RIP Umberto Eco

Two big writers gone in one day.

Wow, what a loss for literature. RIP, sir.

Wow, another huge loss! Eco is another writer I loved.

Damn.

Aww, crap. RIP, Author.

What?? No!!

Sweet dreams, sir.

The first time I decided to read a full-length book in Italian that was actually by an Italian author (I cut my teeth on Stephen King translations), I went to the bookstore and browsed the stacks. What did I, unfamiliar with the author and unaware that it was WAY beyond my fledgling skill level at that time, choose because the blurb on the back sounded kind of interesting?

Foucault's Pendulum.

Talk about a linguistic trial by fire. It took me a full six months to read, lol.

...good ol' Umberto Eco. RIP

eta. Huh. That's been long enough ago I don't remember very much about it. Time to re-read! See you guys in six months.

He was a brilliant Medievalist and a scholar with an unusual talent for placing medieval studies in the middle of post modern critiques.

Tazlima said:

eta. Huh. That's been long enough ago I don't remember very much about it. Time to re-read! See you guys in six months.

Click to expand...

You've got major points; it took me six months to read it in English, because I kept losing track and having to re-read.

I think Eco is going to be regarded as one of the really great and important novelists of recent years. The Name of the Rose is by any standard a masterwork. Some of his other things are challenging, but worthy of the challenge. Damn shame he didn't start writing fiction earlier in his career, but a great thing that he lived as long as he did, and was able to complete what he did complete.

caw

Oh my. RIP to a great voice. May you journey forth well.

I wish a rose breeder to take note and name a rose Umberto.

Another giant falls.
The last of the epic postmodernists.
He was the only public figure to not be baffled by the new Hard to a God film last year, instead seeing it's beauty and purpose instantly. I hoped he'd be around for at least another decade, to notice and point out what others don't.

I love his books.

RIP good sir!

I loved the English translations of his fiction, but I was lucky enough to read some student-English translations of his guide to writing thesis papers. Brilliant, approachable, and useful.

An important writer to be sure. RIP