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Official YIFY movies site:
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Presented by
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with the support of
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a Rossofuoco production
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in collaboration with
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with the participation of Eco family
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a film by
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editor
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cinematography
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music
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original music
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literary consultants
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monologues from Umberto Eco’s writings
by kind permission of La nave di Teseo
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executive producer
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produced by
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directed by
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A library is both symbol
and reality of universal memory.
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When Dante sees God in Paradise,
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JANUARY 2015
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how does
he solve the difficult job to describe God?
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He writes: “In one volume bound by Love, of
which the universe is the scattered leaves”
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He sees God as the
library of all libraries,
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a few centuries ahead
of Jorge Luis Borges...
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A LIBRARY OF THE WORLD
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A film in three chapters and an epilogue
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FEBRUARY 2016
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There is sad news that just arrived.
Umberto Eco has died...
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What have you got there?
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Today the amusement park will be closed
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to celebrate the memory of Umberto Eco,
the great master.
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I do remember...
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Actually, better than an official honor.
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Do you remember this issue
of “Linus” magazine?
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They made this cover with him dressed
as Superman, as Charlie Brown, as a Smurf...
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... and as Big Belly...
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Pretty much so, yes...
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And they published this comic strip
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where he watches his own funeral
from that balcony
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and he is moved...
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There was this huge crowd
blocking the entrance to the castle...
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Oh, my god, how can I get through?
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So I pushed through the crowd
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saying “Please, let me pass”.
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“You want to pass? We’ve all been waiting
since morning!”
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“Get In line like anybody else!”
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So I said: “Actually, I am the widow...”
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They let you in?
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Not exactly, no...
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Thank you, Professor
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Milan, summer 2022
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This is my father’s studio, in the house
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that he and my mother chose 30 years ago
to host the whole book library.
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That is, 1,200 rare and antique books
and 30,000 contemporary books.
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Here is where he worked
together with his collaborators.
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But his shelter was the rare book room-
There he played the flute
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and spent time leafing through the books,
without phone nor laptop...
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The basic collection is:
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“Bibliotheca semiologica, curiosa, lunatica
magica et pneumatica”.
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To explain to a librarian, I’d say:
“Occult sciences”
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But it’s not really like that. For instance
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I have books on all the imaginary languages
that were ever invented.
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One of the biggest strokes of luck in my
life was to have met Umberto Eco 35 years ago
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He gave me two important things:
one, his friendship and knowledge;
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the other, access to his library.
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Physiognomics, magic, alchemy
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00:07:03,231 --> 00:07:06,648
chemistry and sciences, chemical theatres...
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00:07:06,981 --> 00:07:08,648
occultism, hermetism...
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00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:11,440
- Magic...
- Semiology and ensigns...
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- ...hyeroglyphics...
- ...astronomical sciences, demonology, alchemy...
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00:07:17,981 --> 00:07:19,356
...esotericism...
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00:07:19,565 --> 00:07:21,731
...theology and Kircher...
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...Kircher... Rosicrucians...
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00:07:24,815 --> 00:07:31,440
...universal languages, linguistics,
soul of the animals...
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Dad never used these gloves...
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Of course: books must be touched
with your hands.
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Talking about a big house full of books
may imply a lonely man of letters
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who lives secluded from the world.
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The house is big otherwise I wouldn’t
know where to put the books.
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I was evicted from the last one
after an inspection by the city engineers
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because they were afraid
the floors would collapse.
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When I arrived 25 years ago they were
30.000... I have no more time to count them.
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They are my books, translations...
and they are books on me.
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ONE
REMEMBERING
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Since books are made out of trees
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and anciently from papyrus,
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by “vegetal memory”,
I mean the memory kept in books.
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Organic memory is the one in our brain;
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and, last, there’s a mineral memory that’s
kept in the silicon of electronic devices.
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00:10:01,981 --> 00:10:08,190
As humans, when we say 'I',
we mean our memory
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Memory is soul.
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There’s a parallel to individual memory
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which is the library, the vegetal memory.
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Libraries are mankind’s common memory
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We are beings living in time.
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Without memory it’s impossible
to build a future.
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Living in time we are like an athlete:
to spring forward, we must back up first.
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- Let’s say... 10 seconds
- 10 seconds
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00:11:51,315 --> 00:11:53,690
But 10 seconds - do they pass
fast or slow?
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00:11:54,148 --> 00:11:59,773
Look, 10 seconds tend to pass
always in the same time.
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00:12:02,856 --> 00:12:05,023
Actually, let me tell you the truth:
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10 seconds always pass in 10 seconds.
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DO NOT HOPE TO GET RID OF BOOKS
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I belong to a generation
who still prefer to read on paper.
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00:12:17,398 --> 00:12:21,856
Once, during a trip to the US,
I uploaded on my I-pad
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00:12:22,023 --> 00:12:27,856
the last volume of Proust’s 'Recherche'...
It’s easy.
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00:12:28,398 --> 00:12:33,356
But I could not underline any passage.
I could not make dog-ears,
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I didn’t smear the pages with a
dirty thumb... Very important things!
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Sentimentally, the book is irreplaceable.
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Somebody says CD-Roms and hypertexts
will kill books. I don’t agree.
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They will do away with those books
that don’t deserve to exist.
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00:13:02,898 --> 00:13:07,565
Sometimes I thought my grandfather’s name
wasn’t Umberto, but Professor Eco.
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He was my only grandfather
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and I had a very nice childhood
thanks to him too,
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him and his sense of irony.
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00:13:24,731 --> 00:13:27,981
The first book I received from him
was 'Sylvie' by de Nerval
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00:13:28,148 --> 00:13:30,398
and let me say right away
I still haven’t read it.
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That was the first gift...
the first book we read together
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was “Gian Burrasca”.
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00:13:39,815 --> 00:13:43,273
I asked him to help me read it because
I had to prepare a paper for school.
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00:13:43,398 --> 00:13:46,981
Something I had to do during
Christmas holidays.
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00:13:46,981 --> 00:13:49,773
He did help me... basically
he wrote the paper.
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00:13:50,273 --> 00:13:54,356
If my teacher back then is watching this,
I do apologize.
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I got top grades in all the
sections he wrote, except one:
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the only one I did myself, where I failed...
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00:14:11,273 --> 00:14:12,523
Hey Ric, remember this?
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00:14:12,523 --> 00:14:14,023
Yes, the dog’s testicles...
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00:14:15,940 --> 00:14:18,690
- There’s a book close by...
- The one I was looking for.
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00:14:19,273 --> 00:14:24,106
They are probably the two things
I most played with in this room.
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00:14:24,648 --> 00:14:27,273
Ruysch’s “Thesaurus anatomicus”...
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00:14:27,780 --> 00:14:31,072
A book I was fascinated with
from the first moment I touched it.
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00:14:31,190 --> 00:14:34,398
One of the illustrations I liked the best
is the skeletons’ garden...
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00:14:36,523 --> 00:14:38,440
See? Another bookmark...
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00:14:40,023 --> 00:14:44,606
He must have leafed through it
one of the last times he was here.
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00:14:48,856 --> 00:14:49,898
Here they are...
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00:14:50,773 --> 00:14:56,981
- I like this one ... The weeping one.
- This illustration was a way he had
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00:14:57,273 --> 00:15:01,773
to make up for not letting me see
cartoons on tv.
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00:15:02,690 --> 00:15:03,690
Poor boy!
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00:15:06,773 --> 00:15:08,893
Do you know how many nightmares
I had because of this?
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00:15:10,398 --> 00:15:14,565
Look... this skeleton holds a sickle
in his hand
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00:15:15,023 --> 00:15:20,898
I remember one summer day
in the countryside, I was a little kid
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00:15:21,523 --> 00:15:25,190
we took a walk and I found a rusted sickle.
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00:15:25,648 --> 00:15:29,106
It looked like nothing
but he got all excited
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00:15:29,523 --> 00:15:35,273
because he had an excuse to teach me
one more lesson on the history of sickles...
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00:15:35,273 --> 00:15:38,898
All books by your grandfather
were literally eccentric
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because they moved from the farthest point
and the seemingly weirdest things
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but eventually told you all you had
to know about entire worlds...
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00:15:51,398 --> 00:15:52,565
Look at this one.
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00:15:53,065 --> 00:15:55,690
- Big Head!
- Yes, that’s how we called it...
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00:16:50,148 --> 00:16:54,606
A bibliomaniac would keep his book
all to himself and would never show it
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00:16:54,856 --> 00:16:59,065
because he would fear thieves from
all over the world would flock to steal it.
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00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:04,606
And so he’d read it alone, at night,
like Uncle Scrooge swimming in his dollars.
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00:17:05,231 --> 00:17:09,023
A bibliophile, on the contrary, would share
his wonder with everybody
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and he’d be proud they knew it was his
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00:17:13,815 --> 00:17:17,231
Athanasius Kircher was probably the author
Umberto Eco loved more, as a collector.
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00:17:17,606 --> 00:17:20,148
A Jesuit from the 17th century,
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00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:26,690
he was an omnivorous
scholar, endlessly curious.
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00:17:27,690 --> 00:17:35,773
He wrote books about anything
the human mind could conceive.
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00:17:36,065 --> 00:17:42,273
Not only did he describe his subjects
in words on endless pages and volumes,
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00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:49,481
he also used images to show, just to
name one, hieroglyphics from old Egypt...
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00:17:51,481 --> 00:17:56,231
He completely misinterpreted them,
still he built a consistent demonstration.
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00:17:56,940 --> 00:18:06,231
Or China. He heard stories from missionaries
coming from the Far East and on these
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00:18:06,523 --> 00:18:09,940
he would write wonderful travelogues,
without ever having being there...
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00:18:10,190 --> 00:18:13,190
Alphabets - like the ones
from the tower of Babel
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from where different languages originated.
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00:18:16,398 --> 00:18:22,606
Same thing for his conjectures
on Noah’s ark.
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00:18:23,981 --> 00:18:28,690
And in these books Umberto Eco
literally lived and thrived.
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00:18:50,190 --> 00:18:52,856
FROM ECO's WRITINGS
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00:18:53,231 --> 00:18:57,315
WHY KIRCHER?
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00:19:12,648 --> 00:19:17,065
Why are we still
so fascinated by Kircher?
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00:19:18,606 --> 00:19:23,190
I’d say - for the same reasons
he was wrong so many times.
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00:19:23,648 --> 00:19:29,690
For his voraciousness, his bulimia
for sciences, his encyclopedic hunger.
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00:19:30,106 --> 00:19:37,523
Kircher discourses on the sun and the moon,
on tides and ocean streams
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00:19:37,815 --> 00:19:40,940
on eclipses, waters, underground fires,
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00:19:41,273 --> 00:19:45,273
lakes, rivers, sources of the Nile,
saltworks and mines,
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00:19:45,856 --> 00:19:50,815
fossils, metals, insects, herbs,
distillation and fireworks,
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00:19:51,148 --> 00:19:54,148
spontaneous generation and panspermia...
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00:19:57,481 --> 00:20:02,190
and with the same self-assurance he
tells us stories about dragons and giants.
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00:20:13,565 --> 00:20:17,481
Kircher has opinions on everything,
sometimes only by hearsay,
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00:20:18,065 --> 00:20:23,856
and about everything he gives us
proof, image, chart, function,
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00:20:24,315 --> 00:20:29,981
causes and effects. Kircher writes scientifically
about things he totally misunderstands
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00:20:30,273 --> 00:20:36,606
but he never gives up explaining.
And so it happens that his imagery,
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pretending to be scientifically correct,
produces the wildest run of fantasy,
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00:20:44,565 --> 00:20:48,606
so that it becomes impossible
to tell truth from fiction.
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00:20:52,773 --> 00:20:53,773
It’s in the can?
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00:20:58,690 --> 00:21:02,398
Papyruses and manuscripts
have survived thousands of years,
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00:21:02,940 --> 00:21:07,148
we have books made 500 years ago
that look freshly printed
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00:21:07,856 --> 00:21:11,231
but we don’t know how long
electronic formats will survive.
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00:21:11,523 --> 00:21:18,731
Today’s computers are not able to read
what we recorded two decades ago
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00:21:18,856 --> 00:21:21,856
on prehistoric floppy disks.
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00:21:22,481 --> 00:21:28,731
90%, maybe 99% of the messages
circulating in this world 'volant'
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00:21:29,315 --> 00:21:31,398
and it’s not so sure they 'maneant' (stay).
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00:21:31,690 --> 00:21:36,270
At the same time, there’s a profusion
of recordings.
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00:21:36,270 --> 00:21:37,253
THE FORMS OF CONTENT
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00:21:37,253 --> 00:21:41,057
As we are having our little chit-chat here,
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00:21:41,565 --> 00:21:44,546
somebody there is already recording it.
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00:21:44,546 --> 00:21:46,124
AESTHETIC AND INFORMATION THEORY
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00:21:46,124 --> 00:21:49,476
I was told that you don’t own
a cell phone.. A mobile phone.
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00:21:49,476 --> 00:21:51,429
Yes, but it’s always out
200
00:21:52,312 --> 00:21:54,312
What do you mean with ‘always out’?
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00:21:54,312 --> 00:21:59,327
It’s very important because people believe
to reach me and they cannot because it’s out,
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00:21:59,491 --> 00:22:01,726
it’s turned off.
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00:22:03,139 --> 00:22:06,952
Does it not defit the purpose of having it?
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00:22:07,187 --> 00:22:12,288
No, because it works as an agenda.
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00:22:14,101 --> 00:22:15,641
You take your notes...
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00:22:15,641 --> 00:22:17,499
But it’s supposed to work as a phone.
207
00:22:17,499 --> 00:22:22,890
Yes, but I don’t want to receive messages
and I don’t want to send messages!
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00:22:24,754 --> 00:22:32,015
At my age I have deserved the
right of not receiving messages.
209
00:22:32,374 --> 00:22:38,601
This world is overloaded with messages
and even each of them says nothing!
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00:22:41,231 --> 00:22:44,937
So, all that is said is recorded;
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00:22:44,937 --> 00:22:46,178
APOCALYPSE POSTPONED
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00:22:46,178 --> 00:22:49,773
and, knowing it is recorded, we don’t feel
any more the need to remember it.
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00:22:50,023 --> 00:22:53,023
Maybe you read that story by Borges
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00:22:53,356 --> 00:22:57,898
about a character called Funes el memorioso
who remembers everything:
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00:22:58,148 --> 00:23:01,815
every leaf on every tree
he has seen in his life,
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00:23:01,981 --> 00:23:07,148
all that happened to him at any given
moment. He remembers everything...
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00:23:07,315 --> 00:23:12,940
Therefore, he is basically an idiot
because he can’t handle it.
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00:23:13,898 --> 00:23:21,940
He’s like the web... if we knew all
that’s contained on the web, we’d go crazy.
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So, what is the second function of memory?
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The first function is to preserve,
the second one is to select.
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00:23:29,190 --> 00:23:33,940
It would be a tragedy if our memory,
both individual and public,
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00:23:34,481 --> 00:23:39,815
did not decimate daily events discarding
what’s useless
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00:23:39,940 --> 00:23:42,940
or too complicated to remember.
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00:23:43,065 --> 00:23:45,856
We’d all be like Funes el memorioso.
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00:24:27,773 --> 00:24:31,481
Internet is the encyclopedia
according to Funes.
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00:24:31,940 --> 00:24:39,023
Everything is potentially recorded there
but without tools to filter its contents.
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00:24:39,523 --> 00:24:42,690
So, this is a new challenge for mankind.
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00:24:42,815 --> 00:24:46,481
If yesterday we wanted to know
as much information as possible
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00:24:46,848 --> 00:24:53,255
today, in a way, we should get rid
of as much information as possible.
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00:24:53,458 --> 00:24:55,347
SEMIOTICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE
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00:24:55,347 --> 00:25:00,773
Till now, we all referred to a commonly
accepted and shared knowledge
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00:25:00,981 --> 00:25:06,898
though we could actually challenge it
on a specific issue, arguing about it.
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00:25:07,273 --> 00:25:13,356
If we do not share this common knowledge,
human relationships cannot exist:
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00:25:13,690 --> 00:25:18,523
but today there’s a virtual chance that
6 billion people on the planet,
235
00:25:18,690 --> 00:25:22,273
surfing individually on the net,
236
00:25:22,273 --> 00:25:25,523
could come up with 6 billion individual
opinions on what that knowledge is.
237
00:25:25,648 --> 00:25:28,648
Which would cause a total
communication black out.
238
00:25:28,856 --> 00:25:30,825
THE THEORY OF THE FLAT EARTH
239
00:25:40,598 --> 00:25:42,465
THE LIMITS OF INTERPRETATION
240
00:25:45,848 --> 00:25:48,372
DON'T
241
00:26:03,690 --> 00:26:10,981
The risk is losing our memory on account
of an overload of artificial memory.
242
00:26:10,981 --> 00:26:15,440
Clicking a button you can get
a bibliography of 10,000 titles.
243
00:26:16,148 --> 00:26:18,815
A bibliography like that is worthless,
244
00:26:18,940 --> 00:26:20,898
you just throw it away.
245
00:26:21,315 --> 00:26:24,481
Once, you went to the library
and found 3 books.
246
00:26:24,815 --> 00:26:29,981
You would read them
and you would learn something.
247
00:26:30,231 --> 00:26:32,898
10,000 books, on the contrary,
are impossible to read.
248
00:26:33,231 --> 00:26:40,148
So, you see, the moment we think
we own a limitless memory,
249
00:26:40,398 --> 00:26:41,815
we have lost it.
250
00:26:41,940 --> 00:26:44,606
FROM ECO's WRITINGS
251
00:26:57,065 --> 00:27:02,148
Text, paratext, epitext, peritext...
252
00:27:03,231 --> 00:27:09,481
On these issues semiologists have been
fiercely arguing for some time now.
253
00:27:09,773 --> 00:27:12,773
From this point of view, there’s a book
I hold particularly dear:
254
00:27:13,065 --> 00:27:17,315
“A masterpiece by an unknown author”,
255
00:27:17,773 --> 00:27:19,481
or, to be precise:
256
00:27:20,565 --> 00:27:22,815
“A masterpiece by an unknown author”,
257
00:27:23,190 --> 00:27:28,273
“happily found and published with an
erudite and sophisticated commentary”
258
00:27:28,565 --> 00:27:31,565
“by dr. Chrisostome Mathanasius”.
259
00:27:32,648 --> 00:27:38,065
The book was printed in 1714
and the fictitious dr. Mathanasius
260
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,106
is actually Themiseul de St. Hyacinthe.
261
00:27:42,148 --> 00:27:47,356
Themiseul de St. Hyacinthe is not
particularly considered in literary history,
262
00:27:47,356 --> 00:27:52,148
not even by experts of literary fools.
And it’s a pity...
263
00:27:57,565 --> 00:28:00,565
The masterpiece in question,
to start with,
264
00:28:01,065 --> 00:28:05,356
is nothing else than a folk song
running for about a page and a half.
265
00:28:05,898 --> 00:28:08,190
And that’s the way it goes...
266
00:28:14,981 --> 00:28:20,815
Poor Colin has fallen ill
and lies in bed
267
00:28:21,648 --> 00:28:26,773
he suffers every hour
feeling bad
268
00:28:27,481 --> 00:28:32,481
he thinks of his love
and cannot sleep
269
00:28:32,940 --> 00:28:38,356
all night he wants to hold her
and kiss her deep
270
00:28:41,648 --> 00:28:44,898
The insignificance of this beginning
is the same with all the rest
271
00:28:45,023 --> 00:28:51,815
but on this nonsense the author builds
a critical apparatus of 200 pages
272
00:28:52,148 --> 00:28:57,606
with endless intertextual references,
treating the silly poem as a work of art
273
00:28:58,023 --> 00:29:01,523
and taking pleasure in all kinds
of learned quotations.
274
00:29:24,856 --> 00:29:28,565
There will be eight more editions
after the first one.
275
00:29:33,065 --> 00:29:37,190
The last one will consist of 643 pages
276
00:29:37,606 --> 00:29:41,190
since in every new edition
comments on the previous ones are added.
277
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:48,231
I believe that St. Hyacinthe attempted
a brave effort at cultural critique.
278
00:29:49,106 --> 00:29:55,773
He tried to cast the shadow of a doubt on the
hype that, even today, is built around a book.
279
00:29:56,231 --> 00:30:01,398
A kind of hype that, confusing the reader,
excuses him from actually reading it.
280
00:30:02,523 --> 00:30:08,190
This should make him worthy
of our everlasting gratitude.
281
00:30:25,231 --> 00:30:32,898
Colleagues tell me that a student was questioned
about the fascist bombing at Bologna station;
282
00:30:33,606 --> 00:30:41,481
since he looked uncertain, they asked him
who had been sentenced for the attack.
283
00:30:42,273 --> 00:30:45,773
He answered: the Bersaglieri.
284
00:30:55,940 --> 00:31:01,315
I suppose that on the poor guy’s mind
the image of a broken wall appeared,
285
00:31:01,315 --> 00:31:06,315
the broken wall that was built
in the station as a memorial,
286
00:31:06,648 --> 00:31:14,231
and the image short-circuited with another
one, probably seen somewhere by chance,
287
00:31:15,106 --> 00:31:17,231
about the “Breccia di Porta Pia” in 1870.
288
00:31:17,431 --> 00:31:19,067
THE BREAK AT PORTA PIA.
TO THE ASSAULT!
289
00:31:27,940 --> 00:31:34,565
Information can damage knowledge,
like nowadays, with mass media and internet
290
00:31:34,856 --> 00:31:36,481
because it’s too much.
291
00:31:37,315 --> 00:31:42,773
Too many things together produce noise
and noise is not a tool of knowledge.
292
00:31:51,648 --> 00:31:57,398
In a library silence is both a duty
and a necessity
293
00:31:57,648 --> 00:32:03,523
Perhaps we are entering an era
when real education
294
00:32:03,773 --> 00:32:08,356
will not mean to supply information,
but teaching to be selective with it.
295
00:32:42,065 --> 00:32:49,148
“One night, when the little mole
peeked out from her shelter
296
00:32:49,856 --> 00:32:57,398
- This is what happened...”
- “Yak!, she said, who made a drop on me?”
297
00:32:59,606 --> 00:33:03,231
“Hey, was that you, pigeon?”
298
00:33:03,481 --> 00:33:06,440
“No way! That’s how I do it...”
299
00:33:08,387 --> 00:33:10,864
CHAPTER TWO
TELLING STORIES
300
00:33:10,864 --> 00:33:17,106
I did not live in a house with many books,
actually the books were kept in a cabinet.
301
00:33:17,873 --> 00:33:23,665
But I had a granny who, though uneducated,
was an eager reader
302
00:33:23,665 --> 00:33:26,356
who was registered
at a circulating library.
303
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:30,747
She had me read everything, from Balzac
304
00:33:32,340 --> 00:33:35,248
to cheap love novels.
305
00:33:35,248 --> 00:33:41,148
Probably they were the same to her.
She just loved stories.
306
00:33:41,815 --> 00:33:48,815
I feel I had a full and long childhood
because I stole somebody else’s memories.
307
00:33:49,398 --> 00:33:55,023
I stole them from Sandokan and Yanez
sailing on their prahos on the Malay rivers
308
00:33:55,356 --> 00:33:58,648
from D’Artagnan duelling
with Baron de Winter,
309
00:33:58,856 --> 00:34:01,940
from the Phantom trying
to save Diana Palmer
310
00:34:02,148 --> 00:34:05,148
and even from the betrothed,
escaping from Como lake...
311
00:34:06,106 --> 00:34:09,690
The life you conquer with reading
312
00:34:09,815 --> 00:34:14,481
does not discriminate between
great literature and entertainment.
313
00:34:15,106 --> 00:34:19,981
Don’t let them blackmail you
into reading only important books.
314
00:34:20,731 --> 00:34:28,648
I have intense, fond memories of low-rated
books that made boring afternoons so exciting.
315
00:34:39,606 --> 00:34:45,898
When I published “Apocalittici e integrati” is
when I got interested in mass communication:
316
00:34:46,565 --> 00:34:51,023
tv, comics, detective stories...
317
00:34:51,398 --> 00:34:55,773
I tried to take a step,
318
00:34:56,231 --> 00:35:00,356
a step to tackle certain problems
concerning the role of the intellectual
319
00:35:00,481 --> 00:35:03,606
and that were not
fashionable in those times.
320
00:35:06,815 --> 00:35:11,731
When Pop Art arrived, it became
impossible to distinguish
321
00:35:11,856 --> 00:35:15,440
between mass culture
and culture for the happy few...
322
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:16,940
Take Peanuts...
323
00:35:47,315 --> 00:35:52,398
Don’t take offense, dear, but what were we?
Friends, relatives, married - or what?
324
00:35:53,356 --> 00:35:58,398
To Renate, Umberto and their brave serenity
with admiration and love
325
00:36:05,981 --> 00:36:12,231
The human animal has the ability
to imagine and to communicate absence.
326
00:36:12,565 --> 00:36:19,773
And this is what being a human means. To be
able to think of things that are not there.
327
00:36:19,773 --> 00:36:22,106
In a word, to be able to tell stories.
328
00:36:22,106 --> 00:36:24,815
FROM ECO's WRITINGS
329
00:36:24,815 --> 00:36:29,398
ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS
330
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:31,981
A tragedy haunted my youth.
331
00:36:32,940 --> 00:36:36,565
I attended university
courses at Turin college
332
00:36:37,690 --> 00:36:42,273
From those years I saved fond memories
and a deep distaste for tuna fish.
333
00:36:43,315 --> 00:36:46,690
Whoever got to the canteen in the first
30 minutes earned the right to a full menu;
334
00:36:46,815 --> 00:36:48,731
whoever was late, only tuna fish.
335
00:36:48,898 --> 00:36:50,356
And I was always late.
336
00:36:51,315 --> 00:36:57,356
Not counting summers and Sundays,
in 4 years I had 1920 tuna fish meals.
337
00:36:58,565 --> 00:37:00,648
But this is not the tragedy.
338
00:37:02,273 --> 00:37:06,106
It was that we were hungry for movies
and plays but we had no money.
339
00:37:07,565 --> 00:37:10,565
But for the theatre we found a way.
340
00:37:11,231 --> 00:37:14,898
We made friends with the man in charge
and he gave us a break on the admission
341
00:37:15,981 --> 00:37:20,148
if we clapped our hands on command.
We were a paying paid audience...
342
00:37:25,148 --> 00:37:28,606
But our college closed at midnight
with no exceptions
343
00:37:29,565 --> 00:37:31,565
and if you were out, you stayed out.
344
00:37:31,815 --> 00:37:35,023
This meant that at ten to midnight
345
00:37:35,398 --> 00:37:40,065
we had to rush out of the theatre
and - sorry... - sprint to the college.
346
00:37:41,065 --> 00:37:46,231
Consequently, in 4 years I saw
the masterpieces of world theatre...
347
00:37:46,898 --> 00:37:48,106
... without the ending.
348
00:37:48,815 --> 00:37:52,023
I don’t know what happened to Oedipus yet
349
00:37:52,481 --> 00:37:57,940
or Pirandello’s six characters; if Hamlet
decided to be or not to be...
350
00:37:58,940 --> 00:38:01,523
I don’t know if Socrates took his poison,
351
00:38:01,523 --> 00:38:04,815
if Othello slapped Iago and went out
on a boat cruise with Desdemona,
352
00:38:05,023 --> 00:38:06,898
if the Dear Hypochondriac
eventually healed...
353
00:38:09,731 --> 00:38:13,231
I thought I was the only one
in such a predicament
354
00:38:13,481 --> 00:38:17,815
but talking with my friend Paolo Fabbri
I found out he has the opposite problem.
355
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:23,523
As a student, he worked in a college theatre
at the box office, giving out tickets,
356
00:38:24,315 --> 00:38:30,273
and most times, due to latecomers,
he could go in only at the start of act II.
357
00:38:31,856 --> 00:38:37,190
He would see blind King Lear
holding desperately Cordelia in his arms
358
00:38:37,731 --> 00:38:40,731
and he couldn’t realize
who had gotten them that way.
359
00:38:41,315 --> 00:38:44,773
He could not understand why Hamlet
hated his uncle so much,
360
00:38:45,398 --> 00:38:48,106
since he looked like
a real nice guy to him.
361
00:38:49,023 --> 00:38:50,940
He would see Othello raving mad
362
00:38:51,315 --> 00:38:56,023
and wondered why he wanted to put such a
darling wife under and not over the pillow...
363
00:38:56,773 --> 00:38:59,440
So, we are looking forward to
our retirement days ...
364
00:39:00,065 --> 00:39:04,398
Sitting on a park bench we’ll exchange
stories about endings and beginnings
365
00:39:04,690 --> 00:39:06,481
with mutual surprise.
366
00:39:07,731 --> 00:39:09,148
But - will we be happy?
367
00:39:10,148 --> 00:39:13,773
Or we will find out we lost the innocence
of living art like real life
368
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,731
where we enter
after the parts have been assigned
369
00:39:16,981 --> 00:39:20,273
and exit without knowing
what will happen to other characters.
370
00:39:28,106 --> 00:39:31,106
It is true that Madame Bovary
committed suicide
371
00:39:31,523 --> 00:39:35,773
and this will never change.
372
00:39:36,356 --> 00:39:42,565
Recently, I happened to say that the Pope
in Rome and the Patriarch in Constantinople
373
00:39:42,773 --> 00:39:47,898
may not agree on the fact that
the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son
374
00:39:48,065 --> 00:39:53,815
and they will keep disagreeing
till the end of time
375
00:39:53,981 --> 00:39:59,648
but they are forced to agree
that Clark Kent is Superman.
376
00:39:59,981 --> 00:40:05,648
No exception! Fiction supplies us
with a form of irrefutable truth.
377
00:40:39,481 --> 00:40:42,315
You ask me if people read enough books...
378
00:40:43,065 --> 00:40:48,231
We are a country that until 1950
had a huge percentage of illiterate,
379
00:40:48,606 --> 00:40:51,690
people who did not speak a good Italian,
even less read...
380
00:40:51,981 --> 00:40:54,815
Therefore, there are certainly
more readers now.
381
00:40:55,273 --> 00:40:58,898
Yes, there’s a lot of people
not interested in books
382
00:40:58,898 --> 00:41:02,190
because they are not
intellectually curious.
383
00:41:02,731 --> 00:41:06,481
To be curious intellectually
means to be alive.
384
00:41:07,523 --> 00:41:10,481
But, believe me, there aren’t
many people alive in this world.
385
00:41:23,648 --> 00:41:29,398
Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob
and Jacob begat the man of La Mancha,
386
00:41:29,773 --> 00:41:35,565
and that was when I saw the pendulum on the branch
of Como Lake, where late the sweet birds sang,
387
00:41:35,898 --> 00:41:41,356
the snows of yesteryear softly falling
into the dark mutinous Shannon waves,
388
00:41:41,565 --> 00:41:44,231
Messieurs les anglais
je me suis couchè de bonne heure
389
00:41:44,231 --> 00:41:48,481
time by any other name is out of joint,
the women come and go,
390
00:41:48,731 --> 00:41:52,981
a kiss is just a kiss, and a rose is
a rose is a rose, 'tu quoque alea',
391
00:41:53,231 --> 00:41:57,106
a man without qualities should not
ask what he can do for his country,
392
00:41:57,523 --> 00:42:01,440
beauty is truth, truth is beauty,
'too many rings aroud Rosie'
393
00:42:01,606 --> 00:42:04,273
because happy families are all alike,
394
00:42:04,481 --> 00:42:08,023
see 'de la musique où marchent des
colombes', go where the lemons blossom,
395
00:42:08,148 --> 00:42:13,023
once upon a time the earth was without
form, 'Licht mehr licht über alles',
396
00:42:13,315 --> 00:42:16,981
Countess, what oh what is life?
Names, names, names:
397
00:42:17,315 --> 00:42:23,523
Julien Sorel, Lord Brummell, Pindaro, Flaubert,
Disraeli, Jurassic Park, Madame de Pompadour
398
00:42:23,815 --> 00:42:28,815
Smith & Wesson, Rosa Luxemburg,
Archeopteryx, Matthew Mark Luke John,
399
00:42:28,940 --> 00:42:33,190
Pinocchio, Justine, Thaïs the
whore with the shitty fingernails,
400
00:42:33,190 --> 00:42:38,648
Osteoporosis, Saint Honoré,
Bactria Ecbatana Persepolis Susa Arbela,
401
00:42:38,856 --> 00:42:41,731
Alexander’s rag time
and the Gordian knot,
402
00:42:41,898 --> 00:42:46,898
that is all Ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know.
403
00:43:09,898 --> 00:43:13,315
If I had to describe my father’s library
that’s where I’d start.
404
00:43:13,981 --> 00:43:19,565
These are the feuilletons,
popular novels of the 19th century
405
00:43:20,148 --> 00:43:24,106
that he read as a kid and
that in turn he read to us.
406
00:43:24,856 --> 00:43:27,856
Here you can find...
407
00:43:28,523 --> 00:43:32,231
...beautiful illustrations by great etchers
408
00:43:32,981 --> 00:43:40,856
that he then used in his own novels,
especially 'Prague Cemetery'...
409
00:43:41,606 --> 00:43:43,023
here’s a bookmark, see...
410
00:43:43,315 --> 00:43:48,273
Along this line you find French literature...
411
00:43:48,690 --> 00:43:49,898
Here too...
412
00:43:50,315 --> 00:43:54,190
Down here there’s Italian literature...
413
00:43:54,898 --> 00:44:03,398
Going up there’s more popular fiction
all the way up to comics...
414
00:44:03,898 --> 00:44:07,773
But, you see, they are all
interconnected subjects...
415
00:44:08,065 --> 00:44:12,606
Yes, the library is organized in sections
416
00:44:12,856 --> 00:44:19,190
but not in alphabetical order
and actually there are sub-sections
417
00:44:19,190 --> 00:44:24,981
where books moved from one to another...
Well, he alone knew where books were.
418
00:44:25,398 --> 00:44:33,773
It’s a living thing - not an archive,
not a traditionally organized library.
419
00:44:34,065 --> 00:44:36,606
These were the books he loved more,
420
00:44:37,815 --> 00:44:42,523
but he was interested in everything,
even the weirdest subjects.
421
00:44:42,648 --> 00:44:45,315
FROM ECO's WRITINGS
422
00:44:45,481 --> 00:44:49,981
FOURTH DIMENSION WRITERS
423
00:44:50,523 --> 00:44:55,065
In The Foucault’s Pendulum
I spoke of SPW’s...
424
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,440
SPW - Self Published Writers,
425
00:44:58,981 --> 00:45:03,398
talents I defined “rightly unappreciated”,
426
00:45:03,648 --> 00:45:07,315
refused by publishers, and so forced
to print their books by themselves
427
00:45:07,315 --> 00:45:11,690
producing a thriving market
which remains untouched by internet.
428
00:45:16,481 --> 00:45:19,481
Take the unmissable books by Carlo Cetti:
429
00:45:19,981 --> 00:45:24,190
“Vices and virtues of The Betrothed”
and “A Remake of The Betrothed”.
430
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,606
Cetti was a theorist of “Shortism”,
431
00:45:27,731 --> 00:45:33,065
therefore he argues that Manzoni
could have improved his novel
432
00:45:33,231 --> 00:45:35,148
using one third less syllables.
433
00:45:35,148 --> 00:45:40,565
Why write “Lago di Como” instead of “Lario”
434
00:45:40,773 --> 00:45:43,291
and “Mezzogiorno” instead of “Sud”?
435
00:45:43,291 --> 00:45:48,523
So, Cetti was able to re-write
The Betrothed with only 196 pages.
436
00:45:48,622 --> 00:45:51,231
“That branch of Como Lake...”.
437
00:46:19,315 --> 00:46:23,023
SPWs may not only be poets or novelists,
but philosophers too.
438
00:46:23,398 --> 00:46:28,648
The unrivalled champion in this field is
Giulio Ser-Giacomi from Ascoli Piceno.
439
00:46:29,065 --> 00:46:34,856
Rightly famous is his correspondence
with Albert Einstein and Pope Pio XII,
440
00:46:35,023 --> 00:46:39,481
where he collected the hundreds
of letters he sent to them
441
00:46:40,231 --> 00:46:42,773
without, alas, ever receiving a reply.
442
00:46:43,523 --> 00:46:46,645
Were you ever tempted to write a novel?
443
00:46:46,645 --> 00:46:48,066
RADIO INTERVIEW, 1973
444
00:46:48,066 --> 00:46:51,940
No. Two things I’m not interested in.
One, sports.
445
00:46:52,398 --> 00:46:58,231
I never practiced it and I never was a fan
though as a kid I did go to games
446
00:46:58,231 --> 00:47:00,940
and to save face I shouted “Come on!”
and “Goal!”,
447
00:47:00,940 --> 00:47:03,356
but they were little acts
of cowardly hypocrisy.
448
00:47:03,648 --> 00:47:09,231
Secondly, the novel. Sometimes I think
“Yes maybe one day I will...”
449
00:47:09,231 --> 00:47:11,731
A novel in form of an essay, of course...
450
00:47:11,731 --> 00:47:16,898
Well, I guess so... it should be a novel that
destroys the idea of a novel in itself...
451
00:47:16,898 --> 00:47:20,940
You see, the thing I most
hate is to sell a fiction...
452
00:47:21,481 --> 00:47:28,440
“Dear friends, the winner
of the 1981 Strega Prize is...
453
00:47:28,606 --> 00:47:34,148
Umberto Eco with his novel
The Name of the Rose”.
454
00:47:50,815 --> 00:47:56,398
A friend came to me and told me
she was putting together a book
455
00:47:56,398 --> 00:48:02,023
of short detective stories
written by non-professional authors,
456
00:48:02,190 --> 00:48:05,898
like politicians and scientists.
Was I interested in writing one?
457
00:48:06,106 --> 00:48:10,065
If I had to write a detective story
it would not be short
458
00:48:10,190 --> 00:48:12,315
and it would be set in the Middle Ages.
459
00:48:12,648 --> 00:48:18,023
The popularity of detective stories
is due to the fact that they respond
460
00:48:18,023 --> 00:48:24,065
to a deep inner need of mankind
which is the same as religion.
461
00:48:24,606 --> 00:48:29,190
It’s not by chance that the English
call the genre the “Whodunit?”
462
00:48:29,398 --> 00:48:30,731
Who is behind all this?
463
00:48:30,731 --> 00:48:37,481
Anyway, I came back home and
I started writing a list of monks’ names.
464
00:48:38,190 --> 00:48:42,315
Then I wrote to a friend chemist
and asked him if it was possible
465
00:48:42,481 --> 00:48:46,190
to poison somebody
while he was reading a book.
466
00:48:46,731 --> 00:48:49,231
He told me how and then
I destroyed the letter...
467
00:48:49,231 --> 00:48:54,940
a friend or relative might have died then
and they would have arrested me.
468
00:48:56,440 --> 00:48:59,231
And that’s how I began to write the novel.
469
00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:06,481
In spite of ads outside, don’t expect me
to speak about The Name of the Rose.
470
00:49:06,481 --> 00:49:12,148
I hate this book and I
hope you’ll hate it too.
471
00:49:12,356 --> 00:49:18,023
I wrote six novels, the last five
are obviously much better
472
00:49:18,023 --> 00:49:25,398
but according to Gresham’s law
the most famous one is still the first.
473
00:49:25,898 --> 00:49:30,731
Writing means working,
to build strong structures.
474
00:49:30,981 --> 00:49:37,315
A novel gets written not by your heart
or genius but by saw, plane and hammer.
475
00:49:37,559 --> 00:49:44,192
That is the fascinating
aspect of telling a story:
476
00:49:44,192 --> 00:49:50,269
to create a world, to decide
our spaces, characters.
477
00:49:50,269 --> 00:49:57,005
I have a lot of drawings in which for The name of
the rose I designed all the faces of the monks.
478
00:49:57,005 --> 00:50:06,206
For the labyrinth of the library I designed,
I dont’ know, 50/60 different labyrinths.
479
00:50:06,206 --> 00:50:08,815
This library is also a labyrinth,
480
00:50:08,815 --> 00:50:14,606
therefore an allegory of the world,
of research, of truth.
481
00:50:14,815 --> 00:50:22,898
St. Gallen was one of the models
for the abbey when I started drawing...
482
00:51:04,231 --> 00:51:09,856
This library has a smell, like a perfume.
And a sound too...
483
00:51:10,148 --> 00:51:14,731
When you walk those corridors full of books
everything becomes muffled
484
00:51:14,898 --> 00:51:17,606
and I feel very protected there.
485
00:51:17,769 --> 00:51:24,925
My collections concernes only fake books,
books that say the contrary of the truth.
486
00:51:24,925 --> 00:51:29,738
I don’t have Galileo
Galileo but I have Tolemy,
487
00:51:29,738 --> 00:51:33,456
because he was wrong about
the movement of the Earth.
488
00:51:33,456 --> 00:51:38,148
Recently somebody asked me:
“Why do you collect only ‘fake’ books?”
489
00:51:38,356 --> 00:51:42,856
Because they are much nicer! If you
need to demonstrate Pythagoras’s theorem
490
00:51:43,023 --> 00:51:45,273
you can get away with a few sketches.
491
00:51:45,690 --> 00:51:51,565
If you need to explain weird alchemic theories
you must come up with extraordinary images.
492
00:51:52,898 --> 00:51:57,065
GOD’S CREATION - BASED ON
DRAWINGS BY ROBERT FLUDD
493
00:53:09,815 --> 00:53:12,356
Robert Fludd, basically a magician...
494
00:53:12,690 --> 00:53:18,606
He built a self-declared consistent theory
linking macrocosm and microcosm
495
00:53:18,815 --> 00:53:23,315
through the activities of God’s creation.
496
00:53:23,773 --> 00:53:26,773
One of his most curious theories
497
00:53:27,315 --> 00:53:31,356
is the recorder as a metaphor of the world.
498
00:53:31,815 --> 00:53:37,815
The air blown by God to give life
to the sublunary world
499
00:53:38,398 --> 00:53:41,773
flows through the dark
pipe of the instrument
500
00:53:41,898 --> 00:53:46,106
and emerges to light as musical notes.
501
00:54:04,777 --> 00:54:10,536
I play very badly professionals scores.
502
00:54:11,817 --> 00:54:18,606
There are people who play
perfectly reduced scores for amateurs.
503
00:54:19,062 --> 00:54:22,465
No, I pay badly the professional one.
504
00:54:23,044 --> 00:54:28,645
So, again, you challenge yourself...
505
00:54:28,645 --> 00:54:32,270
Oh, yes, if not, there is no amusement!
506
00:54:32,270 --> 00:54:36,106
When I wrote my first novels at age 10
507
00:54:36,356 --> 00:54:39,606
which I usually left
unfinished after chapter 1,
508
00:54:39,731 --> 00:54:45,856
so that myself and Schubert are the
champions of unfinished masterpieces-
509
00:54:46,356 --> 00:54:50,440
the first things I made and completed
were the illustrations.
510
00:54:50,905 --> 00:54:56,161
And now this book on legendary places...
511
00:54:56,161 --> 00:54:58,106
HISTORY OF LEGENDARY LANDS AND PLACES
512
00:54:59,148 --> 00:55:02,106
Legendary does not mean imaginary...
513
00:55:02,315 --> 00:55:08,398
No, real places that people like Colombo set out
to find, like he did with the Garden of Eden...
514
00:55:08,565 --> 00:55:12,231
I mean... probably not existing, but
real in the sense
515
00:55:12,356 --> 00:55:18,315
that for centuries people believed in them
and went to look for them.
516
00:55:18,639 --> 00:55:22,411
These books are also a joy
for the book collector
517
00:55:22,411 --> 00:55:23,364
UNKNOWN PART
518
00:55:23,364 --> 00:55:29,614
because they offer incredible maps
and fantastic pictures.
519
00:56:11,065 --> 00:56:15,523
I’m going to tell you something
that happened when my daughter was 3.
520
00:56:16,356 --> 00:56:19,273
She was watching tv and they were saying...
521
00:56:20,981 --> 00:56:25,773
a certain cake was the best in the world.
522
00:56:25,773 --> 00:56:32,190
I told her: “Don’t believe what they
say on tv. It’s just an advertisement..”
523
00:56:33,981 --> 00:56:37,481
Then the news came up and they announced:
“Big snowfall in Torino”...
524
00:56:37,690 --> 00:56:39,981
So she looked at me and smiled:
“Not true, is it?”
525
00:56:39,981 --> 00:56:44,648
“No” I replied “When it’s the news,
the tv says the truth”.
526
00:56:44,898 --> 00:56:48,481
Then they interviewed a minister
who bragged about his job...
527
00:56:48,481 --> 00:56:51,606
She goes: “It’s true, right?”
“No” I say...
528
00:56:51,731 --> 00:56:56,565
“When a minister talks on the news
he may not tell the truth...”
529
00:56:57,065 --> 00:57:01,981
I am a semiologist, I study language
and languages
530
00:57:02,523 --> 00:57:06,565
and the strength of language
is not to say what’s there
531
00:57:06,940 --> 00:57:08,815
but to describe what is not there.
532
00:57:08,815 --> 00:57:11,565
FROM ECO's WRITINGS
533
00:57:11,565 --> 00:57:15,565
MAYBE SHAKESPEARE
WAS REALLY SHAKESPEARE?
534
00:57:24,856 --> 00:57:29,981
The Bacon-Shakespeare controversy
is well known to scholars and bibliophiles.
535
00:57:39,815 --> 00:57:44,565
Basically, due to speculations
born out of Rosicrucian studies
536
00:57:44,565 --> 00:57:48,356
a suspicion arose that the true author
of Shakespeare’s works
537
00:57:48,481 --> 00:57:50,981
was actually Lord Francis Bacon,
the philosopher.
538
00:57:51,731 --> 00:57:55,815
It has been said that a low
class individual like Shakespeare
539
00:57:55,940 --> 00:58:01,398
could not write works of such art
and depth of thought.
540
00:58:02,148 --> 00:58:06,523
Shakespeare was likely to be only a front.
541
00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:12,023
Many studies show that the whole opus
of the Bard
542
00:58:12,023 --> 00:58:18,106
is full of innuendo, ciphers,
very clear cryptograms
543
00:58:18,231 --> 00:58:21,231
that prove Bacon’s authorship.
544
00:58:21,349 --> 00:58:23,395
An excellent demonstration
of careful cryptography.
545
00:58:23,395 --> 00:58:26,760
And the Bishop is invited
to supper. Shakspere says:
546
00:58:32,106 --> 00:58:38,190
Less popular is the opposite and symmetrical
controversy: Shakespeare vs. Bacon.
547
00:58:38,606 --> 00:58:43,815
How could Bacon write
the titanic Shakespeare opus
548
00:58:43,815 --> 00:58:47,565
and at the same time write
his philosophical essays?
549
00:58:47,565 --> 00:58:49,106
Only employing a front.
550
00:58:49,731 --> 00:58:54,106
A second theory has therefore
been developed according to which
551
00:58:54,356 --> 00:58:58,690
Shakespeare, who nevertheless
was a man of some capability,
552
00:58:58,856 --> 00:59:01,981
had been hired by Bacon for the purpose.
553
00:59:02,940 --> 00:59:08,773
Consequently, the works today ascribed
to Bacon were actually written by...
554
00:59:09,749 --> 00:59:11,169
William Shakespeare.
555
00:59:18,315 --> 00:59:21,315
Actually, Shakespeare’s works...
556
00:59:21,731 --> 00:59:27,148
could have not been written without
a daily knowledge of the theatre milieu.
557
00:59:28,023 --> 00:59:31,523
On the other hand, Bacon’s works
558
00:59:31,690 --> 00:59:37,190
could have not been conceived without a
deep knowledge of London’s cultural society.
559
00:59:38,773 --> 00:59:43,523
So, the only answer is that not only
Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s works
560
00:59:43,731 --> 00:59:48,273
but that he physically replaced Shakespeare
in the daily management of the Globe Theatre...
561
00:59:48,648 --> 00:59:50,065
Therefore, Shakespeare...
562
00:59:50,981 --> 00:59:54,440
or whoever people considered Shakespeare -
563
00:59:54,690 --> 00:59:56,565
was actually Bacon.
564
00:59:57,273 --> 00:59:59,356
And Bacon was Shakespeare!
565
01:00:07,035 --> 01:00:09,356
CONCEALED AND REVEALED
566
01:00:10,716 --> 01:00:13,825
THE BACON-SHAKS
567
01:00:13,825 --> 01:00:15,442
BACON IS SHAKESPEARE
568
01:00:17,148 --> 01:00:20,815
So, thanks to these painstaking
philological studies
569
01:00:20,815 --> 01:00:23,648
we can finally and certainly claim that
570
01:00:23,815 --> 01:00:26,148
Shakespeare was and wasn’t Shakespeare
571
01:00:26,148 --> 01:00:28,731
and Bacon was and wasn’t Bacon.
572
01:00:43,273 --> 01:00:49,023
In 1860 Alexandre Dumas
visited the castle of If
573
01:00:49,648 --> 01:00:53,731
where Edmond Dantés,
before becoming Count of Montecristo
574
01:00:54,315 --> 01:01:00,981
had spent 14 years of his life,
being visited in his cell by Abbè Faria.
575
01:01:01,856 --> 01:01:08,481
Dumas discovered that visitors
were shown the “true” cell of Montecristo
576
01:01:09,023 --> 01:01:15,440
and that guides spoke of him, Faria and
other characters as if they really existed.
577
01:01:16,148 --> 01:01:18,023
On the contrary, the same guides
578
01:01:18,148 --> 01:01:24,023
seemed to ignore that a historical figure
like Mirabeau had been imprisoned there.
579
01:01:24,981 --> 01:01:28,273
Therefore Dumas wrote in his diary:
580
01:01:28,648 --> 01:01:32,315
“Historians only conjure up ghosts,
581
01:01:32,773 --> 01:01:37,690
novelists create characters
in flesh and blood”.
582
01:01:44,064 --> 01:01:46,739
CHAPTER THREE LYING
583
01:01:46,739 --> 01:01:52,083
Let me make a short distintion
between lying and making fiction.
584
01:01:52,083 --> 01:01:55,411
Because making fiction is a loyal game:
585
01:01:55,411 --> 01:02:01,723
I pretend that the girl called
Snowhite existed and you with me,
586
01:02:01,723 --> 01:02:07,458
pretend to believe me
and we play this game...
587
01:02:07,458 --> 01:02:09,973
Lie, on the contrary, wants
588
01:02:11,012 --> 01:02:13,856
me to make you to believe
589
01:02:14,551 --> 01:02:16,831
the contrary of the truth.
590
01:02:18,231 --> 01:02:19,831
OF GENERAL SEMIOTICS
591
01:02:19,831 --> 01:02:23,895
I began my interest in lying
back in the 70’s.
592
01:02:24,028 --> 01:02:30,083
In my “A Theory of Semiotics”
593
01:02:30,315 --> 01:02:34,565
I wrote that a sign is anything
that can be used to lie.
594
01:02:34,856 --> 01:02:38,481
A definition that became very popular.
595
01:02:38,815 --> 01:02:41,273
Hence, my interest in fake.
596
01:02:41,458 --> 01:02:47,372
We lie every moment in our life
because there are innocent lies,
597
01:02:47,372 --> 01:02:49,520
“Nice to see you!”...
598
01:02:51,778 --> 01:02:54,578
”You feel very well today!”...
599
01:02:56,948 --> 01:02:58,323
”Take care!”...
600
01:03:01,190 --> 01:03:07,981
Then I wrote an essay on fakes
that had an influence on history.
601
01:03:08,981 --> 01:03:15,731
Certain fake documents caused
great historical events.
602
01:03:15,856 --> 01:03:18,148
The donation of Constantine...
603
01:03:18,940 --> 01:03:24,856
Priest John’s letter which motivated
the exploration of Asia and of Africa...
604
01:03:27,605 --> 01:03:30,086
THE ART OF NAVIGATION BY THE
EXCELLENT DOCTOR PIETRO DA MEDINA
605
01:03:33,704 --> 01:03:35,984
SECOND BOOK WHAT IS THE SEA
AND WHY IT IS CALLED THE OCEAN
606
01:03:43,606 --> 01:03:51,148
The interest in fake blended
with another theme I was working on:
607
01:03:51,481 --> 01:03:58,356
the study of what I call “Ur-Fascism”,
racism and so on.
608
01:03:58,523 --> 01:04:06,606
As far as anti-Semitism is concerned
I got interested in the psychology
609
01:04:06,606 --> 01:04:09,981
and in the possible motivations
of an anti-Semite.
610
01:04:10,190 --> 01:04:13,190
And I created this character.
611
01:04:13,278 --> 01:04:15,082
THE CEMETERY IN PRAGUE
612
01:04:15,082 --> 01:04:20,512
You’ve invented the viliest,
ugliest, most horrendous,
613
01:04:20,512 --> 01:04:25,583
most disgusting, most
despicable human being!”
614
01:04:25,583 --> 01:04:26,608
Thank you!
615
01:04:26,608 --> 01:04:28,233
You’re very welcome!
616
01:04:29,598 --> 01:04:34,786
We continue to thing that the main
passion moving human being is love...
617
01:04:35,270 --> 01:04:36,317
Untrue!
618
01:04:36,317 --> 01:04:42,848
Love is very selective
because if I love you
619
01:04:42,848 --> 01:04:48,340
I want nobody loves you
except me, I want you to love me,
620
01:04:48,340 --> 01:04:52,559
I don’t want you to love
somebody else, is like that...
621
01:04:52,559 --> 01:04:56,419
Hatred is generous, is warm!
622
01:04:56,419 --> 01:05:03,036
You can belong to a people where
all the people hate another people!
623
01:05:23,463 --> 01:05:30,588
Many fake documents caused tragedies:
the Protocols of the Elders of Zion...
624
01:05:30,731 --> 01:05:40,981
All forms of racism and fundamentalism are
usually based on fake sources or interpretations.
625
01:05:41,148 --> 01:05:49,231
Every criminal movement in history
is born out of programmed misinformation.
626
01:05:49,523 --> 01:05:54,231
What I am interested in and I wrote about
in 'The Foucault’s Pendulum'
627
01:05:54,356 --> 01:05:59,565
is the plot paranoia.
By that I mean the idea that
628
01:05:59,690 --> 01:06:08,940
reality is influenced by mysterious groups
who, without our knowledge, move history.
629
01:06:09,440 --> 01:06:12,440
PLOT THEORY
630
01:06:25,648 --> 01:06:31,523
All plot theories push public opinions
to worry about imaginary dangers
631
01:06:32,148 --> 01:06:34,565
taking their attention off real threats.
632
01:06:34,773 --> 01:06:37,773
The plot syndrome is as old as the world
633
01:06:37,773 --> 01:06:42,981
and the writer who best studied it
is Karl Popper.
634
01:06:42,981 --> 01:06:44,214
THE MYSTERIES OF FREEMASONRY
635
01:06:44,214 --> 01:06:49,481
“The social theory of conspiracy is a direct
consequence of the fading faith in God”
636
01:06:49,815 --> 01:06:53,648
“which causes the question:
who took his place?”
637
01:06:54,231 --> 01:06:58,273
“This place is now taken
by powerful men or groups”
638
01:06:58,523 --> 01:07:04,606
“ominous lobbies deemed responsible
for all evils we suffer”.
639
01:07:05,106 --> 01:07:09,940
So, I’m reminded of an aphorism,
probably by Chesterton, that goes:
640
01:07:10,273 --> 01:07:14,815
“When men don’t believe in God any more,
it’s not that they believe in nothing;
641
01:07:14,815 --> 01:07:16,731
they believe in anything”.
642
01:07:16,848 --> 01:07:20,457
Dan Brown writes for credulous readers.
643
01:07:20,457 --> 01:07:24,442
Once I met him... He’s one of my characters!
644
01:07:24,442 --> 01:07:27,528
He’s one of the characters
of The Foucault’s Pendulum.
645
01:07:28,478 --> 01:07:33,903
Dan Brown and me, we red the
same books but he took them seriously.
646
01:07:33,903 --> 01:07:39,581
On the contrary, I tried to give a
grotesque representation of the story.
647
01:07:39,581 --> 01:07:41,898
FROM ECO's WRITINGS
648
01:07:41,898 --> 01:07:43,815
THE TEMESVAR CODE
649
01:07:43,815 --> 01:07:48,190
Often, in my researches, I met the name of
a very peculiar character: Milo Temesvar.
650
01:07:48,190 --> 01:07:55,523
Albanian, exiled on account of leftism, a
refugee in the USSR and then in Argentina,
651
01:07:56,275 --> 01:07:58,733
where he disappeared for good.
652
01:07:59,365 --> 01:08:02,365
Definitely a one-of-a-kind individual, Temesvar...
653
01:08:02,948 --> 01:08:05,365
unfairly underestimated.
654
01:08:08,198 --> 01:08:13,631
Temesvar warns us that in any message,
even the simplest one,
655
01:08:13,631 --> 01:08:19,406
like “I am here”, we must always find
a hidden meaning.
656
01:08:31,156 --> 01:08:35,115
By chance, I found a copy
of one of his essays in Russian:
657
01:08:36,115 --> 01:08:39,115
an interpretation of Leonardo’s
Last Supper.
658
01:08:39,990 --> 01:08:45,073
The first part is a sardonic confutation
of Dan Brown’s The da Vinci Code
659
01:08:45,281 --> 01:08:51,840
but what is interesting is actually
the counter-theory Temesvar formulates.
660
01:09:16,115 --> 01:09:18,794
Let’s consider the nature of the scene...
661
01:09:19,067 --> 01:09:28,175
The apostles on the left seem to side with
Christ; with Matthew, Judas Thaddeus and Simon
662
01:09:28,175 --> 01:09:31,590
busy in an anxious discussion.
663
01:09:31,590 --> 01:09:34,281
The ones on the right
look detached, instead.
664
01:09:34,490 --> 01:09:39,031
Here, Temesvar says, we are not looking at
a meeting of a master with his disciples.
665
01:09:39,156 --> 01:09:41,942
We are looking at a break-up.
666
01:09:41,942 --> 01:09:45,661
The theme of the painting is a secession.
667
01:09:48,656 --> 01:09:51,656
Who’s plotting against Christ?
668
01:09:53,531 --> 01:09:56,997
There’s no doubt John looks like a woman
669
01:09:57,365 --> 01:10:03,090
and his androgyny has been discussed
by many for centuries
670
01:10:03,090 --> 01:10:06,840
but “androgynous” doesn’t necessarily mean
“feminine”, like Dan Brown claims.
671
01:10:06,840 --> 01:10:11,997
John is not Mary Magdalene, he is portrayed
more like a homosexual.
672
01:10:12,490 --> 01:10:22,348
It is possible, Temesvar says, that John is the
symbol of the same sin Leonardo felt guilty of...
673
01:10:23,115 --> 01:10:27,756
Peter will soon deny Christ
674
01:10:27,756 --> 01:10:32,615
but, even unwillingly, Jesus will found
his church on Peter.
675
01:10:33,281 --> 01:10:37,448
Jewish, Peter represents the Synagogue,
676
01:10:37,698 --> 01:10:41,323
in the act of plotting with a gay man
to eliminate Christ.
677
01:10:42,590 --> 01:10:47,131
His vague smile looks cunning,
678
01:10:47,131 --> 01:10:51,715
threatening... He holds his hand out to John
679
01:10:51,715 --> 01:10:54,698
as if showing him what he must do.
680
01:10:55,531 --> 01:10:58,281
Who does Judas represent, then?
681
01:10:59,531 --> 01:11:02,365
His complexion is darker then the others
682
01:11:03,156 --> 01:11:08,948
and Temesvar hints that he might stand
for Mohamed and the Arabs in general.
683
01:11:10,906 --> 01:11:17,531
In any case, and certainly, 'The Last Supper'
does not tell the story it seems to tell
684
01:11:17,948 --> 01:11:22,156
and that so lightly has been handed down
by naïve commentators.
685
01:11:26,156 --> 01:11:30,781
In the shadow, somebody has been plotting.
And still is.
686
01:11:35,365 --> 01:11:37,323
Milo Temesvar never existed.
687
01:11:37,906 --> 01:11:40,865
He was born at the Book Fair in Frankfurt
sometime in the 60’s
688
01:11:40,865 --> 01:11:49,281
when a few important publishers,
appalled by advances given to first novels,
689
01:11:49,781 --> 01:11:54,906
decided to make up one, "Let Me Say Now",
written by some Milo Temesvar
690
01:11:55,948 --> 01:11:58,698
supposedly bought by American Library
for 50,000 dollars.
691
01:11:59,240 --> 01:12:05,156
Bompiani, for whom my father worked,
told him about the hoax
692
01:12:05,531 --> 01:12:10,156
and he decided to spread it
to see what would happen.
693
01:12:10,740 --> 01:12:15,823
The same night, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
announced he had bought Temesvar’s rights.
694
01:12:15,990 --> 01:12:17,740
It was a bluff, since he did not exist.
695
01:12:17,865 --> 01:12:23,948
Years later, in 'Apocalittici e integrati',
my father reviewed a book by Temesvar.
696
01:12:24,156 --> 01:12:30,823
A book about Borges which, of course,
did not exist.
697
01:12:31,323 --> 01:12:35,865
Later, he quoted him in the introduction
of The Name of the Rose.
698
01:12:36,990 --> 01:12:41,073
At that point, rumors
spread about Temesvar.
699
01:12:41,365 --> 01:12:47,615
Today, on the web, you can find sites
about Temesvar
700
01:12:47,948 --> 01:12:50,823
or reviews of books supposedly
written by Temesvar.
701
01:12:50,823 --> 01:12:54,156
In the end: Temesvar may not be real,
but now he exists.
702
01:12:56,531 --> 01:12:59,531
Looking for Milo Temesvar
703
01:13:01,490 --> 01:13:04,781
Interview with Milo Temesvar
704
01:13:05,940 --> 01:13:09,165
One is born with a
certain kind of obsession.
705
01:13:09,165 --> 01:13:13,615
Through the years, historical conditions
and daily life can somehow modify it
706
01:13:14,156 --> 01:13:16,698
but the obsession remains the same.
707
01:13:16,698 --> 01:13:20,656
And mine is: “Why can I understand
what others say to me?”
708
01:13:20,865 --> 01:13:25,448
And there’s one more:
“How do I perceive reality?”
709
01:13:25,906 --> 01:13:29,740
And on top of that:
“But does reality really exist?”
710
01:13:35,865 --> 01:13:38,865
EPILOGUE
711
01:14:18,865 --> 01:14:21,865
In the first Book of Kings, chapter 19,
712
01:14:22,490 --> 01:14:29,240
when Elijah found himself in a cavern
on mount Horeb to meet the Lord
713
01:14:29,615 --> 01:14:36,823
“a wind blew, so fiery and powerful to
sweep the mountains and to break the rocks”.
714
01:14:37,448 --> 01:14:42,281
But, the Vulgate says, “non in commotione
Dominus”,
715
01:14:42,531 --> 01:14:44,906
the Lord was not in the earthquake.
716
01:14:45,281 --> 01:14:49,073
Then there was a fire,
but “Non in igne Dominus”.
717
01:14:49,281 --> 01:14:51,281
The Lord was not in the fire.
718
01:14:51,740 --> 01:14:57,656
You cannot find God where there is noise,
God reveals himself only in silence.
719
01:14:58,656 --> 01:15:03,365
God is not to be found in mass media,
nor on newspapers’ front pages;
720
01:15:03,365 --> 01:15:07,573
God is never on TV, God is where
there is no commotion.
721
01:15:08,281 --> 01:15:11,573
And this is also true for those who
do not believe in God
722
01:15:12,115 --> 01:15:17,906
but think that somewhere there’s
a truth to unveil or a value to create.
723
01:15:18,573 --> 01:15:27,198
There’s no truth or creativity in an
earthquake, only in a silent search.
724
01:15:37,323 --> 01:15:43,365
Umberto’s library was given to
the Italian State by the Eco family
725
01:15:43,698 --> 01:15:50,406
with the purpose to promote its study
and knowledge
726
01:15:50,865 --> 01:15:56,531
at the University Library in Bologna and
at the National Braidense Library in Milan.
727
01:15:59,490 --> 01:16:03,698
In order of appearance
728
01:16:11,740 --> 01:16:16,031
the actors
729
01:16:21,865 --> 01:16:27,531
the libraries
63930
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