First published with the title Pape Satn̉ Aleppe in Italy by La nave di Teseo in 2016.

The liquid society -- Turning back the clock. Freestyle Catholics and sanctimonious secularists Have we really invented so much? Full speed backward! I remember, I remember -- Being seen. Wave ciao ciao to the camera God is my witness that I'm a fool... I tweet, therefore I am The loss of privacy -- The old and the young. The average lifespan Fair is foul, and foul is fair? Thirteen years misspent Once upon a time there was Churchill A generation of aliens -- Online. My email doubles How to elect the president The hacker is crucial to the system Too much of the internet? But in China... Here's a good game The textbook as teacher How to copy from the internet What's the point of having a teacher? the fifth estate A further note Dogmatism and fallibilism Marina, Marina, Marina I urge you to be brief -- On cell phones. More thoughts on the cell phone Swallowing the cell phone On photography Evolution: all with just one hand The cell phone and the queen in "Snow White" -- On conspiracies. Where's the deep throat? Conspiracies and plots Fine company Don't believe in coincidences The conspiracy on conspiracies -- On mass media. Radiophonic hypnosis There are two Bit Brothers Roberta The mission of the crime story Bin Laden's allies Going to the same place Mandrake, an Italian hero? Are viewers bad for television? Give us today our daily crime Maybe Agamemnon was worse than Bush High medium low "Intellectually speaking" Suspects behaving badly Shaken or stirred? Too many dates for Nero Wolfe Unhappy is the land Time and history -- Forms of racism. Women philosophers Where do you find anti-Semitism? Who told women to veil themselves? Husbands of unknown wives Proust and the Boche From Maus to Charlie -- On hatred and death. On hatred and on love Where has death gone? Our parts -- Religion and philosophy. Seers see what they know European roots The lotus and the cross Relativism? Chance and intelligent design The reindeer and the camel Watch it, loudmouth... Idolatry and iconoclasm lite The cocaine of the people The crucifix, almost a secular symbol Those strangers, the three Kings Mad about Hypatia Halloween, relativism, and Celts Damned philosophy Evasion and secret redress The holy experiment Monotheisms and polytheisms -- A good education. Who gets cited most? Political correctness Thoughts in fair copy Meeting face-to-face The pleasure of lingering -- On books, etc. Is Harry Potter bad for adults? How to protect yourself from the Templars The whiff of books Here's the right angle Journey to the center of Jules Verne Corkscrew space On unread books On the obsolescence of digital media Festschrift The Catcher in the Rye fifty years on Aristotle and the pirates Lies and make-believe Credulity and identification -- From stupidity to folly. No, it's not pollution, it's impurities in the air -- How to get rich on other people's suffering Miss World, fundamentalists, an lepers Return to sender Give us a few more deaths Speaking with license Conciliatory oxymorons The human thirst for prefaces A noncomrade who gets it wrong Saying sorry the Sun still turns What you mustn't do The miraculous Mortacc Joyce and the Maserati Napoleon never existed Are we all mad? Idiots and the responsible press.

Umberto Eco was an international cultural superstar. A celebrated essayist as well as novelist, in this, his last collection, he explores many aspects of the modern world with irrepressible curiosity and wisdom. A crisis in ideological values, a crisis in politics, unbridled individualism ? the familiar backdrop to our lives: a ?liquid society? where it?s not easy to find a polestar, though stars and starlets are not lacking. In these pieces, written by Eco as articles for his regular column in l?Espresso magazine, he brings his dazzling erudition and keen sense of the everyday to bear on topics such as popular culture and politics, being seen, conspiracies, the old and the young, mobile phones, mass media, racism, good manners and the crisis in ideological values. It is a final gift to his readers ? astute, witty and illuminating.

Translated from the Italian.