  Hello to all of you. I hope that you're well. This was a long book. It had a beautiful beginning. I too was captured by the intrigue of the Templers. I rushed through days to read into the evenings about their kundalini enticing rituals and voyages through the fabric of history.
But after about 250 pages I got tired. Eco's writing is beautiful and descriptive, but sometimes terribly superfluous and circular. While that may be the aim, his literatry style is lost on me when there isn't an intriguing point being made. Maybe this is the effect of childhood Christopher Pike novels and movies like Die Hard.... I suppose I don't have a very good attention span. Speaking of movies.
Did anyone else pick up on the similarities to Indiana Jones and the Last Crudsade? In reading the middle section it seemed that their reasoning went amiss. I assumed this was Eco's way of depicting the evolution of a madman, or madmen. Do you agree? It seemed reasoning went foggy and terms, places, historical events were jumbled into a mass of paragraphs that ended with, " And see that is how it all fits together. " I am making it out to be much worse than in actually was... Kindly, I do wonder what you gentlemen think.
One thing that saddened me very much was my ill knowledge of Italy between 1960-1990. I found many of his, I'm sure brilliant, analogies lost to my minimal knowledge of his cultural reference. Belbo...I found him horribly interesting and grungy with a napoelean complex. At least he realized he only loved women who would never love him in return. But still, his illusions of grandure (ie. the trumpet) PLEASE.
D...I liked his quiet sober manor. He was a nice balance for the rest of the characters. Though he did get carried away as well. I very much respected his part in theending....which I won't discuss yet. Aglie...I liked him at the time of his introuducion. But at the end....he was just strange.
Eco seemed to build him up as this increadible being shrouded in mystery, and then his weakness at the end....it was quite a let down. The women in this novel, and this is where I sound like a feminist, they were interesting. Sophia, I expected more from. Somehow she did not harness the uber sexuality her predecessors radiated. I wanted more from the wanton villianous of the ages. His first girlfriend, I thought she was fun.
Though her discomfort and total shut off after the Umbada experience, was too convenient. She was too easily disposed of. Lia. hmmm. As much as she loved Causbon, she was a very flat boring character. I could always count on her to sqwash his theory and trample his manhood with a speech about mother earth, creation, and his "energetic cock".
I suppose she was like the outside world always exposing him for who he was. There are many more things I could write about each character...and many other aspects of the book, but I want to hear what you guys have to say. Smile Vanessa 
