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Ep 186 - The Name of the Rose 1: An Introduction (bonus ep unlocked)
🕑 Added 2024-09-25 12:00:16 +0000 UTChey patrons, we're unlocking an old bonus episode this week because a hurricane in the Gulf has forced Luke to flee for a few days. don't worry, he's fine. but we didn't have time to do the normally scheduled episodes this week. we will be back with a regular episode and the second bonus of September some time next week. thanks for understanding!
In this introduction, we bring you up to speed on the background you need before we get into the book itself next time. We start with a question that is simple in theory but not in practice: what genre is this book? Could be murder-mystery, could be postmodernist ruminations on the nature of academia, who's to say? Next, we talk about that author Umberto Eco and the frankly insane number of things he was trying to get across in the book. Then we discuss what you need to know about liturgical hours, a concept that is foreign to us but quite important to the story. Then there's the very detailed historical setting of this historical fiction, which Eco was obsessed with: a combination of political, social, cultural, and religious factors that form the basis for the unfolding narrative. Finally, we unravel some of the secrets of the unnamed abbey, which serves as the physical setting for The Name of the Rose, including the Aedificium and its mazelike, 56-room library, which is modeled after the Sacra di San Michele abbey near Turin, Italy (see the cover image). There's a lot here but it's a fantastic novel and we can't wait to cover the whole thing along with you over the next few months!
