In search of the lost symbol
One of those little pleasures; kicking back and reading a good book. Except that not every book qualifies. Sometimes, you have to work your way through from beginning to end, just to see if the original premise of the author will hold. I’ve just finished that “awaited bestseller” by Dan Brown, the Lost Symbol, and my critical sense is tingling again.
First, my favourite symbol from this book is the snake that swallows its own tail. My favourite quote, which didn’t originate here, is “Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read black where I read white.” Thank you for that, Mr. Blake.
Dan Brown is a man that should write travel brochures. So many places to visit, filled with wonders for the eye to behold. In his earlier work, he besieged Europe. This time around, the New World, (more particularly Washington D.C.) is shown as a city disguised as a museum of esoteric arcanum (no intended reference to World Of Warcraft here). With a qualified symbologist in tow, a tourist could have a field trip worthy of the name.
Of course, the title of the book is “Lost Symbol”, and if I forget to use italics, the meaning might change. This book differs little from his earlier efforts; the whole world has been hoodwinked, and it takes a man with a rare vision of things to see how the forefathers weren’t really employed as politicians or nation builders. They were (obviously) busy hiding clues in a giant trivial pursuit.
If you’ve seen the movie National Treasure, you have the prerequisite course for this survey. If not, keep Google close at hand, because you’ll need to visualize (constantly). I’m glad that this book was available in ebook format: my sense of environmental awareness wants to save as many trees as possible from a fate worse than death.
