hungryIf Dan Brown’s new novel The Lost Symbol is anything like his previous works, it will not go down well with the critics. Famously, comedian Stewart Lee mocked him for using the sentence “The famous man looked at the red cup” in his bestselling The Da Vinci Code.
In fact, Lee was making that up – the sentence never appears in the book. So are the critics unfair on Brown?
They’re certainly harsh. Edinburgh professor of linguistics Geoffrey Pullum says “Brown's writing is not just bad; it is staggeringly, clumsily, thoughtlessly, almost ingeniously bad.” He picks out some excerpts for special criticism. The female lead in Angels and Demons learns of the death of her scientist father: “Genius, she thought. My father . . . Dad. Dead.” A member of the Vatican Guard in the same book becomes annoyed by something, and we learn that "his eyes went white, like a shark about to attack."
Below we have selected 20 phrases that may grate on the ear. It’s not a definitive list. It couldn’t be: he has published five novels, each around 500 pages long, and the arguments over which are the worst bits will go on for a while. But it’s our list. Add your own in the comment box below.
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This list is invalid without that "I know from seeing many forgeries in my time" thing. Somebody post that shit. You're trapped on a desert island for the rest of your life and can only have the works of Dan Brown OR Stephenie Meyer--what do you choose, ONTD?! [Sorry about the cut, mods, I hit "post" and then yelled "FUCK" when I realized I'm awesome.]
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September 18 2009, 23:46:05 UTC 10 years ago
I was reading a delightful little story by Chrétien de Troyes, called Perceval: The Story of the Grail. The guy sitting across from me not only interrupted me, but asked, "So, is that like The DaVinci Code?" All I could do was stare at him and say, "Uh...um. This book was written in the 12th century..."
I mean, I understand that the majority of the population isn't familiar with Arthurian legend, but come onnnnnnnnnn! You see the word "grail," and the first thing you think of is Dan Brown? Perceval was the first appearance of the grail. In HISTORY. *headdesk*