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ORIGINAL POST DATE: January 25, 2006
I am reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for the second time. Considering all the books I have waiting to be read it seems a little decadent to read this one again, but I enjoyed it so much the first time I read it that I feel it is a worthy indulgence. Plus I need some moody fiction to fill the void until the next Harry Potter book is published. To add depth to my reading experience this time through I picked up a copy of The Key to "The Name of the Rose" by Haft, White and White. It includes translations of all the non-English passages in the book, plus some handy reference sections such as "An Annotated Guide to the Historical and Literary References in The Name of the Rose." This should be fun.
In the first few pages of The Name of the Rose I came across this passage:
"I completed a translation, using some of those large notebooks from the Papeterie Joseph Gibert in which it is so pleasant to write if you use a felt-tip pen."
I am naturally curious about this little detail inserted casually at the beginning of this very complex story. As a Moleskinei notebook enthusiast, any reference to the merits of a particular notebook attracts my attention. Additionally I am someone who is admittedly biased in my appreciation for the superiority of European-made stationery products. I did a pretty thorough Google search on "Papeterie Joseph Gibert", to see if Eco was mentioning an actual business, but was unable to find anything conclusive. I would be interested in hearing anything related to this passage, especially if anyone knows for certain what type of notebooks he is referring to.
In my search I did come across this insightful passage on Eco's notebook reference (on THIS website):
"Authors often use seemingly irrelevant references to mundane objects to foreshadow broader textual elements. The importance of writing material is particularly prominent in fiction using the recovered manuscript as a plot device. Umberto Eco, Edgar Allan Poe and Paul Auster all use writing material for foreshadowing plot or to illuminate the inner workings of characters."
In addition to explaining Eco's notebook reference this also offers an explanation for the connection between my fancy for modern notebooks (especially of the Moleskine variety) and my fascination with ancient manuscripts. I love the concept of a recovered manuscript or discovered artifact as a plot device. This is the single most compelling element that attracts me to books like The Name of the Rose. The "lost manuscript found" captures the fantasy of ancient wisdom revealed. I can't quite shake the feeling that we have traded off a greater part of our earlier gains in wisdom for technological advances, so the idea that there may still be some old wisdom out there to be rediscovered, even if it is just in fiction, is tantalizing indeed. This also explains in part the voracious success of The Da Vinci Code, in that it seems to offer a key to discovering lost wisdom. The backlash for that book only began to arise when people overlooked the most important function of the writing, that it is a work of fiction. But I digress. . .
Back to Eco: As a reader of this blog you are most likely a Moleskine enthusiast too. Doesn't that line from The Name of the Rose peak your interest? Don't you want to know all the details of Eco's fictitious notebooks? And what kind of pen? A felt-tip; perhaps something along the lines of a Flair (since this book was written in 1980, before the birth of the gel pen)? The hidden meaning underneath this innate curiosity for the perfect pen, the perfect notebook with the perfect paper, may have more to do with the desire to create the kind of "lost manuscript" for future generations: a relic of the future's past.
At the very least, it means you will be a sucker for The Name of the Rose, and may even find yourself reading it for a second time.
Click on the image above for a larger version. This image features my own "lost manuscript": Alchemy Notebook pages from my pocket Moleskine sketchbook.
Original Comments Transferred from NWD Blog
Gibert Joseph is a very famous Paris bookstore. In their stationery department (papeterie) they even carry Moleskines!
Posted by: Talmida | January 25, 2006 at 02:19 PM
Here ya go!
http://www.gibertjoseph.com/accueil.asp?page=/partenaires/gibert/cadeaux/papeterie/accueil_stylos.htm&sessionid=4201452619202025199449233&donnee_appel=gibert
Looks like they carry a variety of notebooks, some very pretty ones.
Here was my google search .. they turned up at the top very first link
http://www.google.com/search?q=Papeterie+Joseph+Gibert&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
And a very pretty Waterman
http://www.gibertjoseph.com/frame_rec.asp?pid=gibert&source=ANCIEN&isbn=311152-861&sessionid=4201452619202025199449233&donnee_appel=gibert
Dave
Posted by: Dave Smith | January 25, 2006 at 04:27 PM
sorry for thebad links .. that''ll teach me me to fix Network issues and comment at the same time ..
here is the Waterman
and the Google Search
Posted by: Dave Smith | January 25, 2006 at 04:30 PM
Thanks Talmida and Dave for the links. Is it a French thing to put the last name first? I don't see any notebooks right off that fit Eco's description, but it is vague. As you can guess, I don't know French, otherwise I would email to ask about the Eco quote. Thanks for your comments! - Ninth Wave
Posted by: Ninth Wave Designs | January 26, 2006 at 02:35 PM
"I need some moody fiction to fill the void until the next Harry Potter book is published."
Now, I don't know you well enough to know if you were kidding, but I like HP *and* Eco and can relate to this!
Posted by: pam | January 27, 2006 at 12:48 AM
Yes, Pam, I enjoy both Eco and Rowling. The moodier the HP books have become, the better they have been for my reading enjoyment. My taste for non-fiction is all over the place, but when it comes to fiction it is pretty much only one kind of book I will read. I am also reading Borges' short stories at the same time as Eco.
Thanks for your comment! - Ninth Wave
Posted by: Ninth Wave Designs | January 27, 2006 at 09:08 AM
I have a copy of Name of the Rose, but, after Foucault's Pendulum, I feel like I shouldn't start Rose without picking up the companion book to help translate and explain alusions. Foucault's gave me quite a headache -- mostly because it is most certainly NOT a bus book, and every day I'd stumble in to work with a post-it covered in things to research, and by the time I did and got back to the story, I would have completely forgotten what was happening and why I cared about what I'd Googled. Rinse, lather, repeat. So not a bus book!
Posted by: Alia | January 30, 2006 at 01:48 PM
Alia - I would definitely recommend the companion book for the "Name of the Rose". I took Latin in college, but it is still handy to have the translations of all those sections, especially so I can keep reading without having to stop and look things up.
"Focault's Pendulum" was certainly a dense book - loads of information, many might say and overload, but worth slugging through. I read it a little bit at at time, so I could digest it before going on to the next section. I would agree though that it is not the best thing to read on a bus! Thanks for your comment - Ninth Wave
Posted by: Ninth Wave Designs | January 30, 2006 at 04:36 PM
Wow! I picked up Eco's Name of the Rose from my bookshelf today and thought I might re-read it because I enjoyed it so much when I first read it 20 years ago. I had recently re-read Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror", a history of the 14th century and thought I might have a better historical context to re-read Rose. So I was reading through Eco's introduction and stopped at his reference to the notebook. A writer myself, I am drawn to nice writing tools, so I googled gibert joseph and came up with Ninth Wave. When I read your remarks I damn near fell off my chair. Anyway, thanks for the reference on the companion work--I'll get that.
Posted by: Robert Bolan | May 13, 2006 at 03:32 PM
Robert -
I think you will enjoy the companion book. Now that you mention it, I have Tuchman's book here somewhere, so maybe it is time to finally read it.
Thanks for your comment - NW
Posted by: Ninth Wave Designs | May 15, 2006 at 12:13 PM