Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco · first published 1989
55% recommend42% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Satirical novel about writers who invent a maximally compelling conspiracy theory, blurring truth and belief. Valued as an intellectually rich, layered, entertaining alternative to Dan Brown for patient readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Linked site won't load so here's a vaguely-related book recommendation: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. I don't want to spoil it, but it involves a group of writers who try to come up with a single, maximally compelling, conspiracy theory. Reading it sets up a super interesting tension --…
on “An automated pipeline for the discovery of conspiracy theories” ↗Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco is a fantastic novel for doing this. You find yourself sucked right into the conspiracy, only for him to then reveal the facts that destroy it. There’s a subplot on how the number of letters…
on “Did the early medieval era ever take place?” ↗…Dan Brown - If you liked The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons, you'll probably like this one as well. While Dan Brown will probably never write anything that matches the utter genius of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, he is entertaining in his own way and worth a read.
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗Books I've read many, many times and plan to reread again: Umberto Eco's Foucault's pendulum. Homer's Odyssey. Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. These never gets old :)
on “Why reading a book 100 times is a great idea” ↗"Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. There is some hacking, and a strange battle against people wanting to believe their own truth (does that ring a bell?). Extremely contemporaneous, alas...
on “Ask HN: Which non-technology book has influenced you the most and why?” ↗If you ever read Umberto Eco's novel "Foucault's Pendulum" this is a key plot point. Specifically some shadowy "conspiracy" group was set to meet, but the meeting never happened because some countries had revised their calendar and some hadn't so they missed…
on “From Julian to Gregorian Calendar” ↗…(Jacques Derrida) The Quest for Reality (Barry Stroud) Languages of Art (Nelson Goodman) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Thomas Kuhn) Concepts (Jerry Fodor) The Web of Life (Fritjof Capra) Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco) Naming and Necessity (Saul Kripke) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig) There are others, and a lot of essays (by thinkers like Bertrand Russell, Carl Hempel, Hilary…
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗I had read and enjoyed Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", and as I read Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" I found I kept contrasting Brown's work to Eco's. In the end, I didn't even finish "The Da Vinci Code", it just felt so weak to me. But art, literature, music,…
on “Don’t Make Fun of Renowned Dan Brown (2013)” ↗Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco.
on “Ask HN: What are the books that changed the perspective of your life?” ↗Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
on “Ask HN: What is the most mind blowing book you've ever read?” ↗To those who are questioning how much truth the 'confession' has in it, you are definitely getting in the spirit of things. The confession is sort of a buzzfeed-ish version of Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and he digs in, at length musing on lies and truth and how they mush together in ways that are very hard to untangle. At any rate, if you liked the essay, I recommend the book.
on “How I turned “Street Sharks” into an online social experiment” ↗Umberto Eco. Don't start with Foucault's Pendulum, his other books are shorter and probably more accessible. I really like The Island of the Day Before and Baudolino.
on “Ask HN: Best Fiction” ↗…being "manipulated" to add credibility to it. The conspiratorial nature of it makes it even more compelling to untrusting, unsophisticated outsiders. I'm also suddenly reminded of Umberto Eco's book 'Foucault's Pendulum', which deals with belief and conspiracy. While a fun, satirical work of fiction, I found it to be very constructive in understanding how people can come to believe things that are completely wrong.
on “Ideology Impairs Sound Reasoning” ↗Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco. As with anything he wrote, the writing itself is amazingly good, but the thoughts really get to you, too.
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗…Fact, Fiction, Forecast (Nelson Goodman) — Goodman is brilliant and is great at relaying philosophical problems as puzzles. He's a great writer and turns the problem of induction on its head in this one. Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco) — I don't read a lot of fiction, but this book is amazing. There's a lot of history, so you may need to keep an encyclopedia nearby, but this one will really get you thinking about how the…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗