Umberto Eco, The Da Vinci Code, and the Intellectual in the Age of Popular Culture

295 Pages·2017·11.4 MB·English

by  Douglass Merrell (auth.)

Umberto Eco, The Da Vinci Code,
and the Intellectual in the Age of
Popular Culture
DouglassMerrell
Umberto Eco,
The Da Vinci Code,
and the Intellectual
in the Age of Popular
Culture
DouglassMerrell
Seattle,Washington,USA
ISBN978-3-319-54788-6 ISBN978-3-319-54789-3(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-54789-3
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C
ONTENTS
1 The Intermediate Thinker 1
2 The Intellectual Species 25
3 A Medievalistin Hibernation 51
4 The Exiled Heretic 79
5 The Art of Adventure:Eco,Joyce,
and the OpenWork 103
6 The Gruppo 63 andthe Italian Neo-avant-garde 131
7 The Aesthetics ofSuperman andCharlieBrown 149
8 The Semiotic Species:
A GrandUnified Theory ofCulture 169
9 The Reader in the Story 201
10 The Literary Provocateur 235
v
vi CONTENTS
Bibliography 281
Index 287
CHAPTER1
The Intermediate Thinker
INDEXES OF POPULARITY
Theinternetisagreatpotentialdemocratizerofknowledge.Asamediumof
communication, it offers a vast array of information readily accessible to a
mass popular audience. Through the internet, one can instantly obtain a
variety of facts such as the list compiled by Wikipedia of books that have
becomeinternational bestsellers.1 The bestseller list, while including a dis-
claimerconcerningitsaccuracyandcompleteness,andobviouslysubjectto
constantrevision,providesatleastageneralindicatoroftherankingofthe
most popularreadingsovertimebasedonavailablesalesfigures.Inanage
increasinglydominatedbyvisualculture,thebestsellerlistprovidesanindex
ofthetasteofabroadpopularaudienceforbooks,whichareotherwisethe
privilegedmediumofintellectuals.Inthisway,thelistcanserveasawindow
intotherelationbetweenintellectualsandpopularculture.
Although the international bestseller list cites the Bible, the Qur’an,
andChairmanMao’sTheLittleRedBookwithsalesinthebillions,theyare
notrankedamongthebestsellersbecauseofthelackofreliablesalesdata.
Withthoseexceptionsaccountedfor,whattheinternationalbestsellerlist
reveals in part is the enduring popular taste for fantasy fiction and chil-
dren’sliterature.TheLittlePrince(1943)byAntoinedeSaint-Exupery,is
rankedfourthonthelistwith140millionsold,TheHobbit(1937)byJ.R.
R. Tolkien is ranked sixth with over 100 million sold, and Alice in
Wonderland (1865) is ranked ninth with 100 million sold. They are
closely followed by numerous other works from the same genre with 50
©TheAuthor(s)2017 1
D.Merrell,UmbertoEco,TheDaVinciCode,andtheIntellectual
intheAgeofPopularCulture,DOI10.1007/978-3-319-54789-3_1
2 1 THEINTERMEDIATETHINKER
to100millionsoldsuchasTheLion,theWitch,andtheWardrobe(1950)
by C.S. Lewis, Heidi (1880) by Johanna Spyri, Anne of Green Gables
(1908) by Lucy Montgomery, Black Beauty (1877) by Anna Sewell, and
Charlotte’s Web (1952) by E.B. White. Of the 37 readings listed with 50
millionormoresold,15,oralmostonehalf,areworksoffantasyfictionor
children’s literature.
The prominence of fantasy fiction and children’s literature may be
attributed to a reverence for the imaginative innocence of youth that is
perpetuated through sentimental attachment to readings shared between
parentandchild.Fantasyandchildren’sliteraturealsotopsthelistofmore
recent bestsellers including, as one would expect, the Harry Potter series
by J.K. Rowling, with the first in the series, Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone (1997) selling over 107 million. The phenomenal
popularity of these recent youthful fantasies can also be attributed to the
fact that they are written with a simplified vocabulary and style that is
highly accessible to young readers as well as a broad popular audience.
Theirpopularitycanthusbetheresultoftheirintroductoryappealforthe
young,notyettakenoverbycontemporaryvisualmedia,fordevelopinga
tasteandproficiencyforreading.
The Harry Potter series, in particular, has been credited with foster-
ing a new generation of readers who were drawn to its mix of fantasy
and mystery. As a generational index of popularity, the Harry Potter
series set new records for pre-order sales as well as overall sales volume
for a series with over 500 million sold worldwide. However, according
to a New York Times article, there is some doubt about the lasting
impact of the Harry Potter phenomenon on the so-called millennial
generation that has been characterized as“post-literate” by prominent
writerssuchastheNobelPrizewinningnovelistJohnCoetzee.2Asthe
New York Times article points out, “federal statistics show that the
percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop signifi-
cantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before
Harry Potter came along.”3 In any case, the broad appeal of children’s
fantasies to a mass audience is otherwise reflected in the recent film
adaptationsoftheLordoftheRings,andtheChroniclesofNarnia.The
HarryPotternovels,inparticular,havenowbeenadaptedasthehighest
grossing film series of all time by drawing on the desire of a young
audience to see the characters they read about in private become
visualized for the cinema and publicly shared with a new generation
of readers as a cult-like experience.
INDEXESOFPOPULARITY 3
Apartfromthelongstandingpopularityofyouthfulfantasies,whatdoesthe
listtellusaboutadult-themedbestsellers?Oddlyenough,thepreponderance
ofwholesomestoriesofyouthfulidealismissomewhatoffsetbyaclassictaleof
youthfulalienation,J.D.Salinger’sCatcherintheRye(1951)withmorethan
65millionsold;andanadult’ssexualobsessionforaprovocativeadolescentin
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) with more than 50 million sold.
Interspersed in the bestseller ranks, with more than 50 million sold, are
adult works of non-fiction including practical guides to material fulfillment
in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich (1937), Benjamin Spock’s long-
standingguidetochildrearing,theBookofBabyandChildCare(1946),and
Shere Hite’s analysis of human sexuality, The Hite Report (1976). A recent
entrytotheupperranksofadult-themedbestsellersistheFiftyShadesofGrey
(2011)seriesbyE.L.Jameswith125millionsold.Whilethenewgeneration
of readers fostered by the Harry Potter series may be losing their taste for
reading as they get older, the high ranking of the Fifty Shades of Grey series
wouldsuggestthattheycanbeluredbackbyadult-themedsexualfantasies.
Besidestheworksoffictionandnon-fictionindicatedearlier,onewould
expectthatthelistwouldincludethefullpantheonofliteraryclassics.The
list does include classics such as Homer’s Odyssey (8th c. B.C.) with 45
million sold, Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869) with 36 million sold,
andJaneAusten’sPrideandPrejudice(1813),with20millionsold.But,as
the bestseller site acknowledges, cumulative sales figures from the date of
publicationarenotavailableformostofthemajorliteraryclassics.Cervantes’
DonQuixote(1612)islistedatthetopoftherankswith500millionsoldbut
thesourceofthisrankingseemsquestionable,andDante’sDivineComedy
(1304)iscreditedwith12millionsoldbutonlyfromsalesoriginatingfrom
thetwentiethcentury.
While most of the major literary classics are not included in the top
ranks of the bestseller list, it should be noted that Agatha Christie’s And
Then There Were None (1939) which is the most widely read murder
mystery of all time with more than 100 million sold, is ranked seventh
onthelist.InaseparateWikipedialistthatranksthebestsellingcumulative
worksofmajorauthorsoffiction,AgathaChristieistiedatthetopofthe
listwithWilliamShakespeare.Her66mysterynovelshavegeneratedsales
estimated between two billion and four billion.4 In the same genre, Sir
ArthurConanDoyle’sTheAdventuresofSherlockHolmes(1887)ishighly
ranked with more than 60 million sold. The high ranking of Agatha
Christie’sandSirArthurConanDoyle’smysteriesindicatesthatdetective
fiction isone of themost prominentcategorieson the bestsellerlist.
4 1 THEINTERMEDIATETHINKER
THE DA VINCI CODE CONTROVERSY
Since the ranking on the bestseller list is based on consumer demand, it
reflectsthe variedtasteofabroadpublicreadershipoverthepastcentury
andahalfbasedontheavailabilityofreliablesalesfigures.Forthisreason,
as noted before, literary classics such as Hawthorne’s The House of the
SevenGables(1851),forexample,arenotincluded.Butsincereliablesales
figures from independent sources are now readily obtainable, the list can
currently serve more accurately as a profile of the contemporary popular
taste for reading.Unsurprisingly, apart from the Harry Potterseries by J.
K. Rowling, the most popular recent bestseller (on its own and not as a
seriessuchastheFiftyShadesofGreynovels)isDanBrown’sTheDaVinci
Code (2003) which is the second highest-ranking mystery novel to date.
Withover80millionsold,morethanthreeyearsonthebestsellerlist,and
59weeksatnumberone,TheDaVinciCodeisconsideredthebestselling
Englishlanguagenovelofthetwenty-firstcentury,andthesecondbiggest
sellingnovelinanylanguage.5,6TheenormousreadershipofTheDaVinci
CodespawnedamovieversionstarringTomHanksthat,despitegenerally
negative critical reviews and especially harsh condemnation by the
Catholic Church,wasthe second highestgrossingmovie in 2006.
TheDaVinciCode,asanindexofpopularculture,indicatesthepowerful
appeal of the mystery novel, but also for historical fiction, along with art,
religion,andtheoccultwhichisthesecret,privilegedknowledgeofanelite
groupofinitiates.InTheDaVinciCode,theexplorationofocculthistory,
whichisordinarilythedomainoftheintellectualelite,ismadeaccessibletoa
popularaudiencethroughthemediationofafictionaldetectivehero,Robert
Langdon,whoisportrayedasaHarvardprofessorofsymbology.Thehuge
popularity of The Da Vinci Code drew readers to a previous novel by Dan
Brown,AngelsandDemons(2000)thatfeaturedthesameprotagonistanda
similar synthesis of murder mystery with historical explorations of secret
knowledge that sold over 39 million copies and was also adapted for the
cinema.Athirdinstallment,TheLostSymbol(2009),thathassoldmorethan
30 million, had an initial printing of 6.5 million copies, the largest in the
historyofthepublisher,Doubleday.Withfirst-daysalesofoveronemillion,
it became the fastest selling adult novel in history.7,8 A fourth installment,
Inferno(2013)hasalsoenteredthebestsellerrankswiththesamenarrative
formulaandhassimilarlybeenadaptedforthecinema.
ThephenomenalpopularityofTheDaVinciCodeandtheothernovels
intheRobertLangdonseriesbyDanBrowncanbeattributedtothefact