Fulcrum?

[sniffnoy]

A thought: I remember, when reading Foucault's Pendulum, part of the idea of the plot they came up with was that the Templars had discovered the "fulcrum of the world". And I seem to recall similar stuff elsewhere, though that may just be my memory fooling me. And it occurs to me: Isn't the fulcrum the *least* effective place to make any adjustments? I mean, I suppose locating it could be part of the procedure for finding the most effective place, but that doesn't seem to be how they used the idea, they seem to have been pretty clear on the idea that it was the most effective place to adjust things from.

So what's up with that? Did Eco come up with the term, just liking the lever imagery despite its wrongness? Was it deliberate, because the characters don't really know levers? Did he borrow the phrase from some actual kook he read? Or was it just a simple screwing up of a metaphor?

I don't know, this has just been bugging me.

-Harry

Comments

[joshuazelinsky.livejournal.com]

Given how few Google hits the phrase turns up, I think this is unique to the book.

(Relevant Google search: http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=%22Fulcrum+of+the+word%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=4e781b66e30e329a ).

[sniffnoy.livejournal.com]

Well, that's "word", not "world". The actual hits that come up for "world" make me think I'm misremembering, though.

[joshuazelinsky.livejournal.com]

Well, that was incompetent of me. Now using the correct search the first hit is now this post. Also some of the posts are examples of people almost but not quite using it incorrectly in this way. See e.g. http://www.newsweek.com/2009/11/16/thank-you-g2.html

[sniffnoy.livejournal.com]

I'm also now wondering if I was remembering this right in the first place, but I definitely don't feel like searching through that book right now...