As I ponder what to write about Dan Brown’s new bestseller ” The Lost Symbol“, my mind wonders to visiting our capital again.
My daughter lives in nearby Virginia and maybe a trip is necessary!
I ran across an interesting article here about all the Washington landmarks mentioned in the novel.
After reading ” The Lost Symbol ” these famous vestiges are now filled in my mind with mystery and fascination.
David Plotz at Slate puts Washington mysticism in a familiar light with his quote, ” The fundamental premise of The Lost Symbol is that Washington is a “mystical city,” and it is this error that makes the book so maddening. In Brown’s Washington, the marble, the wide streets, the monuments all signify some kind of connection with the divine. The city encodes transcendental secrets about God and the potential of the human mind. But anyone who has spent more than a Tourmobile ride in D.C. knows that what makes Washington interesting is its very smallness, the contrast between its grand architecture and the human machinations that take place within it. From high to low, from Democracy to The Pelican Brief, Washington novels have exploited and reveled in this human spectacle. There are conspiracies in Washington, but they are conspiracies about money, sex, elections, and public policy. Those are the currencies of our city.” I believe he has missed the point in the book, ” God controls all.”
Reading many reviews from different web sources, I was amused at some of the thoughts, but they are their thoughts and the reviewers are entitled to say as they wish. Here are some of the review titles: ” Not his best work “, ” Predictable “, ” Terrific Book. One of Dan Brown’s Best “, ” Enlightening “, and ” Major Disappointment.” One of the elitist reviewers had this to say ” Brown’s writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad. In some passages scarcely a word or phrase seems to have been carefully selected or compared with alternatives.” This quote was by Geoffrey Pullam here .
Carefully choosing my words about ” The Lost Symbol “, realizing that so many reviews were or are negative , I immensely enjoyed this fast-paced, full of symbolism, truth-finding novel!
Yes, Robert Langdon is the new Indiana Jones!
Sure Professor Langdon is not fighting Nazis, snakes, crystal skulls and etc, but he his using his expertise to find the ” treasure ” just like Indiana!
The myth of pyramids, the authority of a talisman, the gimmick of a magic square, the true meaning of “Apocalypse “ are just a few of the pictorial passageways that Dan Brown takes us down.
A severed hand marked with Masonic tattoos and propped to point to an 1865 painting of George Washington depicted as a pagan god. Why? Whose body does this hand belong?
Who is Peter Solomon?
What does the term Noetic Science mean to you?
An educated, unstable person calls himself Mal’akh , gives us a villain as unique, zealous and eerie as the albino monk Silas in “The Da Vinci Code.” Mal’akh seeks a hidden Masonic pyramid because, the legend goes, it contains the power of transformation. It seems that Mal’akh has to gain the trust not only of Peter but also of Peter’s sister Katherine, a scientist who introduces us to the theme of science versus magic.
Who is this Mal’akh and why did he seek out Peter Solomon? Hhhmmm… Peter did have a son that died in a foreign prison or did he?
How does Robert ” defeat ” this evil man? Can he decipher the codes?
What really lies beneath the Washington Monument?
” The Lost Symbol ” is more like the experience on any roller coaster — thrilling, stimulating and then it’s over.
I really do think you should read this fantastic novel for yourself!
As I look forward to 2010, exciting news from one of my favorite authors, Ken Follett.
After having my internet service down for two days, it was very nice to open my email and find an email from Bookreporter.com stating “Congratulations you are one of ten readers to win 