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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:35,148 --> 00:00:38,523 Presented by 4 00:00:40,273 --> 00:00:46,190 with the support of 5 00:00:50,648 --> 00:00:53,815 a Rossofuoco production 6 00:00:54,731 --> 00:00:57,981 in collaboration with 7 00:00:58,898 --> 00:01:01,940 with the participation of Eco family 8 00:01:02,815 --> 00:01:05,981 a film by 9 00:01:06,940 --> 00:01:09,940 editor 10 00:01:10,898 --> 00:01:14,731 cinematography 11 00:01:15,856 --> 00:01:19,023 music 12 00:01:19,856 --> 00:01:22,940 original music 13 00:01:27,773 --> 00:01:30,815 literary consultants 14 00:01:31,981 --> 00:01:35,856 monologues from Umberto Eco’s writings by kind permission of La nave di Teseo 15 00:01:37,356 --> 00:01:40,440 executive producer 16 00:01:41,398 --> 00:01:45,065 produced by 17 00:01:46,106 --> 00:01:49,690 directed by 18 00:01:55,523 --> 00:02:04,731 A library is both symbol and reality of universal memory. 19 00:02:05,231 --> 00:02:10,320 When Dante sees God in Paradise, 20 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:11,696 JANUARY 2015 21 00:02:11,696 --> 00:02:17,851 how does he solve the difficult job to describe God? 22 00:02:18,690 --> 00:02:26,190 He writes: “In one volume bound by Love, of which the universe is the scattered leaves” 23 00:02:27,190 --> 00:02:30,565 He sees God as the library of all libraries, 24 00:02:31,356 --> 00:02:35,065 a few centuries ahead of Jorge Luis Borges... 25 00:02:49,940 --> 00:02:52,190 A LIBRARY OF THE WORLD 26 00:02:52,356 --> 00:02:54,981 A film in three chapters and an epilogue 27 00:02:55,399 --> 00:02:57,139 FEBRUARY 2016 28 00:02:57,139 --> 00:03:01,211 There is sad news that just arrived. Umberto Eco has died... 29 00:03:29,856 --> 00:03:31,106 What have you got there? 30 00:03:31,106 --> 00:03:33,606 Today the amusement park will be closed 31 00:03:34,023 --> 00:03:41,731 to celebrate the memory of Umberto Eco, the great master. 32 00:03:42,065 --> 00:03:43,398 I do remember... 33 00:03:44,481 --> 00:03:47,648 Actually, better than an official honor. 34 00:03:47,940 --> 00:03:50,940 Do you remember this issue of “Linus” magazine? 35 00:03:50,940 --> 00:03:57,731 They made this cover with him dressed as Superman, as Charlie Brown, as a Smurf... 36 00:03:58,648 --> 00:03:59,898 ... and as Big Belly... 37 00:03:59,898 --> 00:04:01,273 Pretty much so, yes... 38 00:04:01,523 --> 00:04:03,315 And they published this comic strip 39 00:04:04,273 --> 00:04:10,190 where he watches his own funeral from that balcony 40 00:04:10,731 --> 00:04:12,065 and he is moved... 41 00:04:12,523 --> 00:04:19,481 There was this huge crowd blocking the entrance to the castle... 42 00:04:20,565 --> 00:04:24,148 Oh, my god, how can I get through? 43 00:04:24,981 --> 00:04:28,565 So I pushed through the crowd 44 00:04:28,856 --> 00:04:32,731 saying “Please, let me pass”. 45 00:04:33,565 --> 00:04:36,231 “You want to pass? We’ve all been waiting since morning!” 46 00:04:36,856 --> 00:04:38,898 “Get In line like anybody else!” 47 00:04:39,690 --> 00:04:41,981 So I said: “Actually, I am the widow...” 48 00:04:42,398 --> 00:04:44,148 They let you in? 49 00:04:44,606 --> 00:04:46,106 Not exactly, no... 50 00:04:50,065 --> 00:04:52,523 Thank you, Professor 51 00:04:57,856 --> 00:05:02,023 Milan, summer 2022 52 00:05:23,690 --> 00:05:26,666 This is my father’s studio, in the house 53 00:05:26,666 --> 00:05:34,315 that he and my mother chose 30 years ago to host the whole book library. 54 00:05:34,565 --> 00:05:38,231 That is, 1,200 rare and antique books and 30,000 contemporary books. 55 00:05:38,856 --> 00:05:45,898 Here is where he worked together with his collaborators. 56 00:05:46,106 --> 00:05:50,940 But his shelter was the rare book room- There he played the flute 57 00:05:51,065 --> 00:05:55,106 and spent time leafing through the books, without phone nor laptop... 58 00:06:18,481 --> 00:06:20,273 The basic collection is: 59 00:06:20,565 --> 00:06:28,106 “Bibliotheca semiologica, curiosa, lunatica magica et pneumatica”. 60 00:06:29,023 --> 00:06:33,773 To explain to a librarian, I’d say: “Occult sciences” 61 00:06:34,273 --> 00:06:38,440 But it’s not really like that. For instance 62 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,356 I have books on all the imaginary languages that were ever invented. 63 00:06:44,023 --> 00:06:50,356 One of the biggest strokes of luck in my life was to have met Umberto Eco 35 years ago 64 00:06:50,481 --> 00:06:55,231 He gave me two important things: one, his friendship and knowledge; 65 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:57,356 the other, access to his library. 66 00:07:00,481 --> 00:07:03,065 Physiognomics, magic, alchemy 67 00:07:03,231 --> 00:07:06,648 chemistry and sciences, chemical theatres... 68 00:07:06,981 --> 00:07:08,648 occultism, hermetism... 69 00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:11,440 - Magic... - Semiology and ensigns... 70 00:07:11,648 --> 00:07:17,815 - ...hyeroglyphics... - ...astronomical sciences, demonology, alchemy... 71 00:07:17,981 --> 00:07:19,356 ...esotericism... 72 00:07:19,565 --> 00:07:21,731 ...theology and Kircher... 73 00:07:21,981 --> 00:07:24,606 ...Kircher... Rosicrucians... 74 00:07:24,815 --> 00:07:31,440 ...universal languages, linguistics, soul of the animals... 75 00:07:41,190 --> 00:07:43,023 Dad never used these gloves... 76 00:07:44,148 --> 00:07:46,731 Of course: books must be touched with your hands. 77 00:08:35,065 --> 00:08:40,856 Talking about a big house full of books may imply a lonely man of letters 78 00:08:41,315 --> 00:08:44,315 who lives secluded from the world. 79 00:08:44,315 --> 00:08:48,440 The house is big otherwise I wouldn’t know where to put the books. 80 00:08:48,565 --> 00:08:53,398 I was evicted from the last one after an inspection by the city engineers 81 00:08:53,523 --> 00:08:57,106 because they were afraid the floors would collapse. 82 00:09:13,296 --> 00:09:21,007 When I arrived 25 years ago they were 30.000... I have no more time to count them. 83 00:09:29,421 --> 00:09:36,202 They are my books, translations... and they are books on me. 84 00:09:39,356 --> 00:09:40,690 ONE REMEMBERING 85 00:09:40,856 --> 00:09:44,731 Since books are made out of trees 86 00:09:44,898 --> 00:09:47,481 and anciently from papyrus, 87 00:09:48,481 --> 00:09:51,457 by “vegetal memory”, I mean the memory kept in books. 88 00:09:51,457 --> 00:09:54,481 Organic memory is the one in our brain; 89 00:09:55,231 --> 00:10:01,773 and, last, there’s a mineral memory that’s kept in the silicon of electronic devices. 90 00:10:01,981 --> 00:10:08,190 As humans, when we say 'I', we mean our memory 91 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,523 Memory is soul. 92 00:10:12,773 --> 00:10:18,690 There’s a parallel to individual memory 93 00:10:20,648 --> 00:10:23,523 which is the library, the vegetal memory. 94 00:10:24,106 --> 00:10:27,315 Libraries are mankind’s common memory 95 00:11:07,940 --> 00:11:11,481 We are beings living in time. 96 00:11:12,565 --> 00:11:16,523 Without memory it’s impossible to build a future. 97 00:11:37,523 --> 00:11:44,773 Living in time we are like an athlete: to spring forward, we must back up first. 98 00:11:46,523 --> 00:11:49,523 - Let’s say... 10 seconds - 10 seconds 99 00:11:51,315 --> 00:11:53,690 But 10 seconds - do they pass fast or slow? 100 00:11:54,148 --> 00:11:59,773 Look, 10 seconds tend to pass always in the same time. 101 00:12:02,856 --> 00:12:05,023 Actually, let me tell you the truth: 102 00:12:05,898 --> 00:12:10,856 10 seconds always pass in 10 seconds. 103 00:12:11,690 --> 00:12:13,440 DO NOT HOPE TO GET RID OF BOOKS 104 00:12:13,731 --> 00:12:17,231 I belong to a generation who still prefer to read on paper. 105 00:12:17,398 --> 00:12:21,856 Once, during a trip to the US, I uploaded on my I-pad 106 00:12:22,023 --> 00:12:27,856 the last volume of Proust’s 'Recherche'... It’s easy. 107 00:12:28,398 --> 00:12:33,356 But I could not underline any passage. I could not make dog-ears, 108 00:12:34,023 --> 00:12:39,315 I didn’t smear the pages with a dirty thumb... Very important things! 109 00:12:40,356 --> 00:12:45,648 Sentimentally, the book is irreplaceable. 110 00:12:52,565 --> 00:12:58,106 Somebody says CD-Roms and hypertexts will kill books. I don’t agree. 111 00:12:58,481 --> 00:13:01,398 They will do away with those books that don’t deserve to exist. 112 00:13:02,898 --> 00:13:07,565 Sometimes I thought my grandfather’s name wasn’t Umberto, but Professor Eco. 113 00:13:11,398 --> 00:13:13,898 He was my only grandfather 114 00:13:14,148 --> 00:13:19,065 and I had a very nice childhood thanks to him too, 115 00:13:19,065 --> 00:13:21,856 him and his sense of irony. 116 00:13:24,731 --> 00:13:27,981 The first book I received from him was 'Sylvie' by de Nerval 117 00:13:28,148 --> 00:13:30,398 and let me say right away I still haven’t read it. 118 00:13:31,231 --> 00:13:34,898 That was the first gift... the first book we read together 119 00:13:35,398 --> 00:13:38,898 was “Gian Burrasca”. 120 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. 121 00:13:43,398 --> 00:13:46,981 Something I had to do during Christmas holidays. 122 00:13:46,981 --> 00:13:49,773 He did help me... basically he wrote the paper. 123 00:13:50,273 --> 00:13:54,356 If my teacher back then is watching this, I do apologize. 124 00:13:54,815 --> 00:13:58,690 I got top grades in all the sections he wrote, except one: 125 00:13:59,023 --> 00:14:03,898 the only one I did myself, where I failed... 126 00:14:11,273 --> 00:14:12,523 Hey Ric, remember this? 127 00:14:12,523 --> 00:14:14,023 Yes, the dog’s testicles... 128 00:14:15,940 --> 00:14:18,690 - There’s a book close by... - The one I was looking for. 129 00:14:19,273 --> 00:14:24,106 They are probably the two things I most played with in this room. 130 00:14:24,648 --> 00:14:27,273 Ruysch’s “Thesaurus anatomicus”... 131 00:14:27,780 --> 00:14:31,072 A book I was fascinated with from the first moment I touched it. 132 00:14:31,190 --> 00:14:34,398 One of the illustrations I liked the best is the skeletons’ garden... 133 00:14:36,523 --> 00:14:38,440 See? Another bookmark... 134 00:14:40,023 --> 00:14:44,606 He must have leafed through it one of the last times he was here. 135 00:14:48,856 --> 00:14:49,898 Here they are... 136 00:14:50,773 --> 00:14:56,981 - I like this one ... The weeping one. - This illustration was a way he had 137 00:14:57,273 --> 00:15:01,773 to make up for not letting me see cartoons on tv. 138 00:15:02,690 --> 00:15:03,690 Poor boy! 139 00:15:06,773 --> 00:15:08,893 Do you know how many nightmares I had because of this? 140 00:15:10,398 --> 00:15:14,565 Look... this skeleton holds a sickle in his hand 141 00:15:15,023 --> 00:15:20,898 I remember one summer day in the countryside, I was a little kid 142 00:15:21,523 --> 00:15:25,190 we took a walk and I found a rusted sickle. 143 00:15:25,648 --> 00:15:29,106 It looked like nothing but he got all excited 144 00:15:29,523 --> 00:15:35,273 because he had an excuse to teach me one more lesson on the history of sickles... 145 00:15:35,273 --> 00:15:38,898 All books by your grandfather were literally eccentric 146 00:15:39,023 --> 00:15:45,481 because they moved from the farthest point and the seemingly weirdest things 147 00:15:46,273 --> 00:15:50,898 but eventually told you all you had to know about entire worlds... 148 00:15:51,398 --> 00:15:52,565 Look at this one. 149 00:15:53,065 --> 00:15:55,690 - Big Head! - Yes, that’s how we called it... 150 00:16:50,148 --> 00:16:54,606 A bibliomaniac would keep his book all to himself and would never show it 151 00:16:54,856 --> 00:16:59,065 because he would fear thieves from all over the world would flock to steal it. 152 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:04,606 And so he’d read it alone, at night, like Uncle Scrooge swimming in his dollars. 153 00:17:05,231 --> 00:17:09,023 A bibliophile, on the contrary, would share his wonder with everybody 154 00:17:09,148 --> 00:17:11,148 and he’d be proud they knew it was his 155 00:17:13,815 --> 00:17:17,231 Athanasius Kircher was probably the author Umberto Eco loved more, as a collector. 156 00:17:17,606 --> 00:17:20,148 A Jesuit from the 17th century, 157 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:26,690 he was an omnivorous scholar, endlessly curious. 158 00:17:27,690 --> 00:17:35,773 He wrote books about anything the human mind could conceive. 159 00:17:36,065 --> 00:17:42,273 Not only did he describe his subjects in words on endless pages and volumes, 160 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:49,481 he also used images to show, just to name one, hieroglyphics from old Egypt... 161 00:17:51,481 --> 00:17:56,231 He completely misinterpreted them, still he built a consistent demonstration. 162 00:17:56,940 --> 00:18:06,231 Or China. He heard stories from missionaries coming from the Far East and on these 163 00:18:06,523 --> 00:18:09,940 he would write wonderful travelogues, without ever having being there... 164 00:18:10,190 --> 00:18:13,190 Alphabets - like the ones from the tower of Babel 165 00:18:13,315 --> 00:18:15,898 from where different languages originated. 166 00:18:16,398 --> 00:18:22,606 Same thing for his conjectures on Noah’s ark. 167 00:18:23,981 --> 00:18:28,690 And in these books Umberto Eco literally lived and thrived. 168 00:18:50,190 --> 00:18:52,856 FROM ECO's WRITINGS 169 00:18:53,231 --> 00:18:57,315 WHY KIRCHER? 170 00:19:12,648 --> 00:19:17,065 Why are we still so fascinated by Kircher? 171 00:19:18,606 --> 00:19:23,190 I’d say - for the same reasons he was wrong so many times. 172 00:19:23,648 --> 00:19:29,690 For his voraciousness, his bulimia for sciences, his encyclopedic hunger. 173 00:19:30,106 --> 00:19:37,523 Kircher discourses on the sun and the moon, on tides and ocean streams 174 00:19:37,815 --> 00:19:40,940 on eclipses, waters, underground fires, 175 00:19:41,273 --> 00:19:45,273 lakes, rivers, sources of the Nile, saltworks and mines, 176 00:19:45,856 --> 00:19:50,815 fossils, metals, insects, herbs, distillation and fireworks, 177 00:19:51,148 --> 00:19:54,148 spontaneous generation and panspermia... 178 00:19:57,481 --> 00:20:02,190 and with the same self-assurance he tells us stories about dragons and giants. 179 00:20:13,565 --> 00:20:17,481 Kircher has opinions on everything, sometimes only by hearsay, 180 00:20:18,065 --> 00:20:23,856 and about everything he gives us proof, image, chart, function, 181 00:20:24,315 --> 00:20:29,981 causes and effects. Kircher writes scientifically about things he totally misunderstands 182 00:20:30,273 --> 00:20:36,606 but he never gives up explaining. And so it happens that his imagery, 183 00:20:37,023 --> 00:20:44,273 pretending to be scientifically correct, produces the wildest run of fantasy, 184 00:20:44,565 --> 00:20:48,606 so that it becomes impossible to tell truth from fiction. 185 00:20:52,773 --> 00:20:53,773 It’s in the can? 186 00:20:58,690 --> 00:21:02,398 Papyruses and manuscripts have survived thousands of years, 187 00:21:02,940 --> 00:21:07,148 we have books made 500 years ago that look freshly printed 188 00:21:07,856 --> 00:21:11,231 but we don’t know how long electronic formats will survive. 189 00:21:11,523 --> 00:21:18,731 Today’s computers are not able to read what we recorded two decades ago 190 00:21:18,856 --> 00:21:21,856 on prehistoric floppy disks. 191 00:21:22,481 --> 00:21:28,731 90%, maybe 99% of the messages circulating in this world 'volant' 192 00:21:29,315 --> 00:21:31,398 and it’s not so sure they 'maneant' (stay). 193 00:21:31,690 --> 00:21:36,270 At the same time, there’s a profusion of recordings. 194 00:21:36,270 --> 00:21:37,253 THE FORMS OF CONTENT 195 00:21:37,253 --> 00:21:41,057 As we are having our little chit-chat here, 196 00:21:41,565 --> 00:21:44,546 somebody there is already recording it. 197 00:21:44,546 --> 00:21:46,124 AESTHETIC AND INFORMATION THEORY 198 00:21:46,124 --> 00:21:49,476 I was told that you don’t own a cell phone.. A mobile phone. 199 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’? 201 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, 202 00:21:59,491 --> 00:22:01,726 it’s turned off. 203 00:22:03,139 --> 00:22:06,952 Does it not defit the purpose of having it? 204 00:22:07,187 --> 00:22:12,288 No, because it works as an agenda. 205 00:22:14,101 --> 00:22:15,641 You take your notes... 206 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! 208 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! 210 00:22:41,231 --> 00:22:44,937 So, all that is said is recorded; 211 00:22:44,937 --> 00:22:46,178 APOCALYPSE POSTPONED 212 00:22:46,178 --> 00:22:49,773 and, knowing it is recorded, we don’t feel any more the need to remember it. 213 00:22:50,023 --> 00:22:53,023 Maybe you read that story by Borges 214 00:22:53,356 --> 00:22:57,898 about a character called Funes el memorioso who remembers everything: 215 00:22:58,148 --> 00:23:01,815 every leaf on every tree he has seen in his life, 216 00:23:01,981 --> 00:23:07,148 all that happened to him at any given moment. He remembers everything... 217 00:23:07,315 --> 00:23:12,940 Therefore, he is basically an idiot because he can’t handle it. 218 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. 219 00:23:22,106 --> 00:23:25,231 So, what is the second function of memory? 220 00:23:25,231 --> 00:23:28,773 The first function is to preserve, the second one is to select. 221 00:23:29,190 --> 00:23:33,940 It would be a tragedy if our memory, both individual and public, 222 00:23:34,481 --> 00:23:39,815 did not decimate daily events discarding what’s useless 223 00:23:39,940 --> 00:23:42,940 or too complicated to remember. 224 00:23:43,065 --> 00:23:45,856 We’d all be like Funes el memorioso. 225 00:24:27,773 --> 00:24:31,481 Internet is the encyclopedia according to Funes. 226 00:24:31,940 --> 00:24:39,023 Everything is potentially recorded there but without tools to filter its contents. 227 00:24:39,523 --> 00:24:42,690 So, this is a new challenge for mankind. 228 00:24:42,815 --> 00:24:46,481 If yesterday we wanted to know as much information as possible 229 00:24:46,848 --> 00:24:53,255 today, in a way, we should get rid of as much information as possible. 230 00:24:53,458 --> 00:24:55,347 SEMIOTICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE 231 00:24:55,347 --> 00:25:00,773 Till now, we all referred to a commonly accepted and shared knowledge 232 00:25:00,981 --> 00:25:06,898 though we could actually challenge it on a specific issue, arguing about it. 233 00:25:07,273 --> 00:25:13,356 If we do not share this common knowledge, human relationships cannot exist: 234 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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