Dan Brown’s latest book, “The Lost Symbol” has created an unprecedented stir. The date of its release was shrouded in mystery and translators have only begun working on foreign language editions. His previous blockbuster, “The Da Vinci Code”, is one of the most widely-read novels of all time with 81 million copies sold — but will the new one do as well?
It is easy to criticize Dan Brown, His style or lack of style is an easy target, but then Dan Brown is not writing for the literati. He is luring a growing number of people who not only take what they want from the Internet but find little time to read. Moreover, the phenomenal success of his books is not born out of nothing — quite the contrary, it relies on a well-defined formula: suspense, interesting information and being easy to read.
Like “The Da Vinci Code”, “The Lost Symbol” has a gripping plot and it is difficult to put the book down because each chapter ends with a cliffhanger and the answer is only a few pages away.
The new book shares many similarities with its famous predecessor. Both novels begin with a vicious crime which triggers a chain of events; they also feature similar characters: Peter Solomon, the kidnapped and mutilated CEO of the Smithsonian Institute reminds us of Sauniere, the murdered Louvre curator, the lecherous albino monk, Silas, is replaced by a sinister tattooed freak, Mal’akh. And the hero, Robert Langdon, returns to help solve the series of mysterious events.
The pace of the novel is unbelievably fast and that is probably why the author does not have the time to give us too much personal information on the hero, Robert Langdon. We are reminded that he wears a collector’s Mickey Mouse watch, a gift from his parents on his ninth birthday: “I wear it to remind me to slow down and take life less seriously.”
“I don’t think it’s working,” the guard said with a smile. “You look like you’re in a serious hurry”.
The action takes place in Washington DC, where a Masonic pyramid is hidden in the basement of the Capitol building. This pyramid is supposed to hold the key to ancient mysteries. In the course of the novel, we are introduced, to a mishmash of cultural history, weird scientific data and freemason mythology. What is most upsetting is not the nature of the research which is absolutely correct (apart from Langdon’s profession, symbologist, which does not exist) but the fact that Brown believes that his readers are ignorant. We are even warned just before the prologue that all the rituals, artwork, and monuments in the novel are real and the organizations including the Institute of Noetic Sciences do exist.
Noetic Science is basically concerned “with the untapped potential of the human mind... Experiments... had categorically proven that human thought, if properly focused, had the ability to affect and change physical mass,” writes Brown.
When Robert Langdon is thrown into a Total Liquid Ventilation tank, we are given extensive information on this new technology linked to medicine’s attempts to help premature babies breathe by returning them to the liquid-filled state of the womb. The US military has worked extensively with oxygenated perfluorocarbons and the CIA has also used this breathable liquid as an interrogation technique:
“A victim submerged in breathable liquid could literally be ‘drowned’. The panic associated with the drowning experience usually made the victim unaware that the liquid he was breathing was slightly more viscous than water. When the liquid poured into his lungs, he would often black out from fear, and then awaken in the ultimate ‘solitary confinement’. The state of being dead was terrifying on its own, but the true disorientation came from the rebirthing process, which, with the aid of bright lights, cold air, and deafening noise, could be extremely traumatic and painful” writes Brown.
Despite all the intellectual verbiage, Brown has the knack of instilling a sense of tension in all the scenes. The pace is incredibly fast and many readers will enjoy this absorbing thriller. Random House is certainly hoping so because it has already printed 6.5 million copies.
