In Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum, there's a discussion between two of the characters, Belbo and Casaubon, which is quite fascinating. Belbo says this to his friend:
"...then last year, when I saw the Pendulum [that hangs in teh Conservatoire des arts et metiers in Paris], I understand everything."
"Everything?"
"Almost everything. you see, Casaubon, even the Pendulum is a false prophet. You look at it, you think it's the only fixed point in the cosmos, but if you detach it from the ceiling of the Conservatoire and hang it in a brothel, it works just the same. And there are other pendulums: there's one in New York, in the UN building, there's one in the science museum in San Francisco, and God knows how many others. Wherever you put it, Foucault's Pendulum swings from a motionless point while the earth rotates beneath it. Every point of the universe is a fixed point: all you have to do is hang the Pendulum from it."
"God is everywhere?"
"In a sense, yes. That's why the Pendulum disturbs me. It promises the infinite, but where to put the infinite is left to me."
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