Suppresion Defined (was: The Gospel of Thomas)

[Kevin Brown]

Could you recommend any other mysteries in the same vein as _Name of the
Rose_, preferably  a group of monks doing away with each other? I had a hard
time with _Name of the Rose_; I think because of Eco's tone. I felt like
Father Umberto was a little patronizing in his sermons on history. The
Harcourt & Brace edition has a postscript where Eco discusses his strategy
in researching that makes this more evident, in my opinion.

But the strength of the novel lay in its enrichment of the formula with
William's sleuthing-style, again imo. So I think that's what I'm looking
for.

	-kev

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
Behalf Of Peter Petto
Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2000 10:31 AM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Cc: rjackson at mail.usyd.edu.au
Subject: Re: Suppresion Defined (was: The Gospel of Thomas)


rj recommended _The Name of the Rose_ and wrote:

> > Were the Apocrypha or other non-canonical texts confiscated and
destroyed?
>
>Well, no, but they were buried to keep them safe, so that threat does
>seem to have presented itself at one time. And who knows what other
>(lost) texts were "confiscated and destroyed", or simply suppressed by
>other means?

Every few months I dig into my old boxes full of books to pull out
favorites from when I was a kid for my daughter. At least a quarter of
these are long gone: out of print, not in most library collections.

I'm doing this because I want to serve as counterforce to the tidal wave of
Disney film knock-offs, American Girl® literature, and the like.

I've never thought of my old favorites as being suppressed. I don't imagine
a conspiracy trying to get rid of them. But I see rj's point, because I do
have the sense of a threat to many of the things that I hold dear. Things
that I'm trying to keep safe too.

And I'd agree on The Name of the Rose recommendation. I keep hoping that
Eco will write something equally distilled and enjoyable. (Maybe he has,
and I've missed it? Or maybe he's got lots of (Brian) Wilsonesque
masterpieces laying about.)

<===>

Man was made for Joy & Woe
And when this we rightly know
Thro' the World we safely go.

William Blake
"Auguries of Innocence" (1803?)


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