If you liked Baudolino you should definitely read "Q", a novel, written by four Italian authors known collectively as ‘Luther Blissett’ published in 1999. It traces the adventures and philosophical conflicts of two rivals in Reformation Europe: an Anabaptist student of Thomas Muntzer and a papal informer, Q. I loved it!
That was great. I'm just re-reading The Name of The Rose after thirty years and it's amazing how rich Eco's fiction is. It has basically created a huge reading list for me.
You can't go wrong with Umberto Eco. I love all his books, though the more scientific ones are a bit hard to digest. So I would very much appreciate a little bit more on Umberto Eco.
Baudolino was a gem to read. Eco one of the great treasures of literature. Have you ever read Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language? Though fairly short, only a hundred-something pages IIRC, it is a pretty pretty dense and dry read. You really have to pause and think through what Eco is saying quite frequently. However I found it very enlightening and fascinating to think through what he was thinking. Very much a presentation of a theory of how the human mind works. Makes you see human cognition in a new way.
Agreed! I haven't read that particular book, but I've read quite a bit of semiotics. I find a lot of semiotics pretty difficult to wrap my head around, as you suggest it's usually quite dry, but it does make you rethink human cognition. I should pick up that Eco volume though - if someone could make it compelling, I would think Eco could come close!
@@travelthroughstories He illustrates his ideas in it with his usual funny, odd and learned little stories and "aha!" moments that sneak up on you with some brilliant insight that puts what proceeded it together in some clever way. Basically classic Eco.
The comments here are lovely; I was recently exploring Italian TV(Montalbano) and remembered reading Baudilino😉 Now I am on to read and review again Name of the Rose. Love the movie so much and have viewed it many times. Now to listen to the audiobook. Cheers!😎
In early part of the book, niketas had genoanese find his cook and bright to him. they prepared a fat "kid" and had a feast. I didn't know kid also meant lamb and was dumbfounded. it took me a while to realize what it actually was. English not being my mother tongue I wondered if other people ever had similar experience.
Thanks for the video. The Byzantium1200 project is really neat - hadn't heard of it before. I can't help but notice your neat library behind you. How did you get all of those Íslenzk fornrit series?
Thanks for watching! I'm always fond of digital projects like Byzantium1200 - projects like that do such important work. As for the Íslenzk fornrit series, I got most of them through sheer serendipity. A few years ago, one of my professors was moving abroad and kind of shifting away from Old Norse scholarship, and so he very generously invited me to pillage his library for any books I wanted. Needless to say, I filled my car up and needed to order a new bookshelf... I was incredibly pleased with the ÍF volumes as they're so expensive and rare, especially outside of Iceland. I'm hoping to expand my collection as time goes on, but I was super lucky to get many of the "big" works like Njáls saga, Grettis saga, Egils saga, Heimskringla (3vols), and the Poetic Edda.
@@travelthroughstories Damn, that's a dream story - just pillaging a professors library. I'm fairly certain the majority of the good books I've bought used are from professors moving/dying and getting rid of a lot of good books. Where did you study Old Norse? Or, if so, did you study any other languages?
@@Orpheuslament Agreed - I'm eternally grateful for many of my professors' kindnesses! One day, I'll pass it on. I'm currently still a PhD candidate at a non-descript US university (I'd be more than happy to share this info privately!) and I did my Master's in the UK where I began studying Old Norse, Old/middle English, and Latin. I've also studied Old French (mainly the Anglo-Norman dialect) and Old Occitan for a semester each. I'm most comfortable with Old English/ Old Norse though. And for modern languages, I've done a smattering of French, Icelandic, and Norwegian, though almost all of that is self-taught and simply enough to be able to read the scholarship in those languages. If you're interested though, the grammar I used for Old Norse is available online for free through the Viking Society (alongside tons of great translations/editions): vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/ . Just scroll down to "A New Introduction to Old Norse" - it's 3 volumes. It's a pretty easy-to-follow grammar if you're familiar at all with Germanic languages and it gets you reading the sagas right away. You can usually find pretty cheap used copies online too.
Thanx for your wide explanation, I really need it because I read this book in its Farsi translation and actually, as a Farsi audience, with a completely different contex , I absolutely enjoyed the fiction, but I'm also kind of confuse about its historical references of christian symbols that they probably are really familiar to western readers. Even though I think the pattern of the narration, specially the fantastic part was more familiar for oriental audiences. By the way, your video can be helpful, specially for readers like me.
Thanks for watching - I'm glad you found it helpful! It must be particularly interesting to read Baudolino in Farsi, as some of the lands that he travels through are Western imaginations of those same lands!
@@travelthroughstories Thank you, and yes, it was pretty interesting that be able to see these land's reflection from the medieval narrator angle, specially because he is the funniest one.
Baudolino was the first book I'd ever read among Umberto Eco's works. I had had difficulty reading it but it was so fascinating experience.
If you liked Baudolino you should definitely read "Q", a novel, written by four Italian authors known collectively as ‘Luther Blissett’ published in 1999. It traces the adventures and philosophical conflicts of two rivals in Reformation Europe: an Anabaptist student of Thomas Muntzer and a papal informer, Q. I loved it!
That was great. I'm just re-reading The Name of The Rose after thirty years and it's amazing how rich Eco's fiction is. It has basically created a huge reading list for me.
You can't go wrong with Umberto Eco. I love all his books, though the more scientific ones are a bit hard to digest. So I would very much appreciate a little bit more on Umberto Eco.
Eco is definitely an author I need to read more of! When I do, I'll be sure to make more videos on him though.
Thanks for doing Baudolino. Simone Simonini (from The Prague Cemetry) and Baudolino are two of Eco's most fascinating characters.
Thank you for watching! Baudolino is a really interesting character - I'll have to read The Prague Cemetery next!
@@travelthroughstorieshey. Do you know who are the references for borone, kyot, abdul, il Poeta, Zosimo, etc?
Baudolino was a gem to read. Eco one of the great treasures of literature.
Have you ever read Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language? Though fairly short, only a hundred-something pages IIRC, it is a pretty pretty dense and dry read. You really have to pause and think through what Eco is saying quite frequently. However I found it very enlightening and fascinating to think through what he was thinking. Very much a presentation of a theory of how the human mind works. Makes you see human cognition in a new way.
Agreed! I haven't read that particular book, but I've read quite a bit of semiotics. I find a lot of semiotics pretty difficult to wrap my head around, as you suggest it's usually quite dry, but it does make you rethink human cognition. I should pick up that Eco volume though - if someone could make it compelling, I would think Eco could come close!
@@travelthroughstories He illustrates his ideas in it with his usual funny, odd and learned little stories and "aha!" moments that sneak up on you with some brilliant insight that puts what proceeded it together in some clever way. Basically classic Eco.
@@b.griffin317 I'll definitely check it out then!
@@travelthroughstories I would agree that some understanding of Eco as a semiotician enhances the experience of reading his novels.
The comments here are lovely; I was recently exploring Italian TV(Montalbano) and remembered reading Baudilino😉 Now I am on to read and review again Name of the Rose. Love the movie so much and have viewed it many times. Now to listen to the audiobook. Cheers!😎
In early part of the book, niketas had genoanese find his cook and bright to him. they prepared a fat "kid" and had a feast. I didn't know kid also meant lamb and was dumbfounded. it took me a while to realize what it actually was. English not being my mother tongue I wondered if other people ever had similar experience.
I advise you to read The Prague Cemetry because simone simonini is a great character that tell you all the history of which is easy to manipulate.
Thanks for the video. The Byzantium1200 project is really neat - hadn't heard of it before.
I can't help but notice your neat library behind you. How did you get all of those Íslenzk fornrit series?
Thanks for watching! I'm always fond of digital projects like Byzantium1200 - projects like that do such important work.
As for the Íslenzk fornrit series, I got most of them through sheer serendipity. A few years ago, one of my professors was moving abroad and kind of shifting away from Old Norse scholarship, and so he very generously invited me to pillage his library for any books I wanted. Needless to say, I filled my car up and needed to order a new bookshelf... I was incredibly pleased with the ÍF volumes as they're so expensive and rare, especially outside of Iceland. I'm hoping to expand my collection as time goes on, but I was super lucky to get many of the "big" works like Njáls saga, Grettis saga, Egils saga, Heimskringla (3vols), and the Poetic Edda.
@@travelthroughstories Damn, that's a dream story - just pillaging a professors library. I'm fairly certain the majority of the good books I've bought used are from professors moving/dying and getting rid of a lot of good books.
Where did you study Old Norse? Or, if so, did you study any other languages?
@@Orpheuslament Agreed - I'm eternally grateful for many of my professors' kindnesses! One day, I'll pass it on.
I'm currently still a PhD candidate at a non-descript US university (I'd be more than happy to share this info privately!) and I did my Master's in the UK where I began studying Old Norse, Old/middle English, and Latin. I've also studied Old French (mainly the Anglo-Norman dialect) and Old Occitan for a semester each. I'm most comfortable with Old English/ Old Norse though. And for modern languages, I've done a smattering of French, Icelandic, and Norwegian, though almost all of that is self-taught and simply enough to be able to read the scholarship in those languages.
If you're interested though, the grammar I used for Old Norse is available online for free through the Viking Society (alongside tons of great translations/editions): vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/ . Just scroll down to "A New Introduction to Old Norse" - it's 3 volumes. It's a pretty easy-to-follow grammar if you're familiar at all with Germanic languages and it gets you reading the sagas right away. You can usually find pretty cheap used copies online too.
Thanx for your wide explanation, I really need it because I read this book in its Farsi translation and actually, as a Farsi audience, with a completely different contex , I absolutely enjoyed the fiction, but I'm also kind of confuse about its historical references of christian symbols that they probably are really familiar to western readers. Even though I think the pattern of the narration, specially the fantastic part was more familiar for oriental audiences.
By the way, your video can be helpful, specially for readers like me.
Thanks for watching - I'm glad you found it helpful! It must be particularly interesting to read Baudolino in Farsi, as some of the lands that he travels through are Western imaginations of those same lands!
@@travelthroughstories Thank you, and yes, it was pretty interesting that be able to see these land's reflection from the medieval narrator angle, specially because he is the funniest one.