Chronicles of a Liquid Society
eBook - ePub

Chronicles of a Liquid Society

  1. 319 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Chronicles of a Liquid Society

About this book

The acclaimed author examines our contemporary world—from technology to politics and pop culture—in this collection of essays written for L'Espresso.

Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. In this, his last collection, the celebrated essayist and novelist observes the changing world around him with irrepressible curiosity and philosophical insight. He illuminates the contemporary upheaval in ideological values, the crises in politics, and the unbridled individualism that have become the backdrop of our lives—creating a "liquid" society that defies any organizing principle. 

In these pieces, written for his regular column in the Italian magazine L'Espresso, Eco brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, mass media, racism, and good manners. It is "a swan song from one of Europe's great intellectuals…[Eco] entertains with his intellect, humor, and insatiable curiosity" ( Kirkus Reviews).
"An intelligent, intriguing, and often hilariously incisive set of observations on contemporary follies and changing mores." — Publishers Weekly
 

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Contents

Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Foreword
The Liquid Society
Turning Back the Clock
Freestyle Catholics and sanctimonious secularists
Have we really invented so much?
Full speed backward!
I remember, I remember
Being Seen
Wave ciao ciao to the camera
God is my witness that I’m a fool . . .
I tweet, therefore I am
The loss of privacy
The Old and the Young
The average lifespan
Fair is foul, and foul is fair?
Thirteen years misspent
Once upon a time there was Churchill
A generation of aliens
Online
My email doubles
How to elect the president
The hacker is crucial to the system
Too much of the Internet? But in China . . .
Here’s a good game
The textbook as teacher
How to copy from the Internet
What’s the point of having a teacher?
The fifth estate
A further note
Dogmatism and fallibilism
Marina, Marina, Marina
I urge you to be brief
On Cell Phones
More thoughts on the cell phone
Swallowing the cell phone
On photography
Evolution: all with just one hand
The cell phone and the queen in “Snow White”
On Conspiracies
Where’s the deep throat?
Conspiracies and plots
Fine company
Don’t believe in coincidences
The conspiracy on conspiracies
On Mass Media
Radiophonic hypnosis
There are two Big Brothers
Roberta
The mission of the crime story
Bin Laden’s allies
Going to the same place
Mandrake, an Italian hero?
Are viewers bad for television?
Give us today our daily crime
Maybe Agamemnon was worse than Bush
High medium low
“Intellectually speaking”
Suspects behaving badly
Shaken or stirred?
Too many dates for Nero Wolfe
Unhappy is the land
Time and history
Forms of Racism
Women philosophers
Where do you find anti-Semitism?
Who told women to veil themselves?
Husbands of unknown wives
Pro...

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Contents
  3. Copyright
  4. Foreword
  5. The Liquid Society
  6. Turning Back the Clock
  7. Freestyle Catholics and sanctimonious secularists
  8. Have we really invented so much?
  9. Full speed backward!
  10. I remember, I remember
  11. Being Seen
  12. Wave ciao ciao to the camera
  13. God is my witness that I’m a fool . . .
  14. I tweet, therefore I am
  15. The loss of privacy
  16. The Old and the Young
  17. The average lifespan
  18. Fair is foul, and foul is fair?
  19. Thirteen years misspent
  20. Once upon a time there was Churchill
  21. A generation of aliens
  22. Online
  23. My email doubles
  24. How to elect the president
  25. The hacker is crucial to the system
  26. Too much of the Internet? But in China . . .
  27. Here’s a good game
  28. The textbook as teacher
  29. How to copy from the Internet
  30. What’s the point of having a teacher?
  31. The fifth estate
  32. A further note
  33. Dogmatism and fallibilism
  34. Marina, Marina, Marina
  35. I urge you to be brief
  36. On Cell Phones
  37. More thoughts on the cell phone
  38. Swallowing the cell phone
  39. On photography
  40. Evolution: all with just one hand
  41. The cell phone and the queen in “Snow White”
  42. On Conspiracies
  43. Where’s the deep throat?
  44. Conspiracies and plots
  45. Fine company
  46. Don’t believe in coincidences
  47. The conspiracy on conspiracies
  48. On Mass Media
  49. Radiophonic hypnosis
  50. There are two Big Brothers
  51. Roberta
  52. The mission of the crime story
  53. Bin Laden’s allies
  54. Going to the same place
  55. Mandrake, an Italian hero?
  56. Are viewers bad for television?
  57. Give us today our daily crime
  58. Maybe Agamemnon was worse than Bush
  59. High medium low
  60. “Intellectually speaking”
  61. Suspects behaving badly
  62. Shaken or stirred?
  63. Too many dates for Nero Wolfe
  64. Unhappy is the land
  65. Time and history
  66. Forms of Racism
  67. Women philosophers
  68. Where do you find anti-Semitism?
  69. Who told women to veil themselves?
  70. Husbands of unknown wives
  71. Proust and the Boche
  72. From Maus to Charlie
  73. On Hatred and Death
  74. On hatred and on love
  75. Where has death gone?
  76. Our Paris
  77. Religion and Philosophy
  78. Seers see what they know
  79. European roots
  80. The lotus and the cross
  81. Relativism?
  82. Chance and Intelligent Design
  83. The reindeer and the camel
  84. Watch it, loudmouth . . .
  85. Idolatry and iconoclasm lite
  86. The cocaine of the people
  87. The crucifix, almost a secular symbol
  88. Those strangers, the Three Kings
  89. Mad about Hypatia
  90. Halloween, relativism, and Celts
  91. Damned philosophy
  92. Evasion and secret redress
  93. The holy experiment
  94. Monotheisms and polytheisms
  95. A Good Education
  96. Who gets cited most?
  97. Political correctness
  98. Thoughts in fair copy
  99. Meeting face-to-face
  100. The pleasure of lingering
  101. On Books, Etc.
  102. Is Harry Potter bad for adults?
  103. How to protect yourself from the Templars
  104. The whiff of books
  105. Here’s the right angle
  106. Journey to the center of Jules Verne
  107. Corkscrew space
  108. On unread books
  109. On the obsolescence of digital media
  110. Festschrift
  111. The Catcher in the Rye fifty years on
  112. Aristotle and the pirates
  113. Lies and make-believe
  114. Credulity and identification
  115. Who’s afraid of paper tigers?
  116. From Stupidity to Folly
  117. No, it’s not pollution, it’s impurities in the air
  118. How to get rich on other people’s suffering
  119. Miss World, fundamentalists, and lepers
  120. Return to sender
  121. Give us a few more deaths
  122. Speaking with license
  123. Conciliatory oxymorons
  124. The human thirst for prefaces
  125. A noncomrade who gets it wrong
  126. Saying sorry
  127. The Sun still turns
  128. What you mustn’t do
  129. The miraculous Mortacc
  130. Joyce and the Maserati
  131. Napoleon never existed
  132. Are we all mad?
  133. Idiots and the responsible press
  134. Read More from Umberto Eco
  135. About the Author
  136. Connect with HMH