Dan Brown: why the hate?

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I actually thought The DaVinci Code was a terrific three star movie, much better than the terrible, terrible book. Great entertainment. Mostly because Ron Howard is a much better director than Dan Brown is a writer.

Angels and Demons was an ok film. Again, mild thumbs up, three stars. The book...to call it pedestrian writing is an insult to pedestrian writing.

 

[Vortigern99]

Brown's claim, on the first page of each of his sloppily-written potboilers, that all historical statements, descriptions of buildings and works of art, and religious details are 100% accurate and factual is not only erroneous, it's an intentional lie calculated to boost sales.

That's what irks me: not that he's creating fiction that is quickly and entertainingly leafed through and then discarded (Piers Anthony springs to mind as a brilliant populist author in this vein), but that Brown is fraudulently presenting imagination, fantasy and conspiratorial speculation as though it were indicative of actual events... and convincing thousands (millions?) of under-educated people that his claims are legitimate.

If that front page making this claim were not there, I would not be so irked. But it is, it's baloney, and I'm irked.

 

[poeatszeitgeist]

I'll never begrudge anybody from reading Dan Brown, Matthew Riley or Stephanie Meyer. It's a free world. But knowing that most people read such authors purely on the hype surrounding them, I can't help but feel such phenomena reflect an unfortunate state of literacy in the world.

I wouldn't worry so much. People have been reading trash for ages. Ever heard of the sentimental novels? Their popularity made for one angry Hawthorne. He was one upset dude at those "damn scribbling women."

Or gothic poetry? Of course, the Romantic poets turned that on its head. Still, before their revival of the form, the gothic poem was pretty much what we would consider trash today.

The truth is, with every era of poets and prosists (in the instances where we have letters/essays from the writers, at least), one can find creative geniuses in frustration at having to try to out-sell trash.

So no fear. We supposedly have the next Faulkner/Hemingway among us: Cormac McCarthy, and he appears to be doing pretty well.


Oh, and Dan Brown books are what I call "beach reads." Books you don't care enough about to worry over a little bit of sand and water on the pages.

 

[Lucian]

Brown's claim, on the first page of each of his sloppily-written potboilers, that all historical statements, descriptions of buildings and works of art, and religious details are 100% accurate and factual is not only erroneous, it's an intentional lie calculated to boost sales.

That's what irks me: not that he's creating fiction that is quickly and entertainingly leafed through and then discarded (Piers Anthony springs to mind as a brilliant populist author in this vein), but that Brown is fraudulently presenting imagination, fantasy and conspiratorial speculation as though it were indicative of actual events... and convincing thousands (millions?) of under-educated people that his claims are legitimate.

If that front page making this claim were not there, I would not be so irked. But it is, it's baloney, and I'm irked.

He also seems to want to have it both ways. When pressed, he'll say, "Well, it's a novel," but when given half a chance then he says that his books are historically accurate. I also read an interview somewhere in which he said, "Well, if people don't understand my books, I'd prefer they not read them" (paraphrase) for all the world as if he were Umberto Eco and his novels were just too deep and complex for people to comprehend. No, Dan, if people don't understand your books, it's because your plots don't make sense, and your sentences are poorly constructed. It terrifies me that he used to teach English.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

He also seems to want to have it both ways. When pressed, he'll say, "Well, it's a novel," but when given half a chance then he says that his books are historically accurate. I also read an interview somewhere in which he said, "Well, if people don't understand my books, I'd prefer they not read them" (paraphrase) for all the world as if he were Umberto Eco and his novels were just too deep and complex for people to comprehend. No, Dan, if people don't understand your books, it's because your plots don't make sense, and your sentences are poorly constructed. It terrifies me that he used to teach English.

What this man said.

To which I'll add: no, Dan, no one "does not understand" your books. There's a difference between not understanding something and not liking it. I understand your books perfectly. I understand they are a humongous pile of garbage.

Here's what terrifies me even more. Sylvia Browne used to teach English. That sounds like a joke. It is actually true. Dave Barry is not making this up.

Dan Brown and Sylvia Browne were once their teachers...no wonder kids in America can't speak their own language.

 

[Lucian]

What this man said.

Woman. I know the name is confusing.

To which I'll add: no, Dan, no one "does not understand" your books. There's a difference between not understanding something and not liking it. I understand your books perfectly. I understand they are a humongous pile of garbage.

Here's what terrifies me even more. Sylvia Browne used to teach English.

As an English instructor, allow me to say, "OH GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

 

[fuelair]

I got three words: albino priest assassin. I mean, come on.

Hey, the church has to take what it can get - and at least he wasn't a paedo!!

 

[athon]

I wouldn't worry so much. People have been reading trash for ages. Ever heard of the sentimental novels? Their popularity made for one angry Hawthorne. He was one upset dude at those "damn scribbling women."

I know every era has its lamentations crying out over the alleged end of literature. However in the past, this is based on what's seen as the perversion of some vague purity in the 'spirit' of literature.

I wouldn't call myself a literary snob, a purist or even an elitist. Well, I would, but not in this context. I happen to think many forms of 'beach reads' are great. Some of my favourite novels are simple sci-fi, horror or action reads that allow me to turn off my brain and coast through a plot with little chance of needing to think. Given I read so much non-fiction during the day, in fact, I consider myself quite a lazy fiction reader for the most part.

This is not in the same par. To draw another pitiful analogy (I admit, I just like making these up), I'm not complaining about the loss of artistic integrity in a paint-by-numbers watercolour here. I'm asking how it is somebody can appreciate a paint-by-numbers watercolour when the artist cannot keep within the lines and has painted the horse puce.

When a writer describes the eyes on a silhouette, or refers to somebody's body as precarious (not their position or situation - their body), or feels the need to write an encyclopedia entry detailing the thoughts of a character, I need to either ignore what they're writing or correct it in my own mind. To do either for a writer's work is inexcusable. To do either for a best-stelling writer's work is a sad state of affairs indeed.

Athon

 

[Filippo Lippi]

Stewart Lee on books, with commentary on Dan Brown towards the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yUDh_IErT4

 

[arthwollipot]

This is not in the same par. To draw another pitiful analogy (I admit, I just like making these up), I'm not complaining about the loss of artistic integrity in a paint-by-numbers watercolour here. I'm asking how it is somebody can appreciate a paint-by-numbers watercolour when the artist cannot keep within the lines and has painted the horse puce.

Give it a few years - you'll be thrilled when Asher brings you that very picture home from preschool.

And yes, I can see what you're saying, I think. Let me know if this is accurate. The poor execution of the writing - the grammar errors, the plot holes, poor pacing etc. - interrupt the flow of the novel, essentially startling you in such a way that you have to stop, take yourself out of the mindset of the book for a moment, and analyse what he was actually trying to say. You would prefer books that are well-executed enough that these cognitive interrupts do not happen. Does that sound about right?

This is the feeling I get when I encounter poor spelling and grammar - it interrupts me and makes me try and unravel what it's supposed to be saying. With correct spelling and grammar, these interrupts don't happen.

 

[Skeptic]

Judged on their merits as masterworks of literary immortality I would agree. Judged as suspense potboilers suitable for a summer reading list I don't. They are certainly a cut or more above Clive Cussler novels, which have no trouble selling, and no one is accusing him of being the century's new Steinbeck or trying to dis him for a failure of comparison.

Reminds me of a MAD magazine satire about the book publishing industry:

PUBLISHER: This is our best selling author! As a young man, everybody said he will be the next Hemingway or Steinbeck!
JOURNALIST: And...?
PUBLISHER: I talked him out of it!

But the problem is different, as some people noted. It's not that he writes pap -- or that he makes money writing pap. It's that he promotes his pap as conspiracy-theory "based on real events".

 

[Skeptic]

Give it a few years - you'll be thrilled when Asher brings you that very picture home from preschool.

Oh yeah?

 

[quadraginta]

Reminds me of a MAD magazine satire about the book publishing industry:

PUBLISHER: This is our best selling author! As a young man, everybody said he will be the next Hemingway or Steinbeck!
JOURNALIST: And...?
PUBLISHER: I talked him out of it!

But the problem is different, as some people noted. It's not that he writes pap -- or that he makes money writing pap. It's that he promotes his pap as conspiracy-theory "based on real events".

Maybe I'm too easy. I just assumed that that was part of the fiction.

 

[athon]

Give it a few years - you'll be thrilled when Asher brings you that very picture home from preschool.

Then it will be the art of a free spirit.

And yes, I can see what you're saying, I think. Let me know if this is accurate. The poor execution of the writing - the grammar errors, the plot holes, poor pacing etc. - interrupt the flow of the novel, essentially startling you in such a way that you have to stop, take yourself out of the mindset of the book for a moment, and analyse what he was actually trying to say. You would prefer books that are well-executed enough that these cognitive interrupts do not happen. Does that sound about right?

More or less.

I think the part that offends me isn't so much that such 'catches' exist in his writing. For instance, if I as a writer wished to emphasise some unsettling trait in a figure, I might indeed describe the eyes on a silhouette. That could be used intentionally to create conflict (blinking eyes on a shadow could be a creepy description). Yet when it is unintentional, it makes me wonder what the point is. A moment later I realise the writer is an idiot, and his editor incompetent, and keep reading.

If it was a no-name hack, I might simply avoid his stories in the future and put it down to a bad day at the publisher's office. When they are a celebrated author, I have to question why - when the market is saturated with authors who are decent wordsmiths - does he get the kudos and they don't.

I suspect it's the same nerve that gets touched when people aren't overly critical with information, and lazily accept contradictions or poor research. It's the writer's job to tell the story - not my job to try to interpret it.

Athon

 

[arthwollipot]

I suspect it's the same nerve that gets touched when people aren't overly critical with information, and lazily accept contradictions or poor research. It's the writer's job to tell the story - not my job to try to interpret it.

Yes, fair enough. I will say that I didn't get the cognitive interruptions that I described while reading Dan Brown. Although Digital Fortress seemed to me like one long McGuffin hunt. If I ever tried to do that in one of my RPGs, my players would kill me. By the way - I did, and they did.

 

[Skeptic]

Yes, fair enough. I will say that I didn't get the cognitive interruptions that I described while reading Dan Brown. Although Digital Fortress seemed to me like one long McGuffin hunt. If I ever tried to do that in one of my RPGs, my players would kill me. By the way - I did, and they did.

Sounds like a great idea for a story.

A dungeon master, killed by irate players for giving them stupid quests, comes back as a zombie to kill them all, preferably in exactly the same way their characters were killed in the game.

"Where is your saving throw now?" (*THWACK!*)

Actually, it sounds not just like a great idea for a story, but like a great idea for a Dan Brown story. All you need to do is to prey on the "D & D players are loonies" cultural memes the woos believe, and all the research you need to do is to skim through some D & D adventure book.

A best seller, for sure.

 

[JoeyDonuts]

Yes, fair enough. I will say that I didn't get the cognitive interruptions that I described while reading Dan Brown. Although Digital Fortress seemed to me like one long McGuffin hunt. If I ever tried to do that in one of my RPGs, my players would kill me. By the way - I did, and they did.

As with all of his novels he got "in the ballpark" with this one. There was some detail about the way the NSA is organized, located, and operates that's a little ridiculous. But then again, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have it TOO accurate, what with it being an intelligence gathering agency and all.

 

[JohnG]

I haven't read anything by him so can't comment on his literary talents (or lack thereof). The only problem I have with him is that he ripped off the supposedly "nonfiction" book Holy Blood Holy Grail to write The DaVinci Code and got away with it despite a lawsuit by the authors of the original book. Don't get me wrong, Holy Blood Holy Grail was nonsense, but it was someone else's nonsense and they should have been properly acknowledged (winking in-joke references to the original authors in Brown's novel don't count).

 

[arthwollipot]

Sounds like a great idea for a story.

A dungeon master, killed by irate players for giving them stupid quests, comes back as a zombie to kill them all, preferably in exactly the same way their characters were killed in the game.

"Where is your saving throw now?" (*THWACK!*)

Actually, it sounds not just like a great idea for a story, but like a great idea for a Dan Brown story. All you need to do is to prey on the "D & D players are loonies" cultural memes the woos believe, and all the research you need to do is to skim through some D & D adventure book.

A best seller, for sure.

You're too late, I'm afraid (and so's Dan) because that adventure has already been written up.

 

[athon]

Yes, fair enough. I will say that I didn't get the cognitive interruptions that I described while reading Dan Brown. Although Digital Fortress seemed to me like one long McGuffin hunt. If I ever tried to do that in one of my RPGs, my players would kill me. By the way - I did, and they did.

I would too if you put me into a Dan Brown novel plot.

Athon