Damn, that degree in literature and history finally came in handy. I can read Eco's Baudolina and basedpoint at all the references.

>>24569689 (OP)
in terms of 20th century masturbatory referencecore works it's tame compared to Gravity's Rainbow

I do this with The Name of the Rose as a theology student, which is about all this degree is good for.

>>24569689 (OP)
The leper deacon's reveal was the best part.

>>24569689 (OP)
what's the required reading for this

>>24569855
I am 200 pages in. Required reading: Divine Comedy, medieval travelogues (Mandeville especially) and generally know how medieval writing (chronicles, hagiography) worked and have general knowledge about it. But also know how medieval people thought world works (faith based thinking instead of science based).
The book is really funny.

>>24569689 (OP)
I was just about to make a thread on this thrash as a book that filtered me. One of the most pointless novels that I've ever read.

Name of the Rose is easycore medieval censorship tale.
Foucault's Pendulum is beware the rabithole anolagy.
Baudolino is just total wtf is going on here? And I do get Prester John and creatures of the wilds references. I get unreliable narrator.
I just have no idea what is the whole point of the novel. It's all just random mush to me.

>>24569940
200 pages in...some thoughts without formating, idk if it will give you anything

1) It is very Schweik-like. The whole book is in Baudolino's dialogue, Baudolino admits to being liar, so you do not know what is lie and what is not, he does not know himself. The longer he goes on the crazier it is. Anyone who has read Schweik will know that Schweik cannot stop telling the most outlandish nonsensical stories and fill them with nonsensically precise details and information - which usually is a tactic to make you and the story you are telling look more trustworthy, but Schweik adds in some many details and facts that they are obviously fake and make the story sound even faker. Baudolino, similarly to Manderville and Schweik never existed, but this book tells his story and fill the story with real people.

2) And I find it to be about history and words, history being arbitrary entity to which people give reason. They believe it, so it's true. But in the end the "historical fact" we so often speak about is just words words words, completely made up to simplify existence and give it reason so we don't go insane. So basically all history is a lie, but people in current times believe it, so it is true, becouse they act as if it is. It is not history that gave birth to present, but past. History is just image of past. History cannot be fact or truth, becouse then it would be too complex.
Ironically medieval writers knew this and when they wrote historical chronicles they intentionally lied (this is in the book itself) and everyone knew they are lying. So they lied so much they were more honest than we are nowadays.

3) The comedy often comes from the characters thinking in contemporary-like manner and being very practical, but they are placed in medieval world. And we know that the medieval people thought differently becouse historians told us so...oh wait...

The book lies, it tells you it lies and tries to look truthful in such an effective way that make it look like it lies. that's just funny.

the only two books of his that I truly loved and finished are Foucault's Pendulum and Numero Zero, couldn't get through the rest

>>24569995
I can't see the connection. Svejk is full of allegories and anecdotes, hidden puns and witticism, where Baudolino is just a lexicon of medieval jargon, randomly thrown together to sound smart. I also don't get the humour. Give me Mackenzie over Eco everyday. He was a genius but did know how to step down and write, without sounding condescending. Eco is tryhard compared to both Hasek and him.

>>24570554
Characters like Svejk or even Tom Sawyer are similar to character of Baudelino. All those characters are characterized by being liars and telling false stories. Morese there similarities between Svejk and Baudelino in the sense that both characters keep telling stories from their life, but becouse the stories are false, the stories instead of telling some biographic fact about Svejk/Baudolino enshroud them in fog of lies.
Both characters (Svejk, Baudolino) are fictional, but interact with real people. And although the books they are in describe their lives in quite a detail they do not work like real humans, they are like some kind of phantom (idk how to explain). They are both the "fool" character types (Till Eulenspiegel), Baudolino especially fills in the medieval trope of fool.
The main difference (apart from setting) is the aspect of Svejk where the reader can't be quite sure if he is an idiot or genius pretending to be one.

Apart from the contemporary thought process in medieval characters doing medieval things I described before the humor in Baudolino comes from parodying the historical figures and their thinking in very medieval parody way - often with fecal jokes and sex jokes. Another humorous aspect is the play on narrative in narrative in narrative - Baudolino is telling his fake life story, but this is taking place in historical fiction book which creates illusion of "historical" fictional world by imitating history to some extent, but history itself is narrative created by someone and people love to bend it to draw meaning from it - just like Baudolino bends his own story.

sry for esl, as I said I am 250 pages in, so this not definitive and may not be true, but I am open to making another thread when I finished with the book (should be by the end of the week) or coming back to this one if it is still up by then.

>>24569995
>Svejk mentioned
>Suddenly I got hard