Foucault's Pendulum

C

crackerjack

Well-known member
Always expected to like it, but I started yesterday, am 40 pages in and bored stupid.

I don't like chucking in novels, but i'm buggered if I'll wade thru 600+ pages without some drastic improvement.

Who else has read it? Should I give up now or plod on?
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Read it a long time ago - after my Dad had chucked it aside basically saying what you just said. I really enjoyed it but then I remember especially enjoying the beginning so maybe you want to take that with a pinch of salt.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
I'm always 'chucking in' novels...:D...life's too short to waste on one's that aren't working for you.

Re this one, I struggled through about half of it in the hope that I'd get engrossed as it moved towards The Answer. But it isn't a great novel. Poorly structured/conceived, I think. I have it kept it, however (being interested in conspiracy theories) so I may have another go one day.
 
L

Lichen

Well-known member
A high-minded friend of mine once told me that, on principal, he finished every book he started.

A comment that has plagued me ever since.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
:confused:

What the hell was 'the principle'?

Does he/she worship authors so much that their efforts simple have to be fully digested, no matter how little they mean?

Most writers are w*nkers...egotistical, self-righteous, pompous middle-class fools! I should know, I am one! (except I'm not middle-class) ;)

I treat books no differently to music - listen/read - 'Next!' and on...until I hit the right thing. You have to be discerning in this life...saturated with sound, image and words as we are.
 
RobJC

RobJC

Check your weapon
I can relate to this principle - perhaps its my upbringing, but I have always respected the written word, and hence the writers enough to feel slightly obligated in finishing books, though over the last few years I have found that I'm less likely to finish a book if I cannot get into it - I give it at least 2/3 to 3/4, but in the end I have given up on a few (Donna Tartt - The Little Friend, and Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell to name 2.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
I used to make a point of finishing any book i started - Gormenghast cured me of that.

I chucked FP in at about 400 pages. Kept expecting to get sucked into the story, but every time it looked like getting interesting, you suddenly had to wade through a 50-page digression into the deeply dull.

There was also a mathematical error during that military bloke's long tale about the knights. It wouldn't have mattered, except it was all about the numerological significance of dates. I kept expecting one of the three scholars to pick him up on it, but it was obviously just Eco's error coss no one ever did.

I know it's petty, but if you're gonna attribute huge significance to these things, at least get your sums right.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
Some people say they've read 'Finnegans Wake'...I don't believe them...;)

That said, I like 'awkward' writers...just because they are awkward...like Beckett...and Burroughs.

I think 'respect' for the word is what makes me so discerning. Literature for literature's sake is such a book club attitude...which is why I could never join one. The thought of having to read something repulses me.

At school they forced us to read some 'classics', of course. How stupid is that? We were dumb proles with abslutely no understanding of the world, British society from a historical perspective, adult life experience...or maturity of mind...so how the hell could we appreciate or understand them?
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
I would, but I read it a few years back and would have to do so again to answer properly. What I've said was based on impressions from memory. Sorry, that's not a great basis for a serious analysis, I know. Perhaps the story simply didn't engage me, for whatever reason, which suggests a lack of narrative drive (?).

As I've said, perhaps it's better than I thought first time. You query tempts me to read it again. I liked the beginning.

I'm also intellectually deficient...which could be a hinderance...:(;)
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I can relate to this principle - perhaps its my upbringing, but I have always respected the written word, and hence the writers enough to feel slightly obligated in finishing books, though over the last few years I have found that I'm less likely to finish a book if I cannot get into it - I give it at least 2/3 to 3/4, but in the end I have given up on a few (Donna Tartt - The Little Friend, and Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell to name 2."
Click to expand...
I used to always finish books but then I realised that was stupid. For some reason it's always Virginia Woolfe I can't finish. (I would say that you didn't miss too much with The Little Friend though and the best bit of Strange and Norrell was certainly the beginning.)
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
I would have thought this book would be right up Dissensus's alley. I'm about 160 pages and thoroughly enjoying at the moment, after an extremely dense and obscure first chapter.

I quite like the structure so far - alternating gripping/pulpy plot developments with 20-odd-page histories or overviews of templar history and lore.

I am a sucker for a bit of mystery/thrillers in this vein with some arcane/biblical mysticism or symbolism chucked in. Are there any other books like this? Is the Dan Brown good as a light fun read or totally beyond the pale?

As an aside I started reading about the book of Revelation after reading the book and it is completely mad and weird.
 
D

droid

Guest
FP is great, its the ultimate meta-conspiracy story and probably the best Eco. Ive read it twice.
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
OK, am getting a bit bored by page 500, there is less of the plot driving it forward and just lots of the spurious conspiracy stuff...

Anyhow, wanted to ask if Eco writes late about the internet. All the stuff about intertextuality and linkages is perfect for the internet age that came after FP - that's what I kept thinking. He touches upon computers with Anafinabula or whatever it's called.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top