Just Literature discussion

Strange, but I first read DVC before I started writing myself. I enjoyed it and couldn't wait for the (disappointing) film. I read it again a couple of years ago after having written a few novels and found it tedious in the extreme; I felt that the story was being rammed into my brain. The characters are characterless and cardboard, nothing is left to the imagination and the writing is wooden and predictable.

Having said that, he's sold over 6m copies so what did he do right? Well, mainly, Dan Brown is a superb story-teller; the Vikings would have reserved a place for him near the hearth. It's a page-turner...you have to find out what happens next. OK, there are a few riddles too many but the bad guy is really good and there's plenty of intrigue and excitement of the chase. So, in summary, it's a great success because that's what the public wants. It was also hyped to hell, of course, but a lot of it was entirely creditable word-of-mouth. Finally, he's known. He's low risk for publishers. He has a great marketing team. He laughs at critics. Ha ha.

Ah, to sell six million....or even one million...even a hundred thousand...

Yes, it's difficult to put a finger on it; it had a good cast and story, everything going for it. Anyway, it was only a film...not real life...not like reading!

Dan Brown will always be regarded as a great story-teller in this time and age. His books are unputdownable, but I can't understand why he constantly takes a swipe at Christianity in his Langdon series.

So now I ask; is Dan Brown a Christian, a Muslim, an Agnostic, or an Atheist?

It's fashionable to have a go at the God Squad now that you don't get burned at the stake for it. Plus, it fits in with his genre to take an institution which is overtly good and to reveal it as inherently evil. Nice opposition which usually works! I've used it myself.....

Mr Brown is an author in a long tradition of writers who have managed to tell a (generally) spellbinding tale whilst addressing contemporary issues but without becoming overly didactic.

I agree with Collins in that he does seem to have a go at Christianity, but as an ex-altar boy, I can understand that and quite enjoy his tilts, at Catholicism in particular. Given time, I hope he will have a go at other religions. Belief flourishes best and is also exposed most, when attacked.

It's true to say that he often sacrifices character for plot, but that's a problem faced by all thriller writers - where does a description of a character's inner conflicts become a drag on the storyline? This is popular fiction and as such demands plot development at a breakneck pace.

Writers have a choice: deep and meaningful, or fast and superficial. Occasionally a great writer manages to walk the wire between these choices, but not often. The ratings are littered with the bodies of fallers, but on balance, Dan Brown, like Stephen King - although I would hesitate to encumber either with the term 'literary'- makes a reasonable, if wobbly, attempt to cross without a net and for that I applaud him.

Good remark, D.J you've perfectly summed it up.

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