num_pages: 320
description: On the Shoulders of Giants is a collection of essays based on lectures Eco famously delivered at the Milanesiana Festival in Milan over the last fifteen years of his life. Previously unpublished the essays explore themes he returned to again and again in his writing: the roots of Western culture and the origin of language the nature of beauty and ugliness the potency of conspiracies the lure of mysteries and the imperfections of art. Eco examines the dynamics of creativity and considers how every act of innovation occurs in conversation with a superior ancestor.In these playful witty and breathtakingly erudite essays we encounter an intellectual who reads comic strips reflects on Heraclitus Dante and Rimbaud listens to Carla Bruni and watches Casablanca while thinking about Proust. On the Shoulders of Giants reveals both the humor and the colossal knowledge of a contemporary giant.
language: English
title: On the Shoulders of Giants: The Milan Lectures
publisher: Harvill Secker