The Lost Symbol

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

My first literary review and it's on video!

This was incredibly difficult for me to do, given my lack of a) a decent computer b) decent recording instruments, c) technical knowledge and d) a decent voice.  But at long last i've done it.  I've included the transcript below for those unable to view youtube for whatever reasons.

Video is hosted on www.youtube.com


Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code were a mess of historic and scientific inaccuracies that often broke a more astute reader's willing suspension of disbelief.  But that's not to say that Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons weren't entertaining in their own right.

They both delivered fairly compelling suspense, even if it came at the cost of some factual accuracy... ok a lot of factual accuracy.

But they were pieces of fiction.  They may not have been classics, but they were pretty entertaining to read.  So, how does Dan Brown's new novel, The Lost Symbol, measure up?  Well, let's find out.

It's got all the usual Dan Brown formula: a fanatical enemy, ancient conspiracy theories, a hot female "scientist", an early on bad guy who's actually a late story ally, and yes, it's even got it's share of factual inaccuracies for those hard-core fans who insist that if it's not factually inaccurate, it ain't Dan Brown.

Of course, how much it follows said formula may itself be a criticism of the book, but i'm not going to criticise it for that alone.  No, there's much worse things i can criticise this book for.

For starters, the characters all suffer from the same kind of obfuscating personality flaws that are only present in badly written suspense novels.

Characters will regularly forget to mention details until the exact moment when it would be of maximum shock value.

And i'm not talking small details here, like Langdon forgetting an ancient symbol he once saw.  I mean plot altertering details that no one in their right mind would or could forget short of blunt-trauma to the head.

I feel cheated when an author purposely leaves out critical details that are anything but "ordinary" and then drops them in unceremoniously and expects the reader to be shocked.

The other thing that annoyed me about this book is Brown's fumbled attempts at foreshadowing.

While a skilled writer can subtly hide their plot points amongst the finer details of the story, Brown uses such a heavy hand in his writing it's impossible not to figure things out almost immediately.  Anything that's even slightly foreshadowed is instantly and easily recognized as a critical plot element.

The identity of the main villain, particularly, became so blatantly obvious as the novel progressed that i was stunned, stunned that anyone would treat this as even a remotely startling revelation.  It seems the only way Brown can keep a secret from the reader is to deliberately tell them nothing.

Now that i've got some of the literary points out of the way, let's talk about the facts.

If you've read The Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons or really any of Dan Brown's novels, you already know that he has a little problem with facts.  In keeping with trends, The Lost Symbol is no different.

For example, one point in The Lost Symbol required Langdon to turn an object 33 degrees, which he does by turning the object to the RIGHT, ie clockwise, which has the desired effect for the plot.

But degrees are measured counterclockwise, so turning the object to the right would be to turn it to negative 33 degrees.  A basic error that would've taken all of 2 seconds to correct.

Ok, now i admit, that's a bit nitpicky and an extremely unimportant point.  But that's just one small example of the errors in The Lost Symbol.  Many more, and i mean MANY more, come in the form of pseudoscientific babble from the field of Noetics.

What is Noetics, you ask?  It's a field one of the characters affectionately describes as "philosophy meets science".

It's bullshit!

I promise you, if you have any knowledge or respect for science or philosophy, you are going to cringe every time Noetics is brought up.

But let's move away from all that crap for a second.  Sorry, i meant Noetics.

Dan Brown also includes some references to wikipedia in his writing.  But just listen to these passages that characters are supposedly reading from the online encyclopedia.

"To ensure this powerful wisdom could not be used by the unworthy, the early adepts wrote down their knowledge in code ... cloaking its potent truth in a metaphorical language of symbols, myth, and allegory.  To this day, this encrypted wisdom is all around us ... encoded in our mythology, our art, and the occult texts of the ages.  Unfortunately, modern man has lost the ability to decipher this complex network of symbolism ... and the great truth has been lost." (pg 407)

...and later...

"According to legend, the sages who encrypted the ancient mysteries long ago left behind a key of sorts ... a password that could be used to unlock the encrypted secrets.  This magical password - known as the verbum significatium - is said to hold the power to lift the darkness and unlock the ancient mysteries, opening them to all human understanding." (pg 408)

Who writes a wikipedia article like that?  Nobody!  Nobody fuckin' writes an article like that!

This kind of purple prose is more likely found in books on astrology or ghosts and goblins or some other form of pseudoscience.  It's certainly not what i'd expect to read on wikipedia or any encyclopedia for that matter.

At the very least, the above passages would be litered with "citation needed" tags if not a banner declaring how much in need it is of a massive clean up effort by a more skilled writer.

I don't know, it's like Dan Brown just said to himself, "well, people know i don't fact check anyway.  I may as well just make up whatever i want."

As for the ending of The Lost Symbol, it has got to be the most unsatisfying ending of any of the Dan Brown novels i've read.

While Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code at least had some feeling of climax and resolution, The Lost Symbol just doesn't.  All the suspense just kind of ends and Brown painfully just walks Langdon and the reader through the last bits of the book tying up all the loose ends out of obligation.

Even the way he ties up the loose ends is unsatisfying and if you're like me, you'll probably just think that the entire adventure was one giant waste of everyone's time.

The Lost Symbol is easily the weakest of the "Langdon trilogy," but, if you read Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code and liked them, you're going to read it anyway.  You're also going to see the movie, because this book, as you'll see, was definitely written to be made into a movie.

Overall i give this book 3 symbols out of 5: a C-.  But bear in mind, that's only when comparing it with other Dan Brown novels.