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Mike Stone: In this collection of humourous essays, Umberto Eco exemplifies my most favourite literary character: the lovable curmudgeon. Only he happens to be a curmudgeon blessed with world class wit, an encyclopedic knowledge of history and art and literature, and the reputation as the world's leading expert on semiotics. I enjoy his writing best when he's not wielding all of those swords at once. During those pieces the humour gets tangled up in the academia, causing migraine headaches for his less nimble-minded audience (an example of this is the long piece "Stars and Stripes", which in the interest of full disclosure I'll admit to not understanding).
The better pieces are quick, to the point and almost existential. They are also very accessible. "On the Impossibility of Drawing a Map of the Empire on a Scale of 1 to 1" takes that wickedly mischievous proposition to its logical conclusion, and skewers the pomposity of academics who feel equipped to offer a truthful representation of the world. Eco himself knowingly gets caught in that cross fire, much to his own delight. My favourite piece is entitled "How Not to Use the Cellular Phone". In it, he rationally categorizes cell phone users (ranging from those so important they need to be on-call 24 hours a day, to those living lives so lame they must constantly be in contact with people who might be doing something interesting). Upon completion, I felt justified in my desire to never own one of those horrendous little gadgets.
Once again, a funny little book that makes you look at the world you're living in just a bit differently. What more can you ask?
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Anonymous: How to Travel with a Salmon, or the logical illogic behind everyday life. Umberto Eco is one of my favorite writers/thinkers and I Was well pleased when he allowed some of his followers like me off the hook with a down-to-earth, easy-to-follow book. Sharp witted and clearly with tongue placed firmly in cheek, Eco skewers human habits and modern day customs with a faux/not faux rationalism, sometimes with the same stance you'd imagine he'd lecture a graduate course in the theories of semiotics.
But, fear not, dear reader, Dr. Eco is just having a little fun. An essay entitled "How to Be a Television Host", turns out to be a parody on how the powers-that-be who produce entertainment/ shows/movies must think the audiences are really dumb. Even though he kinda went overboard with applause and the fictional Bonga nation (somewhere "between Terra Incognita and the Isle of the Blest"), it is truth. He even parodies himself and academicians like himself in the piece 'Three Owls in a Chest Drawer' (in which two more of my favorites—Erica Jong and Camille Paglia—get a nod) which ends with a wry punchline "This, and only this; is what Poetry demands of us."
Eco says one should never fear exaggeration in writing parody. Well, truly, he is fearless in these essays.
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Kirkus Reviews: Popular novelist (The Name of the Rose, 1983, Foucault's Pendulum, 1989) and notorious semiologist (at the Univ. of Bologna) Eco shows himself to be a journalist as well with this generally diverting volume of short pieces. Eco calls these short essays diario minimo— minimal diaries—after the magazine column where he first published a series of such efforts (previously collected in Misreadings, not reviewed). The work presented here, much of which dates from the late '80s and early '90s, celebrates, or more often condemns, postmodern life in a style familiar to American readers. Occasional parodic fantasies in the mode of Borges or Calvino find Eco exploring the intriguing, if absurd, notion of a map in 1:1 scale, chronicling race relations in a future universe populated by humorously bizarre alien life-forms, or describing watches whose features cause one to lose track of the time. But Eco focuses on articulating his amusing complaints, analyzing our quotidian myths with light touches and lamentations that will recall Andy Rooney and Erma Bombeck—at best, an academic Mike Royko—sooner than Roland Barthes. Pieces on once-current events have been carefully excluded, but most of these essays remain essentially journalistic in their devotion to exploring contemporary life. The title piece pits Eco against an English hotel bureaucracy intent on making it difficult for him to refrigerate an expensive salmon that he has brought from Copenhagen; Others mock "how-to" essays--on fax machines and cellular telephones, for example; there are cautionary tales of encounters with Amtrak trains and Roman cabs. All have as their subtext the chaos brought in the wake of unbridled technological innovation and intercontinental travel. While he wastes some time exposing clichés—Indians in westerns, unworthy sequels—that are cliches to expose, Eco entertains with his clever reflections and with his unique persona, the featured player in his stories.
·indicates that Eco is well acclaimed across the worl d? 71. ______
·is more critical about the book than the other two? 72. ______
·suggests that the book contains certain pieces that might have
gone beyond the comprehension of it's readers? 73. ______
·suggests that the book is quite accessible for those who love
Eco's works? 74. ______
·states that the influence of the book can be exerted in real life? 75. ______
·gives the title of a book by the same writer which includes
essays in the same form as the one in question? 76. ______
·suggests that the book is not among the profound ones by other
top scholars? 77. ______
·gives the book in question the highest appraisal among the three? 78. ______
betrays the names of the writers the reviewer himself loves? 79. ______
·indicates that How to Travel with a Salmon is one of the essays
included in the book? 80. ______