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From: O'Connor (kerri)
Date: 11/10/99
Time: 5:10:34 PM
Remote Name: 152.163.195.208
While reading this preface I was convinced it was non-fictional. I was also led to believe that Umberto Eco was giving the reader a background knowledge of how the writing of this novel came to be and how he incorporated his characters into this experience. I needed to be reminded that this preface was indeed fictional and held no basis behind the novel's creation, even though it contained many simularities to the novel as a whole.
What I found to be interesting was the confusion and indeciveness felt towards which language the interpretations and translations should be written in. I think this represents a big change in the time of the 14th Century to the present day 20th Century. It is almost as if Eco is implying that the 20th C lacks much of the intelligence and importance that 14th C literature contained. In my opinion, he is suggesting that no matter how hard one tries to get a mirroring effect on writing in the 20th C, it will only and always be a mere reflection of 14th C works, rather than be an exact duplicate as people see while looking in a mirror.