Not Just Detective Story

On December 27, 2016, The New Indian Express published an opinion article titled "A detective story, not for the faint hearted" by Shom Biswas on Umberto Eco's famous postmodern novel - The Name of the Rose - to acquaint the reader with the queerness of the story situated in the fourteenth century and exploiting the modern detective techniques of inquiring into the mysterious death of monks. I agree with Biswas to a great extent with regard to the summary and unique plot but apparently the author fumbles on the issue of knowledge and philosophical debate in different spheres including the Roman Catholic Church, diverse opinion of Christians on poverty, division of Christians followers and most importantly, the threat to the church from Aristotle's philosophy. Even more surprising for the readers is the character Baskerville - not a new creation rather an imitation of Arthur Conan Doyle's short story - "The Hound of Baskerville"

The book is unique as it opens avenues for the interested readers to see it through a prism that enables them to realize its critical potential.

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Umberto Eco Quotes for Games and Entertainment

As per the PC Games, "Quote is a game about burning books and feeding authors to a ravenous kiwi-like creature in order to purge the world of knowledge. Ostensibly, you’re the bad guy, an empty vessel sent by the tyrannical Bliss, God of Ignorance to destroy fiction and fact alike. In the surreal confines of the game however, you’re Novella, Priestess of Bliss, a heroic girl on a mission to cure the world of a blight that consumes everyone it reaches."


“We decided very early on that we should lock ourselves away and make something as strange as possible,” explains Quote’s lead designer Robin Lacey. Indeed, what do Italian philosophers and ‘90s Saturday morning cartoons have in common? Nothing. And yet overtones of both Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and Cartoon Network's finest can be glimpsed in every nook and cranny of this isometric brawler.


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History give an access to unknown past through narrative structure scaffolding on facts and manuscripts drawn from achieves. These manuscripts and detailed accounts corroborate with ruined archeological sites with inscriptions and arts. Thus, history represents rational and objective truth that answers to all the queries of people about the past.  What happens when a fiction writer chooses stories and characters from history? If a fictional story is based on a historical incident and characters, what is the difference between fiction and history? Does the reader not find himself cheated? What stand does the reader take with respect to fiction and history? These questions inform about the substitutive nature of history and fiction that have infiltrated into each other territories. Does it really obliterate the difference?   The questions become easier to answer if we define history and fiction in their respective territories. In fact, neither history is fictitious nor fiction is history; they do not pose a challenge to each other only inform about narrative structure and their representation through language.

The debate on the substitutive nature of history and fiction becomes important when I read Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, which is drawn from a manuscript, narrating a story of monastery from the fourteenth century. The manuscript is based on a real incident and Eco employs its content to write the book incorporating real characters and organizations. He sheds light on the problems people faced owing to their religious positions, and how science proved detrimental to religion.  The book exhibits the significance of rational thinking and theory of deduction (primarily used by Sherlock Holmes) to access knowledge. The study has discovered that history is a source of knowledge about the past which uses scientific methods as a detective employs to solve a mystery.  The study also takes into account the theories of history and fiction with a specific reference to borrowing of content and characters from other sources without acknowledgment. Foucault’s Pendulum is a story of three editors who develop a PLAN from second rate manuscripts on historical incidents. A secret organization considers the fictitious PLAN to be real and kills the three editors. They borrow their content on the Templars and other secret organizations from the manuscripts. The study shows that history emerges through multiple texts. Each text has its own significance and essence; each text oozes from the other. The production of text questions the authenticity from which it has evolved. In Foucault’s Pendulum, Eco sets a conversation between past and present then move to the borrowing from the past and its articulation in new framework. 

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