The Rule of Four

Always of interest, to me, to find arcane academic material buried.

Missed it the first time through, but one girlfriend recycled it as Mercury was Retrograde and good for recycling. Amazon’s algorithm popped its sequel up, which made me take a second look at the book itself.

Rule of Four

So I found a reading copy on the iTunes. Digital copy is easier to read, but it lacks the sticky note, “Kramer.”

“I’d begun to realize that there was an unspoken prejudice among book-learned people, a secret conviction they all seemed to share, that life as we know it is an imperfect vision of reality, and that only art, like a pair of reading glasses, can correct it.”

Excerpt From: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason. “The Rule of Four.” The Dial Press, 2012/04.

One illustration in the digital version looks suspiciously like a familiar tarot icon.

In part, the book is favorably compared to The Da Vinici Code, but that might just be some of the story’s trappings, rather different in execution.

“Adulthood is a glacier encroaching quietly on youth. When it arrives, the stamp of childhood suddenly freezes, capturing us for good in the image of our last act, the pose we struck when the ice of age set in.”

Excerpt From: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason. “The Rule of Four.” The Dial Press, 2012-08-21.

Part of the way through, there’s a literature riddle, as a lit major, one I got – and failed. Clever bit. Other clever bits?

“Most painters do the opposite, starting with a whitewash and adding the shadows last. But Paul, who knows Leonardo so well you’d think the old man slept in our bottom bunk, understands the value of starting with the shadows. The only things people can ever know about you are the ones you let them see.”

Excerpt From: Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason. “The Rule of Four.” The Dial Press, 2012-08-21.

The absolute beauty of a digital copy is the ability – why I love Apple’s iBooks so much – to highlight a word or phrase and get lost looking at ancient texts, history, and arcane mythologies spelled out in full.

The Rule of Four – Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

#Reading