May 13th, 2012
You don’t play pinball just with your hands, you play it with your groin too. The pinball problem is not to stop the ball before it’s swallowed by the mouth at the bottom, or to kick it back to midfield like a halfback. The problem is to make it stay up where the lighted targets are more numerous and have it bounce from one to another, wandering, confused, delirious, but still a free agent. And you achieve this not by jolting the ball but by transmitting vibrations to the case, the frame, but gently, so the machine won’t catch on and say Tilt. You can do it only with the groin, or with a play of the hips that makes the groin not so much bump, as slither, keeping you on this side of an orgasm. — Umberto Eco, FILENAME: Pinball from Foucault’s Pendulum (translation by William Weaver)
64 notes Source: frenchtwist #quotes#literature#umberto eco#foucault's pendulum#filename: pinball#women#sexuality
December 9th, 2011
The pleasures of love are pains that become desirable, where sweetness and torment blend, and so love is voluntary insanity, infernal paradise, and celestial hell — in short, harmony of opposite yearnings, sorrowful laughter, soft diamond. — Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before (via frenchtwist)
154 notes Source: frenchtwist #quotes#literature#umberto eco#the island of the day before
May 27th, 2011
(via El Desván del Abuelito: Una lección de patriotismo) “ Having an enemy is important not only to define our identity, but also to supply a barrier against which to measure our value system and show, as we face it, our own value .  The war allows people to be recognized as a nation, peace and juvenile delinquency causes instability, war, more fairly encuaza [?can’t seem to get this correctly translated] all turbulent forces them status. “ Umberto Eco, Construir al enemigo (2008)

(via El Desván del Abuelito: Una lección de patriotismo)

“ Having an enemy is important not only to define our identity, but also to supply a barrier against which to measure our value system and show, as we face it, our own value . 

The war allows people to be recognized as a nation, peace and juvenile delinquency causes instability, war, more fairly encuaza [?can’t seem to get this correctly translated] all turbulent forces them status. “

Umberto Eco, Construir al enemigo (2008)

79 notes Source: eldesvandelabuelito.blogspot.com #umberto eco#Construir al enemigo#2008