A Labyrinth of Human Knowledge: Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum

A Labyrinth of Human Knowledge: Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum Cinzia Donatelli Noble Brigham Young University Umberto Eco is apparently fascinated by mazes. The medieval library he described in his first novel, The Name of the Rose, was a labyrinth designed to confuse any imprudent violator of the secrets ofknowledge. It was also a punishment for those who, without being initiated, dared to pass the limit set for common men. Whoever violated the secrecy of the library without permission risked becoming lost forever. Similarly, we see in Foucault's Pendulum that whoever dares to pass the limits of human knowledge and intelligence appears to be destined to perdition. Is Eco implying that modern humanity seeks to become all-powerful, all-knowing, and in so doing steps out of the allowed limits, thus incurring punishment? Is this book a mere game for Eco, or is it a declaration of real dangers? Will our postmodern society be subject to deceit or will it ever resolve the dichotomies between truth and falsehood, assurance and doubt, trust and deception? Before reading Foucault's Pendulum for the first time, most readers had probably already read about it in numerous articles and reviews in literary and popular magazines. In fact, the novel was a literary case even before it appeared in bookstores, for a very elaborate publicity was orchestrated, with many critics whetting the public 's appetite. In the meantime, Eco's silence on the subject contributed to the aura ofmystery and interest around it. Soon after beginning the story, readers find themselves unprepared for the task, because it is an encyclopedical novel, encyclical in many ways, endowed with the highest number of either true or false historical , theological, mystical, cabalistic, literary, scientific, artistic, comic, cinematographical, antiquary, etc., information. Thus the novel is an enormous container of notions, and the reader is placed before the heap of this frightening and infinite erudition, much like a computer's "mineral and inanimate" memory. (Ganeri 139)1 The story of Foucault's Pendulum is extremely complex, for this encyclopedia -dictionary-novel appears to purport to contain all the 141 142Rocky Mountain Review books ever written. Some people see it as an excessively ostentatious effort on the author's part. It "even allows a partial reading, skipping pages, ... a panoramic and summary reading, and therefore a non-reading" (Ganeri 140); it metamorphoses with each reader's perspective. Many quotations disconcert readers, for the complexity of the text leads them to a point of confusion: they believe what is false, and doubt what is true. But this is not a book that must be liked; Eco may not have intended his readers to like the book. Yet it captures attention, because it involves our minds and thoughts completely . It also disturbs greatly. The reader is required to "shift" backwards, from reference to reference , from name to name, from concept to concept, without limits, along a journey that confuses the reader, making him/her "lost," immersed in the condition of "nothingness." (Degli-Esposti 186-87) As one makes one's difficult way through the chapters, there is a slow, rhythmical, progressive unveiling of knowledge, as during an initiation process where, when the more that is revealed, the more one wants to know. The characters in the novel share the search, until the desire for knowledge destroys those who are unable to stop or set limits to their curiosity.2 Casaubon,3 Belbo, and Diotallevi, the main characters of Foucault's Pendulum, begin this revelation with the analysis of a single text—any text would do—and then "prostitute " it, just as any other text can potentially be "prostituted," selling it as "the truth" to the best buyer. The danger is that in this case the buyer is from a generation spoiled by economic success who believes it is privileged in history, endowed with exceptional talents of mind and soul, and entitled to unlimited power and knowledge (Viano 152-53). In this process, the minds of Casaubon, Belbo, and Diotallevi become completely entangled in a game of endless analogies, infinite interpretation of symbols, and continuous search for new evidence. They also become guilty of expanding reality, oftaking pride in their intellectual capabilities...