You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but compared with what I consider "literature" I think her books are crap. "Da Vinci Code" is crap for a completely different reason. I thought her stories were poorly constructed, they were merely a delivery system so that she could explain her philosophy. Like I said, if her philosophy was at all redeeming,then maybe she would get points for that.

I would compare it to "The Jungle." In the middle of "The Jungle" the story pretty much stops so the author can describe how horrible the meat-packing industry was, and then it turns into a communist manifesto. So, story-wise, it's also weak, but because its working towards a social change that was needed at the time, I think there was some merit in that.

I don't have a problem with some people being talented or different. Rand's philosophy (Objectivism) doesn't just allow for some people to be different, it says that if you are successful, you deserve more rights. It's circular reasoning. You're successful because you're better than everyone else - How do we know you're better? Because you're successful. And everyone else should just shut up and go to work for the rich people, because they know better.

Dan Brown doesn't write well at all, but I don't think he is trying to make any larger commentary about society.


>> ^Yogi:

>> ^LukinStone:
I have a big problem with Rand's philosophies too. But, what I think is most revealing is how poorly constructed her books are. It's not like she constructs this epic fiction that's a veiled analogy for her ideas. Her characters just spout their nonsense, as a mouthpiece for her.
If she had the exact same ideas but wrote a good story, I could at least see her value as a writer. All of these political figures who cite her as writing their "favorite" book make me wonder what they're comparing it to.

I liked her books, didn't seem like such a stretch that there are some people who are different. Doesn't make them better just makes them who they are. I read tons of books, and if I had to compare her books to any current fiction I would say they're way better than the shit that is "The Di Vinci Code" so they hold up just fine.

So very true... Dan Brown's writing is scarily bad. As Geoffrey K. Pullum wrote:

"Brown's writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad. In some passages scarcely a word or phrase seems to have been carefully selected or compared with alternatives. I slogged through 454 pages of this syntactic swill, and it never gets much better. Why did I keep reading? Because London Heathrow is a long way from San Francisco International, and airline magazines are thin, and two-month-old Hollywood drivel on a small screen hanging two seats in front of my row did not appeal, that's why. And why did I keep the book instead of dropping it into a Heathrow trash bin? Because it seemed to me to be such a fund of lessons in how not to write."

His full reviews of Brown are great:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html

I knew it! They're storing antimatter! Dan Brown was right!

The best part is they get so many of those phone calls that they bought it until I started laughing.

In reply to this comment by dystopianfuturetoday:
I don't get why super secret, super evil organizations would spend so much time creating obscure symbolic clues to their own existence. Maybe they read a lot of Dan Brown? >> ^MycroftHomlz:

So this lady is part of group apparently. They believe that the that the movie 2012 is an actual possibility. Shortly after watching 2012, I prank called my friends who work on the IceCube project studying neutrinos pretending to be one of these people.

I don't get why super secret, super evil organizations would spend so much time creating obscure symbolic clues to their own existence. Maybe they read a lot of Dan Brown? >> ^MycroftHomlz:

So this lady is part of group apparently. They believe that the that the movie 2012 is an actual possibility. Shortly after watching 2012, I prank called my friends who work on the IceCube project studying neutrinos pretending to be one of these people.

Written and directed by Dan Brown!? B-bu-but . . . Dan Brown's a hack . . . right? @_@;;

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

^Oh man I hate Dan Brown books. My sympathies.

I got the ugliest coffee mugs made by man and some books I have no intention of reading (fuckin Dan Brown forgodssake)

Sorry to step in at the end of the discussion, but regarding the gospels that didnt make it and different bible versions, I used to wonder about that and did some research years ago.

Given that the early gospels were all being hand copied by people who usually werent all that literate and were doing so in secret under pain of death (often), given the different areas/congregations around the Mediterranean separated by what were great distances, differences were widespread, some were minor, spelling and punctuation changing meanings, others were major changes that suited one particular christian sects interpretation. When time came to put em all together, they had to choose what was agreed upon by most people.

Naturally this pissed some people off, made others happy, and ensured endless conspiracy theories, and careers for people like Dan Brown

Incidentally this also happened in Judaism (at least according to the History channel, I havent talked to any ancient scholars about that)and others religions. Guess you cant suit all of the people all of the time.

I would compare it to DVD boxsets, you've got your theatrical cut, your directors cut, extended version, unrated version etc. Pick the one you like best or don't.

Edit:
BTW I dont claim to be an expert on anything so I only paraphrase what I've read/heard from people who do know what they are on about

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol' to 'Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol, Freemasonry' - edited by EndAll

I think I'll be watching it for the gadgets & locations & explosions (probably not in the cinema though), and to see a Hollywoodified CERN.
I actually read the book on a train trip from Rome to Geneva, so I couldn't help but visit CERN, and suffice it to say, Dan Brown went a little bit overboard on the Q division stuff there.

Alas, in these troubled times it's whatever pays. I'm a freelancer and since my age doesn't inspire confidence in employers I get most jobs via translation agencies. Usually it's user manuals for home electronics or heavy machinery, EU guidelines and the like, and the occasional agreement or marketing brochure. Although there was also the book on international politics recently. What I'd really love to do though, are scripts/subtitles for foreign movies and novels. I'll try to scoop the upcoming Dan Brown book job as a 'career booster' next, but it's highly unlikely I'll get it, it usually all boils down to who you know in a country of couple million such as mine.

In reply to this comment by blahpook:
Yes, alas, Farm Frenzy and its offshoots are one of my favorite ways to procrastinate from various reading and writing assignments. LOL.

By the way, what do you translate?

The Bible was "historical fiction" WAY before Dan Brown came up with "The Da Vinci Code".
It's a clearly fictional story REALLY loosely built around historical events. Sorry, Bible-bangers.