Dan Brown’s Code Gets Scrambled
A lot of people think Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol, is disappointing.
No, seriously. At least some of them (according to the reviews on Amazon) think it’s “anticlimactic” because after all the breathless chasing after secrets, mysteries and hidden coded symbols, it ends up with – the revelation that the true Word is the Bible! The Bible as interpreted by Dan Brown, of course.
This is what I found out so far, anyway. I don’t have time to read the whole thing at this point (if ever). But what I’ve managed to find out is certainly revealing enough. The novel deals with a plot against the Freemasons which Robert Langdon (as always, a kind of stand-in for Brown himself) must thwart, along with the requisite mysteries to solve and secret symbols to decode. But it’s the ending that’s really interesting.
SPOILERS STRAIGHT AHEAD (for anyone who actually cares about the plot)
With the night’s events over, Peter [a Freemason] decides to show Langdon the true Word. He shows Langdon that it is hidden in the cornerstone of the Washington Monument, and that the Word is actually the Bible. Peter reveals that the true Ancient Mystery is in fact the realization that people are not God’s subjects, but in fact possess the capability to be gods themselves. Once they realize this fact, they will open the gateway to a magnificent future. (From the Wikipedia summary)
Wait a minute. Isn’t this the same Bible (at least the New Testament part of it) that Brown described in The Da Vinci Code as a paste-up job by the mean old Emperor Constantine, intended to suppress the truth that Jesus was just a human being and not divine? The Bible that was part of a plot to suppress the sacred feminine?The Bible that was supposed to be so inferior to the ancient Gnostic texts? The same Bible? Really?
Brown doesn’t show any understanding of the Sacred Scriptures, since nothing in the actual Bible would ever lead anyone to think that “people are not God’s subjects.” Jesus does indeed tell us we are to become perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect, but makes it absolutely clear that the only way to achieve this is through obedience to Him.
It’s not clear whether Dan Brown himself actually knows which piece of idiocy he really believes, or if he really believes anything at all. Of course, an author isn’t required to actually believe any theory he has his characters put forth in his books, but this waffling certainly puts the lie to his repeated statements that everything he wrote in The Da Vinci Code is factual, things that he has been actually propagating as a kind of religion.
And many of his acolytes who have been pulled up short in their breathless search of secrets and mysteries that must be so much more interesting than the Christian religion, in their eagerness for more esoteric revelations about the sacred feminine, are annoyed at finding themselves back with – the Bible. What a let-down!
If only they had some understanding of the truth actually revealed there, which is much more exciting than anything Dan Brown has ever put forth.
Par for the course. I’m sure the book is filled with tons of mistakes in geography, history, the nature of the Freemasons and just about anything else you can name.
Now I may be totally unfair to Brown, because I haven’t read the book, only the plot summary and a couple of excerpts, so there may be more to his thoughts than this – but I seriously doubt it. Maybe some of my readers can enlighten me.
I can’t resist just one actual quote:
“I hate to embarrass you, Professor,” the woman said, sounding sheepish, “but you are the Robert Langdon who writes books about symbols and religion, aren’t you?”
Langdon hesitated and then nodded.
“I thought so!” she said, beaming. “My book group read your book about the sacred feminine and the church! What a delicious scandal that one caused! You do enjoy putting the fox in the henhouse!”
Don’t think much of yourself, do you, Dan?
Update: September 18.
In case you’re interested, the secret anagram for The Lost Symbol is MOLEST BY SLOTH. Sounds a lot like Brown’s working method to me.
