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A review by dee9401
On the Shoulders of Giants by Umberto Eco
5.0
What an exceptional set of lectures from an amazing scholar. This gift from my love was such a joy to read. I read it slowly, savoring it and working through it.
While all were thought provoking, I found these lectures the best of the series: On the Shoulders of Giants; The Absolute and the Relative; Paradoxes and Aphorisms; and Untruths, Lies, Falsifications. Coming up right behind these were the talks I thought were very good: Beauty; Ugliness; The Invisible; and On Some Forms of Imperfection in Art. The remaining essays were okay or good, but still worth the time to read through them.
I came to Eco through his novel, The Name of the Rose. It's amazing to see him strut his stuff on more semiotical and philosophical grounds. He has a depth and breadth of knowledge and, unlike many academics, has an amazing fluid and fluent way with words. Whether it's getting across a complex idea, or giving a snarky aside, Eco is a joy to read. By the way, my favorite snark was on the first page of the first essay: "Medea is hardly someone who will have a nursery school named after her" (p. 1).
While all were thought provoking, I found these lectures the best of the series: On the Shoulders of Giants; The Absolute and the Relative; Paradoxes and Aphorisms; and Untruths, Lies, Falsifications. Coming up right behind these were the talks I thought were very good: Beauty; Ugliness; The Invisible; and On Some Forms of Imperfection in Art. The remaining essays were okay or good, but still worth the time to read through them.
I came to Eco through his novel, The Name of the Rose. It's amazing to see him strut his stuff on more semiotical and philosophical grounds. He has a depth and breadth of knowledge and, unlike many academics, has an amazing fluid and fluent way with words. Whether it's getting across a complex idea, or giving a snarky aside, Eco is a joy to read. By the way, my favorite snark was on the first page of the first essay: "Medea is hardly someone who will have a nursery school named after her" (p. 1).