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    Umberto Eco Possible Worlds PDF

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    Umberto Eco Possible Worlds PDF

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    Delia Ungureanu

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    UMBERTO —ECcCO SIX WALKS IN THE FICTIONAL woobDs HARVARD UNIVERSITY Ress combi Massachusetts and tandon gland Four | POSSIBLE | Once upon a time there was... "8 WOODS | Kina!” my gentle audience wil imme | lately exclaim. That's righ; this time | youve guessed correctly. Once upon a ‘ime thete was Vittoro Emanuele 1, the last king of Hay, sent into exe after the wat. This king did ‘not have much of a reputation for humanistic culture, being more interested in economle and military problems, although he ‘was @ keen collector of ancient coins. The story goes that one day he had to open plnting exhibition. Finding himself in front of a beautiful landscape showing a valley with a village running along the slopes of il he Joked a the tle painted Willage fora Tong time, then tuened tothe director ofthe exh bition and asked “How many inhabitants dos it have?” “The base ule in dealing with a work of ftion i that the reader mus tail accept fictional agreement, which Coerkige falled “the suspension of dsbli.” The reader has to know that twat is belng narrated is an Imaginary story, but he must not therfore lieve thatthe writer selling les. According to John Seale, the author simply prefonds to be tli the truth." We ‘accept the fictional agreement and we prt that what mar ‘ated has realy taken place. Having ad the experience of weiting a couple of novels whch have reached a few million readers, [have become familar with an extraordinary phenomenon. For the fist fe tens of thou Sand of coples (the gure may vary fom country to county), readers generally know perfectly well about this fetional gree: ment. Aterward, and certainly beyond the fist milion mack you get into a no-man-land where one can no longer be sure that readers knov about i In Chapter 115 of my book Foucault’ Pendulum the character called Castubon om the night ofthe twenty-thied to the tent fourth ofJune 1984, afte attending an occult ceremony atthe ‘Conservatlre des Aas et Meter in Pars, was, as possessed, slong the entice length of the re Sain: Martin, ctosts the rae aux Ours, pases the Centre Heauboug, and arives at Sant Meny Church. Afterwant he continues along various sre ll of them named, until he gets to the place des Vosges. In order to write this chapter | walked the same route on several diferent nights, atrying2 tape records, taking notes on what I could see and the impressions 1 had Inde since T have a computer program which can show me what the sky looks lke at any time in any yeas, at whatever longitude oft, even went s0 far a to find out Hf there had been a moon that night, and what postion it occupied in the sky at various times. 1 did this not because 1 wanted to ermulate Erie Zola’ realism, but because | ike to have the scene ‘Ym writing about in front of me while {narrate makes me ‘more familiar with what’ happening and helps meget inside the characters, After publishing the novel, ecelved 2 letter from a man who had evidently gone to the Kibliothtque Nationale to ead al the newspapers ftom June 24, 1984, He had dscovered that on the ‘comer ofthe rue Raum (which I had actully named but which does cos the ue Saint Martin a «certain point, after mignight, more or less atthe tlme Casaubon passed by, there had een ie—and a big fie at tha, the papers had talked about it The reader asked me how Casaubon had managed not ‘To amuse myself, answered that Cason had probably seen the fite but that he hadn't mentioned it for some mysterious reason, unknown to mea pretty ely explanation, given that the story Was 30 thick with mysteries both teat alse, hin that my reader i stil eying o find out why Casaubon kept quiet about the fie, probably suspecting another conspracy by the Knights Templats. ‘But that reader—even though afete by a sort of mld para ‘ola—was not ently mistaken. I had ed him to belleve that im story took place in “teal” Par, and had even inated the day, Ifin the course of such a minute description I had sid that next to the Conservatoire stood Gaus Sagiade Familia, the teader would have been right to get annoyed, because if we ate Jn Paris we are notin Barcelona, Did our reader really have the right to go looking for a fie which had actualy taken place in Pais tht ight but which wasn’ in my book? | maitain that my reader was exaggerating when he pre- tended that a fitional story should wholly match the actual ‘work It refers to; but the problem snot quite as simple as that. ‘Before passing final jucgment, lee have look a ust how guilty King Vittorio Emanuele it was, ‘Whien we enter the fictional wood we ae certainly supposed to sign a fictional agreement with the author, and we are ready to acept, say, that wolves speak; but when Little Red Riding Hood is eaten by the wol, we tink she's dead (and this conve ton is vital tothe readers extraordinary pleasure In het tes rection). We think of the wolf as shaggy and pointy-eared, mote ‘ores lke the wolves one finds in real woods, and it sem quite ‘natural that Little Red Riding Hood fiehaves ikea ite gil and hher Mummy like a grown-up, worsed and responsible. Why? Because thts what happens in the world of our experience, a work! that for now, without too many ontological commit. ‘ments, we'l eal the actual word What rm saying may sem very obvious, but it st if we are hanging on to our dogma of suspension of dsbeli. t would appear that when reading a yotk of fiction we suspend out Aisbelet about some things but not others. And given that the Boudaris btnen wat me hae 10 Rel in and what we Wont are rts at me al), how an Sern oor ok Vitor Emin? Ihe sec ee, ‘niche seh eeent of he pea eco lyfe pene hea eng at a eae Laban the vile hd. he eae hy Scoala imgined hse wang ng ls why sou he aves mt wa ea Ser and wth he might fin gut ite wed their ms pty wali oe yo ee oh ht the ilage was sinatra matter Tis rely tneatiaca ee ster vel or vu. Sch Wo enon ee Sounds of wortdand ek us ene maperanae Wey the end fhe pres tr ot te way in which Mann dcrbing the Late of Cony we abr oe fs Gregor Sams awoke one moming om uneasy seams, he found himsef wansormedin his ed Ino a gly re Atice beginning to a story which i certainty quite fantastic! Eites e believe it or well have to throw away the when ‘fla “Metamorphosis” But et canyon with our adn, He ws ling on Bs hard, i were armoured, back and rien he Hf his head ite he could se hs domes on ‘This description seems to intensify the unbelievable nature of hat has happened, yet reduces itt acceptable proportions Its amaring that a man wales up to find himself tansfrmed into an insect but ifn fact he has done so, this insect must have the ‘oral features ofa normal insect, These few lies of Kaa’ are 4 example of realism, not suresism. We jast have to pretend {0 believe that this ordinary insect is “igati," whichis atually {ule atall order forthe fictional agreement. On the other hand, ven Gregor can hardly believe his own eyes: “What has hap ened to me?" he asks himsell As we ourselves would tna similar situation. But let o on. The fllow-up tothe description 4s by no means fantastc but i absolutely reals was no dream. Hs room, regu human bedroom, only father foo small lay quiet betwee the four familar wale. > And the description continues, presenting a bedroom like many ‘others we have encountered. Further on it wil seem absurd that Gregor parents and ster, without asking themselves too many ‘uestions, accept that their relative has Become an insect, bot ther reaction to the monster is the one that anyother inhab, fant ofthe real world would have: they are teified, dlsgusted, ‘overwhelmed. To ut it bre, Katka needs to set hi unweit, lar story ln vetisimilar background. If Gregor also found a falling wo i his bedroom and together they decided to go off fo a Mad Hates tes party, we would have another stow ok though thi, too, would have many aspects ofthe teal old a Daekgtound, Bat lets try to imagine a woeld even more uvezsinar than Kafka’. Edwin Abbot, in his novel Flatland, has conceived of such a word hh he presents tous inthe wots of one of ts Inhabitants, im his fist chapter, “OF the Natute of Flatland”? Imagine avast sheet of paper on which staight Lines, ranges, Squares, entagons, Heragons and other fires inven ofr ining feed in thelr places, move fely about on ot ln the surface but without the power of eng above ong belo 1 very much ike shadows-only hard and wth luminous fcges—and you wil then havea prety cone! noon of my county ad couateyme. fe looked at this todimensional word! from above, 25 we Took at the figues of Euclid in a geometzy book, we would be al to ecognize Is inhabitants. But forthe dwelt in Flatland, the notion of “above” doesn’t exist, because it’ concept that requires the thd dimension. So the Hatanders can't recognize fone another by sight ‘ie could noting of the hind, nota lest ss to tn gush one figure from another Nothing ws ise, nor coukt wise 10 us, except Stralght Lines, Incase the rede find this situation untkely, Abbots quick to point out how possible it sin terms af our experience ofthe eal word ‘When 1 was in Spaceland {heard that your slo have ery simile experience while they tavese jour seas and escem Some dlstant land or cost ying on the horizon, The fa land may have bys foreland, angle in and ott any member and exten yetat distance you see none ofthese, nothing but a grey unbroken line upon the water. From an apparently imposible fact, Abbott deduces the con ‘ions of posiblty by making an analogy to what is possible inthe rel world, And since for the Flatlands diferences in shape mean diferences of sex or of este, and since they there- fore have to know how to distinguish a triangle from a pentagon, Abbott shows, with great ingenuity, how itis possible for the lower cases to recognize the others by voce or touch (Chapter S: "Of Our Methods of Recognising One Another"), while the Upper clases can make such distinctions by sight, thanks to a provident feature of that woxid—namely, that I is always blanketed by fo, Here then, as in Newa, fog plays an important role—although this time isnot an effect ofthe discourse ut 3 “real” feature of the story, 11 Fog were non-existent, al nes would appear equally and Indistiogultably clear Bat wherever there i rch supply of Fog objects that ae at distance, ay of thee et, ae app clbly dimer thin thowe at'+ distance of to fst eleven Ines and the rest that by careful and constant expernen tal observation of comparative dmness and eames, we ae enabled to infer wlth peat exactness the contgutation ofthe ‘objet cbserved. (Chapter 6 “OF Recognition by Sigh") To renvder the proceedings more probable, Abbot presents Various regula figures, lth a great show of exact geometrical calculation. He thus explain, for example, that when we meet a triangle in Hatland, we naturally apprehend top angle a6 very bright because I Is neater o the observer, hile on ether side the nes wil fade away rapidly Hnto dimess because the ‘to sides recede int the fog. We have to summon al ou kno ‘edge of geomety sequited in the real world to ener this unteal ‘world posable ‘We could say that, however improbable, Abbott's world ls nevertheless geometsically or perceptually posible—just as in realty 1s posible that, through an accident in the evolton ofthe species, once upon atime thee were wolves with certain phonatory organs or rain characterstis that allowed them to speak ‘ut a5 critics have shown, there ae such things as “evo Ing” Retions—that fictional texte that demonstrate thelr own Impossibility. According to a beaut analysis by Lvbomit Doleie, in these worlds, at in Flatland, an author can bring posible entities Into fctlonal existence by applying “conven: tional authentication proceduses yet “the sats of ths ex tence 1s made dubious beeause the very foundation of the authentiating mechanism Is undermined.” Doles! quotes, for instance, Robbe Gale's La Maison de rendezvous (The Hse of Assignation, which appears tobe an impossible world because a) one and the same event Is introduced in several conflcting, versions; b) one and the same place (Hong-Kong) Is and isnot the setting of the nove; c) evens ae ordered in contradictory ‘temporal sequences (A precedes B, 8 precedes A; d) one and the same fitonal entity recurs In several existential modes (as Sitional ‘elt’ or theater perfomance o sculpture or painting ete" Certain authors have sugested that good visual metaphor ofa selewoiding ftion i the celebrated pila illusion shown, {in Figure 1), which ona fist “reading” givesboth the impression ofa coherent world and the feeling of some inexplicable impos sity. On a second reading (to read it propery, ane shoul try to design 1), one reais how and why itl baimensionally possible but tidimensionaly abstr Yet even in thls case the impossibility of univers in which ‘igure 11 can exis drives from the fact that we tend to think such a universe operates acconting tothe same ls of solid scometry that obtain inthe real sold. Obeousy, these las hold, the figure is impossible. But asa mater af fact, this fire Is not geometrically imposible, and the proof is that it wae Possible fo design iton a bidimensional surface. We are sim DIV misled when we apply to i not only the rules of plane _Reomety bt also the rules of perspective used in drawing thee ‘dimensional objects. This figure would be possible not only in Fatland but also in our own word, if we did not take the shading a5 a representation of shades on a thee-dimen: sional structure. And so we must admit that in order to be In presed, dstubed, frightened, oF touched by even the most Impossible of works, we must rely upon our knowledge of the actual one. In other words, we ought to take the real word as bckgrowne. ‘This means that Retonal words ae parastes of the tel word “Theres no rule that prescribes the number of tional elements that are acceptable sn a work. In fact there isa great deal of ‘variety here—forms such as the fable, for instance, ted ws to accept correctives to out knowledge of the real world at every step. But everything thatthe text dost name or describe ex- plc as diferent from what exit in the real world must be Understood 3s corresponding to the Inws and conditions of the real wold. aller in these lectures I cited two tonal passages in wich there was a horse apd a carriage. The fist one, by Achille Cam- panile, made us laugh because the character Gedoone, asking a ‘oachman to come and pick him up the nextday, specie’ that the ought to bring the coach as weland by the way, "Don't forget the horse!” We auged because # seemed obvious that the Inorse had to come top, even iit hadn't been mentioned exp iy. We encountered another coach in Sie: dating the night, it takes ur narator toward Lois. If you read the pages where ‘that journey described (but you can trast me on this sere), you wil se that the hore is never mentioned. So maybe that horse doesn't exist in Si, sce It doesn't appear inthe text? ‘ett docs exist. Whlle reading, you imagine toting through ‘the ight, imparting a bumping movement to the eariage, and 1 under the physical induence of those soft bamps that the naretor, a5 istening oa allay, begins once moe to dream. But let us suppose weae not very imaginative readers: we read [Nerval and we don't think about the hore. Now let us suppose that, once he had arrived at Lois, the navator had ted ws: " stepped out ofthe coach and | found that throughout the whole Journey trom Paris it had not been dawn by arse,” Sensitve readers would no doubs stat and would hurry back to read the book from the beginning, because they had settled into a story ‘of delicate and scarey definable feelings in the best romantic pint, whereas they should instead have been settling into a Gothic novel. Or perhaps they were reading a romantic variation ‘of Cinderela, and the carriage was actually drawn by mice To sum up, there is horse In ye exists in the sense that It snot necessary to say there is one, but you cant say there jan one. Rex Stout’ detective stores take place ln New York City, and Ins readers agree to pretend that character called Nero Wolte, Archie Goodwin, Fitz and Saul Panzer ext; in fact, readers, even accept that Wolfe lives in a sindstone house on West ‘Thinty-fth Steet, near the Hudson River. They could goto New York and se iit cally exists, or it existed in the year in which Stout sets sta bt they usally don't bother I ay “usually” boecatise oe all know that there are people who go looking for Sherlock Holmes’ house in Baker Steet, and 1 happen tobe one fof those who has gone looking for the house in Feces Stet in Dublin whete Leopold Bloom is suppoed to have lived, But these are episodes of itera fanship--which ie a pletsant activ ly, and moving a times, but diferent from the reading of texts ‘To be.a good reader of Joyce, I'S not necessary to edlebrate Bloomsdy on the banks ofthe Ley. ‘ut although we accept that Wolfes house i where t wasn't and isn't, we couldnt accept that Archie Goodin has a tax fon Fifth Avenue and asks to be taken to Alexaderplat—be- ‘cause, a Doblin has taught us, Alexanderplatz in Berlin. And If Archie were to leave Nero Wolfe's home (on West Thity-fith Stet), tuen the corner, and find bimsel straightaway on Wall Steet, we would be [usted in believing that Stout had gone ‘over toa efferent Kind of ftion and wanted to tll us ofa world analogous o that of Kafhas The Dl, where K goes into a bil: Ing atone point inthe ety and comes out from the building at another. But in Kafa’s story we must accep that we are moving, {na non-fucldcan world, mobile an last, a i we were tving ‘nan immense plee of chewed chewing su ‘Thus I seems that readers have to know a lot of things about the actual world inorder to take it as the coreect background of the fictional one. But at this point we face a predicament. On the one hand, insofar as it fells us the story of only 8 few characters, usually in 2 weltefined time and place, a fictional lunvesse can be seen as a small word infinely more limited than the actual one. On the other hand, insofar a it adds some Individuals, properties, and events to the whole ofthe actual universe (which serves as ts background), i an be considered seater than the world of our experince. From this point of lew, a fictional universe doesnt end with the story self but extend indefinitely In reality, tonal worlds are parasites ofthe actual one, but they are in effect “small worlds" which bracket most of out ‘competence of the actual word and allow us to concentrate on a finite, enclosed world, very similar to ours but ontologeally poorer. Since we cannot wander outside its boule, we ate Jel to explore It in depth. ts for thi reason that Sve such 4 magical work. It indeed requis that we know an pretend to ‘know something about Pars and the Valois, and even about Rousseau and the Medi beause it names them; yet ft demands that we walk in that limited work over and over again without wondering about the ret of the actu world, In reading Sve we cannot deny that there is 3 howe, but we ae not requested to know everything about horses. On the contrary, we ate ‘obliged to muse over and over again about the woods of Los. nan essay published long ago, 1 wrote that we know Julien Sore (he main character of Stendhal’ Le Rouge etl noi) better ‘than our own fathec® Many aspects of our father will always ‘scape us (thoughts he kept quet about, ations apparently wn explained, unspoken affections, secrets kept hidden, memories and events of his

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