About this item
A posthumous collection of essays by the great novelist, essayist, literary critic, and philosopher Umberto Eco. Umberto Eco began writing a regular column called "La Bustina di Minerva" for the Italian weekly magazine L'Espresso in 1985. Its title referred to a brand of matchbook that had two white spaces inside, useful for brief jottings. Eco intended his articles to be short notes and digressions on ideas that came to mind, generally inspired by topical events. But not always, since just as topical for him was rereading a page of Herodotus, a Grimms' fairy tale, or a Popeye comic strip. The pieces in this volume reflect on many aspects of our "liquid society," when a sense of community is lost, and fellow travelers become rivals. With dazzling erudition and a keen sense of the everyday, the best-selling author of The Name of the Rose writes on popular culture and politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, cellphones, mass media, racism, good manners, and the crisis in ideological values. A final gift to his readers - astute, witty, illuminating.