On the Possibility of Generating Aesthetic Messages in an Edenic Language - Eco

1979

“AA = Yes

BB = No

ABA = Edible

BAB = Inedible

ABBA = Good

BAAB = Bad

ABBBA = Serpent

BAAAB = Apple

ABBBBA = Beautiful

BAAAAB = Ugly

ABBBBBA = Red

BAAAAAB = Blue”

(P.93)

“It is perfectly true that certain habits of perception entitle us to go on referring to the apple as a /red/, even when we are quite conscious that it has been connotatively assimilated to that which is bad and inedible and, therefore, to Blue. The sentence,

BAAB. ABBBBBA (the apple is red).

is directly contradicted by the other sentence,

BAAAB. BAAAAAB (the apple is blue).” (P.97)

“ABBBBBABAAAAAB (the redblue).

……

Adam says /redblue/, and then, instead of looking at the apple, he repeats to himself in a slightly dazed and childish way that lump of curious sounds. For the first time perhaps he is observing words rather than the things they stand for.” (P.97)

“(E)ver since he started to manipulate language, he has been inclined to see himself as being on the side of God. ” (P.100)

Eco. Umberto, Page 90-104, “On the Possibility of Generating Aesthetic Messages in an Edenic Language”, The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts. Indiana University Press, 1979.