Professor Robert Langdon is a fictional character created by author Dan Brown for his Robert Langdon book series: Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013) and Origin (2017).^[1] He is a Harvard University professor of history of art and 'symbology' (a fictional field related to the study of historic symbols, which is not methodologically connected to the actual discipline of semiotics).

The films, based on the novel series written by Dan Brown, center around the fictional character of Robert Langdon. Though based on the book series, the films have a different chronological order, consisting of: The Da Vinci Code (2006), Angels & Demons (2009) and Inferno (2016). By Dan Brown. 3.71 515889 Ratings 27095 Reviews published 2009 12 editions. WHAT IS LOST. WILL BE FOUND In this stunning follo.

Tom Hanks portrays Langdon in the Robert Langdon film series, starting with the 2006 film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, reprising the role in the 2009 film adaptation of Angels & Demons, and again in the 2016 film adaptation of Inferno.^[2]

Character development[edit]

Dan Brown created the character as a fictional alter ego of himself or 'the man he wishes he could be'. Brown himself was born June 22, 1964, in Exeter, New Hampshire, and the fictional Langdon is described as having been born on June 22, also in Exeter, and attending the same school as Brown did, Phillips Exeter Academy. Initially it is established that Langdon is a successful scholar who Brown named after John Langdon,^[3] a professor of typography at Drexel University who is known for his creation of ambigrams. An example of Langdon's ambigrams appeared on the cover of the first edition of Brown's novel Angels & Demons, and other ambigrams featured throughout that novel were also designed by Langdon. On the acknowledgments page, Brown calls Langdon 'one of the most ingenious and gifted artists alive … who rose brilliantly to my impossible challenge and created the ambigrams for this novel'. John Langdon also created the logo for the fictitious Depository Bank of Zurich, which appears in The Da Vinci Code film.

In an interview, Brown said that Joseph Campbell was an inspiration for the character of Langdon:

Storyline[edit]

Robert Langdon, born in Exeter, New Hampshire, United States, is described as looking like 'Harrison Ford in Harris tweed',^[5] with his standard attire being a turtleneck, Harris Tweed jacket, khakis, and collegiate cordovan loafers, which he wears in all instances, from lectures to social events.^[6] A frequently referred to accessory is his Mickey Mouse watch, a gift from his parents on his ninth birthday.^[7] He drives an automatic Saab 900S.^[8][9]

Langdon was a diver at Phillips Exeter Academy in prep school and played water polo at Princeton University where he went for college. He suffers from claustrophobia, as he fell into a well when he was 7 years old. His father died when he was 12, and his new mentor father-figure became Peter Solomon,^[10] Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.^[11]

Known for a brilliant problem-solving mind and his genius, Langdon has an eidetic memory. As professor at Harvard University, he teaches religious iconology and the fictional field of symbology. As a hobby it is specifically mentioned that Langdon is a great swimmer and swam laps (50) daily, a 'morning ritual,' at Harvard's athletic facilities (hence the lap swimming scene in Angels & Demons). Langdon also mentions he was raised a Catholic, but that he will never understand God; in A&D, he mentions to the Camerlengo that faith is a gift he has yet to receive.

In the books, the events of The Da Vinci Code follow those of Angels & Demons; this was reversed in the movies, where the latter's adaptation is written to be the sequel to the former.^[12]

Angels & Demons[edit]

In Angels & Demons, Robert Langdon is called to CERN headquarters in Switzerland to find about the religious symbological implications of the death of CERN's finest and best-known physicist, Leonardo Vetra, a Catholic priest who has been branded with the Illuminati symbol. When he starts to investigate the murder, his obsession for the subject history comes into play. Langdon is later joined in the investigation by Vittoria Vetra (Leonardo's adopted daughter) and they start their journey to the Vatican to unlock the mystery behind the Illuminati, an anti-Catholic secret society which, according to the plot, has deeply infiltrated many global institutions, political, economical and religious. Langdon and Vetra solve the mystery of the Illuminati by following the Path of Illumination^[13] and in so doing explain the disappearances of four Cardinals during a papal conclave, the murder of Leonardo Vetra, and the theft of antimatter (a substance that can be used for mass destruction). At the end of the novel, Langdon ends up having a relationship with Vittoria Vetra. In the last few sentences of Angels & Demons, Vittoria Vetra asks him if he has ever had a divine experience. When he replies in the negative, Vittoria slips off her terrycloth robe, saying, 'You've never been to bed with a yoga master, have you?' Their relationship, however, is only referred to in The Da Vinci Code, mentioning the fact that Langdon had last seen Vittoria a year previously.

The Da Vinci Code[edit]

In the beginning of 2003's The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon is in Paris to give a lecture on his work. Having made an appointment to meet with Jacques Saunière, the curator of the Louvre, he is startled to find the French police at his hotel room door. They inform him that Saunière has been murdered and they would like his immediate assistance at the Louvre to help them solve the crime. Unknown to Langdon, he is in fact the prime suspect in the murder and has been summoned to the scene of the crime so that the police may extract a confession from him. While he is in the Louvre, he meets Sophie Neveu, a young cryptologist from the DCPJ. When Langdon and Sophie get the chance to talk in private, he finds out that Jacques Saunière is her grandfather. Saunière instructs Sophie to 'find Robert Langdon', according to the message he left for her in the floor. Hence, Sophie believes he is innocent of her grandfather's murder.

He spends the rest of the novel dodging the police and trying to solve the mystery of an ancient secret society, the Priory of Sion, which was once headed by Leonardo da Vinci. At the end of the novel, Langdon uncovers the mystery behind Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail also called Sangreal, derived from either the Spanish 'San Greal' (the Holy Grail), or the French 'Sang real' (royal blood).

The Lost Symbol[edit]

In The Lost Symbol, Robert Langdon has an adventure with the concepts of Freemasonry in Washington D.C. Tricked into visiting the nation's Capitol, Robert Langdon spends twelve hours racing through the monuments and buildings of the USA's forefathers, searching for the truth about the secret society of the Masons. Behind new doors lie secrets that promise to change the way people view science and politics, now threatened by Zachary Solomon, the renegade, estranged son of Robert Langdon's friend, Peter Solomon, who has himself been kidnapped by Zachary, now going by the name Mal'akh. Robert Langdon is the last line of defense. With help from Katherine Solomon (Peter's younger sister), Warren Bellamy (the Architect of the Capitol) and Inoue Sato (the director of the Office of Security).

Inferno[edit]

Dan Brown Books Into Movies

In Inferno, Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with no memory of the events that led him to be in Italy. Soon he realizes that someone is trying to kill him. Langdon travels from Florence to Venice, and Istanbul with Doctor Sienna Brooks to prevent a biological attack by looking for a deadly virus that was planted by a client of a shadowy consulting group called The Consortium. In the course of this, Langdon must decipher clues employing allusions to the works of Sandro Botticelli, Giorgio Vasari and Dante Alighieri, the writer of Inferno, the first chapter of the epic poem The Divine Comedy, around which much of the plot revolves.

Origin[edit]

The fifth book in the series, Origin was released on October 3, 2017.^[14] Robert Langdon arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement—the unveiling of a discovery that “will change the face of science forever.” The evening's host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon's first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.

As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch's precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.

Navigating the corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade an enemy whose power seems to emanate from Spain's Royal Palace itself, and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch's shocking discovery.^[14]

Bibliography[edit]

Between The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Inferno, Langdon is said to have written seven books:

• The Symbology of Secret Sects
• The Art of the Illuminati: Part 1
• The Lost Language of Ideograms
• Religious Iconology
• Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine
• Christian Symbols in the Muslim World
• Christianity and the Sacred Feminine

At that same point in the trilogy, Langdon is preparing the manuscript for his fifth book, to be titled Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine. It is later revealed in The Lost Symbol that Symbols of the Lost Sacred Feminine was published and created 'quite a scandal'. The book Christianity and the Sacred Feminine, mentioned in Origin had reportedly been denounced by the Vatican, 'which, in the aftermath, promptly became a bestseller,' as quoted by the AI assistant Winston.

References[edit]

1. ^'New Dan Brown novel 'Inferno' coming in May'. Yahoo!. Associated Press. January 15, 2013. Retrieved 2013-01-15.
2. ^Gregg Kilday. 'Tom Hanks' 'Inferno' Shifts Opening to 2016'. The Hollywood Reporter.
3. ^Naughton, Philippe (March 13, 2006). 'Dan Brown sprinkles statement with clues about next book'. The Sunday Times. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
4. ^'Dan Brown: By the Book'. The New York Times. June 20, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
5. ^'Robert Langdon Biography (Fictional Adventurer) —'. Infoplease.com. Retrieved 2013-01-10.
6. ^TLS, p. 8
7. ^TLS, p. 25
8. ^A&D, p. 26
9. ^DVC, p. 227
10. ^TLS, p. 7
11. ^TLS, p. 15
12. ^Ian Freer (May 2009). 'Critical Mass'. Empire. pp. 69–73.
13. ^Brown, Dan (2000). Angels & Demons. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 5. ISBN978-0-7434-1239-1.
14. ^ ^ab'Origin'. Danbrown.com.

External links[edit]

• Bos, Carole (May 1, 2009). 'Angels & Demons - ROBERT LANGDON and HIS AMBIGRAMS'. AwesomeStories.com. Page 2 of 8.

I’ve finished Dan Brown’s new Robert Langdon thriller, Origin, and I suppose it’s significant that it took me more than a week. At no point did I feel compelled to stay up all night to finish it. In fact, my reading speed slowed at the somewhat talky climax.

Others have mocked Brown as a writer. Not exactly George Eliot, a friend sniffs. And it’s true that he reaches hungrily for clichés. Yet generating plots for novels like this one, or his best-known book, The Da Vinci Code, generously sprinkled with intriguing intellectual tidbits, is no unimpressive feat. You try it! He’s the #7 bestseller on Amazon at the moment. That’s for a good reason.

You could attack him, too, for using, or abusing, the research of MIT physicist Jeremy England. What follows is a spoiler, so be warned: At the climax, Brown recounts the contents of a splashy video by atheist computer savant and “futurist” Edmond Kirsch, supposedly demonstrating that England in his research has explained how life originated through the laws of physics alone. This echoes a claim about Dr. England made by some journalists, which we’ve addressed before.

England himself protested last week in a well-timed Wall Street Journal article, pointing out that he himself is a religious believer, an Orthodox Jew, and that the physics of life’s origin presented in Brown’s book is a vacant space: “There’s no real science in the book to argue over.”

That’s all fine, but in a book pushing atheism, with a warm nod to assisted suicide as an added bonus, I was startled to find the protagonist, Langdon, endorsing a familiar argument for intelligent design. The argument is made in various forms by Stephen Meyer, William Dembski, Phillip Johnson, and others. Yes, it’s “only vaguely described,” as England says of his own work as touted in the book. But it’s nevertheless recognizable.

Here is the story in a nutshell, and again be warned of spoilers. Computer genius Edmond Kirsch is semiotician Robert Langdon’s former Harvard student. Kirsch, an eccentric billionaire, calls Langdon to Spain for the world premiere of the video proving how life originated on Earth without design, or God, through physical laws. At the swank event at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Kirsch is assassinated by a mysterious admiral retired from the Spanish Armada.

Langdon embarks on a rapid journey across Spain, with many lessons about the history of art, politics, and religion sprinkled along his path. He’s accompanied by the disembodied voice of Kirsch’s computer assistant, Winston, an unprecedented wonder of AI, and Ambra Vidal, beautiful and brilliant fiancée of the Prince of Spain, soon to be King when his ailing father dies. Several further murders occur across Europe and the Middle East. Meanwhile, Winston, Langdon, and Ambra seek a code that will allow the world to view the amazing, transformative atheist video.

It’s not really as silly as that sounds. But now to the punchline. While Brown never writes about ID by name, the debate about so-called “creationism” is on his mind, with mentions of Michael Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box, two titles by Phillip Johnson (Darwin on Trial, Defeating Darwinism), atheists Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson, and invoking Daniel Dennett on how “complex biological designs” could arise unguided through natural selection. A hero of the story is Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926), his work infused with “biological design” and “biomimetic design.”

Kirsch thinks computer simulations have demonstrated that the seeming designs of biology are entirely explained in materialist terms, a play of entropy and order. What about Langdon, hero of Brown’s series of bestselling novels?

Once almost all the action is over, Ambra Vidal puts this question to Langdon directly. She asks: “[A]re the laws of physics enough?” Do “laws spontaneously create life”? Langdon answers with a discussion of patterns versus codes.

A pattern is any distinctly organized sequence. Patterns occur everywhere in nature — the spiraling seeds of a sunflower, the hexagonal cells of a honeycomb, the circular ripples on a pond when a fish jumps, et cetera.

On the other hand, “Codes are special….Codes, by definition, must carry information. They must do more than simply form a pattern — codes must transmit data and convey meaning.” The kicker:

[C]odes do not occur naturally in the world. Musical notation does not sprout from trees, and symbols do not draw themselves in the sand. Codes are the deliberate inventions of intelligent consciousness.

Ambra answers, “So codes always have an intention or awareness behind them.”

Langdon: “Exactly. Codes don’t appear organically; they must be created.”

Ambra: “What about DNA?”

Langdon: “Bingo….The genetic code. That’s the paradox.”

Ambra: “You think DNA was created by an intelligence!”

Langdon: “Easy, tiger!…You’re treading on dangerous ground.” She sure is. And yet, he goes on:

When I witness the precision of mathematics, the reliability of physics, the symmetries of the cosmos, I don’t feel like I’m observing cold science; I feel as if I’m seeing a living footprint…the shadow of some greater force that is just beyond our grasp.

But this, all of it, is exactly something that proponents of intelligent design say. The leap from law-driven patterns, needing no inference to design, to the coded information in DNA, bearing meaning and absolutely requiring such an inference, is a major theme in Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell. Arguably it’s the major theme. “Repetitive patterns,” Meyer says, like the ones cited by Brown, can be the work of “natural causes and processes,” “law-like necessity.” Code, on the other hand, whether in the form of computer code or DNA, must trace back to an intelligent agent. It deliberately conveys meaning in every case we know, thus requiring a designer.

ID advocates often give the illustration of the repetitive pattern in snowflakes and other crystals, a product of physical laws just like the patterns that Langdon mentions, triggering no design inference.

Here’s Phillip Johnson:

The heart of the problem is that physical laws are simple and general, and by their nature they produce the same thing over and over again. Law-governed processes can produce simple repetitive patterns, as in crystals, but they can’t produce the complex, specified sequences by which the nucleotides of DNA code for proteins any more than they can produce the sequence of letters on a page of the Bible.

William Dembski contrasts the formation of snowflakes, “irrelevant to the processes necessary to generate biological information,” with that of the bacterial flagellum. The issue is Complex and Specified Information. Here is Casey Luskin writing right here at Evolution News:

Robert Langdon Movies In Order

Snowflakes are a crystal, and form easily by natural laws. They actually have a very low level of complexity. Like all crystals, they can be described easily by the laws that govern chemical bonding and atomic packing. For that reason, among others, nobody claims that snowflakes or crystals require explanation by design. Because they are characterized by low CSI, or “Complex and Specified Information,” we wouldn’t expect them to trigger a design inference.

“Easy, tiger! You’re treading on dangerous ground.”

I don’t, obviously, have any idea what Dan Brown was trying to communicate to his legions of fans and readers. A message of atheism? Or of intelligent design? No, he’s no George Eliot, but this is an interesting book in part because at the end it seems so conflicted about what it wants to say.

A fuller presentation of ID, in the form of a Dan Brown-style thriller, is available in Bruce Buff’s recent book, The Soul of the Matter. Buff is the better prose writer, and frankly his story is the more dramatically tense of the two.

But good for Mr. Brown. He appears to have waded a little distance into the design debate. Will he go further? We’ll look forward to his next book and see.

Dan Brown Movies In Order

Photo: Dan Brown, by Web Summit [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.