Brown does address Langdon's claustrophobia. "Riding inside the dimly lit cargo hold of the armored truck was like being transported inside a cell for solitary confinement. Langdon fought the all-too-familiar anxiety that haunted him in confined spaces.
Vernet said he would take us a safe distance out of the city. Where? How far? " That's it. That's all the attention Brown gives to Langdon's debilitating claustrophobia. Langdon then proceeds to act normally and get curious about the box. While I do not have any debilitating phobias, I do have panic attacks. And when I get panic attacks, I can't function. My first response is to go and hide under something, curl up in a fetal position and hope that it all goes away. And then, I'm shaky for hours to days later after a really bad one. The box, if Langdon really suffered from claustrophobia, should have been completely forgotten. His only desire should be "Get me out of this truck!" But that would actually be character development, \
~/
Once such things like that are out of the way, we can focus, instead, on the thing in the box. It gets more character description than Langdon's phobia. "In contrast to the warm colors of the rosewood box, the inlaid rose had been crafted of a pale wood, probably ash, which shone clearly in the dim light.
The Rose. Entire armies and religious had been built on this symbol, as had secret societies.
The Rosicrucians. The Knights of the Rosy Cross." Obviously this box is more important than Langdon. A theme of the book, objects and thingies are more important than people and their motives. People are just around to show how clever Brown is at making puzzles and things.
To further prove my point, Brown introduces a new thingy. \
~/ Thingy is now my new technical term for all the puzzle things that Brown keeps on throwing at us. "
Crafted of polished white marble, it was a stone cylinder approximately the dimensions of a tennis ball can. More complicated than a simple column of stone, however, the cylinder appeared to have been assembled in many pieces. Five doughnut-sized disks of marble had been stacked and affixed to one another with in a delicate brass framework. It looked like some kind of tubular, mutliwheeled kaleidoscope. Each end of the cylinder was affixed with an end cap, also marble, making it impossible to see inside. Having heard liquid with in, Langdon assumed the cylinder was hollow.
As mystifying as the construction of the cylinder was, however, it was the engravings around the tube's circumference that drew Langdon's primary focus. Each of the five disks had been careful carved with the same unlikely series of letters - the entire alphabet. The lettered cylinder reminded Langdon of one of his childhood toys - a rod threaded with lettered tumblers that could be rotated to spell different words.
\
~/
We don't know what alphabet it is though. (However there are twenty six letters)
Grandpa used to make them as a hobby. Leonardo Da Vinci invented them.
Of course. \
~/
Grandpa apparently likes building some of Da Vinci's obscure thingies.
Of course. \
~/
Blah, blah, Da Vinci cryptology pioneer, blah, blah, Da Vinci is so wonderful, blah, blah, Brown is in love with him, blah, blah, Brown writes romance Fan Fiction about Da Vinci... Blah... blah... Da Vinci is so clever. Blah Blah blah blah... Brow worships the ground Da Vinic walked on...\
~/, \
~/, \
~/
Langdon then goes a ramble \
~/ about how the rose and the Grail are the same. Lots of talk about rose symbolism and the Priory.
Langdon quickly explained that the Rose's overtone of secrecy was not the only reason the Priory used it as a symbol for the Grail Rosa rugosa one of the oldest species of rose, had five petals and pentagonal symmetry., just like the guiding star of Venus, giving the Rose strong iconographic ties to womanhood. In addition, the Rose had close ties to the concept of "true direction" and navigating one's way. The Compass Rose helped travelers navigate, as did Rose Lines, the longitudinal lines on maps. For this reason, the Rose was a symbol that spoke of the Grail on many levels - secrecy, womanhood, and guidance - the feminine chalice and guiding star that led to secret truth.
\
~/
Epiphany time for Langdon again. \
~/ this time for the SubRosa bit. Apparently this stone cylinder is the Keystone which is the where the map to the Grail is located according to Priory lore. The one that Silas is looking for. That's the gist of Langdon explaining what a keystone is to Perky Tits. \
~/ There's some blathering about how the grail isn't a cup again, but what it really is will have to wait for later, \
~/ Oh and Perky Tits' Dad was the Grand Master. Whoopie. Who didn't know that by now? I mean really. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if Grandpa was Da Vinci himself. Maybe he built himself a time travel machine and ... traveled to the future to ... wait... no... never mind. That might actually be interesting. Sorry. \
~/
As they bump along suddenly they realize they're no longer on the highway anymore. The Truck stops. The door opens in back. And Andre has a gun with him pointing at them, apologizing.
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