The setting

Where and when is the story taking place?


This story takes place in Washington D.C., in fact the characters remain within the city border during the entire book, except for the very beginning, when Robert gets his phonecall while he is at home, close to Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Of course the location is important, because the entire book is based upon hidden symbols, chambers, buildings etc. which is located in D.C. The book describes an enormous amount of locations withing the city, from, as mentioned, buildings to metrostations, gardens, libraries, churches, underground basements (SSBXIII) and so on, so yes, the location is a huge part of the story in this book.

Is the story credible?

Indeed, again - every place described actually excist, meaning that you can walk the tracks of Langdon for yourself if you go to Washington D.C. That is what I find so interesting about Dan Browns book, the fact that I am able to learn something as I read. Through his books I've learned a lot about symbols, Masons, world history, the vatican, papacy, how an election of a pope is done, about the museum of Louvre, about Da Vinci, Mona Lisa and so on..

Absolutely credible, though quite an amount of fiction is added as well, of course :-)

hurrying through D.C.'s underground!

I just finished off another reading-session, and I am proud to present the fact that I am currently about to start chapter 58/153! (it was 153 I said last time, wasn't it?). Well done, if I'm to say so myself.

I won't spoil whats happening, because my old friend Andreas have taught me to hate spoiling of any sort, if it's about books, movies, video games  or what so ever, but I can say that it all gets pretty damn exciting! The horrible bad-ass of the book reveals his story - excuse me - the story of the badass' life is revealed, though not by himself. The main plot have accelerated in high speed since the last update as well - I've noticed that Browns books do that - they often start off a bit slow, dull, some might say, because there is a lot to explain about the characters, the plot, the setting and so on, and after a 100 pages approximately, the whole action-balloon simply pops, and things really start to happen.

So, instead of revealing what's happening before you get there for yourself, I'll focus on the two tasks you've given us - the character and the setting. I've already written about Robert Langdon in a former blog post, but that was not too consistent or accurate, simply because I was uninformed about the task when I wrote it.

So, some more about Robert Langdon is coming up right now; to make it simple (and add an illusion of me being well organized and structured, because my text will look so neatly set up), I'll make the whole thing listed under the questions we were supposed to answer.

How would you describe the main character(s)?

Robert Langdon is a middle-aged Harvard symbologist. He is an athletic guy, former water polo-champion and an active swimmer. He wears a wristwatch of plastic with Mickey Mouses face on it, and he has claustrophobic tendencies. Quite bad for him, as he again and again over the three books find himself in underground waults, hidden chambers, oxygen-regulated libraries in the Vatican and so on. He is into art, probably because of all the hidden messages and symbols hidden in paintings, sculptures etcetera. He is also interested in architecture, probably of the very same reason as for paintings. Robert is also full of knowledge about the Freemasons, and two of his adventures feature A LOT of links to the masonry - The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown does indeed know a lot about this community of people.

Robert teaches students at Harvard about symbols around us, and different types of symbols that have occurred around the world throughout history. All of the books include heavy amounts of decoding and dechriffering ancient symbols and hidden routes to the next part of his treasure hunt etc. 

Robert have also got quite an amazing amount of powerful friends, both in the US and in Europe.

I'm not sure about what more to add on this question - you would eventually know this, and everything else there is to know about Robert if you've read the former books about him.. Lets move to the next step!

Do you like him/her/them?

I adore Robert Langdon, and I find him totally awesome. Really! 

What literary techniques are used to describe themain character (narrator, language, symbols, etc.)?

Good question.. We get to know Robert over all of the three books, and there is often something new and unexpected we get to know about him, either by his reactions in a specific situation, things he say or things that is told the reader from the narrator. The descriptions doesn't come in line in the first chapters, like in many other books, but we get to know him better and better during the entire series. 

Thats basically it, because of the fact that I am going to bed approximately an hour ago, so right now I'll stop writing this blog and go for an 8 hour powernap, and tell you all about the setting tomorrow.. or the day after tomorrow.. Seeya!

Keeping the reading up..

As my spotify playlist flows out of our stereo, I am buried in Langdons adventure.. He is currently beeing commanded around by the boss of CIAs Office of Security, and it's all quite exciting -which is why I'll return to the book ASAP. Bye!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

a couple o'pages further..

I have now reached chapter 11/132, wohow! Robert Langdon has just been trapped by some uknown maniac, fooled to believe he was meeting an old friend to hold a lecture in Washington D.C. as he is wandering around in either the capitol building or some museum, I think it's the last one, he hears a scream after hanging up with the uknown kidnapper of his friend, and the little tourist boy who made that scream, did it because of a bloody hand which suddenly,  in some weird way has managed to find it's way to the floor of one of the museum halls. I will not spoil anything, because you'll read this later, but hey, this hand has got something on it's fourth finger which give away who's hand it is. Look forward to this, the excitement really starts here!

I really enjoy the way Brown writes about things that really exist, like buildings, artwork, groups of people, signs, scientific phenomenons etc - this guy does a lot of reasearch for his books!! Both of his previous books were written this way, and I find that awesome. He is also adding additional facts about well-known things along the way, like the irony of the statue of liberty being built by slaves - I really learn a lot from reading these books!

The Man (Robert Langdon..)

aaaaa quick intro to the main character of this (so far) trilogy from Mr. Brown.

The main guy this series is all about is ROBERT LANGDON. He is a Harvard Symbologist, and  basically, he knows everthing thats worth knowing of hidden symbols in artwork, statues, buildings or whatever it might be, and he has got quite an amount of those grey ones used for thinking. His ability to see solutions is so good you might expect him to be made up, or be some kind of book hero or something..

in the film versjons of the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons..

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WARNING!!!!

DON'T SEE THE FILM VERSIONS OF THESE GREAT BOOKS - ESPECIALLY NOT THE DA VINCI CODE. IT IS EXTRAORDINARILY BAD, AND NOTHING YOU WOULD WASTE TIME ON. IF YOU SEE THE FILMS WITHOUT READING THE BOOKS FIRST, AND THINK YOU KNOW THE CLUE OF DAN BROWNS NOVELS, I WILL HATE YOU.

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..Robert is played by Tom Hanks, the worlds best actor (in such a movie - doh!). Roberts biggest fear is [SPOILERWARN] dark rooms, lifts and other claustrophobic places, because he once fell into a well as a kid. He carries an awesome watch, a plastic, coloured, overpriced one as you might buy in Disneyland - basically a kids watch with Mickey Mouses face all over it.

That's all you need to know about this guy. He also enjoys swimming in the Harvard Pool. 

Thats it!

Oh, what a start!

Yesterday, as I sat in class, I started reading the book called The Lost Symbol by none other than Dan Brown himself - The writer of the two former adventures of the main character Robert Langdon; "The Da Vinci-Code" and "Angels And Demons" (he also wrote  "Deception Point" and "Digital Fortress", which noone really have heard of, nor read, for that matter).

I've read both tDVC and A&D, which both were great, so I am looking forward to this - though, it might be tough to read the 509-paged colossus of a book AND blogging about it all within 3 weeks.. Is the time limit set to 3 weeks by the way, or was that just some good old BS from Eirik?

Well well well, so I'll keep this blog updated as I read about Langdons newest struggles and strolls trough masonic maniacs and crazy cults - this time in USA - so that my reader (not readerS), will have something to base my upcoming top grade upon, when summer arrives and grades are spread for all winds. I'll do my best!

(what a kickstart..!)