... library and the purported plan of the murder sequence, but also of correspondingly arbitrary sign systems like numerology, iconography, mathematics and measurement, cryptography, and language itself, or better yet multiple languages, including the spoken word, the language of gems, of flowers, of the landscape, and of gesture. The fundamental tension in the novel is between those, like the inquisitor Bernardo Gui ... of evaluating what is known. The belief system that once distinguished truth from falsity is gone, and nothing has replaced it. The modern truth-seeker wanders aimlessly. I...

• Word Count: 4697
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate