The strength of his writing becomes a problem because his lead character, Robert Langdon, is supposed to be a Harvard professor brainiac, and his dialog isn’t any better written than the prose – so the Harvard professor sounds like he’s talking to third graders when he’s talking about supposedly the most important subjects in human history.  But I forgive that – because I love the subjects Langdon is talking about.  And The Lost Symbol is basically The Da Vinci Code meets “The Secret.”  Every book about these subjects can’t be Umberto Eco, and these sorts of ideas are better disseminated in this sort of pop prose.  Frankly, it’s pretty amazing that these books are so popular and aren’t met with more controversy.

The book is full of interesting facts that I’m sure many of the snobs who revile his writing didn’t know.  Like the etymology of the word “sincere,” why Moses is depicted with horns in art, and other fascinating bits of information. And there are paragraphs like this:

From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to American politics – the name Jesus had been hijacked as an ally in all kinds of power struggles.  Since the beginning of time, the ignorant had always screamed the loudest, herding the unsuspecting masses and forcing them to do their bidding.  They defended their worldly desires by citing Scripture they did not understand.  They celebrated their intolerance as proof of their convictions.  Now, after all these years, mankind had finally managed to utterly erode everything that had once been so beautiful about Jesus.

Say what you will about the hokiness of some of this book – but that message just rules.  There are many moments like this – taking stabs at fundamentalism, Mormonism, and revealing how religious figures have whitewashed certain ideas throughout history.  Beyond the codebreaking and cliffhangers, there’s a lot of relevant and truthful information.  Of course, it helps if you believe to a certain degree in Brown’s spiritual outlook – a Gnostic take on spirituality.  The potential for science and religion to overlap.  On these topics, I’m pretty much a believer.

One of the things that irritated me to a very strong degree was Robert Langdon’s incredulity and skepticism.  While I understand having the lead character be a skeptic because it makes the ideas seem more plausible – hey, even the skeptic believes in them – this book’s written as if Robert Langdon exists in a vacuum.  He just spent an entire book traipsing around Europe, deciphering codes, and proving the myth of the Holy Grail.  You’d think that maybe he’d be a little more open to some new evidence of codes and ancient knowledge.  Just believe, man, the book would be a lot more fun.

All told, I enjoyed The Lost Symbol as much as The Da Vinci Code, for the same reasons.  The book basically parallels many of the same ideas in The American Book of the Dead – that human consciousness is set to expand where we are able to control reality with our thoughts.  What The Lost Symbol doesn’t cover (SPOILER) is just how this new society would work.  My premise in TABOTD is that – perhaps – the human population has to be reduced and easily-controllable in order to unleash this power.  And so, the evil Cheney-esque despot hatches his plan to reduce the population via World War III.  From The Lost Symbol:

“The Apocalypse is not the end of the world, but rather is the end of the world as we know it. The prophecy of the Apocalypse is just one of the Bible’s beautiful messages that has been distorted…”

Basic premise of my novel – except it occurs after a literal apocalypse.  What exactly is the alternative?  Supposing we all were given the power of the “infinite.”  There are some seriously deranged and dangerous people on the planet.  Give these people the power to affect reality with their thoughts and – who knows – reality might disappear.  You’d then have wars of the mind.  In other words, it wouldn’t be that much different than what we have now – disintegrating and adversarial.

Unless…the “revelation” was that we were “all one” etc. and so killing someone would lose its purpose.  Still, a world in which thoughts became reality would be fairly chaotic.  An interesting topic, and really the entire impetus behind TABOTD, so whatever criticism I have of Dan Brown, the writer, I’m glad he gets these ideas out into the open.  It’s good news that he’s so obscenely successful.

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I put in the first chapter of TABOTD.  I actually did this last week, and it came up as Dan Brown.  I was too ashamed to post it then, and just tried again.

I like Dan Brown, but I don’t think I write like him.  Subject, maybe. I’m actually in the middle of reading The Lost Symbol, and liking it (more to come on that), on my shiny and amazing new iPad.  I might just be a cross between Dan Brown and David Foster Wallace.  At least that’s what I’ve intended.  A very much less heady DFW with a more-heady DB.