'Electronics last 10 years ; books, five centuries, "says Umberto Eco
Italian writer and essayist speaks in an exclusive interview for his new job, 'Do not count on the End of the Book'
March 13, 2010 Italian writer Umberto Eco and if not, is the most obvious. When visitor gaping, open-mouthed in front of its collection of 30,000 volumes stored in your office / residence in Milan, he has two ready answers when asked if he read all that expanse of paper. "No. These are just the books should I read next week. Those who have read are at university" - is his favorite. "I have not read any," begins the second. "If not, why save?"
In fact, the collection is higher, nearing 50 thousand volumes, because the rest are in another house within Italy. And it is precisely such a passion for works on paper that convinced Eco to accept an invitation from a French colleague, Jean-Phillippe Tonac of, for, beside another incorrigible bibliophile, writer and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, discuss the continuity of the traditional book. It was these meetings ("very informal, poolside and drizzled with good whiskey," says Umberto Eco) that resulted in not account for the purpose of the book, the publisher Record throws in the second half of April.
The conclusion is obvious: just like the wheel, the book is an invention consolidated to the point of technological revolutions, announced or feared, as they do not stop it. Any doubt is remedied when visiting the corner Milanese Echo, as did the state last Wednesday. Located in front of the Castello Sforzesco, the apartment - that day blown by freezing temperatures, heavy snow insisting whiten the formidable landscape that can be seen from her balcony - is on a floor where was once a small hotel. "If they were not very functional for guests, the long corridors are great for me because then I extend my bookshelves," says the writer, with undisguised pleasure in pointing straight to a shelf full that do not seem to end. The old rooms? Turned into offices, dormitories, dining, etc.. The most desired, however, the key is closed, air conditioned with a window that seals the sunlight: there are the rarities, the works produced for centuries, the true treasures. That's right: treasures of paper.
Known equally for academic work (is a retired professor of semiotics, but remains active in the School of Bologna) and the novels (The Name of the Rose, published in 1980, became a worldwide best seller), Echo is a born collector, in addition to books, he also likes stamps, postcards, champagne corks. In her living room, glass shelves expose the many rare books - who currently lead their choice - such as shells, stones, pieces of wood. The walls exhibit tables at Eco scooped his visits to various countries or who just won friends - if Schenberg Mario (1914-1990), physicist, politician and art critic Brazilian writer who holds the best memories.
At age 78, Eco - has revived in the Country Art and Beauty in Medieval Aesthetics (Record, 368 pp., $ 47.90, translated by Mario Sabino) - displays an impressive vitality. Have fun with all kinds of movies (next to your DVD player rests a copy of the animation Ratatouille), maintains contact with students in Bologna, writes articles for newspapers and magazines and accepts invitations to exhibitions, like the one turned , Last year, in the curator at the Louvre in Paris. There, the author had the privilege of walking alone through the corridors of the old French royal palace in the days when the museum is closed. And as a kid led, took the opportunity to flatten the bottom of the Venus de Milo. It was with this same spirit that humorous Eco - wearing an elegant navy-blue suit, tie a revolt of the same color was misaligned, and his face without the characteristic gray beard (shaved religiously every 20 years, and last time, in 2009, also because the resistant black mustache made him look like Genghis Khan in the photos) - spoke to the report of the Sabbath.
The book is not condemned, as they purport the worshipers of new technologies?
The disappearance of the book is an obsession of journalists who ask me this 15 years ago. Even I have written an article on the subject, the questioning continues. The book, to me, is like a spoon, a hatchet, a pair of scissors, that kind of object that, once invented, never changes. Remains the same and it is difficult to replace. The book is still the easiest way to convey information. The electronics have arrived, but we realize that life is no more than ten years. After all, science is making new experiences. So who can say, years ago, today we would not have computers capable read the old floppies? And that, in contrast, have books which survive for over five centuries? I spoke recently with the director of the National Library in Paris, who told me he had scanned almost all of the heritage, but kept the original paper, as a security measure.
What is the difference between the content available on the Internet and a huge library?
The basic difference is that a library is like the human memory, whose function is not only to preserve but also to filter - although Jorge Luis Borges, in his book, Fictions, has created a character, Funes, whose capacity memory was infinite. Already the Internet is like that character from the Argentine writer, unable to choose what matters - you can find there both the Bible and Mein Kampf, Hitler. This is the basic problem of the Internet: who depends on the ability of the query. I can distinguish the philosophy of trusted sites, but not physics. Imagine then a student doing research on the 2. World War II: he will be able to choose the correct site? Tragically, a problem for the future, because there is still a science to solve it. Only depends on personal experience. This will be the crucial problem of education in the coming years. Unable
predict the future of the Internet?
Not for me. When I started using it in the 1980s, I was obliged to put floppy disks, run programs. Today, just push a button. I did not realize it then. Perhaps in the future, man will not need to write on the computer, just talk and your voice command will be recognized. That is, exchange the keyboard by voice. But not really know.
As the growing speed of processing data from a computer can influence the way we absorb information?
The human brain is adaptable to the needs. I feel good in a speeding car, but my grandfather was appalled. Since my grandson can information more easily on the computer than I do. We can not predict the extent to which our brain has the capacity to understand and absorb new information. Also because a physical progress is also needed. Currently, few can travel long distances - from Paris to New York, for example - without feeling the discomfort of jet lag. But maybe my grandson can not make this trip in the future in a half hour and feel good? You can be
counterculture in the Internet?
Yes, for sure, and it can manifest itself as both a revolutionary conservative. See what happens in China where the Internet is a means by which You can speak up and react to political censorship. While people here spend hours chatting, China is the only way to contact the rest of the world.
In one particular stretch of 'Do not count on the End of the Book,' and Mr. Jean-Claude Carrière discuss the function and preservation of memory - which, like a muscle, must be exercised not to atrophy.
In fact, it is critical that kind of exercise, because we are losing historical memory. My generation knew all about the past. I can detail about what was happening in Italy 20 years before my birth. If you ask today for a student, he certainly will not know anything about how the country two decades before his birth, because just a click away on the computer for this information. I remember that at school, I had to memorize ten verses per day. At that time, I thought a useless, but now I recognize its importance. The alphabetic culture gave way to the visual sources for computers that require high-speed reading. Thus, while a skill improves, the trend threatens another, like memory. I remember a wonderful science fiction story written by Isaac Asimov in the 1950s. It's about a civilization in the future that the machines do everything, even the simplest accounts multiply. Suddenly the world goes to war, a huge blackout happens and no machine work anymore. Set up the chaos until he discovers a man from Tennessee who still knows how to do math in my head. But instead of representing a saving, it becomes a powerful weapon and is held by all governments - to be captured by the Pentagon because of the danger (laughs). Is not that wonderful?
In the book, Mr. Carrière and comment on how the lack of reading some leaders influenced their erroneous decisions.
Yes, I wrote a lot about cultural information, something that has characterized the current American culture that seems to question the validity of understanding the past. Here's an example: if you read the story about the wars in Afghanistan against Russia in the 19th century, will find that it was difficult to fight a civilization that knows all the secrets hiding in the mountains. Well, President George Bush, the father probably did not read any work of this nature before starting the war in the 1990s. In the same way that Hitler was unaware of reports of Napoleon on the impossibility of travel to Moscow by land, coming from Western Europe before the arrival of winter. On the other hand, another American President Roosevelt, during the second. War, commissioned a detailed study on the behavior of the Japanese to Ruth Benedict, who wrote a brilliant book of cultural anthropology, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. In a way, this book helped Americans avoid mistakes unforgivable conduct with the Japanese before and after the war. Knowing the past is important in shaping the future. Several historians point
terrorist attacks against Americans on September 11, 2001 as defining a new course for humanity. You think so? It was really
modifier. In the first war against Iraq, under the first Bush administration, there was a direct confrontation, the press was there and witnessed the fighting, losses human, the conquests of territory. Then in September 2001, it was realized that the war lost the essence of human direct confrontation - the enemy had turned to terrorism, who could personify a nation or even the neighbors next door. It stopped being a war fought by soldiers and passed into the hands of secret agents. At the same time, the war has gone global, everyone can follow it on television, the Internet. There are general discussions on the subject.
Speaking now about your library, it is true that she has 50,000 volumes?
Yes, in general. In this apartment in Milan are just 30,000 - the rest is inside Italy, where I have another house. But I always come undone a few hundred, because, as I said before, we need to do a filtering.
Why do you prevent your desktop to catalog them?
Because the way you organize your book depends on your current need. I have a friend who keeps its in alphabetical order, which is absolutely stupid, because the work of a French historian will be on a bookshelf and another in a different place. Contemporary literature I have here separated by alphabetical order of countries. Have not contemporary for centuries and is divided by type of art. But sometimes, a particular book can both be considered by me as philosophical or aesthetic art; depends on the reason for my research. Thus, reorganize my library my second criteria and I only, and not a secretary can do that. Of course, with a collection of this size is not easy to know where each book. My method makes it easier, I have a good memory, but if some idiot of the family takes some work from one place and puts it in another, this book is lost forever. You better buy another copy (laughs).
A scholar who is also her friend, Marshall Blonsky, once wrote that there is one side of Umberto, the famous novelist, and another Echo, a professor of semiotics.
And both me (laughs). When I write novels, I try not to think about my academic research - so take a vacation. Still, many readers and critics trace connections, which do not argue. I remember that when writing "Foucault's Pendulum, I made various studies on occult science until, at a given moment, they reached such proportions that it feared an excessive theorizing on the novel. So, I changed all the material in a course on occult science, which was very well done.
Speaking of 'Foucault's Pendulum', it is said that you anticipated in a long time The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. Who
read my book know it's true. But while they are my characters that take this seriously cheap occult, Dan Brown is who takes it seriously and tries to convince readers that it really is a matter to be considered. That is, did a nice makeup. We were introduced this year in a premiere of the Teatro alla Scala and so he introduced himself: "Do not admire me, but I like his books." I replied: Not that I do not like you - after all, I created you (laughs).
In his best known novel, The Name of the Rose, there is a time when people are discussing whether Jesus even smile. You can think of sense of humor when it comes to God?
According to Baudelaire, is the devil who has more sense of humor (laughs). And if God really is humorous, it is possible to understand why certain powerful men who act a certain way. And even if life is like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, as Shakespeare's Macbeth proclaims, it takes even more humor to understand the history of mankind.
How was the exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, which Mr. curated last year?
Four years ago, the museum reserves a month for a guest (Toni Morrison was chosen once) to organize what it wants. Then they invited me and I said I wanted to do something about lists. "Why what, "asked. Now, I have always used many lists in my novels - even thought about writing an essay on this habit. Well, when it comes to lists in culture is commonly believed in the literature. But as it is a museum I decided to draw up a list visual and musical direction that suggested by the Louvre. So I had the privilege (which was not offered to Dan Brown) to visit the museum empty, on Tuesdays, when closed. And I could touch the butt Venus of Milo (laughs) and admire the Mona Lisa is only 20 inches away.
You've been in Brazil twice in 1966 and 1979. What's your recollection of these visits?
Many
. The first, in Sao Paulo, where I gave some lectures at the Faculty of Architecture (USP), which originated the book The Absent Structure. In the second I was surrounded by family and traveled to Curitiba Manaus. It was wonderful. I remember my editor at the time asking me to stay for the carnival and watch the parade of samba schools in the cabin, which could not meet. And I also recall the powerful images, like the girl who falls into a trance in a yard (for which I was led by Mario Schenberg) and I play in Foucault's Pendulum.
http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/arteelazer, electronics-last-10-years-centuries-5-books-say-umberto-eco, 523700.0. Htm
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