Dan Brown's latest novel, #ORIGIN: A highly frustrating yet thought-provoking book...
The story begins with a tantalizing promise - a world-changing revelation that is due to be announced "shortly", yet does not get revealed till three-quarters of the book is done. This cliffhanger would have been bearable had this revelation been supported by an intriguing and powerful plot. Sadly, the innumerable and unrelated subplots, along with a large ensemble of unnecessary characters, leaves you feeling a little cheated. You're expecting a brilliant crescendo that will bring together all these seemingly unconnected subplots and characters in an exciting showdown, but all you get are some unexplained subplots that the author forgot or didn't know how to close, and the other subplots that had no connection to the main crux of the story whatsoever (they seemed to be there to just prolong the anticipation of the big revelation). But luckily, even if the author has floundered his way through the maze of storytelling, he does end up doing a good job of at least keeping the main story (which he could have narrated in about 150 pages) interesting and highly relevant to our times. His way of merging the ancient culture, traditions, and rituals with today's inventions and practices keeps you turning page after page, devouring all the fascinating information being thrown your way in heaps.
That's the one thing that keeps you riveted to Brown's books - the endless stream of information and revelations about the art, culture and the scientific world. I can never read his books without the company of a laptop or a tab, so I can immediately have visual aids and background information about the places, art pieces and a host of other things he mentions in his narration. One always leaves his books feeling a little more well-informed about the unexplored side of arts and science. It is easy to argue that in today's day and age of information abundance, one doesn't need a weak-plotted fictional novel to glean information about the world around us. But it is also a universally acknowledged fact that where there is abundance, one doesn't know or understand how to begin that research or find the starting point for investigations. And fortunately or unfortunately, Brown's books help one find a starting point or a context, which helps people like me (the ones who are uninitiated into the world of serious art and historical events) to learn about things we have never come across before. The information is his books helps you to see fresh and revealing perspectives on subjects you think you know well.
Like for e.g. William Blake to me was always a poet of nature - the fact that his poetry was about religious inquiry and a proponent of scientific thinking was revealed to me through this book. And now, I know what I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks and months - re-reading Blake's work and examining his art in this new perspective.
But the ONE BIG reason why I would recommend everyone to read 'Origin' at least once is because in the last fifty-odd pages of his novel the author beautifully brings forth a relevant and critical debate of our times - are religion and technology capable of surviving together, or will one have to be destroyed for the other to live. Brown plays the devil's advocate and presents some very strong points in the favor of both parties, leaving the readers to decide whose side they want to be on, or if it is necessary to choose a side at all. Perils of both technology (or science) and religion are not new to us, but I think Brown does a good job of bringing them together on one platform in a comprehensive and interesting manner.
As a student of digital technology and social media, I have studied in detail about how technology today can wield power that sometimes is even beyond the control of humans who created it. The ethical and moral dilemmas that organizations developing futuristic technology face - how to temper the rapid strides in technology without compromising the basic human values and morals, and how to avoid being enslaved by the technology we are creating. Similarly, religious scholars around the world face the dilemma of how to free the sublime religious teachings from the clutches of terrorism, extremists, and fanatics. But due to the serious nature of these topics; academic papers, lectures, and treatises on this subject are not exciting enough to capture the interest of non-academic readers - hence the awareness about the conflicts between religion and technology, and how it affects human survival is quite low. So, if a novel can help generate wider interest in this debate and get people to at least start a dialogue to examine the good and the bad side of science and religion, then I think it is worth recommending this book. Because nothing leaves an impact like a story does (fictional or otherwise).
So read the book once, and if you can get over the weak plot points and are able to see the actual crux and intent behind this book, it will lead you to explore more serious literature and provoke the urgent question we all need to answer today - where are we all headed and how we are going to get there? Your discoveries will then help you ascertain how you want the world's future to shape up, and what role YOU can play in it.
