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Whitaker's Reviews > The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose
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Forget Christopher Hitchens. Away with that Richard Doggins guy. For a truly penetrating look at religion and atheism, Umberto Eco, he da man.
The Name of the Rose is a profoundly nihilistic book. It is ostensibly a book about a murder mystery: A man, a monk rather, Brother William, arrives with his assistant, Adso, at an abbey high in the Italian Alps. A murder has been committed, and Brother William will apply reason and logic—a Sherlock avant la lettre—to deduce the murderer. Or does he? He does indeed find out the process by which the victims die. And there is a villain.
The novel begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.� And it then proceeds to systematically dismantle all words—merely signifiers leading to other signifiers labyrinth without end. Umberto Eco stares in the abyss, and the abyss laughs mockingly back.
I was profoundly moved, depressed, and discombobulated. Five stars –whatever the hell that means.
The Name of the Rose is a profoundly nihilistic book. It is ostensibly a book about a murder mystery: A man, a monk rather, Brother William, arrives with his assistant, Adso, at an abbey high in the Italian Alps. A murder has been committed, and Brother William will apply reason and logic—a Sherlock avant la lettre—to deduce the murderer. Or does he? He does indeed find out the process by which the victims die. And there is a villain.
The novel begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.� And it then proceeds to systematically dismantle all words—merely signifiers leading to other signifiers labyrinth without end. Umberto Eco stares in the abyss, and the abyss laughs mockingly back.
I was profoundly moved, depressed, and discombobulated. Five stars –whatever the hell that means.
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Brad
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rated it 3 stars
Mar 14, 2010 08:07AM
I know so many people who dislike or even hate this book. I remember it fondly, but it was too long ago that I read it. Your review makes me want to read it all over again, Whitaker.
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Thanks, Brad. I think this is one book that I certainly want to re-read at some later point in my life. :-)
Discombobulated? Confusticated. But I remember it being brilliant.
G N wrote: "Discombobulated? Confusticated. But I remember it being brilliant."Oh it is brilliant. Semiotics, existentialism, crime = brilliant but depressing literary thriller.
I must return to this labyrinthine and significant library, having since read Borges and, don't tell anyone, Dan Brown.I don't recall it being depressing apart from the destruction of the library, which must still rank as the greatest ever loss to civilisation.
@Whitaker:your review is perceptive but i differ with you on the 'nihilistic' point: The Name of the Rose calls for an all-encompassing religion,where mutual tolerance,compassion & understanding is the key. The burning of the library,infact the whole abbey is symbolic:it was a purification,hinting at the need for the coming Renaissance & the Reformation movements that changed the face of Western culture & civilisation. As one quote from the book says"The hand of God does not conceal,it creates".@Ian Graye: There is no need to feel ashamed that u read Dan Brown,infact while reading this book,i was often wondering that Dan Brown & even JK Rowling has been inspired by it:the setting certain characters,certain names etc.Gathering courage to read Foucalt's Pendulam & Borges' Labyrinth.
Kind regards
Mala Debnath
Thanks, Mala. I can't think of anything that I've ever been ashamed of reading. However, I think I enjoyed Dan Brown's research more than his story.I'm a bit rusty on the detail of The Name of the Rose.
However, I assumed that there was an analogy between the burning of the Library and the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.
I don't understand why you would have to destroy or cleanse the past in order to make way for the future.
It's people who strangle civilisations, not books.
I concur,but those ppl (esp.Jorge's character) at the helm there,restricting free flow of knowledge to scholars,didn't really deserve to have that kind of magnificance confined in the hands of a few... That was the logical way for the story to conclude,which makes Adso's journey to those ruins,many yrs back,that more poignant,that image of him gathering scraps of burnt papers,bits of pieces here n there is most impactful.Bye
Mala wrote: "@Whitaker:your review is perceptive but i differ with you on the 'nihilistic' point: The Name of the Rose calls for an all-encompassing religion,where mutual tolerance,compassion & understanding is..."Thanks for the viewpoint, Mala. I'm glad you liked the book (and my review). :-)
I guess you mean "nihilistic in the sense that the central force of the narrative doesn't espouse any centrality on concepts like "God", "Truth", etc. But it is a brilliant critique.
