Umberto Eco, Italian novelist and intellectual, dies aged 84

[marylander1940]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N9uxJh2Wkg

 

 

The celebrated Italian intellectual Umberto Eco, who shot to fame with his 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, has been remembered as a master of Italian culture following his death at the age of 84.

 

Eco died on Friday night after suffering from cancer, prompting tributes to pour in for the esteemed writer.

 

“[He was] an extraordinary example of a European intellectual, combining unique intelligence of the past with a limitless capacity to anticipate the future,” said Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi. “It’s an enormous loss for culture, which will miss his writing and voice, his sharp and lively thought, and his humanity,” Renzi told the Ansa news agency.

 

Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said Eco remained youthful until his last day. “A master who brought Italian culture to the whole world,” Franceschini wrote on Twitter.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/20/italian-author-umberto-eco-dies-aged-84

[gallahadesquire]

This is truly sad. The Name of the Rose is a fantastic book, with a relatively decent film, with Sean Connery and Christian Slater. I found the book to be much better than the film, which gets relatively frenetic. A lot of Eco is difficult for me, as he is not light fluff.

[liubit]

I agree, gallahad, the book is better than the film. I enjoyed the movie, though. It certainly helped that I found Christian Slater sooooooooooo cute then... :rolleyes:

[AdamSmith]

Compilation of quotations by him/from his works: http://www.umbertoeco.com/en/umberto-eco-quotes.html

 

About how he looked when I took his course on semiotics at Yale, 1980...

 

http://www.umbertoeco.com/uploads/images/eco-18-160.gif

 

...first day of class he pulled out a cigarette; started to light it; paused, looked at us, said, "Can I smoke oooone cigarette?" Then proceeded to chain-smoke the whole semester.

 

One of the most delightful lecturers ever. Again, time was fall semester, 1980. All throughout the term, he kept illustrating abstruse concepts in semiotics with concrete examples of "peegs" (pigs) and the "wind rose," a medieval term for the north/east/south/west compass face. A few months after that, out came a novel wherein these devices figured: The Name of the Rose. Turns out we had been present at the creation.

 

Another nice Guardian piece...

Umberto Eco: ‘People are tired of simple things’

[AdamSmith]

On ‘Krazy Kat’ and ‘Peanuts’

Umberto Eco, translated by William Weaver

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/06/13/on-krazy-kat-and-peanuts/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR Bill McKibben Zadie Smith Umberto Eco&utm_content=NYR Bill McKibben Zadie Smith Umberto Eco+CID_de4671629efc8a179609844ca8a9e29b&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_term=On Krazy Kat and Peanuts