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Article: The master of semiotic thrillers. (Conversation - Italian philosopher Umberto Eco)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- November 20, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The master of semiotic thrillers
What audience do you have in mind when you write your books?
Every author, even a writer of Harlequin novels, foresees two readers, though they may both be the same person. The first is the one I call the "naive" reader, the one who reads to know what happens. Then there is the "critical" reader, who goes backward or rereads, though not necessarily physically, to see how the book convinced him as a naive reader. Evey act of reading involves these two levels, and once there are two there can be 2,000. You have a book like Joyce's Finnegan's Wake that a reader can reread 10,000 times and every time discover a new ...