About 3 weeks ago I began reading for ISRME's current class that I am taking, Saints and Sages. In it, we considering Muslim and Christian thinkers and doers many of whom I was familiar with in a very limited sense or not at all. Even most of those I was familiar with (Thomas Aquinas, Rumi) I had read little to none of their work. As with all of ISRME's classes, this one has been excellent.
At nearly the same time, one of my daughters decided to get Kindle Unlimited for a few months. (It cost a dollar, I believe.) So, I checked my wishlist to see what books I might want to peruse for free. I didn't come up with much. Except The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Which I didn't know much about but had had highly recommended to me. So, I tried it. It's set in exactly the same time period and engaging many of the same ideas and authors - one character whom I assumed was fictional turned up in my reading about Catherine of Siena. An excellent coincidence in reading materials!
A medieval, philosophical detective novel set in an abbey whose burning heart was a library! Multiple murders, inquisitors, and... VERY long discussions of philosophy and theology and medieval stuff that seemed a bit long. It was really good and kept me reading to the end, even if I skipped portions of the extended discussions.
But the unexpected bonus benefit came after the very end! More than 500 pages in, in the author's postscript which was appended later, he speaks of writing and the writing process, and it's very insightful and gripping, at least for someone like me who tries to read about writing each year since I am tasked with teaching so much of it. Let me give you an example, which intersects with the story itself - no spoilers, though.
"Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told."
This is true. Even within the postscript Eco has mentioned Poe's Philosophy of Composition, which I was unfamiliar with. Now I've downloaded it as another resource for learning and for sharing with writing students. But the magic... the magic is that Eco has used this insight within the narrative itself, books speaking of books.
By the way, it feels to me like a very European novel; the ingenious mixing of languages used in the text - and often unexplained - expects the reader to grapple with languages without fully grasping all of the meaning consciously. It's hard to imagine an American in America writing this, too little necessity for linguistic survival strategies.
A few final quotes...
"Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?"
"He is, or has been, in many ways a great man. But for that reason he is odd. It is only petty men who seem normal."
"I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly."
"The simple cannot choose their personal heresy."
