UMBERTO ECO, Pe umerii gigantilor, Rao, 2018
Cele 12 texte publicate in acest volum reprezinta prelegeri sustinute de catre Umberto Eco in cadrul festivalului La Milanesiana, intre anii 2001 si 2015. Acestea au fost prezentate de autor sub forma de lectio magistralis, adesea insotite de ilustratii. Textele izvorasc, cel mai adesea, din temele propuse anual de Milanesiana, pentru ca apoi sa curga asemenea unui rau de eruditie, ce cuprind atat filosofie, cat si literatura, estetica, etica si mass-media. Autorul rastoarna aforismul medieval care da titlul volumului: "Poate ca misuna deja in umbra giganti pe care nu-i cunoastem, pregatiti sa se catare pe umerii nostri, ai piticilor".
„Pe umerii giganţilor” de Umberto Eco
De două decenii se desfăşoară la Milano şi în nordul Italiei un mare „laborator al excelenţei” în literatură, cinema, muzică, arte, sţiinţă şi filosofie numit Milanesiana şi care aduce laolaltă oameni celebri în aceste variate domenii, premiaţi Nobel pentru literatură, premiaţi Nobel pentru diferite ştiinţe, premiaţi ai academiile de cinema, muzicieni. Între invitaţii la Milanesiana s-a numărat, în această perioadă, şi celebrul filosof, semiotician şi analist al fenomenelor media Umberto Eco, care a ţinut, ca şi alţi invitaţi, conferinţe. Pe unele dintre ele le-a adunat în volumul de faţă.
„Eco a scris aceste texte în decursul a trei decenii, pentru a-şi amuza cititorii care, de fiecare dată, veneau pentru el, în număr mare, la Festivalul Milanesiana, iniţiat şi organizat de Elisabeta Sgarbi (pe atunci directoare a Editurii Bompiani – n.n.). Textele izvorăsc, cel mai adesea, din tema, mereu alta, pe care o propune Milanesiana, pentru ca apoi să curgă asemenea unui râu de erudiţie, care curpinde atât filosofie, cât şi literatură, estetică, etică şi mass-media. Cu alte cuvinte, facem cunoştinţă cu chintesenţa universului lui Eco, prezentată într-un limbaj cordial, plin de ironie, uneori glumeţ, chiar tăios dacă este necesar. Rădăcinile civilizaţiei noastre, canoanele schimbătoare ale frumuseţii, falsul care capătă valoare de adevăr şi schimbă cursul istoriei, obsesia complotului, eroii emblematici ai ficţiunilor celebre, formele artei, aforismele şi parodiile sunt unele dintre punctele de atracţie ale unei cărţi la al cărui text se adaugă o bogăţie de imagini, pe care autorul obişnuia să le proiecteze în cursul dizertaţiilor sale”.
Aşadar, este vorba de 12 texte/prelegeri susţinute de către Umberto Eco între anii 2001 şi 2015, prezentate sub formă de lectio magistralis la Festivalul La Milanesiana. Temele de meditaţie – frumuseţea, urâtul, absolut şi relativ, invizibilul, frumuseţea flăcării, paradoxuri şi aformisme, raportul despre neadevăr, minciună şi fals, unele forme ale imperfecţiunii în artă, secretul complotul, reprezentări ale sacrului. Primul text, care dă şi titlul volumului, pleacă de la un aforism medival. Bernard de Chartres spunea că noi suntem precum piticii care stau pe umerii giganţilor; astfel, putem vedea mai departe decât ei nu mulţumită înălţimii sau agerimii privirii noastre, ci pentru că, urcându-ne în spinarea lor, ne aflăm mai sus decât ei.
Umberto Eco răstoarnă aforismul medieval care dă titlul volumului: „Poate că mişună deja în umbră giganţi pe care nu-i cunoaştem, pregătiţi să se caţăre pe umerii noştri, ai piticilor”.
Citiţi aceste eseuri câte unul pe zi, apoi meditaţi asupra celor aflate. Satisfacţia intelectuală va fi deplină.
Umberto Eco, Pe umerii giganţilor, Editura RAO, Traducere din limba italiană de Anamaria Gebăilă, 444 pag.
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• Sur les épaules des géants, d’Umberto Eco, traduit de l’italien par Myriem Bouzaher, Grasset, 442 p., 29,50 €
Umberto Eco (1932-2016) manque à l'Europe. Il était l'expression même de l'esprit européen : cultivé, drôle et résolument moderne. L'ouvrage publié par Grasset donne un échantillon de la curiosité savante et ludique d'Eco, et prouve, ce n'est pas un détail, que les livres de savoir doivent aussi être des livres d'images, qu'ils doivent être illustrés. Tout Eco s'y trouve. Pensant par anachronismes judicieux et rapprochements insolents, il nous fait voir que tout est nouveau et que rien ne change, que l'homme peut être inventif et désespérément le même. L'ouvrage crépite d'idées déconcertantes (le rapprochement entre les concerts rock et les rites mystériques anciens, p. 60 ; l'affirmation d'un Lénine néothomiste, p. 121), de définitions efficaces (est beau ce que je voudrais posséder mais qui ne cessera pas de me plaire même s'il n'est pas à moi, p. 65), originales (le laid comme visage de l'ennemi, p. 83 ; le kitsch comme recherche de l'effet, p. 101 ; la littérature comme éducation au destin, p. 209). Il explore le monde des symboles et des signes (imaginaires du feu et de l'invisible, représentations du sacré), des croyances anciennes et nouvelles, ou encore comprend la théorie du complot grâce à Spinoza (savoir que revendiquent ceux qui sont écartés du savoir et du politique, p. 370). Eco le disait : « L'homme est le seul animal qui rit. » Le rire révèle quelque chose du réel que la raison elle-même ne parvient pas à découvrir, il est une entreprise de dessillement, qui œuvre contre l'idéalisation : lucide et joueur, il fait voir les choses en face, dans leurs bizarreries et leurs aberrations, dans leurs laideurs et leurs grandeurs. Umberto Eco restera ce philosophe qui rit.
UMBERTO ECO, EN CHAIRE ET EN FORCE
«Sur les épaules des géants» réunit les douze conférences que l’auteur italien, mort en 2016, a données durant une quinzaine d’années lors d’un festival majeur à Milan. On y retrouve ses thèmes de prédilection et son humour.
Book review: On the Shoulders of Giants, by Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco, who died in 2016 aged 84, is best known in the English-speaking world for his 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery set in a 14th-century monastery; the film of the book starred Sean Connery. But he was already known in Italy as a literary critic, semiologist, authority on medieval philosophy and all-purpose intellectual. Unlike many academics, he had the ability to write in an accessible and engaging style. That said, he demands alertness from his readers and he was like an intellectual Catherine wheel – a firework throwing out sparks in every direction.
This book consists of 12 essays, ten of which were given as lectures at the Milan Festival of Culture. Reading them is exhilarating. Listening must have been also demanding, close attention being needed to keep up with the speed of his thought and remarkable range of reference. Happily, he is also very amusing. I doubt if many will read this book from beginning to end, and indeed, there is no reason why you should, because it doesn’t present a consistent argument. Better, therefore, to treat it as you would a magazine and begin by picking out the essays whose titles interest you.
The first, which gives its title to the book, takes off from the well-known observation that if we know more than past generations did, this is, at least in part, because we know first what they discovered or came to know; we are dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. Sometimes the transition is quick. People had thought of evolution a century before Darwin; the Scottish judge Lord Monboddo said that human beings had once has tails. Eco, speaking of philosophy, remarks that “Kant needed Hume to awaken him from his dogmatic slumbers” – very true and very nicely put. Some of the essays are more easily accessible and enjoyable: “Conspiracies,” for example. Given that we live in an age dominated by science and technology such as our forefathers could scarcely have imagined, it’s interesting that, thanks in part to the internet, we are ready to see conspiracies everywhere.
Eco has great fun, while talking sense, about the myriad 9/11 conspiracy theories, the popularity of which suggests that we are at least every bit as credulous as villagers who believed in fairies, witches and werewolves. He also does a nice demolition job on the absurd “Da Vinci Code”.
There’s a nice observation from the Italian poet and filmmaker Pasolini that “conspiracies make us think crazy thoughts because they free us from the burden of having to face the truth”. When Pasolini himself was murdered, probably by a street pick-up, allegations of the involvement of the Italian secret services were made almost at once and widely believed.There are essays on beauty and ugliness, on absolute and relative truth, on lies and on when a lie is permissible, even on when it may not be a lie. Eco speculates on the relation of fiction to truth. Novelists are liars, but acceptable ones. Even so, some will construct a framework for their fiction, pretending it isn’t fiction. One way of doing this is to derive it from an anterior authority, a recently discovered manuscript, for instance.
Then, while we know that fictional characters aren’t really people, but only so many hundred or thousand words in a text, we can feel affection for them or dislike of them, and we can discuss Hamlet as if he was a real person with problems which invite argument: why does he believe his father’s ghost and why does he hesitate to act on the ghost’s instructions? And why shouldn’t we, since we may have a clearer idea of Hamlet than of our next-door neighbour?
He discusses authenticity. Why, for instance, do we consider Michelangelo’s David “better” than copies of the work, even though, if presented with the original and a copy, we might not be able to say which is which? Han van Meegeren forged a painting which was accepted as a genuine Vermeer and was sold at a high price. When eventually self-interest led him to come clean, did his Supper at Emmaus become a poor painting?Almost every page of this entrancing book invites questions and provokes reflection. Allan Massie
On the Shoulders of Giants, by Umberto Eco, trans. Alastair McEwen, Harvill Secker, 412pp, £30
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