Section X Chapter 6 219-238 Summary and Analysis

The only essay in this section is titled "Cogito Interruptus". Eco begins this essay discussing the experience of reading a book that has no logical flow and is thus difficult to talk about. It is precisely because there are statements of fact that have very little context around them. He uses the example of "And consider also, if you want to dispel any doubt, that four swallows flew past today". It is a kind of mass dispersion of "symbols" without any formula to describe how they are related.

Eco uses two books, one by Hans Sedlmayr called "Art in Crisis: The Lost Center", and another by Marshall McLuhan called "Understanding Media". Eco suggests that both authors use similar facts and arrive at opposite conclusions, one seeing the facts as "symptoms", McLuhan, the other as "symbols...