dappled shade

The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, has been described as a "book that moves with the pace of a thriller" - presumably by someone who never read it.

It does have the murder, politics, scandal, violence, and even sex of a thriller. But the pace? Not so much. The action is routinely interrupted by serious, learned discourses from one monk or another.

As with other books by Eco, The Name of the Rose often reads like a rigorous humanities course. In this case, keeping track of the popes, their intrigues, and the surrounding heresies is a bit of a challenge.

The odd thing about The Name of the Rose is that it is an unusually highly structured storyline, whose end falls into chaos. With this book structure, is Eco arguing that even though we see chaos around us, God is still an intelligent force that directs the actions of the world (in the same way that Eco, as the author, directs the plot of the book)? Or is he arguing that there is no pattern and no intelligence driving the world, in which case the chaos at the end is an inherently possible outcome?

The ideas in the book are very complicated which makes a conclusion difficult to come by (especially in a short weblog post), but I tend toward the second interpretation. However, as in the real world, it's impossible to prove either idea. On the one hand, it can be argued that in this book God wanted chaos and therefore the abbey was destroyed. On the other hand, it can be argued that there is no God and because there is no God, the abbey was destroyed. Or more succinctly, is God unknowable or unavailable?

While it is possible to read The Name of the Rose while not thinking about any philosophical implications, it is still not the typical light and fluffy thriller. It is an interesting book, though, and a good choice for a slightly challenging read with enough scandal to keep the plot moving.

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The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is intensely evocative of a time that never existed. In Raymond Chandler's book, Los Angeles is full of hustlers, racketeers, mobsters, angels and slightly tarnished good guys all bouncing off each other in a grimy tough-guy world.

Chandler favors short, direct descriptions that vividly describe the scene. His cynical portrayal of people and his intense descriptions of LA create an atmosphere that is both fictional and competely convincing. Chandler's writing drew me into the story despite its sometimes objectionable content. The author is homophobic, deeply uncomfortable with powerful women, and presents hyper-masculinity as the male ideal.

Balanced against the more objectionable content is the protagonist, Philip Marlowe. The author none-too-subtly makes the point that he does the right thing even though there's no money in it and precious little gratitude. He acts like an idealized knight from a medieval romance dropped into a dirty, dangerous modern world. This idea appeals to me because sometimes people seem to be out for all they can grab, in the real world as well as in Chandler's book.

While the narrative heavily implies that Marlowe is a modern-day knight, I don't think it quite works as a metaphor. Knights in romances didn't usually defend the weak out of a moral imperative; the games they played were typically elaborate courtship games. Marlowe, though, does stick up for the little guy, and doesn't get much for it.

He's too grubby and tarnished to be considered a hero in the Superman sense. The movie version of Superman is the classic modern day hero; he's squeaky clean and always does the right thing. But I find Superman sickeningly one dimensional and completely unconvincing. Chandler tried to create a hero that was part of the world he belonged to, warts and all.

I wouldn't recommend The Big Sleep for its social commentary. The kindest description would be that it's old fashioned. As a story, though, it's gripping and the author ultimately has some faith in people, even when they're in terrible situations.

A favorite line (and probably one of the most quoted): "My God, you big dark handsome brute! I ought to throw a Buick at you."

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