My Next Read-Along: ORIGIN
I hate Dan Brown…and I love Dan Brown. Let me try to explain why Mr. Symbology himself has got me all conflicted.
Dan Brown is an awful writer. I say this knowing full well that I am criticizing someone who has sold millions of copies as a writer where as the only thing I’ve ever had published is what I click ‘post’ for on social media. Brown writes like he’s authoring an textbook: it is a precisely analytical, stiltedly linguistic, and just out right stiff writing style. There’s creative writing and there’s technical writing, and Dan is very much technical and almost heartless in his delivery. It grates against this English Major’s nerves.
However, Dan Brown is a brilliant storyteller. I say this knowing full well I am praising a writer of mass produced trash fiction. Brown’s well researched facts and locations come alive on the page, and no one else out there crafts the same level of intriguing and mystifying puzzles. He is one of the few creators out there who can still surprise you with a plot twist. When I read a Dan Brown novel, I chew it up impulsively; it’s like I’m a kid again and my mother is telling me to slow down and chew my food. That’s how fast I burn through his books because I literally cannot put them down. I simply MUST know what happens next.
So, there in lies my conundrum. The literary side of my brain is ashamed of myself for being a Dan Brown fanboy. The adventurous side is wide-eyed and excited about Origin and doesn’t care what you think.
A friend and myself got to actually see Dan Brown in Dallas, TX this week at the Dallas Museum of Art. It was pretty enlightening and awesome, to be honest. Brown is more personable than he seems, and he spent a good deal of time talking about his experiences researching and writing his hits such as Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, as well as the brand new Origin. Origin itself follows the hero Robert Langdon along yet another heart-pounding adventure with the focus on one controversial question: Will science be the end of the belief in a God?
The best part of the talk, however, was that we got to hear an origin of sorts for the man himself. Brown spoke at length about growing up under the influence of both his mathematician father and church organist mother. He lived in a house where both analytical reasoning and devout faith lived together peacefully in co-existence. Though Dan himself admits he tends to lean toward science instead of faith, he also believes that both should be respected and hold value.
That means a lot to a man of faith like myself. I’ve always appreciated that while he asks challenging questions of established belief systems, he remains respectful and in no way insults the believers themselves. Our country, as well as how we interact with those fellow citizens who disagree with us, could learn a lot from Brown in this respect.
I plan to begin reading Origin tomorrow, and post my thoughts on it like always here on I READ BOOKS. I hope you read along with me, if for no other reason than to read about the warring sides of my brain. Hopefully I don’t hurt myself.
MAY ROBERT LANGDON AND HIS POWERS OF SYMBOLOGY LEAD US ON AN EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURE…EVEN IF THE PROSE IS A BIT STIFF.
Also: here’s a few pictures of my visit to see Dan Brown (be jealous).
