Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol
Apart from the fact that i did not want to put this book down last night (not that i COULDN"T - it's not THAT good) this latest offering from Dan Brown is typical fare - a long and complicated plot involving certain talented individuals, and the potential to destabilise the world with the imminent revelation of ancient secrets. And somehow each time Robert Langdon gets tangled up in the mess just as he is about take a lazy sunday off! (Note to self- avoid contact with Robert Langdon, he attracts more danger than Miss Marple and the residents of Midsomer put together!)
This time the secret society at the heart of the story is the Freemasons, whom Brown bends over backwards in an attempt to not offend them and give them a good press. The story begins with certain 'facts' (that may or may not be true 'facts'), the albino monk has become a lean, tattooed insider with a desire to limit human progress and maintain the status quo, and the building at the heart of the plot is the US Capitol. I can't help feeling that I've read this before, or that Brown has taken a popular template and changed some of the names.
Despite this feeling of 'deja lire' I was prepared to give the story a go, as it does have all the political intrigue and layered mystery of a good thriller. That is, until the characters started to relate to Langdon as a person who was famous from his previous exploits in Rome and Paris. Oh purrrrrlease! Brown - get over yourself. This is beyond cheese, and it caused me to stutter in my reading and fall out into the real world laughing my socks off! I was not taken in by The Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed Angels and Demons on a fictional level, but this is plain too much.
However what is more of concern is that in this book the standard 'pops' at traditional Christianity are thrown in as asides in the conversation - no longer is it necessary to prove that Christianity is the corruption of thousands of years of history by a powerful Roman church, now you can just say it with impunity and get away with it. It seems now that anything that traditional Reformed Christianity holds dear is some form of corruption or misinformation, or plot to hold the world in slavery. 'Jesus' is the talisman (magical symbol with power) for anyone unwilling to see beyond the manipulation of history into the mystical reality of collective unconscious humanity.
But this leads me to a final thought from where I am up to in the book. And I will pick up these thoughts in a later blog. The seeming prevailing worldview within the book is that all religions are in some way a corruption of a more pure idea that predates any religious ideas and reaches deeply into our souls. It is that we all belong to a greater whole, a higher calling, a deeper existence that unites us as humans, and that perhaps we must simply overlook our differences as we explore together what it means for us all to be human, and as we watch our greatest representatives achieve apotheosis, in the manner of George Washington. Our symbol laden past beckons to us to awaken again to our potential for peace and unity and collective human glory. (I don't know whether to laugh or cry.)
More to follow.
This time the secret society at the heart of the story is the Freemasons, whom Brown bends over backwards in an attempt to not offend them and give them a good press. The story begins with certain 'facts' (that may or may not be true 'facts'), the albino monk has become a lean, tattooed insider with a desire to limit human progress and maintain the status quo, and the building at the heart of the plot is the US Capitol. I can't help feeling that I've read this before, or that Brown has taken a popular template and changed some of the names.
Despite this feeling of 'deja lire' I was prepared to give the story a go, as it does have all the political intrigue and layered mystery of a good thriller. That is, until the characters started to relate to Langdon as a person who was famous from his previous exploits in Rome and Paris. Oh purrrrrlease! Brown - get over yourself. This is beyond cheese, and it caused me to stutter in my reading and fall out into the real world laughing my socks off! I was not taken in by The Da Vinci Code, I enjoyed Angels and Demons on a fictional level, but this is plain too much.
However what is more of concern is that in this book the standard 'pops' at traditional Christianity are thrown in as asides in the conversation - no longer is it necessary to prove that Christianity is the corruption of thousands of years of history by a powerful Roman church, now you can just say it with impunity and get away with it. It seems now that anything that traditional Reformed Christianity holds dear is some form of corruption or misinformation, or plot to hold the world in slavery. 'Jesus' is the talisman (magical symbol with power) for anyone unwilling to see beyond the manipulation of history into the mystical reality of collective unconscious humanity.
But this leads me to a final thought from where I am up to in the book. And I will pick up these thoughts in a later blog. The seeming prevailing worldview within the book is that all religions are in some way a corruption of a more pure idea that predates any religious ideas and reaches deeply into our souls. It is that we all belong to a greater whole, a higher calling, a deeper existence that unites us as humans, and that perhaps we must simply overlook our differences as we explore together what it means for us all to be human, and as we watch our greatest representatives achieve apotheosis, in the manner of George Washington. Our symbol laden past beckons to us to awaken again to our potential for peace and unity and collective human glory. (I don't know whether to laugh or cry.)
More to follow.
...see you and I are just poles apart in what we like to read.
ReplyDeleteI hate Potter and all he stands for, but don't mind the odd Dan Brown book. Not because I think he is a particularly good writer he is not, there are many others I prefer. I buy him and read him because he capitalizes on conspiracy theories... and that I love.
I am up to Chapter 82, will be interested to read more of your thoughts..... don't hold back will you?
I know I won't.
:-P