The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco, 1980)

Book club selection (via PJr/PJ).

As the years go by, I can see that I will spend more of my reading on re-reading prior books that I found useful.  While this re-read was prompted by book club, I could also have seen myself re-reading it on its own merits.

Discussion from initial read is here.

Enjoyed it more this time around.  I have a better sense of the history, partly because of books like this.  Also, the book is pretty complex - so even though I didn't recall all that many details, it ultimately was helpful to have some familiarity going in (from the prior read).

Eco's "Afterword" is quite interesting.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time (Dava Sobel, 1996)

Quick and easy read. I didn't realize that determining longitude for sailors was so difficult, nor the attendant dangers. Basically, folks far out at sea were able to find latitude - but were guessing at longitude. Especially on a longer voyage, this could be deadly.

Apparently there were numerous attempts over the years, but no good solution. Reliance on tactics like "dead reckoning" was dicey.

A British ship returning from battle ran aground with great loss of life; with other disasters, the government was prompted to throw some serious money (>$4.5 million in today's dollars) behind finding a solution.

There were two main approaches thought most likely to succeed: a highly accurate clock (permitting the navigator to know the difference in time from London); or extensive star charts.

This book focuses on John Harrison, who worked on a clock. I didn't realize how inaccurate clocks were up to this point (Harrison was working on this in the mid-18th century). He had to figure out a way to keep the clock precise on a pitching ship that faced extremes of temperature and humidity. He seemed to have absolutely no background for the task, but somehow figured it out. The powers-that-be that ran the prize commission favored the star-chart approach, and placed all sorts of roadblocks in Harrison's way. But he succeeded.

I had no idea "Longitude" would overlap with concepts in this book by Umberto Eco - including the race for a solution, the idea of using a wounded dog on ship to bark in sympathy with a dog on land (hopefully not a serious idea), the clocks, etc.

And - by another coincidence - this book overlaps with another that I'm reading about the royal society (under Maskelyne) that mistreated Harrison (but supported folks like Herschel).

The Island of the Day Before (Umberto Eco, 1994)

I liked The Name of the Rose a great deal. I liked Foucault's Pendulum quite a bit. So I read this on the strength of Umberto Eco as author. Didn't work out as well.

I never really did figure out what Eco was up to in this one. It's worth reading because there is a ton of interesting things floating around - ideas about the efforts to figure out longitude; politics and battles at the time of the 30 Years War; Richelieu and Mazarin; etc.; long discussions about knowledge, religious belief compared to scientific method, role of imagination; etc.

So I think the best aspect - and perhaps what Eco was up to - was giving the reader a window into the mindset and conversations of the first half of the 17th century.

As far as the plot - the protagonist (Roberto) is shipwrecked, and ends up being washed up onto an abandoned ship moored just far enough off a south seas island such that Roberto - a non-swimmer - is pretty much trapped. The abandoned ship relates to the intrigues surrounding the efforts to be the first to reliably calculate longitudes, and Roberto explores. While imagining things with a woman back in Paris whom he hopes to love.

The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco, 1980)

I enjoyed this book a bunch. Moreso than this other book by Eco.

Wealthy abbey in Italy, early 14th century. One death per day for seven days, seeming to follow Apocalypse verses. First death on the day that William of Baskerville (protagonist) arrives as one of numerous visitors for a meeting at the abbey. Important meeting to discuss tensions between Franciscans wanting poverty in their order (reacting to what they perceived as a drift toward materialism and away from St. Francis's teachings), and others who felt too much emphasis on poverty could be a dangerous, destabilizing concept (how far might the impoverished masses go if the concept of renouncing private property took hold?)

Unique abbey: fabulous library, including lots of materials from Arabic and other non-Western sources. But the keepers limit access rather than make widespread availability.

The abbot asks William to get to the bottom of the murders. William references Roger Bacon, William of Occam; uses what would be considered scientific method in a setting where medievalism and superstition tend to control.

In a way this is a detective story, but the "detecting" takes place in the context of so much else.

Long discussions about poverty in religious life (in the context of a very wealthy abbey).

Long discussions about heresy, and how the political and religious leaders pursue heretics to achieve other policies. While little people unable to comprehend (or uninterested in comprehending) doctrinal minutiae are swept up (and used by the leaders) for reasons that have little to do with the ostensible religious issues. Sounds familiar, actually.

Long discussions about the proper role of laughter for man. (Did Jesus ever laugh? Blind Jorge says no.)

Long discussions about appropriate access to knowledge. And the role of the inquisitors.

I read that this was a commercial success. Which seems unlikely given that the book is long and - as should be evident from the above - not focused on pop topics. But it works. Perhaps even gave a snippet or two of insight into life in systems where the civic and religious authorities manage knowledge and doctrine to maintain power and control.

Very good follow-on to this book, which described events a couple hundred years later - but many of the same concepts crossed over.

"The Name of the Rose" shares many concepts with this book, which is another one that I like an awful lot.

Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco, 1988)

OK, I had plenty of misgivings because the story revolves around secrets, secret societies, powerful hidden folks, etc. (DaVinci Code-ish). That's almost certain to generate a weak story line. And I had further misgivings because the book was an "international bestseller" - maybe that doesn't mean much in terms of actual sales, but it suggests a product pitched to an overly broad audience.

But Eco has more going on than tale-spinning - he is speaking to the question why humans are drawn towards secrets and conpiracies, what happens to the world-view of secret-seekers, etc.

Plot - the particular "secret" - involves the Crusades-era Templars and rumors of a long-term plan to take power over the world via subterranean currents or whatever. But the power-taking plan, or at least crucial elements, seems to have been lost over the centuries. Three employees of an Italian publishing house get deeply immersed and make up a version of the plan. The fictional plan (and efforts to implement it) end up, in their version, explaining just about everything that's happened in the last 1000 years across several continents. The plan then turns out to be of great interest to certain others, even though the plan is fiction.

The story was interesting enough, though too many sections didn't seem to add much to the story (including long passages from private writings of one of the main characters (Belbo) - I just started skipping these (though there was something there from the perspective of Italians dealing with World War II, shifting allegiances as the fortunes of the war shifted, etc.)). The story was told through the eyes of Casaubon (same name as the old husband in Middlemarch, not sure why but I doubt it was a coincidence).

What is a "secret," anyway? Author observes that there is nothing inherently magical about secret information, as so often is suggested - simply means that persons other than the secret-seeker have the information. He correctly points out that once the secret is known, its power - which generally is in the imagination of the secret-seeker - is gone. There are no secrets that unlock powers, or obviously these would have been exploited long, long ago.

In the end this business of secrets, Kabbalah, etc. seems to be another way of addressing the profound - and unanswerable - questions - why are we here, where did we come from, what happens after we die, etc. Humans have faced these questions forever, and have come up with a long list of ways of coping. (Probably at more profound levels in eras prior to endless distraction with media.) Many folks seem to like believing that there is a power and a system (or at least a conpsiracy) that if understood, gives us a measure of control or understanding over these eternal unknowns. Numerology - crack the code, understand something. And if there are conspirators out there implementing secret designs - well, that helps explain why things go wrong for you, and it's not even your fault! It was out of your control or even perhaps "meant to be" - a great cop-out. (Versions of this are of course popular with politicians - blame secret conspirators (fill in the details as needed: speculators, financiers, Jews, whatever) for the failure of your policies how convenient.)

So in the end all of this business about secrets or ancient rituals or Kabbalah or whatever doesn't lead anywhere. And still leaving us with the big questions . . .