Take Dan Brown

>packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark

the fuck amerikans, why must you ruin everything

Tolkien? He was and still is a legend. Also poor bait, everyone knows LoTR came before GoT.

* are NOT tied into the narrative and characters.

the franciscan challenge to papal authority that is underlying a lot of the issues in the monastery is directly tied to various characters motivations and actions.

How? With regards to the primary murder plot line. I'm genuinely curious. I can see how it's related with Bernard, the trial, and Salvatore, but Salvatore wasn't the actual murderer, nor was he really connected with that plot line at all.

*meant to greentext that first line

The Dan Brown part was trolling I'll admit. But I still thought the book was overrated and the murder mystery wasn't very interesting or creative. Not Dan Brown tier of course but still not great.

...

you haven't read Foucault's Pendulum, have you?

THAT'S where Dan Brown ripped off all of his ideas.

>he thinks the murder mystery is the point of the book

I don't think the murder mystery was the point. I think the murder mystery was not adequately linked in with the point making half the book (either the murders or the theology) feel pointless.

It's called a red herring. You need one to have a murder mystery.

That shire illustration is horrible. The other two are ok

It's not a red herring when it's obvious he didn't do it, and the book never made any attempt to make it seem like he did. Regardless, I don't consider red herring's to be connected with the main plot (they're intentional distractions from what's actually happening), which is why I mentioned that the only time the poverty theology became relevant was in a situation that was clearly not directly connected with the murders. If 200 pages of theological debates have the relevance of setting up a red herring, I'm going to feel like that's a waste of my time.

drop bombs on brainlets

I found them to be pretty well linked, though I do agree with the OP in that it was probably 100 pages too long, Eco seemed to self indulge a lot.

My uncle recommended it to me actually, he said its "just a good mystery book", then I read it and was surprised it was mostly all philosophy.

>one of the most famous and respected historical novels
>herp derp dan brown!
yeah, you sound like you have a respectable opinion.

I liked the book but it does appeal to extreme pseudo intellectuals.

The large amount of detail and overly sincere discussion of minute details of history as if you have spent loads of time on it (erudition) is an affectation that so called literary intellectuals love to perform. Pseudo intellectuals love to pretend to have or actually have extremely strong opinions on obscure stuff but not so obscure or irrelevant that they can't get pseud cred.

Also the references to fun literature. The literary pseudo intellectual is always vacillating between pompous affectation and proclaimed love for low culture. They fear being called middlebrow.

I don't know how many levels of irony this board is on anymore

>Take Dan Brown

Asked whether he had read the Brown novel, Eco replied:

I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it. My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel Foucault's Pendulum, which is about people who start believing in occult stuff.

– But you yourself seem interested in the kabbalah, alchemy and other occult practices explored in the novel.

No. In Foucault's Pendulum I wrote the grotesque representation of these kind of people. So Dan Brown is one of my creatures.

I've not read it, but I hope it's not worse than Dan Brown.

it's not

Good Lord put some spoiler there!

>take /pol/
>add in some schizophrenia, repetitive foodporn, priests and historial flavour
>get pic related

What did he seriously mean by this?

Fuck off dude, he's the best writer of the last 30 years.
RIP Alberto, you were Veeky Forums as fuck.

You are probably just baiting, but the whole point of that book is actually to make fun of Dan Brown types. It was also written before Dan Brown got big, so it's not like Eco was emulating Brown; if anything, Dan Brown read FP, didn't understand it, and then decided to make his misconception of it more action-packed and "beach read"-able for the middle-aged woman demographic. Dan Brown's novels are basically book-long versions of the very shitpost I'm responding to right now.

At least he made money off of his shitposts. That's one thing he did better than you.

Why does everybody call the guy Alberto? Is this a meme I'm not getting?

>pick up Da Vinci Code for fun and laffs
>"ha ha look at this shitty writing"
>end up getting hooked and finishing it anyway
>feel dirty afterwards
Dan Brown is some sort of strange master craftsman. short, action packed chapters that take minimal attention span and effort

Truly Norberto's finest work.

What are some books similar to Name of the Rose? Looking for historical fiction set in the middle ages, but anything when the same vibe is cool

I dunno if it's any good or not but I've had it on my to-readlist for a while: In a Dark Wood Wandering by Hella Haasse

Can you offer any more detail on the plot or themes? Wikipedia has barely any description besides the fact that it's set in the middle ages and apparently the city of Boston loved it(?).

Welcome to the world of the best-sellers, user. There's no shame in having read such a thing, but don't forget the existence of the higher pleasures of reading. I've actually read a ton of Michael Crichton and, while I wouldn't defend them as having amazing prose or anything, they're great page-turners with cool science ideas. They are what they are.

A few days ago someone posted a list of their favorite authors here. It included a few Veeky Forums-disdained authors and "Alberto Eco," which resulted in some light mockery of the poster. In that thread a few people played along and said that it was a typo of "Aliberto Eco," or "Roberto Eco," etc. It has become a small meme on Veeky Forums.

An Instance of the Fingerpost

it's not as clever but has exactly the same vibe and the same partially-historical style

Thanks a lot i'll be looking in to these

in a way it does all tie together
the forbidden book is forbidden because it's a lost work of an authority and the killer doesn't want that authority to supplant scriptural authority or the church's authority.

He doesn't do this like the papacy strictly to remain in power but because he believes it is for the good of humanity

a recurring theme of the book is revolt against authoritarianism

on a side note fingerpost is also akin to Foucalt's Pendulum with its theme of "unreliable narrator" and supernatual elements

>theology
The theology is much of the important substance of the book. OP would likely not like (nor understand) Joyce for the same reason
Also no mention of semiotics in this thread, like that amazing chapel facade

> too long
Borges was critical of works that took several hundred pages to say what could be said in ten. I would imagine he would criticize this work in particular, given the fact that it's basically an extended meditation on Borges' story 'The Library of Babel' (down to the labyrinthine library and the blind librarian, named Jorge of Burgos). I would add that the ending doesn't live up to the rest of the book

the way I see it, TNotR isn't an "extended meditation" on Babel, but merely a respecful tribute. The fact he named a character borges confirms it's just a playful nod

half of everything Eco writes is a reference or allusion to something else

I agree that the substance is more on the level of tribute; I was just picking up on language I've seen elsewhere that I think reflect Eco's attitude toward the book (and I suppose his process in working on it)

Baudolino.

> A few days ago someone posted a list of their favorite authors here. It included a few Veeky Forums-disdained authors and "Alberto Eco," which resulted in some light mockery of the poster. In that thread a few people played along and said that it was a typo of "Aliberto Eco," or "Roberto Eco," etc. It has become a small meme on Veeky Forums.
Thank you user

why are you so clinically retarded read lmao

Just like FP is poking fun at /x/ nutters, the prague cemetary is mocking /pol/lacks. Eco is a satirist, but is humor is lost on some...

that said, Eco is definitely a Veeky Forums nutter

>It's not a red herring when it's obvious he didn't do it,
Yes it is. Making a red herring too red defeats the purpose.

>and the book never made any attempt to make it seem like he did.
This is wrong, but the same be said for the blind dude.

A murder mystery with just the protagonist, victim, and antagonist would be boring. Secondary characters are needed.

Well I would suggest your problem is that you read TNotR as a mystery story, when clearly the mystery is only one theme of the book

His best work in my humble opinion.

>Also no mention of semiotics in this thread

A lot of people read his books complete oblivilous of the multiple layers within the narrative (like pointed out here and here ). TNoTR is even quite explicit about the whole mystery/detective thing being a framework for semiotic analysis - William himself describes his detective work as guesswork derrived from reading and interpreting signs in the beginning of the book.

For those interrested, there is a short article discussing the books various structures within a semiotic framework here: newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1182&context=sttcl