I just finished "Foucault's Pendulum." Ask me anything.

[DrWeird]

Overall it was a very good novel, but if I have one complaint it's that they forgot the umlaut over the 'a' in "ia Chtulhu!"

[XNASA]

1. How would you rate it on a scale of 1 to 5?

'1' being tedious and '5' being painfully tedious.

[tigereye]

2. that is impressive

I have always wanted to read it, but lacked the stamina.

[Bunny]

6. I could not get past the second page.

Swear to God, it bored me senseless! :silly:

:hi: tigereye!

[4_Legs_Good]

8. Are you kidding???

it had one of the best first pages ever!!!

[Bunny]

10. I'm perfectly serious.

I'll never be part of the literati! ;)

Sigh. I just did not get that book at all.

[4_Legs_Good]

11. Yeah, I can totally understand it...

I read very little. I thought The Name of the Rose was probably in the top 5 books I've ever read and it took me an entire year to get through. Well worth it, though.

At least you got through page 1! That's the good one.

david

[tigereye]

15. hey Bunny how are ya?

suddenly I have this urge to call you Bunnicula.. shouldn't do that should I? :)

[The Spirit of JFK]

16. It took me forever to get through the first 50 pages but...

after that I could NOT put it down.

It's worth trudging through it...

or your money back!

[DrWeird]

3. 5

but that's the point.

[xray s]

4. Casts a whole new light on Mickey Mouse,eh?

something about that mouse....

[baldguy]

5. What the hell was that book about?

I've read it twice.

[DrWeird]

7. ***

You know, it reminded me a lot of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

[4_Legs_Good]

9. I thought it was about 10,000 x better than the DaVinci Code

and maybe 30% as good as The Name of the Rose.

Dan Brown with a brain.

Sorry about the umlaut, but blame that on the translator.

david

[DrWeird]

12. I haven't read "The DaVinci Code" but is that saying much?

Actually, I blame the translator for a lot of problems with the book. A lot of things that I think should have been translated into English. "Pute" for instance. It would have been a lot clearly to a lot more people if he just translated it as "whore." And instead of translating to the English "acronym" the translator made it "acronist" or some such thing. I spent the whole page trying to figure out what the fuck he was talking about before I realized he meant "acronym."

And there's a lot of real obscure shit that's pure Eco. In one chapter they're discussing Shakespeare and he uses the line "if I could see so far, it is only by standing on the shoulder of dwarfs." Obviously the well read reader will see this is a take this as a play on Isaac Newton's famous line about standing on the shoulder of giants. What very few readers would likely realize is that Newton's famous line was not paying respect to his predecessors, but was a real smarmy insult directed at a colleague who happened to be a dwarf.

[4_Legs_Good]

13. Heh heh heh heh

Yeah, there's tons of stuff in his books that very few people will get (myself included). But it's fun in a way.

on the DaVinci Code, well, it's what the best selling novel for the past 2 years or something? I think Dan Brown takes himself too seriously, as does Eco, but I think Eco has the intellectual prowess to back it up. Dan Brown is pretty much just writing a Hollywood adventure story with some conspiracy stuff thrown in. Eco seems to really immerse himself (and the reader) in the stuff.

Plus it's clear Brown has an agenda - not so true of Eco, I think, who is asking more questions than preaching.

Read the DaVinci code, it'll be a nice break after Focault's Pendulum.

Then read The Name of the Rose if you haven't yet.

david

[soothsayer]

14. Loved it! That, and Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" n/t

or is it 39?