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3.01 AVERAGE
3.01 AVERAGE
Meh. I might have like this better if I was interested in the details of Italian history and Mussolini. I gave it three stars for the satirical depiction of how to manufacture a newspaper that has 24 pages of nothing.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Medya ve bilgi manipülasyonu üzerinde dönen güzel bir hikaye. Hikayelerin tuhaflığından yer yer kaçırmış olsam da yine Umberto Eco hassas detaycılığını ortaya koymuş.
"Ayrıca yalnızca bir bakanın, büyük bir sanayicinin kaybında böyle bir haber yaparız" diye açıkladı Simei. "Okurlarımızın adını bile duymadığı uydurma bir şair için değil mesela. Onlar büyük gazetelerin kültür sayfalarında her gün yayımlamak zorunda oldukları gereksiz haberler ve yorumlardır."
yavaş yavaş anlamaya baş- ladığıma göre, zaten bütün gazeteler aynı hamurdan yoğrul muş olduğundan kimi kime şikâyet edeceksin? Hepsi sırası gelince birbirini koruyor."
"Ayrıca yalnızca bir bakanın, büyük bir sanayicinin kaybında böyle bir haber yaparız" diye açıkladı Simei. "Okurlarımızın adını bile duymadığı uydurma bir şair için değil mesela. Onlar büyük gazetelerin kültür sayfalarında her gün yayımlamak zorunda oldukları gereksiz haberler ve yorumlardır."
yavaş yavaş anlamaya baş- ladığıma göre, zaten bütün gazeteler aynı hamurdan yoğrul muş olduğundan kimi kime şikâyet edeceksin? Hepsi sırası gelince birbirini koruyor."
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another reread. I spent all summer explicitly trying to read "challenging" books and I housed this in like 36 hours. The plot: colonna is contacted by the kind of skeezy newspaper guy simei to ghostwrite a book on his year in charge of Domani, a new paper set up by the mysterious sketchy striving rich guy commendatore vimercate. Vimercate probably doesn't intend to ever have the paper published, but wants to use it to gain access and power into rich guy world's that he feels shut out from. Because they have the luxury of not actually publishing the news at it comes out they can alter their coverage to seem a little more prophetic and on top of trends. One thread of the novel involves conversations in the newsroom which are seemingly there just so eco can play around with ideas about how the media influences the public (does the paper shape public opinion or is it shaped by? Both). At the same time, the conspiratorial braggadocio (apparently they don't have that word over there!) gets obsessed with conspiracy surrounding Mussolini's body and is convinced Mussolini didn't actually die at the end of WWII, instead he was hid either in them Vatican or Argentina and he died on the eve of the Borghese coup. He prattles on like the holy fool of conspiratorial thinking but includes pages and pages of verifiably true shit about NATO in western Europe which mostly postdates the coup which is rhetorically kind of intetesting. Colonna entertains all this and even seems surprised by it (which is weird; apparently speculation about Mussolini's death is, in Italy, the way the JFK assassination is here and it would feel strange to have a newspaper editor act like some gormless greenhorn upon hearing someone dive into grassy knoll talk). Colonna also begins an affair with Maia, a younger reporter whose contributions are always shot down. A third reporter is assumed to be a spy. Eventually braggadocio winds up dead and the whole thing unravels. Maia and colonna consider fleeing to a country where the illegal maneuvering of those in power are all out in the open but decide that Italy is well on its way to becoming such a place.
The conversations in the newsroom about what media (broadly and narrowly defined I these) actually does were interesting. I think maybe we all live in the kind of place Maia and colonna describe at the end nowadays. Things are overt and yet nothing changes. Maybe eco recognized that the people in the newsroom always either exaggerated or misunderstood their role in shaping the public. I've recently felt like media (broadly defined) shapes public perception to a huge degree but in a way that is completely outside the control of an individual or even a conglomerate, even a disciplined well funded one like Fox or something. It's a conduit not a catalyst. Also I'm sure there's a lot hidden in the little word games Maia plays given ecos whole signs and symbols deal. I particularly liked him filling a whole page of increasingly ridiculous European nobility names and titles. It's a gag that will always work for me but there's a lot of information encoded in there too.
You don't feel much for the characters but I did find colonna talking to Maia about what it's like to be a loser kind of moving. I had also incorrectly remembered a bloodier ending and I would have been kinda upset by that I'm glad I was wrong.
The conversations in the newsroom about what media (broadly and narrowly defined I these) actually does were interesting. I think maybe we all live in the kind of place Maia and colonna describe at the end nowadays. Things are overt and yet nothing changes. Maybe eco recognized that the people in the newsroom always either exaggerated or misunderstood their role in shaping the public. I've recently felt like media (broadly defined) shapes public perception to a huge degree but in a way that is completely outside the control of an individual or even a conglomerate, even a disciplined well funded one like Fox or something. It's a conduit not a catalyst. Also I'm sure there's a lot hidden in the little word games Maia plays given ecos whole signs and symbols deal. I particularly liked him filling a whole page of increasingly ridiculous European nobility names and titles. It's a gag that will always work for me but there's a lot of information encoded in there too.
You don't feel much for the characters but I did find colonna talking to Maia about what it's like to be a loser kind of moving. I had also incorrectly remembered a bloodier ending and I would have been kinda upset by that I'm glad I was wrong.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No