off my turf, langdon

[rivendellrose]

"The path of light is laid, the sacred test. 'It's a damned line of iambic pentameter, he said suddenly, counting the syllables again. 'Five couplets of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.'"
- Angels and Demons, page 272 (paperback edition).

Iambic pentameter.

It does not mean what you think it means, Langdon.

Iambic pentameter has nothing to do with couplets. Couplets are a pair of rhyming lines that go together. The final four-line poem that he ends up with is two couplets of iambic pentameter. I'm a little rusty on the English lit side of my education, but I am absolutely certain about this. The "penta" refers to the five "feet" (pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables) in one line of iambic pentameter. And the "iamb-" bit refers to the stress/unstress pattern. I would say that the word he's reaching for is 'sonnet,' but that wouldn't be right, either. So no, just plain wrong.

Seriously, I don't care if people don't know what iambic pentameter is. I really don't. But if you're going to use it as a plot point in your book? Please look it up. Or just ask someone who knows. Because otherwise, it just grates on the nerves of everyone who really knows.

Also? I am deeply amused that he associates this with Langdon having gone to Phillips Exeter Academy. I went there for a summer (on scholarship - too damned expensive for me to have gone full-time or for any longer, alas). Good school. If Langdon had gone there, he'd know what iambic pentameter really is.

Comments

[platoapproved.livejournal.com]

Dan Brown, oh, bless. ♥ It's like watching a child trying to do a book report on postmodernism. Or this.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

Dan Brown has had much more success than he deserves.

[darthparadox.livejournal.com]

I think he just dropped "couplets" in there because "pairs" didn't sound academic enough.

Dipshit.

[irishninja.livejournal.com]

Yes. And he's not really alone in that. ;)

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

I love that in the snippet you've quoted that the iambic pentameter comes as such a SHOCK to him, like it's some incredibly obscure form of meter or really meaningful instead of being one of the most famous and common meters in English poetry. "OMG! Iambic pentameter! This means that the author of this poem was ALSO SHAKESPEARE!" or something.

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

By the way, if the author does turn out to be Shakespeare don't tell me. I may die of laughter.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

But for Langdon, it IS a shock! EVERYTHING is apparently a shock! Because... I don't know!!!

...And no. The author of the poem was not Shakespeare...

It was Milton. ♥

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That might very well be the reason, which... really just makes me want to slap him even harder.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That much is exceptionally clear to me at the moment. I really can't... eugh. It just makes me feel so bad for all those authors out there who work and research and actually, I dunno, write things that are genuinely well-written.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It really, really is. Although I think most children nowadays could at least figure out that cellphones don't have dial tones. In fact, most kids today don't know what a dial tone is.

...and they might know how to use Wikipedia, too. :P

[alto2.livejournal.com]

2 points:

1. Iambs are feet made up of unstressed and stressed syllables, not the other way around. duh-DUH, not DUH-duh. Dan Brown should know this (and thus so should his character) because:

2. aka "Second part, worst than the first": Dan Brown was born and raised on the Exeter campus, as his father taught math there. And then after trying a few other things, he taught English there (where an email security incident inspired him to write the utterly godawful Digital Fortress) .

Would you like to be sick now or later?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

...He what?

I'm sorry, he... he taught... no, I'm sorry, I refuse to believe this. I literally do not even know how to respond to that.

And here I was comforting myself with the thought that this moron clearly just didn't have the slightest passing acquaintance with English literary education.

[alto2.livejournal.com]

...He what?

Yup. I thought everyone knew this, but I guess not. (I probably did because I read the godawful DF for a book group wherein someone in the group knew his father, and this was several years before DVC). And since I only said he was born and raised there, yes, he did graduate from PEA.

Still a moron. Even more of one, IMHO, 'cause there's no reason he shouldn't know better. Clearly, he was the sort of English teacher depicted in the icon.

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

Is that an actual tombstone?

[alto2.livejournal.com]

It's been quite a while since I picked up this icon, but I'm pretty sure it's from a TV show.

[velleitas.livejournal.com]

I love your tag for this! Haha. :D