Page 207 - World of Art Contemporary Art magazine: The 2023 Guggenheim issue

what happens in these domains. I personally have more happened day by day helped me to collect experiences;
experience and am better able to work out from classical to be attentive to what happened, and then to use the
material. In a way I think I have followed this principle. same material in a more organic and more profound, or
Obviously, I keep my eyes open; I am still very curious more articulated and more critical way in my academic
about all this. Really though, I don’t try at any cost to try books.
to understand and write about post-rap music. I am more So, for me, it was a sort of mutual help: the academic
able to make a good analysis of the Beatles, if not, of activity helped me to have instruments to understand
Johann Sebastian Bach. And that’s what happens with all the actualities; the continual attention to day by day
those new technologies. It is the same as what happens events helped me to have material for reflection for my
to a sportsman. You are a football player until the age of academic work. The story of the novel is another one, but
thirty. After 30 you become a coach. equally I don’t feel a split here either in my personality. I
“Yes, exactly. But the coach of course has the feel that what I do on the left side helps what I am doing
responsibility of keeping himself oriented about what is on the right side.
going on...? Different is the point of view of reception. Here there is
Oh yes, keeping informed, but he is not obliged to try to another problem: the fact that you are transformed into
kick the ball every morning. an icon. They are asking you something that you do not
“And also there’s this idea of being a facilitator, rather want to give...
than a user in a conventional way: one sees the “Transformed into an icon: you mean in the sense of
possibilities that are available, and makes them available
for the other people and just says OK...?
Yes, but it is younger people who must make the new
analyses. They are more flexible and they are more
independent of past experience. They do not risk
repeating the same schemes; interpretative schemes. So
why should I make analyses of programs when they are
able to do it better?
“Professor Eco, you are an academic; you’re a scholar.
You also write popular books. You are writing, very
successfully, for two entirely different audiences. Do
you experience any difficulty withstanding tabloidisation
of your work, where the tabloid media and the TV
conform to certain genres and norms which may be UMBERTO ECO, SEMIOTICIAN AND PHILOSOPHER IN CONVERSATION WITH
uncharacteristic of scholarly work?” PETRU RUSSU, FINE ARTIST. PICTURE CREDIT: © MARTA DIMITRESCU
The problem is triple. There is not a single problem, there
are three problems. First, a statement: I write academic becoming an oracle?”
stuff. I write in the newspapers - call it tabloid or popular Yes, an oracle. One is asked all the time, “What do you
journalism. I write my novels that by a mysterious chance think about...?”.
have a mass success, but which I personally consider Now, why should I think anything about that? This
academic novels; and they are not easy novels. They are happens not only to me. At this moment in time, Italian
not love stories or things like that. So, there are three journalism is such that every scholar every day receives
different problems. a phone call asking things like: “What do you think about
Secondly, the problem can be considered from the the marriage of princess so-and-so?”, or even incredibly
point of view of the producer and the point of view of stupid questions like “what do you think about the death
the receiver. As a producer I do not feel I have a split of Greta Garbo?”. Now why should you ask me about
personality. All my life, the fact of studying something this? You answer either with a triviality like, “Well yes,
helped me to write more popular articles in order to she was a great actress, and I was very shocked by that,”
explain the phenomena of the mass-media. or, if you want to be very original: “oh, I am very happy
The fact of being obliged to do this made me make that that lousy whore is dead - I hated her...” Obviously
weekly reflections - I would say irresponsible reflections - your answer cannot be anything other than some kind of
cooked-and-eaten or wash-and-wear reflections on what formality. So it is not only a personal experience of mine,

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