‘The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana’
is another interesting book by Umberto Eco. I never liked his earlier works although the stories
were unique and exciting. For example, ‘The Name of the Rose’ and ‘Foucault’s
Pendulum’, both with interesting plots but not easy reading due to the way it
was written, obtuse and dense to my taste. It was difficult to plod through his
works as I was unable to grasp what his point of view was; perhaps one needed
to be a European, to experience or understand the context to be able to grasp
Eco. Later his works seemed to achieve more clarity like Mysterious Flame and ‘The
Prague Cemetery’, but still the European sensibility moves towards the complex
and nuanced view. American writers tilt towards simplicity, more direct to the
point, writers like Philip Roth or Cormac McCarthy. Perhaps it is Eco’s
background as semiotician,
essayist,
philosopher and literary critic that lends his work an academic and opaque air.
Someday I hope to read those 2
books I mentioned earlier, perhaps after getting more exposure to European
history. Other European writers have a similar flair but authors like Carlos
Perez-Reverte have simplicity of prose that is much easier to understand
despite having a predilection for density that is the hallmark of European writers.
Perhaps it is the key to understanding the European mind, not the English mind
which has clearness such as Shakespeare (after removing the medieval syntax in the
prose). Another good example is Winston Churchill who writes directly to the
point, although with an elegance of phrasing due to his wealthy upbringing. On
the other hand, one is bias because one communicates in the English language
and not the Italian of Eco or the Spanish of Reverte. But it’s more than
language and more on the focus on certain subjects, on certain ideas that seem esoteric
and perhaps superstitious to the clear cut American mind.
The American writer closest to European
sensibilities maybe John Updike with his dense prose. One does not leave his
works remembering the plot but more the elegant phrasing, unlike Roth or McCarthy
where one remembers certain scenes and plot details. Eco has a better record as
one recalls the scenes that are interesting and also the phrasing of his words.
Eco’s recent works resemble a feast, an entertainment that fully satisfies the
reader (or a listener like me heeding to the audio book); the first person
narrative is effective in giving the impression that one is hearing a story
from someone sitting beside you, the voice immediate and intimate. Reading a
book is like listening to music, the words flowing into the ears and into the
mind until an image forms, sounds and sights materializing in the brain as the
story unfolds, like watching a film. The writer is effective when his words
achieve this effect and fails when he does not, which Eco’s earlier books were,
failing to provide the cinematic effect. Until one understand the context, perhaps
by study, reading other books or watching a movie about similar themes that one
is prepared to understand Eco’s works.
Perhaps that is how one learns as
he makes his way through life, letting the words from supervisors and peers
wash over you at work, or from one’s friends and relatives, the mental picture of
what needs to be done arising in the mind, allowing one to function normally in
society. It is a visual world but the abstract meaning of words need time to
formulate and gain traction. Stress is formed when the mind has not assimilated
the message, the bombardment of emails, phone calls, meetings and discussions is
too much to absorb; putting multiple demands on the person’s psyche. It is the
challenge that one faces in modern life, similar to the narrator in the
Mysterious Flame as he tries to reconstruct his memory from comic strips, books
read and artifacts from childhood, having lost his memory after a stroke. In
another sense, one is trying to determine the next step with the onslaught of
information bombarding the mind. A typical example: working as project manager
in a small project, supporting an application installed in seven warehouses, testing
an application that is not working, organizing a seminar in the coming week,
answering emails, reading multiple books and so on all at the same time. Achieving
sanity and grace is like looking for a mysterious flame to light the way
forward.
