Posts Tagged: The Da Vinci Code

Writing — No Comments
19
Dec 09

Into The Abyss

dan_brown_lost_symbolPage 178, and the first bit of real tension. When I read The Da Vinci Code, I may have hated it, but it was compelling. I couldn’t put it down. Reading The Lost Symbol has, to this point, been nothing more than a horse chasing after a carrot.*

Robert Langdon has just now thought to call Katherine. Convenient, because she is just about to be murdered. I now envision a scene in which she has to hide in the black abyss of pod number 5 before making her escape.

How are they ever going to film this?

Pages read: 178
Pages To Go: 331

*I am the horse in this anology, not the carrot.

Writing — No Comments
19
Dec 09

Waiting For Something To Happen

dan_brown_lost_symbolI’m 34 chapters in, and nothing much has happened. The Da Vinci Code started out much more exhilaratingly, with Langdon immediately being faced with the puzzle in the Louvre. As I recall, in Angels And Demons, we knew pretty early on that he needed to hurry, or the Vatican would be destroyed by a bomb.

But here we are almost 150 pages in, and there has been one, very simple puzzle, lots of random information about Washington D.C. iconography, a blatant attempt to make Director Ito seem a part of the conspiracy, and very little else. The tension all rests upon the fact that Robert Langdon has the secret package in his bag, and that Katherine doesn’t realize the doctor is an imposter, and planning to murder her.

Worst of all, the book is not as spectacularly bad as I was hoping for. It’s just dull. And I have four hundred pages to go. Curses!

Pages read: 144
Pages To Go: 365
Writing — No Comments
19
Dec 09

M. Night Shyamalan And Dan Brown Share The Same Problem

dan_brown_lost_symbolLangdon realizes on page 104 that having been asked to bring the package was an important clue. Of course, in reality, he would have made the connection about 30 pages earlier, but we would not want to reveal too much too soon. A very clunky way of creating suspense.

I am reminded of Shymalan. He did such a brilliant job with The Sixth Sense. And with each subsequent effort, the story seemed a little more forced, the surprise ending more and more contrived. I feel the same way now. At least, with The Da Vinci Code, the historical information, and the symbols found in the various religious and artistic relics, it all made for a compelling framework. I learned a lot of interesting trivia. But how many times can you try and work the same angle?

Apparently, at least 3 times.

Pages read: 104
Pages To Go: 405
Writing — No Comments
19
Dec 09

The Demosthenes Sock Puppet

dan_brown_lost_symbolTo me, the most salient feature of a Dan Brown novel is the manner in which he ineptly inserts flashbacks in order to provide the reader with necessary background information. I suppose that Brown thinks he is livening up the information by presenting it within the framework of a former lecture. These flashbacks invariably entail unlikely enthusiasm on the part of his audience, including unbridled ejaculations of surprise.

The best example comes in The Da Vinci Code, when Professor Langdon is giving a lecture on the feminine properties of the Mona Lisa to prison inmates. That’s right! And during the lecture, the convicts enthusiastically react to his revelations, as if his visit is the best thing to happen to them since their incarceration.

Chapter 6 provides the first example in The Lost Symbol. During his first lecture of the year in his Occult Symbols course, as he introduces the hidden iconography of Washington D.C., students yell out “Awesome,” they hang on his every word, laugh at his every joke, and even recognize Masonic rituals when presented with slides.

These flashback lectures–I am sure there will be more of them in the chapters ahead–are so inauthentic as to border on the absurd. Robert Langdon has the charisma of a dirty sock puppet, yet in every situation, he is welcomed like a modern day Demosthenes.

Every one of these flashbacks is so awkward as to induce nausea. But I soldier on.

Pages read: 32
Pages To Go: 477
Writing — No Comments
19
Dec 09

Dan Brown Novels Are Wonderful…*

dan_brown_lost_symbolYou know what’s interesting? I found reading The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons excruciating experiences. Yet as I cracked open The Lost Symbol and turned to the prologue, I still felt a tingle of excitement. I mean, he’s had four books to work through all the empty plot holes, tired cliches, and lazy characters. This one has to be better, right?

My first laugh out loud moment. On the Dan Brown website, it quotes a review from the L.A. Times, “The wait is over. The Lost Symbol is here–and you don’t have to be a Freemason to enjoy it…THRILLING AND ENTERTAINING, LIKE THE EXPERIENCE ON A ROLLER COASTER.”

The actual quote, from the L.A. Times website: “The Lost Symbol” is more like the experience on any roller coaster — thrilling, entertaining and then it’s over.

Pages Read: 5
Pages To Go: 504

*…Examples Of Terrible Literature

Entropy Squared — No Comments
13
Dec 09

She Will Not Be Able To Resist His Scholarly Charms

Lost Symbol coverThe time has finally arrived. The official launch of The Chaos Factory website. And to kick things off, we have a special event I mentioned a couple of months ago.

The Great Dan Brown Experiment will take place this coming Saturday, December 19th. Over the course of 24 hours (I hope) I will be reading The Lost Symbol, and live blogging about the experience. For those of you in the Western Hemisphere, the fun begins your Friday night. Please join me in order to provide the moral support I undoubtedly will need to devote an entire 24 hours to Dan Brown.

A little background. I read The Da Vinci Code a couple years ago, wondering what all the fuss was about. (And if you are unsure what I mean by fuss, as I mentioned earlier, The Da Vinci Code is already the 8th best selling novel of ALL TIME!) I found it annoyingly compelling, because even though I disliked everything about it, I finished it in 2 or 3 days. It was like I was riding my bike past a truck carrying a shipment of scissors that had crashed into a mental hospital. I could not look away.

So I have decided to relive the experience with The Lost Symbol. Will it be better than the Da Vinci code? Did Dan Brown take the tens of millions of dollars he has earned in royalties to enroll in a basic writing course? Will I live through the weekend or will I choke on my own bile? Will there be a beautiful, young love interest for Robert Langdon who cannot help but fall for his scholarly charms? All these questions will be answered this Saturday.

Remember, all of this takes place right here at entropy2.com.

Entropy Squared / Writing — 2 Comments
18
Oct 09

The Great Dan Brown Experiment

zenWe interrupt our regular scheduled blogging for two important announcements.

First, Dance With Sunflowers will soon migrate to a new location, at entropy2.com. The process of starting up the new website and switching over will take another month or two, and in the meantime I will continue posting here. The new site will include several new blogs and other exciting endeavors I will tell you about later. Be on the look out.

Second, as part of the new website, I will be conducting my first live blogging event. I will be reading Dan Brown’s new novel, The Lost Symbol, over the course of 24 hours, with a running journal of my reactions. Join me as I experience the best selling book (2 million copies sold in the first week) for the first time, with immediate feedback on what will surely go down as a modern classic.

Of course, being invested in the novel might influence my impartiality. So I am looking for someone who will loan it to me in the next few weeks. Please do not buy it with the specific intention of giving it to me, as that will defeat the purpose. But if you already have it, I will be happy to take it off your hands.

When I have a date for the Live Blogging session, as well as the debut of the new website, I will let everyone know.

To whet your appetite, here are some facts about Dan Brown’s previous novel, The Da Vinci Code:

  • According to Wikipedia, it has sold more than 80 million copies to date.
  • 80 MILLION! That equals The Catcher In The Rye, and easily surpasses Charlotte’s Web, To Kill A Mockingbird, or Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
  • That’s right, more than the dictionary
  • In fact, the only novels to have sold more books in the history of humankind are: Le Petit Prince, She, Dream Of Red Chambers, The Hobbit, And Then There Were None, The Lord Of The Rings, and A Tale Of Two Cities. That’s it. The entire list. The Da Vinci Code is already the 8th best selling novel of all time
  • It is almost entirely based on the Umberto Eco novel, Foucault’s Pendulum, which predates it by more than a decade.

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