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dana_sg's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
kevin_shepherd's review against another edition
4.0
I have always considered myself something of an authority on ugliness, having been born with this face. My parents were not the most learned of people and, cursed with such a hideous offspring, insisted on keeping me hidden in the attic. Oh they threw me a bone often enough, and I was allowed out after dark to do chores and catch mosquitoes, but I was still put away whenever daylight heightened the possibility of frightening the neighbors.
Spoiler Alert: Ugliness is a relative concept.
“If beauty and health, which are considered good, are a proportion of the parts and members with beauty of color... in ugly and diseased bodies this proportion does not entirely dissolve, but is only transformed, and therefore ugliness and disease can be called lesser goods rather than true, real evils.” ~Robert Grosseteste, twelfth century
• On Martyrdom, Tortures, Death, and the End of the World
In his descriptions of apocalyptic millenarianism, Eco writes of the prophesy of Joachim da Fiore, an Italian theologian and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni. In da Fiore’s vision, a community of equality opposed to wealth and corruption would emerge following a purge of the Antichrist and his representatives. His “representatives” was interpreted by many to mean the Jews. You can see how easily ugliness makes its nest within the comfortable confines of christian philosophies.
• On Depictions of Hell
My personal favorite, or rather ‘least favorite’ (as in MOST HELLISH) is the No Exit scenario of Jean-Paul Sartre, circa 1944. Here, hell is confinement in a room with two strangers - for eternity. No tormentors, no pitchforks, just you with two other guys, at Motel Six, forEVER. They are your hell, you are theirs. Hell is simply other people:
“Open up! Open up for God’s sake! I accept everything: the boot! the pincers! the molten lead! the tongs! the garrotte! everything that burns! that lacerates! I just want to suffer properly!”
...just don’t lock me in a room with two other dudes for fucksake!
Speaking of ugliness, Martin Luther’s “Table Talk” is a veritable sourcebook of repulsive tripe: “I often drive away the Devil with a fart. When he tempts me with foolish sins, I say to him: Devil, I gave you a fart yesterday too: did you add it to the reckoning?”
• On Monsters and Portents
por·tent /ˈpôrˌtent/ noun •a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen. (Oxford Languages)
When innocent children are put to death because they have the misfortune of deformity (often very minor in nature) who then are the real monsters: The baby swaddled in its crib with a cleft lip or a missing toe, or the priest who deems the child a portent and smothers it with a pillow?
• On Women
Has there ever been any period of human history where women were not held to a higher standard of beauty than their male contemporaries? The critiques of “ugly women” (invariably written by men) certainly seem far uglier than any woman could possibly be...
“What are you after, woman, some black elephant? Why do you send gifts and love letters to me? I am no exuberant youth, with a stuffy nose. You know, I’ve got a really sharp sense of smell and I’m better than any hound, who can sniff out where the boar is hiding, so I know if there’s a polyp in that nose, or some stink lurking in those hairy armpits! What a sweaty, foul stench rises from her shagged-out limbs when, my penis drooping, she hastens to satiate her unbridled lust; with make-up dripping from her cheeks, and her hair dye, made from crocodile shit, is running; rutting openly, she breaks the mattress, and with it the whole four-poster bed...” ~Horace, 8 b.c.e.
Clearly, Horace had issues.
• On the Devil
Biblically speaking, Satan was once an angel and therefore should have been a standard of perfection and beauty. According to Eco, it was roundabout the seventeenth century that the uglification of the devil really took off in earnest, thanks mostly to Shakespeare (1564-1616), Marino (1569–1625), Tasso (1544-1595), and Milton (1608-1674).
Shakespeare’s devil can assume the shape of something pleasing, but is otherwise something less so. In Dante’s Inferno, the devil is winged and has three faces on one head. Tasso’s version sports a gaping mouth foaming with blood clots, while Marino’s has ghastly glowing eyes and vomits soot. And then there’s Milton; who can read Paradise Lost and not feel repulsed by the visages he conjures?
• On Ugliness
To wade into Umberto Eco’s tome on unattractiveness is a little daunting. The paperback edition I have weighs about twelve stones. I imagine those that possess the hardcover version had it delivered by forklift or by crane. The color prints and photographs are stunning. Just be aware that Eco is a professor of semiotics, not history. What lies within is much more a philosophy of ugliness than it is an accounting of its progression through time.
Spoiler Alert: Ugliness is a relative concept.
“If beauty and health, which are considered good, are a proportion of the parts and members with beauty of color... in ugly and diseased bodies this proportion does not entirely dissolve, but is only transformed, and therefore ugliness and disease can be called lesser goods rather than true, real evils.” ~Robert Grosseteste, twelfth century
• On Martyrdom, Tortures, Death, and the End of the World
In his descriptions of apocalyptic millenarianism, Eco writes of the prophesy of Joachim da Fiore, an Italian theologian and the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni. In da Fiore’s vision, a community of equality opposed to wealth and corruption would emerge following a purge of the Antichrist and his representatives. His “representatives” was interpreted by many to mean the Jews. You can see how easily ugliness makes its nest within the comfortable confines of christian philosophies.
• On Depictions of Hell
My personal favorite, or rather ‘least favorite’ (as in MOST HELLISH) is the No Exit scenario of Jean-Paul Sartre, circa 1944. Here, hell is confinement in a room with two strangers - for eternity. No tormentors, no pitchforks, just you with two other guys, at Motel Six, forEVER. They are your hell, you are theirs. Hell is simply other people:
“Open up! Open up for God’s sake! I accept everything: the boot! the pincers! the molten lead! the tongs! the garrotte! everything that burns! that lacerates! I just want to suffer properly!”
...just don’t lock me in a room with two other dudes for fucksake!
Speaking of ugliness, Martin Luther’s “Table Talk” is a veritable sourcebook of repulsive tripe: “I often drive away the Devil with a fart. When he tempts me with foolish sins, I say to him: Devil, I gave you a fart yesterday too: did you add it to the reckoning?”
• On Monsters and Portents
por·tent /ˈpôrˌtent/ noun •a sign or warning that something, especially something momentous or calamitous, is likely to happen. (Oxford Languages)
When innocent children are put to death because they have the misfortune of deformity (often very minor in nature) who then are the real monsters: The baby swaddled in its crib with a cleft lip or a missing toe, or the priest who deems the child a portent and smothers it with a pillow?
• On Women
Has there ever been any period of human history where women were not held to a higher standard of beauty than their male contemporaries? The critiques of “ugly women” (invariably written by men) certainly seem far uglier than any woman could possibly be...
“What are you after, woman, some black elephant? Why do you send gifts and love letters to me? I am no exuberant youth, with a stuffy nose. You know, I’ve got a really sharp sense of smell and I’m better than any hound, who can sniff out where the boar is hiding, so I know if there’s a polyp in that nose, or some stink lurking in those hairy armpits! What a sweaty, foul stench rises from her shagged-out limbs when, my penis drooping, she hastens to satiate her unbridled lust; with make-up dripping from her cheeks, and her hair dye, made from crocodile shit, is running; rutting openly, she breaks the mattress, and with it the whole four-poster bed...” ~Horace, 8 b.c.e.
Clearly, Horace had issues.
• On the Devil
Biblically speaking, Satan was once an angel and therefore should have been a standard of perfection and beauty. According to Eco, it was roundabout the seventeenth century that the uglification of the devil really took off in earnest, thanks mostly to Shakespeare (1564-1616), Marino (1569–1625), Tasso (1544-1595), and Milton (1608-1674).
Shakespeare’s devil can assume the shape of something pleasing, but is otherwise something less so. In Dante’s Inferno, the devil is winged and has three faces on one head. Tasso’s version sports a gaping mouth foaming with blood clots, while Marino’s has ghastly glowing eyes and vomits soot. And then there’s Milton; who can read Paradise Lost and not feel repulsed by the visages he conjures?
• On Ugliness
To wade into Umberto Eco’s tome on unattractiveness is a little daunting. The paperback edition I have weighs about twelve stones. I imagine those that possess the hardcover version had it delivered by forklift or by crane. The color prints and photographs are stunning. Just be aware that Eco is a professor of semiotics, not history. What lies within is much more a philosophy of ugliness than it is an accounting of its progression through time.
rachelevolve's review against another edition
5.0
I LOVED this book!!! At first I was put off by all the literary quotes. Once I realized that they were an essential part of the experience, and not just Umberto Eco overkill, I started really enjoying it. His chapter on evil, hell and purgatory is still imprinted in my soul. If the bit by St. Alphonsus Liguori (preparation for death), doesn't scare you into being a decent human being, I don't know what will. I also learned so much about other writers, poets, and art through cross-referencing, that otherwise would have taken me years to discover. This book is like a bible to me. I keep it by the bed, and wish it would come in travel size.
rationes_seminales's review against another edition
4.0
La calidad es un poco menor que el primero, pero aun así resulta bastante interesante. Sobre todo la primera y última parte. Ilustraciones muy bellas y párrafos memorables.