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Serendipities: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco (Hardcover, 1998)

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Serendipities is a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, a brilliant exposition of how unanticipated truths often spring from false ideas. With erudition, anecdotes, and scholarly rigor, this new collection of essays is sure to entertain and enlighten any reader with a passion for the curious history of languages and ideas.

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Best-selling author Umberto Eco's latest work unlocks the riddles of history in an exploration of the linguistics of the lunatic, stories told by scholars, scientists, poets, fanatics, and ordinary people in order to make sense of the world. Exploring the Force of the False, Eco uncovers layers of mistakes that have shaped human history, such as Columbus's assumption that the world was much smaller than it is, leading him to seek out a quick route to the East via the West and thus fortuitously discovering America. The fictions that grew up around the cults of the Rosicrucians and Knights Templar were the result of a letter from a mysterious Prester John ?undoubtedly a hoax?that provided fertile ground for a series of delusions and conspiracy theories based on religious, ethnic, and racial prejudices. While some false tales produce new knowledge (like Columbus's discovery of America) and others create nothing but horror and shame (the Rosicrucian story wound up fueling European anti-Semitism) they are all powerfully persuasive. In a careful unraveling of the fabulous and the false, Eco shows us how serendipities?unanticipated truths?often spring from mistaken ideas. From Leibniz's belief that the I Ching illustrated the principles of calculus to Marco Polo's mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn, Eco tours the labyrinth of intellectual history, illuminating the ways in which we project the familiar onto the strange. Eco uncovers a rich history of linguistic endeavor?much of it ill-conceived?that sought to heal the wound of Babel. Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, and Egyptian were alternately proclaimed as the first language that God gave to Adam, while?in keeping with the colonial climate of the time?the complex language of the Amerindians in Mexico was viewed as crude and diabolical. In closing, Eco considers the erroneous notion of linguistic perfection and shrewdly observes that the dangers we face lie not in the rules we use to interpret other cultures but in our insistence on making these rules absolute. With the startling combination of erudition and wit, bewildering anecdotes and scholarly rigor that are Eco's hallmarks, Serendipities is sure to entertain and enlighten any reader with a passion for the curious history of languages and ideas.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Columbia University Press
ISBN-13
9780231111348
eBay Product ID (ePID)
96276740

Product Key Features

Book Title
Serendipities: Language and Lunacy
Author
Umberto ECO
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Publication Year
1998
Number of Pages
128 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
235mm
Item Width
140mm

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Umberto ECO
Series Title
Italian Academy Lectures
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

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Serendipities: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco (Hardcover, 1998)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Books

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NRSV, Catholic Bible, Gift Edition, Leathersoft, White, Comfort Print: Holy Bible by Catholic Bible Press (Leather Bound, 2020)

The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible by Martin Flint Et. Al. Abegg (Paperback, 2002)

David Vizard's How to Supertune and Modify Holley Carburetors by David Vizard (Paperback, 2013)

Save on Books

Frank Herbert'S Dune Saga 3-Book Boxed Set: Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of

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