I have finished reading Dan Brown’s last novel, The Lost Symbol, a few days ago. Maybe to be begin with, I must tell you that this is not a novel but a script for a planned blockbuster. Maybe if one takes it as a script, disappointment would be lesser. After the Da Vinci Code, this is a very frustrating one for the fans like me. Some quick notes:
1. Character formations in the novel are extremely weak, shallow. Robert Langdon is a reactionary guy. He first reacts to whatever told him, then he is surprised and accepts. Same pattern throughout the novel.
2. After the Da Vinci Code, Mr. Brown might have decided not to touch culturally and religiously sensitive issues. This book will not bring much reaction from the Church etc.
3. The novel looks likes a “sponsored post” (!). As if funded by freemasonry establishment. I have no problem with freemasonry, just that the novel should have gone beyond mere propaganda.
4. Well, despite all, if the narrative brought about exciting revelations like it did in the previous novel, it would still be satisfactory for me. But I wasn’t particularly excited with turning points in the novel…
Freemasonry, Dan Brown, and the New New Age
Freemasonry and the New Age Guestblogger Arthur Goldwag is the author of “Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more” and other books.
On September 15, 2009, THE LOST SYMBOL came off press. Fans of THE DA VINCI CODE, with more than 80 million copies in print perhaps the bestselling novel of all time, were thrilled–they had been waiting for Dan Brown to write another book for six years. Random House, B&N, and Amazon were delighted; they moved more than a million copies in twenty four hours and another million copies by the end of the week; two months later, it still sits high atop the bestseller lists.
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I’m a little confused by your review, though I think what I got out of it was that it seemed formulaic, that Dan Brown put in A, B, and C, in order to = “blockbuster,” and that what’s there isn’t worth “blockbuster.” This is definitely a different kind of book from the others — but I must say I still think his writing is pretty wooden. I like the New Age aspects — and find it pretty interesting that in the book, the character Katherine is fascinated by a real book and real theories — the power of group intention. You can look the website he cites, too, for more on the idea that thought has a tangible power and enable us to be creators of our own world. The author of “The Intention Experiment” that Brown talks about does online experiments — and people can sign up participate in the experiments. It’s part of the theories Brown outlines in “Lost Symbol” — that intention has the power to change the world.
Liz, Thank your for your productive intervention. I find many of his writing in this novel still interesting and sometimes refreshing and informative. But he seems to be too didactic in New Age aspects, too. I don’t have problem with the aspects, but I am a bit annoyed with literary style…