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In Light of the Da Vinci Code
The thing about “The Da Vinci Code” is that it’s a good read. It may not be a great read yet it still seduces you into turning the next page, and then the next, the next...
I don’t agree with something that Alvin, very good friend of mine, wrote in his review of Dan Brown’s DVC. But then again, we don’t always agree, and it’s such a wonderful friendship that I may just try one more time at disagreeing with him.
I must admit, I didn’t quite expect Brown’s novel to tackle such an anathema to the true faith. Alvin mentioned that the agnostic in him reared its ugly head after he read DVC. I guess I could understand how DVC has aroused such emotions and contemplations in complex person such as Alvin, but I would definitely draw the line between fiction renewing my faith and the Bible. As DVC has shown, Brown knows how to straddle the line between fact and conjecture. What could be more controversial than something that seems to attack the very base of your faith? Truly, DVC will provide fodder for many a lively street debate for evenings to come, with such arguments like, ‘how did DVC enrich your spiritual life?’ or, ‘How is your faith after reading DVC?’
Oh please. Only fools ask those silly questions. Or answer even them.
Personally, I see Brown as a brilliant researcher, but a moderately competent storyteller. If he had chosen a different idea, DVC would have fallen grimly to the bottom of the suspense fiction genre. As it is, people have hailed it as a grand achievement. It sits right up there with the rest of the realist fiction writers such Caleb Carr, among others, who were wont to fuse real events and people and other facts into a fictional plot. Brilliant. But then again... Brown messes up.
Sadly, I read DVC before picking Brown’s Angels and Demons. Now there’s a book that would really make you sit up and laugh. No, this is not a comparison between two works of one author, but clearly, A&D, left a bad taste in my mouth. Or more poignantly, DVC did.
As brilliant as Brown is as a researcher, I can’t say much for his writing style. I mean there is more than one way to write fiction as there writers in the world. Why can’t he develop his own style? What Brown does is cram all these facts and figures down your throat, that if you’re not too quick to notice, you’d never see the fact that both his novels were written exactly the same. His plots developed in a similar manner. His characters deviated very little as to appear copies from A&D to DVC. His twists and plot developments and conflict resolutions are so, so, so, so, so, brilliantly similar, you’d cry out in frustration. At least when Caleb Carr wrote the “Angel of Darkness,” you could immediately sense that the writing techniques used to draw you into the story was different from Carr’s first thriller, “The Alienist.” I won’t even deign to compare Brown to Tony Perez and his Cuba-Kalaw-Cubao series. It doesn’t seem fair to Brown; Perez is too good a writer to be in the same section as Brown. As Perez, or Carr, are arresting in their style, Brown is the very opposite. Even his PR campaign points more to the facts and the puzzles rather than the story. In his regard though, I accede that Brown is very good in data collection.
Believe me when I say that even if Brown points out that he has researched and sifted through god-knows how many sources just to get his data right, the fact of the matter is, he’s not a great storyteller that most people figure him out to be. Sure, he’s got the most interesting and esoteric info around, but that does not make the storyteller.
The heart of novel writing is in the storytelling. It’s not in the facts, which, I may point out, can be lumped into a literary element called background. I guess that’s what he does best, paint the background. Just as Michael Mann is know for his dark brooding cinematography, or George Lucas for his fantastic imagery and digital magic, or Ridley Scott, whose sweeping landscapes and magnificent backdrops can make one’s jaw drop in awe, not one of them is as consummate a storyteller as Tim Burton.
[THERE ARE SOME TYPOS... I'LL DEAL WITH THEM LATER...]
