Sparkling artand TR HVE Umber{ critic ef the san) telligen The Ne wide phy, f Thom; to Rol The tireless ing the icain¢ bound prom| wax 1 parks) of th¢ quest he UMBERTO ECO A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOVICH, PUBLISHERS San Diego New York London TRAVELS IN HYPER REALITY Essays Translated from the Italian by William WeaverTr HY Umber critic the san telliger The Nq wide— phy, fi Thom: to Rolf ‘The tireles| ing thy boune prom! wax th parks) of the quest “The| the 4 ‘Translated by William Weaver Geprrighe © 1983, 1976, 1973 by Grupo Kato Fibs Bompian, Somsogno, Eas Spat English warlacon copyright © 1988 by Harcour Brace Joanie, Ine Copyright © 1986, 1967 by Une Feo Al igh reserved [No part of tis publication may be reproduced or tensed in any form or by any means, eecroc or mechasiel, incuding photocopy, recoding. or any information sage and ‘euieral stem, without permisin in wring fom the tober Requests for permiion to make copies of sy part of he work shoud be male Pemisions, Harour Brace Jornorichy Pele, (Ovando, Fre 2887 ‘Te cect in hs vole wore wall foe he elon ty Willa Wenver, arp hi he flowing “Dreaing oft Mile Age” "Caan “De neyo” and "A Theory of Espen" The Eg ee ‘toe scenes wre eed by Wiles Were arr ety Ch nyrigh © 197 by The Regs of te Une Cao sepied om Fim Quarry, 0 #177, #12 by pein of Pe Regents ep it The His Sly by Michel Fowl 2 printed by perio fe eer Pets Bok von of Ro Hone, Library of Congress Catsoging-in-Pblcation Dats Eco, Umberto. “Travels in hypervealiy, “A Helen and Kart Wolf bok” 1 Tide PQWS.CST? 1986 065.1 a5.24810 sav 0151910790, Designed by Michal Farmer Printed inthe United States of America Fst edn CONTENTS Preface to the American Edition 1 TRAVELS IN HYPERREALITY 2. THE RETURN OF THE MIDDLE AGES. Dreaming of the Middle Ages Living in the New Middle Ages 3. THE GODS OF THE UNDERWORLD ‘The Sacred Is Not Just a Fashion The Suicides of the Temple Whose Side Are the Orixt On? Striking at the Heart of the State ‘Why Are They Laughing in Those Cages? On the Crisis of the Crisis of Reason 61 B 87 89 95 103 13 119 125 elSparkling, | art and soc UN Travels in Hyperreality The Fortresses of Solitude Two very beautiful naked girls are crouched facing each other ‘They touch each other sensuilly, they kiss each other's hreasee lightly, with the tip of the tongue. They are enclosed in a kind of critic « inder of transparent plastic, Even someone who is not a profes- the sam sional voyeur is tempeed to circle the cylinder in order to see the telligen ts from behind, in profile, from the other side. The next temp. ‘The Na tation isto approach the cylinder, which stands on a litle colurea wide— and is only a few inches in diameter, in order to look down from phy, f above: Bu the girls are no longer there. This was one ofthe many ‘Thom, works displayed in New York by the School of Holography. to Rol Holography, the latest technical miracle of laser rays, vas ine The vented back in the '50’s by Dennis Gabor, it achieves a full-color tireled Photographic representation that is more than three-dimencional, ing th You took into a magic box and a miniature train or horse appears, icain 3 you shift your gaze you can see those parts of the object that boun You were prevented from glimpsing by the laws of perspective. If prom the box is citcular you can see the object from all sles. If che wax | park e of th que: “Th ami the Sanus (Continued om back op) Translated by William Weaver