your review makes me think I might enjoy Foucault's Pendulum.
If you do, let me know in what way FP treats the same material as DVC, and how they contrast. I understand that FP is a critique of the tendency that people have to create conspiracy theories.
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