Cardboard Minerva notes on matchboxes. Umberto eco cardboard Minerva notes on matchboxes
© RCS Libri S.p.A. – Milano, Bompiani, 1999, 2006
© M. Wiesel, translation into Russian, 2009, 2015
© A. Mirolyubova, translation into Russian, 2008, 2015
© A. Bondarenko, artistic design, layout, 2015
© AST Publishing House LLC, 2015
Publishing house CORPUS ®
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Preface
The column “Minerva's Cardboards” has appeared in Espresso magazine weekly since March 1985, and once every two weeks since March 1988. Some “cardboards”, which are satires on modern mores, were selected for the book “Second Mini-Diary” in 1992, however, among those excluded, it seems to me, there are some worthy of publication. Thus, having conceived a sample that would cover the last decade, I was forced to review about five hundred “cardboards”. It is clear that about two thirds had to be excluded.
First of all, “cardboard boxes” were eliminated that were so connected with some event that I was hinting at in an elliptical form that I myself, re-reading them several years later, could not understand what they were talking about. This tactic might exclude all my presentations on topical issues, but if the topics seemed really important to me, I took extensive articles from other sources, for example, from the book Five Essays on Ethics (Bompiani, 1997). In two cases, I decided to include articles for which the “cardboard” format was insufficient and which I published elsewhere: this explains the appearance in this collection of an article devoted to the Sofri case (Micromega 3, 1997) and an article published in “ Repubblika" during the war in Kosovo.
I also had to exclude many “cardboards” dedicated to the memory of departed friends and teachers. There were too many of them for one decade for the simple reason that all people are mortal. I take comfort in the fact that these people are remembered and will be remembered for a long time, regardless of my heartfelt obituaries.
I also threw out all the “cardboards” (and the readers liked them, judging by the huge number of responses I received) dedicated to the so-called “fun”. But I published many of them in the “Second Mini-Diary”; moreover, games of this type (very educational, since they brought to life a whole school of imitators competing with each other) have already appeared on the Internet, on the Golem website (www .ivistagolem .com) .
I did not include some “Cardboards”, considering them unnecessary, in the sense that year after year I returned to one topic. A couple of times I merged two “cardboards” together, covering the same problem from two sides. Still, I spared a few "borings" because in other cases, returning to the same topic means that these phenomena or controversies appear over and over again in the Italian media. In such cases, repetition compulsion is not my fault, but society’s. For example, if every new season the discussion about the future of the book flares up again, you feel it is your duty to console suffering souls, since they in no way want to be consoled themselves, even in the light of a completely obvious truth.
In some places I corrected the style, because the “cardboard” is a weekly column, and haste leads to countless negligence. I have eliminated introductions, introductory words and concluding phrases that, upon re-reading, seemed unnecessary to me, and, on the contrary, I have introduced brief explanations. The fact is that the volume of “cardboards” is prescribed by the weekly, since they must fill the last page: if the text is too long, it is shortened; if it's too short, you definitely need to add something to it. These are the conditions of journalistic work. And yet I must say that by writing “cardboards” I gained valuable experience: trying to express my thoughts in a certain number of characters is an exercise that I would recommend to anyone.
You will see that in many “cardboard boxes” we are not talking about modernity. Maybe it’s worth repeating what I already said in the very first “cardboard” of the series. The name of the column comes from the rectangular pieces of cardboard to which Minerva matches are attached, and also from the fact that on the back of these cards they often write down addresses, a shopping list, or (as I do) shorthand notes about what comes to mind on the train , in a bar, in a restaurant; when you read a newspaper, look at a window display, rummage through the shelves in a bookstore. And I established from the very beginning that if one evening, for reasons that concern no one, I suddenly began to think about Homer, it means that I will write about him, even if his name did not appear on the first page these days. newspaper pages. As you can see, I often did this, although I did not always write about Homer.
Another rule that I followed in this column is that it is not worth the trouble to write an entire article arguing that it is wrong to kill your mother, since everyone already agrees that such behavior is inappropriate. Such an article would be a rather demagogic outpouring of wonderful feelings. Perhaps something should be written when too many people believe that whoever killed his mother should also be killed, with the full approval of the state. I did not write a single “cardboard” about child molestation or the nasty habit of throwing stones from the viaduct also because I foresaw that in this issue of the weekly these deplorable phenomena would be sufficiently covered and subjected to fair condemnation. But when crowded marches against pedophiles were organized in different countries, it seemed useful to me to comment on this particular phenomenon.
You will see that these “cardboards,” despite the humorous tone, were almost always written in a fit of irritation. Very rarely do they talk about what I like, and much more often about what I don’t like. But there are too many bad things in the world to condemn, and there will be people who will immediately accuse me of keeping silent about many things that have received wide publicity. I apologize: at that moment I was distracted by something else.
January 5, 2000
Dark Side of the Galaxy
About racism, war and political correctness
About migrations
Last Tuesday, while all the newspapers were publishing countless articles about the unrest in Florence caused by immigrants from North Africa, a caricature appeared in the Repubblica: two silhouettes that depicted huge Africa looming over little Italy, and next to it - Florence, too miniature even for in order to mark it with a tiny dot (and under it the caption: “Where the police are needed most”). At the same time, Corriere del Sera presented the history of climate change on our planet, from the fourth millennium BC to the present day. And from this selection it became clear how favorable or unfavorable living conditions on a particular continent gradually lead to migration - large-scale migrations of peoples that changed the face of the planet and created those civilizations that we now know about from history or through our own experience.
Today, speaking about the acute problem for all EU countries of the so-called “non-Union persons” (an elegant euphemism, which, as has been noted more than once, can also be applied to Swiss citizens and Texas tourists), we still believe that we are talking about specifically about immigration. Indeed, when several hundred thousand citizens of some overpopulated country want to move to another country (for example, Italians to Australia), this is immigration. And it is quite natural that the receiving country has the right to regulate the flow of immigrants in accordance with its ability to assimilate them. This also includes the power to arrest and deport immigrants who commit crimes, just as it does its own citizens if they commit crimes or wealthy tourists if they smuggle contraband.
But today in Europe we are not dealing with immigration. We are observing a phenomenon migration. Of course, it is devoid of the swiftness and cruelty of the invasion of Germanic tribes into Italy, France and Spain, the fury of Arab expansion after the Hegira and the slowness of innumerable human flows, when mysterious peoples from Asia moved to Oceania and, possibly, to the Americas through the now disappeared land isthmuses. But this is another chapter in the history of a planet that has seen civilizations rise and fall on the crests of great migration waves. First - from West to East (but we know very little about this wave), then from East to West, starting a thousand-year movement from the sources of the Indus to the Pillars of Hercules and then, four centuries later, from the Pillars of Hercules to California and to Tierra del Fuego.
Today, migration is less visible because it takes the form of air travel, queues at the foreigners' registration office at the municipality, or barges of refugees making their way from the poor and hungry South to the North. It resembles immigration, but it is precisely migration - a historical process, the significance of which is now impossible to assess. This is not the movement of huge hordes, after which grass does not grow where the hooves of their horses stepped, but a transition in separate imperceptible groups, which takes not centuries and millennia, but decades. And, as in all great migrations, its results will be an ethnic shake-up of territories, an inevitable change of customs, an incessant mixing that will change the color of the skin, hair, eyes of the local residents so that it will be noticeable statistically - just as thanks to the few Normans in Sicily rooted blondes with blue eyes.
Great migrations, at least in historical times, are terrifying; At first, in an effort to stop migration, the Roman emperors built one vallum(fortification) after another, sending forward legions to conquer the foreigners who were nearby; then, having come to an agreement, they streamlined the first laws, extending Roman citizenship to all subjects of the empire; However, with the fall of Roman rule, the so-called Romano-Barbarian kingdoms were eventually formed, which gave rise to our European countries, the languages we now proudly speak, and our political and social institutions. When we meet villages on the Lombard highway that bear the names Uzmate and Biandrate, we don’t even realize that these endings are Lombard. On the other hand, where did these completely Etruscan smiles come from - they can still be seen on so many faces in Central Italy?
Great migrations are unstoppable. And you just need to prepare for life in a new round of Afro-European culture.
War, violence, justice
Are there just wars? The discussion on this topic, which has been confusing minds for two weeks now, is complicated by inaccurate definitions. In the same way, we could debate which is heavier: two parallel lines or one square root. To understand what the essence of the question is, I’ll try to reformulate it. Let us assume that violence is evil. But are there cases when violent actions are justified? It is clear that “justified” does not mean “good and desirable.” Biologically cutting off a leg is undesirable, but in the case of gangrene it becomes justified.
Even committed non-resistanceists admit that violence is acceptable; in the end, even Jesus behaved somewhat rudely when driving the merchants out of the temple. Not only religions, but also natural ethics suggest that if someone makes an attempt on us, on our loved ones, or simply on the innocent and defenseless, it is quite natural to respond with violence - until the danger is eliminated. And so, when it is proclaimed that resistance is a justifiable form of violence, it is implied that, faced with constant repression and intolerable tyranny, the people have the right to rebel. There is also no doubt that in the face of the aggression of one dictator, the entire world community also has the right to react in a violent manner.
The problem arises with the word "war". This is the same kind of problem as with the word "atom". It was used by Greek philosophy, and modern physics uses it, but in two different senses: once it meant an invisible particle, and now it means a collection of elementary particles. Anyone who reads Democritus using terms from nuclear physics will understand nothing. And vice versa. Further: besides the fact that in both cases people died, there will be little in common between the Punic Wars and the Second World War. And by the middle of the 20th century, the war had become an event that, in terms of the size of the territory covered, the possibilities of governance, and the involvement of peoples in other parts of the world, had little in common with Napoleonic campaigns. In short, if in the past a reciprocal, justified reaction to the actions of a provocateur could take the form of open hostilities, now a situation is possible where hostilities are a form of violence that will not besiege the offender, but, on the contrary, will spur him on.
Over the past forty-five years, we have seen another form of deterrence against a perceived adversary (I use vague terms because they can apply to both the United States and the Soviet Union)—the Cold War. Terrible, unjust, full of hidden threats that only broke out to the surface in places, it was based on the concept that open war would not give any advantage to the “good” side. The Cold War was the first time the world realized that the very concept of "war" had changed and that modern war had nothing in common with classic conflicts, where in the end there were losers on one side and winners on the other (not counting such rare cases , like a Pyrrhic victory). If you had asked me a month ago what form of justifiable retaliation could replace open hostilities in the case of Saddam, I would have answered: cold deterrence, and very serious, even brutal - right up to border skirmishes, and with such a control system (and the corresponding legal framework) that any Western trader who sold even one nail to Saddam would end up in prison. And within a year, its defensive and offensive technologies will become completely unusable. But what's the use of thinking about yesterday.
However, thoughts about tomorrow and just everyday thoughts tell us: if someone attacks you with a knife, you have every right to respond with a blow of your fist. But if you are Superman and you know that your crack will throw your opponent to the Moon, and then our satellite will leave its orbit, which will upset the gravitational balance: Mars will crash into Mercury and so on, think for a moment. And also think about the fact that perhaps the death of the solar system is exactly what your opponent wanted. And you shouldn't let him do that.
Exile, Rushdie, global village
I don’t know if there are studies on the social history of persecuted people. Not persecution and intolerance as such - such already exist (such as, for example, a good book by Italo Mereu), but an analysis of the role and fate of the persecuted in the eyes of society. Not the one who died under the blows of his pursuers, but the one who managed to escape, choosing life in exile.
In the past, stories of exile were usually full of sorrow and humiliation. After all, even Dante, one of those who, after all, was treated well outside of his native Florence, nevertheless knew “how sad a stranger’s piece is to the lips.” Personalities like Giordano Bruno, before they were captured by their enemies, enjoyed great respect in foreign lands, but there were always people ready to blaspheme them and set a trap. Not to mention Mazzini, who, already prone to melancholy, always became even more gloomy in emigration.
In the 20th century, the fate of the exile began to change for the better. On the one hand, he began to acquire the dark, rebellious charm of a damned poet, a vicious esthete. Until the end of the 19th century, such characters were treated poorly, pushing them into attics and doomed to consumption, but in the next century they turned out to be a valuable commodity: they began to be received in decent houses and cultural institutions, invited to dinner parties, cruises arranged for them and congresses whose purpose is to explore the laws of rebellion. On the other hand, the development of democracy led to the fact that everyone began to support the exiles and show them signs of attention - these living symbols of the fight against despotism. And so it turned out that in the 20th century the situation of those who fled for religious or political convictions eventually became, if not pleasant (let’s leave aside attacks of nostalgia for a distant homeland), then, in any case, tolerable. And for some it was very profitable - by pretending to be the one being persecuted, even without being one, one could count on financial assistance from some special service.
It’s worth starting with the Russian Grand Dukes who fled from the revolution. Although they happened to work as dancers in Parisian cabarets, they were well received and enjoyed sufficient attention from ladies who wanted to improve their capital. Let's not talk about the Cubans in Miami (that's where the eternal holiday is!), Suffice it to remember how in the 60-80s there was an endless party of political emigrants - first Czechoslovakian, then Chilean, then Argentinean, and later samizdat authors, etc. and etc. - in accordance with seasonal surges of enthusiasm (and cooling), provoked by various upheavals, revolutions, and paradigm shifts.
It all ended with the Rushdie affair. It demonstrated the following: thanks to the fact that the media can now trumpet the whole world, that Rushdie has been sentenced to death and that there is no longer room on this planet for an exile. This is something new. It is not that we are returning from the gilded exile that characterized the 20th century to the painful exile of past centuries. There is simply nowhere else to hide. Wherever you are, you are in hostile territory.
A banal comparison can be made with a desert island. There are no longer such forgotten places left in the world, not spoiled by tourism, where one could retire and relax in peace. On the most remote atoll there will be some organized “vacationers” who arrived on a charter flight. And in the same way, only this is not so comical, a potential killer can be waiting for you anywhere in the world. And the order to destroy you will be transmitted over a cell phone or in the form of a coded message, innocent at first glance, during a TV quiz show.
The words that once seemed like just a joke: “Stop the Earth, I’ll get off” now sound like a desperate plea, doomed to go in vain. This is precisely the situation McLuhan called the “global village.” But global - not because electronic means of communication give users the opportunity to love and desire the same things that their antipodes, separated from them by thousands and thousands of kilometers, love and desire. For many, this standardization has proven to be a source of satisfaction and inner peace. And not because now everyone has become our neighbors. It has become global because anywhere the face of an enemy can appear, who is not your neighbor at all, wants something completely different from what you want, and is not at all inclined to turn the other cheek to you, because he is aiming straight at your heart.
And you can’t get down, you can’t stop the show. It is no longer possible to “go to the village”: it has become so global that it is no longer possible to even show your heels to the enemy by running away from him in a straight line. They will quickly inform the other person about this, and he will move towards you, going around the globe.
How much does it cost to bring down an empire?
In these sad days, when I read about the atrocities happening on the Balkan Peninsula, I remember my conversation with Jacques Le Goff shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was already felt that the Soviet empire was crumbling, although at that time it was difficult to foresee how quickly everything would happen (perhaps thanks to the stupid putsch last August).
Le Goff then began to distribute topics and select participants for a series of books on European history, which were to be published by four or five European publishers, and for this occasion I suggested that he commission a book on the cost of the fall of empires. He probably entrusted this to someone, I don’t know who, but the main thing then was to understand what the fall of empires in the past cost, in order to estimate what the cost of the collapse of the Soviet empire was. Now, I think, the time has come not for estimates, but for direct comparisons.
An empire is always a constricting and limiting thing: it is like a lid pressed to a seething cauldron. At some point, the internal pressure becomes too great, the lid flies off, and something like a volcanic eruption occurs. I don't mean to say that if the lid hadn't come off it would have been better; but usually it flies according to thermodynamic laws, and there is nothing moral or immoral in physics. I’m only saying that until it jumps off, order is maintained, and when this happens, you have to pay: everything has its price.
The fall of the Roman Empire created a crisis in Europe that lasted for at least six centuries. In fact, the influence of this long decline was visible in subsequent centuries, and perhaps what is happening now in the Balkans (Orthodox East versus Catholic West) is still an echo of it. And if today what is happening in Colombia and Peru, and Latin America is not able to raise its voice against the United States, this is still the consequences of the very slow collapse of the Spanish colonial empire. What can we say about the slow collapse of the Turkish-Ottoman Empire - the Middle East is still paying for it. I cannot even begin to estimate the cost of the destruction of the colonial British Empire, but a united Italy arose as a result of the fall of the short-lived Napoleonic Empire.
From the opening of the amazing Austro-Hungarian cauldron, at least Nazism, the Second World War and the conflict in the Balkans were born - once again. (But at least five empires fell there: Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, Kakan and Soviet.)
Thus, when an empire collapses, the consequences last for centuries. As for the disappearance of the Soviet empire, there is no need to point out the main results of this event: the conflictual (albeit understandable) collapse of states throughout Eastern Europe; serious problems of a united Germany; dramas of Armenians and Georgians; Bush's problems - after all, gossip about his mistress Jennifer appeared only because he no longer needed to confront the Evil Empire. If we return to the Italian sheep, then we will have the same thing: a crisis of the socialist party, former communists, Christian democrats, the termination of the non-aggression pact between the government and the mafia (the pact was concluded after the landing of allied troops in Sicily) - and new tremors in all over the world about the fact that the mafia can no longer live in peace, enjoying the support of the authorities, which were previously justified by the fight against communism. In a word, everything that is happening in our ill-fated country is connected with the fall of the Soviet empire to the same extent as the difficulties of the novice politician Havel. Even in the Northern League, the fall of the Soviet empire reverberates equally in the Croatian Ustasha, the Serbian genocide, and the secession of Slovakia.
The cost of the fall of the empire is worth knowing not in order to diminish the significance of this event. And in order to foresee future misfortunes. History does not always repeat itself in the same way, and it cannot even be said that the first time it repeats itself as a tragedy, and the second time as a farce. History always unfolds as a tragedy, in its various manifestations. But there are certain laws, certain principles of action and reaction. Historiography, based on these principles, still remains magistra vitae - in the most scientific, and not at all in the rhetorical sense.
Kakanya is the ironic name of Austria-Hungary (from the official Austrian abbreviation “K. u K.”: kaiserlich und königlich - “Kaiser and Royal”).
We are talking about George HW Bush's long-time assistant, diplomat Jennifer Fitzgerald (b. 1932). Their love affair allegedly lasted from the mid-70s (both categorically denied this), causing both turmoil in the Bush family and sharp criticism of his employees, dissatisfied with the increased influence of an ordinary employee. This connection was first mentioned in 1992 in Spy magazine.
On February 17, 1992, the arrest of the president of a respected charitable organization marked the beginning of a large-scale campaign to eradicate corruption and mafia connections in the highest echelons of power.
Unanimously elected President of Czechoslovakia by a decision of the Federal Assembly in December 1989, Václav Havel failed to obtain a vote of confidence in parliament on July 2, 1992 (Slovak deputies voted against him) and was forced to resign on July 20 of the same year after Slovakia declared its independence.
. “Northern League” (Lega Nord) is a separatist movement in Italy, advocating the separation of the “industrialized” North from the “backward” South and the creation of the “Republic of Padania” with its capital in Milan (see column “Chronicles of 2090”). The Northern League was created in 1991 and entered parliament in 1992.
Umberto Eco CARDBOARDS OF MINERVA Notes on matchboxes
Preface
The column “Minerva Cardboards” has appeared in Espresso magazine weekly since March 1985, and once every two weeks since March 1988. Some “cardboards”, which are satires on modern mores, were selected for the book “Second Mini-Diary” in 1992, and among those excluded, it seems to me, there are some worthy of publication. Thus, having conceived a sample that would cover the last decade, I was forced to consider about five hundred “cardboards”. It is clear that about two thirds had to be excluded.
First of all, “cardboard boxes” were eliminated that were so connected with some event that I was hinting at in an elliptical form that I myself, re-reading them several years later, could not understand what they were talking about. This tactic might exclude all my presentations on topical topics, but if the topics seemed really important, I took more extensive articles from other sources, such as the book Five Essays on Ethics (Bompiani, 1997). In two cases I decided to include articles for which the cardboard format was insufficient and which I published elsewhere: this explains the presence in this collection of an article on the Sofri case (Micromega 3, 1997) and an article that appeared in " Repubblika" during the war in Kosovo.
I also had to exclude many “cardboards” dedicated to the memory of departed friends and teachers. There were too many of them for one decade - for the simple reason that all people are mortal. I take comfort in the fact that these people are remembered and will be remembered for a long time, regardless of my heartfelt obituaries.
I also threw out all the “cardboards” (and the readers liked them, judging by the huge number of responses I received) dedicated to the so-called “fun”. But I published many of them in the “Second Mini-Diary”; moreover, games of this type (very educational, since they brought to life a whole school of imitators competing with each other) have already appeared on the Internet, on the Golem website (www.rivistagolem.com) .
I did not include some “cartons”, considering them unnecessary, in the sense that I returned to one topic year after year. Two or three times I merged two “cardboards” that covered the same problem from two different angles. Still, I spared a few "borings" because in other cases, returning to the same topic means that these phenomena or controversies appear over and over again in the Italian media. In such cases, repetition compulsion is not my fault, but society's. For example, if every new season the discussion about the future of the book flares up again, you feel it is your duty to console suffering souls, since they in no way want to be consoled themselves, even in the light of a completely obvious truth.
In some places I adjusted the style, because “cardboard” is a weekly column, and haste leads to countless negligence. I have eliminated introductions, introductory words and concluding phrases that, upon re-reading, seemed unnecessary to me, and, on the contrary, I have introduced brief explanations. The fact is that the volume of “cardboards” is prescribed by the weekly, since they must fill the last page: if the text is too long, it is shortened; if it's too short, you definitely need to add something to it. These are the conditions of journalistic work. And yet I must say that by writing the "cartons" I gained valuable experience: trying to express my thoughts in a certain number of characters - an exercise that I would recommend to anyone.
You will see that in many “cardboard boxes” we are not talking about modernity. Maybe it’s worth repeating what I already said in the very first “cardboard” of the series. The name of the column comes from the rectangular pieces of cardboard to which Minerva matches are attached, and also from the fact that on the back of these cards they often write down addresses, a shopping list, or (as I do) shorthand notes about what comes to mind on the train , in a bar, in a restaurant; when you read a newspaper, look at a window display, rummage through the shelves in a bookstore. And I established from the very beginning that if one evening, for reasons that concern no one, I suddenly began to think about Homer, it means that I will write about him, even if his name did not appear on the first page these days. newspaper pages. As you can see, I often did this, although I did not always write about Homer.
Another rule that I followed in this column is that it is not worth the trouble to write an entire article arguing that it is wrong to kill your mother, since everyone already agrees that such behavior is wrong. Such an article would be a rather demagogic outpouring of wonderful feelings. Perhaps something should be written when too many people believe that whoever killed his mother should also be killed, with the full approval of the state. I did not write a single “cardboard” about child molestation or the nasty habit of throwing stones from the viaduct also because I foresaw that in this issue of the weekly these deplorable phenomena would be sufficiently covered and subjected to fair condemnation. But when crowded marches against pedophiles were organized in different countries, it seemed useful to me to comment on this particular phenomenon.
I don’t know what exactly I expected from Eco - that his series of newspaper articles (essentially a blog) would turn out to be similar to the best things of Borges or Kafka. But alas, in this case the blob did not go beyond the boundaries of just that blozhik. Even despite the selection of articles and editing. No, I fully admit that in relation to a specific place and time they were very good, original, smart and relevant. But alas, what happened to them is exactly what happens to most good topical articles - people from another country, a slightly different period and realities are completely uninterested in them. All these modern (ten years ago) Italian politicians, Italian journalists and TV presenters, whose names I have never heard and do not intend to hear. Melancholy, melancholy.
Here, of course, it is difficult to blame Eco. For example, I really like the editorial articles in the St. Petersburg “Vedomosti” and generally seem to be an example of good journalism - but if they were to be compiled many years later in the form of a book selection, I would be the first to read and spit, because I would have time to forget a hundred times what I was talking about speech. Eco is a little more abstract only because he discusses a larger number of topics - but these topics are all sort of general. Typical level of a good newspaper, no details, no, um, specialization. It is equally of little interest to any reader, historian or invertebrate specialist. It's a great read, however, if you don't look at the notes to see what the next fighter for the freedom of Italy is famous for.
Only a few articles on general humanitarian topics are more or less interesting: history, philology, education and science in general. My personal top two are occupied. “What a disgusting thing this Fifth Symphony is” - about the negative reviews from editors, critics and contemporaries initially received by works of art that are now considered immortal classics and role models. And “You're crazy, De Mauro” is a playful call to ostracize the Italian philologist, whose research has shown that it is young people who read the most - despite society's desperate desire to hear about the decline of the arts and sciences (an ever-relevant topic, lol). Some other articles are of interest, but alas, not all. In general, as a blog, this is very good - but nothing more, and it still doesn’t resemble a book, even journalism.
Rating: 5
Umberto Eco runs his own column in the Milanese magazine Espresso, in which he discusses this and that. Some of these notes were published in the 90s and collected in a book.
As in the case of other collections of Eco’s articles, “Cardboards...” still has the same problem - too often the notes collected in it are devoted to some incident, some person or some date that will not say anything to the Russian to the reader. Moreover, it is not a fact that the Italian reader will understand much - after all, two decades have passed since many of the essays were written! That is why, for example, many of the topics raised in this collection are completely irrelevant. For example, a section devoted to computer technologies can now be read only as a kind of historical text, akin to an Egyptian papyrus about the art of mummification (like the phrase: “I called WEB Crawler and requested “sex.” 2088 addresses were identified, only 100"?). In addition, ideas from many essays have been repeatedly expounded by Eco in his other non-fiction works, and, sometimes, coincidences take on the scale of complete duplication of several paragraphs, or even an entire note at once. However, this is also my fault - I was the last to read Eco’s early articles, after I had read the later ones. However, the advantage of “Cardboards...” is that the articles in the collection are quite short - no more than a couple of pages, and if something doesn’t interest you, you can always flip through it, in the hope that the next one will be more interesting.
- Taiga tea: composition, indications and storage conditions for the collection Taiga tea
- What meat is the healthiest for humans?
- Signs for the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as rituals and prohibitions Annunciation customs and signs what you can do
- Mushroom picking: general rules and advice for a novice mushroom picker Dream of picking mushrooms in the forest