Sacred May 11, 2007
Posted by goldblatt in English Department.trackback
Two books that i’ve read that are uttlerly compelling.
this one is called The Name of the Rose and it was written by Umberto Eco. It’s fantastic. a murder mystery among monks of a medieval italian monastery. but it’s so much more. a dissertation on the sacred and secular, the origins of western language and culture, and, more than anything else, semiotics–the science of language. this is a great book.
this one kicks ass as well. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. A fantastic magical mystery tour through communist Russia of the 1930’s filled with everything communists hate: magic, religion, god, romance, whimsy. this is one of the best books i’ve ever read in my life.
You’ve been quite busy!
I really enjoyed The Name of the Rose too, much more than the film version I’d seen years before I read it.
You might like The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana too, then. I’m only half through, but there are similarities… the emphasis on the tactile bookness of books, a sort of glorification of the physical attributes of those things that (in The Name of the Rose) can bring down great institutions but can themselves be destroyed so easily. The plot, though, is built on the signs and significations those books (and songs, and cartoons) bring into the consciousness.
This is a great book! Crazy monastic detectives! Semiotics, however, is the study of signs and symbols.
lets not get into the semiotics of semiotics here, guys. i love monastic detectives. i have seen nearly every episode of the BBC series Brother Cadfael, starring Derek Jacobi. oh my lord that is a great show. based on books which i assume are a lot like this book. umberto eco is precisely the kind of man i would like to have to dinner. umberto eco, robert evans and craig ferguson.
I downloaded the text for M&M and will get to it eventually…have to get through this history kick I’m on first. Thanks for the recommendations.