The author was criticized for having concocted the book artificially at the planning table and was, therefore, assured of success from the start. We find there the roots of our problems, of our anguish, of our crises. Besides, Umberto Eco has never believed in old convictions of inspiration and passion in art. People have not yet learned that every work of art is a game played out at the worktable. It's the fable of bad romantics that fascinates bad poets and bad narrators.
Art is a serious matter.
Manzoni and Flaubert, Balzac and Stendhal wrote at the worktable. That means to construct, like an architect plans a building. Yet we prefer to believe that a novelist invents because he has a genius whispering into his ear. When his novel appeared, Eco had already written some 12 works, from the poetics of Joyce to How To Write A Dissertation . He, however, did not follow others into protest organizations or into politics.