Foucault's Pendulum
A satirical novel of esoteric conspiracies and the Foucault pendulum.
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Italian philosopher and writer Umberto Eco authored the novel Foucault's Pendulum, which was released in 1988.[1] The work employs satire and contains numerous esoteric allusions to Kabbalah, alchemy, and conspiracy theories.[2] Critics have described the 1988 novel as "the thinking man's Da Vinci Code".[3]
Making and release
Eco wrote fiction to compensate for his children growing up, stating "I didn't have anybody to tell stories to any more, so I started writing"[4] After the 1986 film adaptation of The Name of the Rose, Eco refused all future offers to render his books in film.[4] Critics found Eco's delectation for scholarly exotica difficult to absorb in the absence of its predecessor's thriller plot.[4] The year 1988 saw the novel's initial publication, and William Weaver's English translation came out the following year.[1]
Stanley Kubrick wanted to acquire the film rights for Foucault's Pendulum, but Eco turned him down.[5] Eco wanted to write the screenplay himself, but Kubrick refused to collaborate on that basis.[5] After Kubrick died, Eco expressed regret over having refused his offer.[5][4]
What the cited sources add
The novel predates Dan Brown's work by many years, according to a 2004 article.[6] A 1993 message from Michael Aquino notes that on page 493 of the paperback edition, the "Black Mass" crescendo includes the utterance "I'a Cthulhu!"[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Foucault's Pendulum" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barber, "The Trial of the Templars", Cambridge University Press, 2006, p. viii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Foucault's Pendulum" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Burgess, "A Conspiracy to Rule the World", The New York Times, October 15, 1989 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Foucault's Pendulum" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sullivan, "Religious conspiracy? Do me a fervour", The Age, December 24, 2004 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Ben Naparstek, "The Armani of literature", The Age, 15 December 2007. facts only, no text reused. theage.com.au
- Wikipedia, "Foucault's Pendulum" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ben Naparstek, "The Armani of literature", The Age, 15 December 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Sullivan, "Religious conspiracy? Do me a fervour", The Age, December 24, 2004. facts only, no text reused. theage.com.au
- Aquino, "RE: Re: Wewelsberg", Baphonet, 4 September 1993. facts only, no text reused. bbs.bapho.net
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Foucault's Pendulum (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Foucault's Pendulum (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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