R.I.P. Umberto Eco

[miaedu]

Umberto Eco, 84, Best-Selling Academic Who Navigated Two Worlds, Dies

Umberto Eco, an Italian scholar in the arcane field of semiotics who became the author of best-selling novels, notably the blockbuster medieval mystery “The Name of the Rose,” died on Friday in Italy. He was 84.

His Italian publisher, Bompiani, confirmed his death, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. He died at his home in Milan, according to the Italian news website Il Post. No cause was given.

As a semiotician, Mr. Eco sought to interpret cultures through their signs and symbols — words, religious icons, banners, clothing, musical scores, even cartoons — and published more than 20 nonfiction books on these subjects while teaching at the University of Bologna, Europe’s oldest university.

But rather than segregate his academic life from his popular fiction, Mr. Eco infused his seven novels with many of his scholarly preoccupations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/20/a...rod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

 

[kallipolis]

One of my all time favourite authors. Gone far too early.

I have lost the freedom of not having an opinion.~Umberto Eco

 

[rareboy]

The book was written as a maze and he congratulates the reader who makes it beyond the complex structure of the first pages.

This is his sketch of the library.

Also read 'Invisible Cities'.

 

[ronboy]

I loved "The Name of the Rose."
Rest in peace, Signore Eco....

 

[kallipolis]

Here's a rather absurd, and brief encounter with Umberto Eco, garnished with oodles of humour to savour the appetite:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/umberto-eco-on-berlusconi-bestiality-and-beyonc/

I quote:

If you were to write a television series, what would it be? I ask him.

“You cannot do everything,” he says. “You know the Latin proverb Ars longa, vita brevis? I was asked by a gay magazine, have you had homosexual experience? I answered: Not yet. Because ars longa, vita brevis.”

Were you counting the homosexual experience as part of art or life, I wonder aloud. “You have only 80 years. You cannot try also bestial coitus. It takes too much time.”

 

[Latimer]

The book was written as a maze and he congratulates the reader who makes it beyond the complex structure of the first pages.

This is his sketch of the library.

Also read 'Invisible Cities'.

Haven't read any Eco, but seeing this sketch makes me think I'd enjoy him, particularly because the notes on the sketch are in Latin.

"Invisible Cities" = Italo Calvino. I should read it again. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[rareboy]

Eco and Calvino were both very important to me when I was in school; I read The Name of the Rose and Invisible Cities at about the same time ...both were semiotic masterpieces.