The Works of Dan Brown

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raqs said:

And we must solemnly promise not to mention Umberto Eco's name in this thread again. Poor Umberto... being mentioned in the same space as Dan Brown.

*solemnly bows head* I swear.

I've been meaning to read Angels and Demons (if I can score a free copy somewhere) because so many people have told me it's tons better than DVC. They mainly tell me this when I've told them I wasn't too impressed with DVC...

[raqs]

*shocked smilie* Say wha'?! A&D is supposed to be better? This doesn't bode well at all. (Wondering exactly how bad DVC was)

[venusdiva429]

I've never read DVC. I never will. It sounds like a schlockfest of epic proportions.

[kelly9480]

I love watching all the conspiracy theorists try to prove and disprove DVC. The History Channel just had a documentary come on where some dude got DNA from a French queen's tooth and then went to Israel to get some DNA from the Syriacs and was actually surprised that they didn't match. He was so disappointed. I'm like, It's a freakin' novel, people!.

[Deleted]

raqs said:

And we must solemnly promise not to mention Umberto Eco's name in this thread again. Poor Umberto... being mentioned in the same space as Dan Brown.

Well, Umberto Eco was recently invited to Vinci to a conference where Dan Brown would be speaking, and he answered (I'm paraphrasing, but the core of it is there): "Why are you asking me to meet him? Please call me again when there's a writer invited."
So I guess Umberto would appreciate your consideration.

[maxell1313]

kelly9480 said:

I love watching all the conspiracy theorists try to prove and disprove DVC. The History Channel just had a documentary come on where some dude got DNA from a French queen's tooth and then went to Israel to get some DNA from the Syriacs and was actually surprised that they didn't match. He was so disappointed. I'm like, It's a freakin' novel, people!.

I saw this! I was going to change the channel at first because I was like, "Geez, not another Dan Brown-inspired piece of crap!", but stayed with it for some reason.

First he gets his hopes crushed by discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls said absolutely nothing about Jesus and/or Mary Magdeline, then he finds out some French guy faked the whole Priory of Scion crap in the 1950's, then his sooper dooper DNA theory with the Merovingian queen and people from a church in Jerusalem who still speak Aramaic fell through in spectacular fashion. He was just CRUSHED!

He'd spent the whole show saying, "The Da Vinci Code says..." or "According to the Da Vinci Code..." like it was the gospel or something. Well, that's what you get for believing Dan Brown is the author of THE GREATEST TRUTH EVER COVERED UP BY THOSE MEANY CATHOLICS AND HE UNCOVERED THE KONSPIRACY ALL BY HIS LONESOME!!11!1!!!1! Schadenfreudelicious!

[MrsCatHead]

Just finished Angels and Demons. It reminded me what I hate most about Dan Brown's writing. He is constantly checking in with the reader to make sure they know what's going on. Of course we know what's going on. We're reading it, aren't we?! Every few pages, someone says, "Ok, I've got ABC situation and XYZ situation, just to clarify" or "Remember when I told you ABC? You do? Well, let me just recap, just in case..." It's insulting and annoying.

[Deleted]

(Well, to be fair to the History Channel, at least it had something vaguely historical about it...unlike "Monster Quest", or did aliens build the pyramids?)

I miss my History Channel!!!

[Malle Babbe]

I finished reading DVC last night, and I think I sprained my brain... The ropey grasp of art history alone is something I could go on about for hours. Beginning with the fact that "Da Vinci" was not the guy's last name... I bust a gut when they finally cracked open the cryptex... to find another cryptex.

Was I the only one mentally screaming "The answer is 'APPLE'!!!" when they were gawking at Sir Isaac Newton's tomb? Am I to believe that Robert Langdon NEVER saw a single Looney Toons cartoon spoofing Newton getting beaned by an apple? Was he too busy fanboying over Walt Disney?

Because watching Bugs Bunny cartoons would have indoctrinated him into the mysteries of the Trickster archetype, part of the secret teachings revealed to Chuck Jones when he and Tex Avery ate lots of peyote in their days working at Warner Bros... or something...

I'm going to tackle Foucault's Pendulum next, and found this great quote from Eco on Wikipedia re: Dan Brown

I was obliged to read it because everybody was asking me about it. My answer is that Dan Brown is one of the characters in my novel Foucault’s Pendulum, which is about people who start believing in occult stuff.
- But you yourself seem interested in the kabbalah, alchemy and other occult practices explored in the novel.
No. In Foucault’s Pendulum I wrote the grotesque representation of these kind of people. So Dan Brown is one of my creatures

Ouch!

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Eco dissing Brown? I f-ing love it! And the comment about Brown being one of the characters in Pendulum is spot on. I still haven't watched the movie-version...