Page 213 - World of Art Contemporary Art magazine: The 2023 Guggenheim issue

“But again, you can’t get away from this idea of trust and changed things. For example in 16th century books they
community. Because, obviously, if you want to find out tried to develop the first rights of protection. They called
things, then normally, in everyday life, you go to people it: privilege du roi. It was one page saying that the king
that you trust, who you think have a fairly good overview, has decided that nobody could use what was in the book
and you ask them, “Well listen, there’s too much here, without permission. Today we have this:
can’t you give me a pointer.” Eco scribbles a sign on the paper, and shows it to me.
Yes, that is a possibility. But you know one of the first “Yes, copyright ((c)), sure.”
great events on the early nets was the story of George Now today, that is enough. OK, we have observed that it
Lakoff, who wrote this beautiful article on the Gulf War. was useless to have a page of privilege du roi when we
He understood that it was too late to have it published have this one which means exactly the same thing. So it
before the war. He didn’t know anything at the time is not something absolutely new. Every new technology
about the Net, but he gave the article to a friend who introduces new idioms...
had “connections”. The day after, people were xeroxing “Or even norms?”
this article in Bologna, in Amsterdam, in Sidney, all over ...norms that at the beginning can terrorise the old
the world! The article propagated because of a network, academic who says things like: “Oh our language is being
but more than that. It was because the opinion of a man corrupted!” They become...
called George Lakoff was... “Accepted and functional in a new way...?”
“...worth reading, yes exactly!”
But then you have this other problem that publishing
happens very quickly. You can publish instantly
on the Net. And with speed, follows brevity. I have
noticed that newer generations of computer users are
learning to communicate in very abbreviated codes.
I discovered recently a new formula they use...
Eco takes out a notebook from the desk, and begins to
write.
...which in Italian sounds very obscene: CUL8R, “See you
later”. Yes, you can write a love-letter in this way with
the same intensity of heart...
“This is a kind of phenomenon of virtual communities,
because it is so instantaneous a form of communication,
and we also see a merging of oral and written language
in a lot of these discussion groups. There’s very much
a merging of these kinds of things. Do you think this UMBERTO ECO IN CONVERSATION WITH PETRU RUSSU, FINE ARTIST. PICTURE
CREDIT: © MARTA DIMITRESCU
will have an effect on publishing per se; on the literary
norms, on literacy?”
In the longer term I think so, yes, probably. ...and independent. In the sixties all the letters I got from
Eco continues writing. the States ended with “love”, which had lost
You know that under the Mona Lisa of Duchamp there is its erotic, sexual connotations. I could write, you know,
this acronym -pseudo acronym, which read “L.H.O.D.O.Q.” “love”, why not?
- in French this is elle a chaud au cul: “Her ass is “Peace and love?”
burning”. Obviously this was made by Duchamp in his Yes. Once you have accepted the new custom it becomes
Dadaist period, it remained a shibboleth for the happy normalised. Now I see it has disappeared.
few, but I think CUL8R can also become a form. The first time I received it from a friend I said: “Oh, did he
“So you expect written norms to change?” become homosexual?” No, he did not of course.
Why not? Once I have discovered it, and once I have told “In your article from that seminar at San Marino on the
it to some friends, I will use it in my letters. future of the book, you mentioned Rube Goldberg.”
Why not? This can also change the epistolary style of Well, I mentioned Rube Goldberg because somebody
many people. But to me this is a minor problem, because there mentioned him, so it was not an idea of mine but
there are a lot of technological innovations that have taking up the suggestion of somebody else.
“But you said a Rube Goldberg model seems to you the

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