Cult of Dan Brown: Umberto Eco's Multiple Name

Ah, Luther Blissett; if the movement didn't already exist, Umberto Eco would have to create it

Luther Blissett is a multiple-name, in the sense that anyone can call themselves "Luther Blissett" and perform actions in that identity's name. The name itself is not important, it's the identity that matters. The idea is that thousands of activists around the world can do things under a single identity, without there needing to be any real person or organization by that name. By signing their articles or artwork "Luther Blissett," they effectively express their solidarity with other like-minded individuals, while remaining effectively anonymous.

In a way, it's like putting on a Santa costume to assume the identity of Santa Claus--there are "Santas" in every shopping mall during the Christmas season, and they're all supposed to act in the name of "Santa," according to established notions about that identity.

The connection to Foucault's Pendulum stems from the moral of Eco's story--that in our quest for God, for ultimate wisdom, for answers to the great mysteries of life, we too easily miss the forest for the trees. We seduce ourselves into seeing patterns where none exist, and we ascribe undue importance to ultimately mundane things, while completely overlooking what's really important. Eco's novel ridicules those intellectuals who take themselves so seriously that they're motivated more by their egos than by a genuine search for truth. In being willing to believe the unbelievable, they discard rational skepticism and good science in an effort to juxtapose their desired fantasy upon the real world in a way that makes sense. Eco exposes the folly of reshaping our perceptions of reality just to make them fit with the fantasies we want to believe.

The "pranks" attributed to Luther Blissett take this lesson of Eco's and apply it to all sorts of contexts of modern life, but the most common targets have been media outlets, who embarrass themselves by failing to verify facts before running sensational stories fed to them by an anonymous source (who eventually identifies himself as Luther Blissett as the punchline). Think of it as a variant of Candid Camera or Punk'd, but with the intent of embarrassing individuals or groups that deserve to be shamed--it's a very public form of constructive criticism.

It's also intended to remind the rest of us that we shouldn't take all the news and claims we hear at face value. By showing us how easily so-called journalists will swallow a sensational story unsupported by facts, Luther Blissett hopes we'll stop swallowing tabloid stories about five-headed Elvis babies. That's something that Umberto Eco would like very much, I suspect.

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