re: #88 Walter L. Newton

This was the first Eco I have read, although I had heard of the book. I saw the movie “The Name of the Rose” but didn’t connect it with Eco until I picked up the book and read the list of other works.

I was tickled with two main concepts. One, that it has to be “true” because everyone keeps repeating it, such as the theories about the Templars.

And, it has to remain a secret, even if the secret is that there is no secret, because otherwise, no one wants to know the secret.

Two simple observations, but the foundation of so much misunderstanding throughout the ages.

Try reading the Island of the Day Before. . Just thinking about that one makes my brain hurt.

While trying to digest Foucault’s, I was constantly reminded of a marketing principle I was taught when I used to organize direct mailers. I can’t write about it well. It had to do with putting your name in front of the customer 12 times. The more mailers, over time did translate into more business. Then, for a while, my mind wandered to the “self-fulfilling prophecy” & the old adage “Tell a lie often enough and people will believe it is true.”

This is how my mind works while reading Ecco. I never get a chance to sort it all out.