The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco) - review 2

Name was important, there’s no doubt about it. It simplified a concept. Could you imagine how complicated it would be if things didn’t have names attached on them? How would you distinguish one thing from another?

Yet, as Juliet (or Shakespeare) beautifully pointed out, name was nothing but a representation of the concept it conveyed. In the end, that concept was more important than its name. But was it?

The paradox was everywhere in The Name of the Rose, even in the smallest of things like Adso’s detailed description on the church’s door carving (?). Not only that it had pictures of heaven and earth (and their inhabitants), but it also portrayed fantastic animals from the Bestiary. Remember that these creatures were imaginary, existed only in the world of ideas. However, the readers could easily identify them through their names--griffin, chimera, manticore, incubus--as if they were as real as elephant or monkey or chicken. Their names were everything because without them, these imaginary creatures would be nothing more than a set of ideas hidden inside their creator’s mind. In the same time, the names also meant nothing for the concept it represented had no existence in “reality.” Say the name “griffin” to one who’s not familiar with it and then it would simply be considered as a ridiculous cross-breeding of eagle and lion, losing its entire context.

We also got to see how a name became so powerful that it became the driving force behind someone’s actions and motives. Driven by his love of God, and his abhorrence towards everything unholy, the antagonist unremorsefully orchestrated six murders within the abbey’s walls. It’s ironic really, in his attempt to stop the coming of anti-Christ, he became the very representation of anti-Christ itself. In this case, the name became so powerful, more powerful than the concept it represented.

Despite all the complexities, The Name of the Rose was a worthy read. Putting aside the semiotic-thingy, it’s still enjoyable as a thrilling detective story.

Note: I’m not familiar with griffin, by the way.