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Dan Brown: why the hate?

athon said:
A clever writer would have exploited that. For instance, you could still have a blindingly obvious solution that eluded the protagonist, and simply establish pity for the character. As you've said, many people have been in a similar situation of expert's blindness, where a simple solution is overlooked because it is too basic. The character would be seen as more sympathetic, allowing for good contact between the reader and the protagonist.

There's nothing wrong with having such things in a story such as mirror-writing codes. What is poor with DB's writing is that he doesn't seem to recognise the nature of his own writing and what it says about the narrative.

Athon
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You're quite right.
I really should get down to the library and start reading them now :)
At least it'll give me a reference or a base line of what is bad writing.
 
hgc said:
Very good movie and no complaints. But of course it only tells a portion of the story that the book tells, as is the nature of these things.
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I expected as much. However, the film did lead me to read "Foucault's Pendulum" when it came out and though I haven't gone back to it since then, it did make a pronounced impression. On reading Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol", it was clear that Brown paddles around in the shallow end of the intellectual pool for the benefit of readers who aren't comfortable being intellectually challenged. Eco seems to encourage his readers to rise to the challenge.
 
fitzgibbon said:
I expected as much. However, the film did lead me to read "Foucault's Pendulum" when it came out and though I haven't gone back to it since then, it did make a pronounced impression. On reading Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol", it was clear that Brown paddles around in the shallow end of the intellectual pool for the benefit of readers who aren't comfortable being intellectually challenged. Eco seems to encourage his readers to rise to the challenge.
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Name of the Rose is well worth your time.
 
stilicho said:
I don't dislike Dan Brown and I've only read the Da Vinci Code (the illustrated version) but haven't seen the movies, although I have seen National Treasure, which is something along the same lines.
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In the sense that it tracks a treasure hunt that tracks a conspiracy through history, yes. But National Treasure doesn't purport to be real history and doesn't take itself so damn seriously.
 
athon said:
This isn't uncommon. Matthew Reilly (similar bad quality, popular writer) couldn't get anybody interested at all, and so went vanity. He managed to get the book into one Sydney bookshop and had one of the Harper Collins publishing reps pick it up and like it enough to want to sell it.
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It's not 'similar bad quality'. Reilly is much, much worse. In a perfect world, the Harper Collins guy would've lost his job for trying to publish that crap.
 
timhau said:
It's not 'similar bad quality'. Reilly is much, much worse.
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If garbage smells rotten, I don't tend to waste time ranking the stink. :)

In a perfect world, the Harper Collins guy would've lost his job for trying to publish that crap.
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I think it was a she, and she was pretty high up the food chain from memory.

In any case, Reilly has earned them a small fortune. Whatever his talent, his stuff has made them money. Publishers are businesses, and as such they need the big earners so they can afford to lose money on the small 'good' writers who cater to specific tastes.

Sickening as it is to say, writers like Reilly make it possible for publishers to consider taking a gamble on writers like me. :(

Athon
 
One of the big whinges I recall hearing, and agree with, is that it seemed he was writing with the movie adaption already in place in his mind.

Langdon looks like Harrison Ford, fade in/fade out to scenery, chapter breaks that finish then have the narrative pick up again in the next chapter repeat exactly what you had just read - like you'd just been given an ad break to go to the loo.

I like reading his books for pure escapism, but I laughed at the end of The Lost Symbol. This probably was not what I was supposed to do, but hey if I laughed I was entertained, corrrect?
 
imjohn said:
Name of the Rose is well worth your time.
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Name of the Rose is an excellent book; and the one I would suggest for someone new to Eco. It is a, for lack of a better term, "easier" read than Foucault's Pendulum, since it is a bit more conventional, character-driven murder mystery; and not quite as rich with esoterica as FP. However, it still assumes its readers are intelligent and capable of handling complex plot threads; and Eco's use of language is masterful.
 
sigmund said:
One of the big whinges I recall hearing, and agree with, is that it seemed he was writing with the movie adaption already in place in his mind.
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It's more common than you'd think. Reilly also writes his books as if he's describing an action sequence. He really wanted to do screenplays but figured he'd have more of a shot at book publishing.

Ironically now that he's famous, he still hasn't gotten a movie deal. I probably would have thought more of his work if he had have stuck with movies.

Athon
 
athon said:
It's more common than you'd think. Reilly also writes his books as if he's describing an action sequence. He really wanted to do screenplays but figured he'd have more of a shot at book publishing.

Ironically now that he's famous, he still hasn't gotten a movie deal. I probably would have thought more of his work if he had have stuck with movies.

Athon
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You do realise I have to read one of these books now to see how bad it is, don't you?

How could you? :D
 
sigmund said:
You do realise I have to read one of these books now to see how bad it is, don't you?

How could you? :D
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I don't mind if it's a second hand copy. ;) Just make sure it isn't a library book (don't want to encourage them) or store copy (don't want to encourage him).

Athon
 
What did it for me was the hero in Angels and Demons leaping out of a helicopter and grabbing onto a plastic sheet of covering material and drifting down to the sea whilst the bad ass priest detonated a massive bomb over his head and parachuted down to land on the top of the Vatican.

It's just incredibly stupid writing. Made up as you go along just dumb.
 
hgc said:
My best and toughest English professor told the class that when we are writing our papers, she's not interested in explanations of what the writer was saying. Rather, it was our job to explain how the writer manipulates and forms the mind of the reader. Much harder to do, but wow, what an education.
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Good to know there are still such professors. Sometimes you think all literature professors are postmodern wannabe Marxists.

There is something to that, as the annoying "theory" nonsense surely took firmer roots in Literature departments than elsewhere, but I think they're getting far more publicity than they deserve.

Many professors do a good job quietly actually teaching how to read and write (in the "higher" sense of the word).

By the way, a little derail here about "PC politics" in humanities departments: in my experience, while it is true that most humanities folks will say they are left-wing or Democrats or Socialists if asked about it, they don't usually make their class into ideological brainwashing sessions.

The problem is the 5% who are more ideologues than philosophers, writers, historians, or whatever.
 
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