Reads tagged with “Umberto Eco”

Umberto Eco on the Future of the Book

“The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon.”

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Umberto Eco’s Advice to Writers

“If we think that our reader is an idiot, we should not use rhetorical figures, but if we use them and feel the need to explain them, we are essentially calling the reader an idiot. In turn, he will take revenge by calling the author an idiot.”

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Legendary Lands: Umberto Eco on the Greatest Maps of Imaginary Places and Why They Appeal to Us

“Often the object of a desire, when desire is transformed into hope, becomes more real than reality itself.”

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The Three Astronauts: Umberto Eco’s Lovely Vintage Semiotic Children’s Book About Space and World Peace

An American, a Russian, and a Chinese walk into a semiotic space rocket.

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Umberto Eco on Lists and Making Infinity Comprehensible

What Don Giovanni’s lovers have to do with the poetics of catalogues.

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Patti Smith, Umberto Eco, and Other Celebrated Contemporary Authors Offer Their Advice to Aspiring Writers

“Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money… If you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.”

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Umberto Eco’s Antilibrary: Why Unread Books Are More Valuable to Our Lives than Read Ones

How to become an “antischolar” in a culture that treats knowledge as “an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order.”

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The Gnomes of Gnù: Umberto Eco Teaches Kids About Ecology Through Abstract Art

A beautiful allegory about ecological collapse and salvation.

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The Bomb and the General: Umberto Eco’s Vintage Semiotic Children’s Book About Peace and Environmental Wakefulness

How symbols become symbols, or what keeping atoms in harmony has to do with language acquisition.

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Reads tagged with “Umberto Eco”

“The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon.”

“If we think that our reader is an idiot, we should not use rhetorical figures, but if we use them and feel the need to explain them, we are essentially calling the reader an idiot. In turn, he will take revenge by calling the author an idiot.”

“Often the object of a desire, when desire is transformed into hope, becomes more real than reality itself.”

An American, a Russian, and a Chinese walk into a semiotic space rocket.

What Don Giovanni’s lovers have to do with the poetics of catalogues.

“Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money… If you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.”

How to become an “antischolar” in a culture that treats knowledge as “an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order.”

A beautiful allegory about ecological collapse and salvation.

How symbols become symbols, or what keeping atoms in harmony has to do with language acquisition.

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