It all started with an email from Thomas saying he quite liked Foucault's
Pendulum. An opinion which I did not share...
"On first looking into Foucault's Pendulum"
Much have I pondered o'er the obscure tripe
That Eco had the nerve to call a book
And often tried, and oft the task forsook
To find some rhyme or reason for the hype
But still returned unto my basic gripe -
It made no sense, however long I took
And so refused to take another look
Till I heard Thomas speak (or, rather, type)
Then felt I like the keeper of a pound
When some new cur is tossed into its pen
Or like the poor petunia pot that found
Itself evoked - it knew not whence or when -
A fast-decreasing distance from the ground;
Silently thinking 'here we go again'
-- Martin DeMello
Not to be outdone, Thomas responded with...
"Do not speak harsh of what you do not ken"
Do not speak harsh of what you do not ken.
Green youth should bow and scrape, and honour pay;
Praise, praise the words that flow from Eco's pen.
Wise men, who seek their truths in Tao or Zen,
And know full well mere Words are not The Way
Do not speak harsh of what they do not ken.
Though critics, in the end, are lesser men
Than readers; still, when pressed for meaning, they
Praise, praise the words that flow from Eco's pen.
Young men, who think they know the answers, when
They learn, too late, old age must have its say
Do not speak harsh of what they do not ken.
Yet fools there are, without that certain yen
For Eco, and this rule they disobey:
Praise, praise the words that flow from Eco's pen.
Like you, DeMello, snug in your warm den -
Read, write with more sense than you've shown this day.
Do not speak harsh of what you do not ken;
Praise, praise the words that flow from Eco's pen.
-- Abraham Thomas
And Jaggi, chiming in...
"And the book is not long enough"
And the book is not long enough.
And the plot is not wild enough,
And mind slips by like a skipped stone
Not rippling water glass.
-- Sidharth Jaggi
I derived a lot more enjoyment from this thread than I ever did from Foucault's Pendulum :)