Eco: Foucalt's Pendulum eco foucault (highly illogical behavior txt) 📖

I had thought thatProject Hermes was the rough sketch of an idea, not a plan ofaction. But I didn't yet know Signer Garamond. In the days thatfollowed, while I stayed late in libraries looking forillustrations about metals, at Manutius they were already atwork.

Two months later inBelbo's office, I found, hot off the press, an issue of The ItalicParnassus, with a long article, "The Rebirth of Occultism," inwhich the well-known Hermeticist Dr. Moebius¡XBelbo's newpseudonym, and source of his first bonus from ProjectHermes¡Xtalked about the miraculous renaissance of the occultsciences in the modern world and announced that Manutius intendedto move in this direction with its new series "IsisUnveiled."

Meanwhile, SignerGaramond had written letters to various reviews of Hermeticism,astrology, tarot, UFOlogy, signing one name or another andrequesting information about the new series announced by Manutius.Whereupon the editors of the reviews telephoned Manutius,requesting information, and Signor Garamond acted mysterious,saying he could not yet reveal the first ten titles, which were,however, in the works. In this way theworld of the occultists,stirred by constant drumming of the tomtoms, was now alerted toProject Hermes.

"We disguise ourselvesas a flower," Signer Garamond said, having summoned us to hisoffice, "and the bees will come swarming.''

That wasn't all.Garamond wanted to show us the flier (the depliant, he called it):a simple affair, four pages, but on glossy paper. The first pagereproduced what was to be the uniform cover of the books in theseries: a kind of golden seal (the Pen-tacle of Solomon, Garamondexplained) on a black ground; the page was framed by interwovenswastikas (but Asian swastikas, Garamond hastened to add, whichwent in the direction of the sun, not the Nazi kind, which wentclockwise). At the top, where each volume's title would go, werethe words "There are more things in heaven and earth..." The flierextolled the glories of Manutius in the service of culture, thenstated, with some catchy phrases, that the contemporary worldsought truths deeper and more luminous than those science couldprovide: "From Egypt, from Chaldea, from Tibet, a forgottenknowledge¡Xfor the spiritual rebirth of the West."

Belbo asked where theflier would go, and Garamond smiled like the evil genius of therajah of Assam, as Belbo would have said. "From France I've ordereda directory of all the secret societies in the world today. Itexists. Here it is. Editions Henry Veyrier, with addresses, postalcodes, phone numbers. Take a look at it, Belbo, and eliminate thosethat don't apply, because I see it also includes the Jesuits, OpusDei, the Carbonari, and Rotary. Find all the ones with occulttendencies. I've already underlined some."

He leafed through it."Here you are: the Absolutists (who believe in metamorphosis), theAetherius Society of California (telepathic relations with Mars),the Astara of Lausanne (oath of absolute secrecy), Atalanteans inGreat Britain (search for lost happiness), Builders of the Adytumin California (alchemy, cabala, astrology), Cercle E. B. ofPerpignan (dedicated to Hator, goddess of love and guardian of theMountain of the Dead), Cercle Eliphas Levi of Maule (I don't knowwho this Levi is; perhaps that French anthropologist or whatever hewas), Knights of the Templar Alliance of Toulouse, Druidic Collegeof Gaul, Couvent Spiritualiste de Jericho, the Cosmic Church ofTruth in Florida, Traditionalist Seminar of Econe in Switzerland,the Mormons (I read about them in a detective story, too, but maybethey don't exist anymore), the Church of Mithra in London andBrussels, the Church of Satan in Los Angeles, the United Lu-ciferanChurch of France, the Apostolic Rosicrucian Church in Brussels,Children of Darkness and Green Order on the Ivory Coast (let'sforget that one; God knows what language they write in), EscuelaHermetista Occidental of Montevideo, the National Institute ofCabala in Manhattan, the Central Ohio Temple of Hermetic Science,Tetra-Gnosis of Chicago, Ancient Brethren of the Rosie-Cross ofSaint Cyr-sur-Mer, Johannite Fraternity for the TemplarResurrection in Kassel, International Fraternity of Isis inGrenoble, Ancient Bavarian Illuminati of San Francisco, theSanctuary of Gnosis of Sherman Oaks, the Grail Foundation ofAmerica, Sociedade do Graal do Brasil, Hermetic Brotherhood ofLuxor, Lectorium Rosicrucianum in Holland, the Grail Movement ofStrasbourg, Order of Anubis in New York, Temple of the BlackPentacle in Manchester, Odinist Fellowship in Florida, the Order ofthe Garter (even the Queen of England must be in that one), theOrder of the Vril (neo-Nazi Masons, no address), Militia Templi inMontpellier, Sovereign Order of the Solar Temple in Monte Carlo,Rosy Cross of Harlem (you understand? Even the blacks now), Wicca(Luciferine association of Celtic obedience; they invoke theseventy-two geni of the cabala)...Need I go on?"

"Do all those reallyexist?" Belbo asked.

"Those and more. Towork, gentlemen. Draw up a definitive list. Then we'll do ourmailing. Include all those foreigners; news travels fast amongthem. One thing remains for us to do: we have to go around to theright shops and talk not only with the booksellers but also withthe customers. Mention that such-and-such a seriesexists."

Diotallevi objected thatwe shouldn't expose ourselves in this way; we should find people todo it for us. Garamond told him to find some, "provided they'refree."

"That's asking a lot,"Belbo said when we were back in his office.

But the gods of theunderworld were protecting us. At that very moment LorenzaPellegrini came in, more solar than ever, making Belbo brighten.She saw the fliers and was curious.

When she heard about theproject of the firm next door, she said: "Terrific! I have thisfantastic friend, an ex-Tupamaro from Uruguay, who works for amagazine called Picatrix. He's always taking me to seances. There,I met a fantastic ectoplasm; he asks for me now every time hematerializes!"

Belbo looked at Lorenzaas if to ask her something, then changed his mind. Perhaps he wasbecoming accustomed to hearing about Lorenza's alarming friends andhad decided to worry only about the ones that threatened hisrelationship with her (did they have a relationship?). In thatreference to Picatrix he saw the threat not of the colonel but ofthe fantastic ex-Tupamaro. But Lorenza was now talking aboutsomething else, telling us that she visited many of those littleshops that sold the kind of books Isis Unveiled wanted topublish.

"That's a real trip, youknow," she was saying. "They tell all about medicinal herbs or listinstructions for making a ho-munculus, remember what Faust did withHelen of Troy. Oh, Jacopo,