Kang-nam Oh - Dan Brown Origin 종교의 미래/미래의 종교
Kang-nam Oh
12 h ·
종교의 미래/미래의 종교
지난 주 스페인 포르투갈 여행을 마치고 돌아왔습니다. 이번 여행과 관계해서 오늘은 책 한 권을 소개하려고 합니다. 미국의 작가 댄 브라운(Dan Brown)을 아실 것입니다. 그의 소설 <다빈치 코드 The Da Vinci Code>는 나오자마자 세계적으로 수 천만 부가 팔린 최대의 걸작이었습니다. 그 외에도 <로스트 심볼> <인페르노> <천사와 악마> <오리진> 등 나오는 책마다 베스트셀러가 되었습니다.
저는 이 중에서 제가 가장 좋아하는 <오리진>에 대해 이야기해 볼까 합니다. 사실 <오리진>은 댄 브라원의 책들 중에서만이 아니라 제가 읽은 많은 소설 중에 단연 최고의 소설 중 하나라 확신합니다. 이 책이 손에 땀이 나도록 흥미진진한 이야기를 전개해 나가기 때문만이 아니라 ‘미래의 종교’/‘종교의 미래’에 대해 설득력 있게 이야기해주고 있기 때문입니다.
스페인을 무대로 전개되는 이 소설이 2017년 한국과 미국에서 동시 출판되었습니다. 그 때 감명 깊게 읽고, 언젠가 스페인에 가봐야겠다는 생각을 했었는데, 드디어 스페인에 가게 되어, 가기 전 <오리진>을 다시 읽고 기억을 새롭게 한 다음 현장을 직접 보게 되었을 때 감동은 이만저만이 아니었습니다.
내용을 소상하게 소개하는 것은 이른바 ‘스포’가 될 것 같아 큰 줄거리만 말씀드립니다.
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하버드 출신의 천재 과학자 에드먼드 커쉬(Edmond Kirsch)가 스페인 빌바오에 있는 구겐하임 미술관에서 “우리는 어디서 왔는가? 우리는 어디로 가는가?” 우리의 근원(Origin)과 우리의 운명(destiny)에 관한 혁명적 발견을 발표하게 되었습니다. 지축을 흔들 정도로 중대한 발표인만큼 세계의 미디어가 몰려들어 중개를 하고 있었습니다.
생명이 신의 개입이나 외계의 관여 없이 생겨날 수 있다는 것, 그리고 이제 우리의 운명이 어떻게 전개될 것인가 발표하려는 순간 커쉬는 괴한에 의해 암살을 당하게 됩니다.
그 자리에 초청되어 참석하고 있던 커쉬의 스승 하버드대 기호학 교수 로버트 랭던과 그 미술관의 여성 관장 암브라 비델은 이 발표를 계속해서 끝내려고 하는데, 커쉬가 자기의 슈퍼 컴퓨터에 암호로 걸어놓은 마흔 일곱 글자 시구(詩句)를 찾을 수가 없었습니다. 둘은 바르셀로나로 날아가서 커쉬의 숙소인 카사 밀라(Casa Milà) 꼭대기 층에 있는 책들을 샅샅이 뒤져보지만 찾을 수 없었습니다.
커쉬가 좋아한 영국의 시인, 화가, 판화가, 종교 비평가 윌리엄 블레이크(William Blake) 전집을 사그라다 파밀리아(Sagrada Familia) 성당에 맡겨놓았다는 것을 알게 되어 그리로 옮겨가 찾기 시작합니다. 천신만고 끝에 지하에 그의 시집 중 한 페이지가 열린채 전시되어 있는 것을 발견하게 됩니다. 거기에 The dark religions are departed & sweet science reigns (어두운 종교들은 떠나고 감미로운 과학이 지배한다) 라는 시구가 적혀 있었습니다. 마흔 여섯 자 밖에 되지 않는데, &을 본래 뜻인 et로 푸니 마흔 일곱이 되었습니다.
마침내 프레젠테이션이 계속되었습니다. 인간은 곧 멸종 위기에 처해있지만 “미래는 여러분이 상상하는 것보다 훨씬 밝습니다.”로 결론 짖습니다. 결국 커쉬가 전하려던 가장 중요한 기별은 한마디로 낡은 종교는 사라지고 과학이 지배하는 세상이 된다고 하는 것이었습니다.
정말로 종교들은 사라지고 말 것인가? 프레젠테이션이 끝나고 사그라다 파밀리아 성전 주임신부 호아킴 베냐(Beńa) 신부와 랭던 교수의 대화가 의미심장합니다. 랭던 교수에 의하면 블레이크는 사실 “종교에 두 가지 측면이 있다고 믿었지요. 창의적인 사고를 억압하는 어둡고 독단적인 종교들과.... 자기 성찰과 창의력을 북돋는 밝고 탄력적인 종교들.” “아주 쉬운 말로 고쳐쓸 수 있어요. 감미로운 과학이 어두운 종교들을 몰아낼 것이다.... 개화된 종교가 꽃을 피울 수 있도록. Sweet science will banish the dark religions....so the enlightened religions can flourish.”
베냐 신부는 사그라다 파밀리아 교회가 “자연과 직접적으로 연결된... 미래의 교회”를 상징하는 것이라 말합니다. 랭던도 “사그라 파밀리아가 한 발은 과거에, 다른 한 발은 미래에 걸친, 죽어가는 신앙과 새롭게 태어나는 신앙 사이의 물리적 가교가 되지 않을까 생각하고, 만약 그렇게 된다면 사그라다 파밀리아는 상상을 초월할 만큼 지금보다 훨씬 중요한 성당이 될 터”라고 결론 짓습니다.
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이 책은 표층 종교로서의 종교는 이제 그 명을 다했다는 것을 재확인시켜 주고 있습니다. 현재 세계적으로 일어나고 있는 탈종교화 현상이 이를 증명하고 있습니다. 종교가 인류에 기여하려면 옛날 패러다임이나 세계관에 입각해서 형성된 교리나 예식을 과감히 청산하고 “자기 성찰과 창의력을 북돋는 밝고 탄력적인 종교”로 탈바꿈하는 것이라고 보고 있습니다. 이런 종교는 더 이상 ‘종교’라 할 수도 없는 무엇일 수밖에 없을지도 모르겠습니다.
정선욱
인간이 기복, 안정을 바라는 이상
종교가 사라지기는 어려워 보입니다.
Minjeong Seok
캐나다 제 주위만 봐도 대대로 독실한 기독교/천주교신자들을 가족으로 둔 친구나 회사동료들이 많습니다. 하지만 그 지인들은 교회를 더이상 다니고 있지 않고 자녀들에게 종교생활을 독려하지도 않지요.
종교가 자기성찰과 창의력을 북돋아 탄력적이고 밝은 면을 지향해야 한다시는 말씀에 깊이 공감합니다. 신앙은 꼭 필요합니다.
Hoon Park
Dan Brown 의 광팬으로 그의 책을 모두 읽었으나 저로서는 좀 오래되긴했지만 “Angels and Demons”이 줄을 치며 읽었던 가장 깊은 인상을 안겨주었던 책입니다. 종교와 과학의 접점을 찾으려는 그의 노력이 대단히 가상해보였습니다. 그래서 그곳에 나오는 4개의 교회를 찾아 Rome 로 떠났던 생각이 나네요. 근 20년전 쯤의 일입니다.
Julie Jeong
오교슈님의 Dan Brown 이야기에 흥미가 솓구쳤어요. 남편이 좋아하던 작가라
Brown 의 모든 책이 집에 아직도 자리잡고 있어요 덕분에 저도 첫번 책인 The DaVinci Code 와 Inferno 를 흥미있게 읽었답니다.
오교수님이 언급하신 "오리진' 을 읽어봐야겠어요. 고맙습니다.
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Dan Brown
82 languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Daniel Brown (disambiguation).
Dan Brown
Born Daniel Gerhard Brown[1]
June 22, 1964 (age 59)
Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.
Occupation Novelist
Alma mater Amherst College
Genre Thriller, adventure, mystery, conspiracy
Notable works Digital Fortress
Deception Point
Angels & Demons
The Da Vinci Code
The Lost Symbol
Inferno
Origin
Spouse
Blythe Newlon
(m. 1997; div. 2019)[2]
Relatives Gregory W. Brown (brother)
Signature
Website
danbrown.com
Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013), and Origin (2017). His novels are treasure hunts that usually take place over a period of 24 hours.[3] They feature recurring themes of cryptography, art, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 57 languages and, as of 2012, have sold over 200 million copies. Three of them, Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and Inferno, have been adapted into films, while one of them, The Lost Symbol, was adapted into a television show.
The Robert Langdon novels are deeply engaged with Christian themes and historical fiction, and have generated controversy as a result. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian and he is on a "constant spiritual journey" himself.[4] He states that his book The Da Vinci Code is "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."[5]
Early life[edit]
Daniel Gerhard Brown was born on June 22, 1964, in Exeter, New Hampshire.[6] He has a younger sister, Valerie (born 1968) and brother, Gregory (born 1974). Brown attended Exeter's public schools until the ninth grade.[7] He grew up on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy, where his father, Richard G. Brown, was a teacher of mathematics and wrote textbooks[8] from 1968 until his retirement in 1997.[9] His mother, Constance (née Gerhard), trained as a church organist and student of sacred music.[7] Brown was raised an Episcopalian,[8] and described his religious evolution in a 2009 interview:
"I was raised Episcopalian, and I was very religious as a kid. Then, in eighth or ninth grade, I studied astronomy, cosmology, and the origins of the universe. I remember saying to a minister, 'I don't get it. I read a book that said there was an explosion known as the Big Bang, but here it says God created heaven and Earth and the animals in seven days. Which is right?' Unfortunately, the response I got was, 'Nice boys don't ask that question.' A light went off, and I said, 'The Bible doesn't make sense. Science makes much more sense to me.' And I just gravitated away from religion."[8]
When asked in the same interview about his then-current religious views, Brown replied:
"The irony is that I've really come full circle. The more science I studied, the more I saw that physics becomes metaphysics and numbers become imaginary numbers. The further you go into science, the mushier the ground gets. You start to say, 'Oh, there is an order and a spiritual aspect to science.'"[8]
Brown's interest in secrets and puzzles stems from their presence in his household as a child, where codes and ciphers were the linchpin tying together the mathematics, music, and languages in which his parents worked. The young Brown spent hours working out anagrams and crossword puzzles, and he and his siblings participated in elaborate treasure hunts devised by their father on birthdays and holidays. On Christmas, for example, Brown and his siblings did not find gifts under the tree, but followed a treasure map with codes and clues throughout their house and even around town to find the gifts.[10] Brown's relationship with his father inspired that of Sophie Neveu and Jacques Saunière in The Da Vinci Code, and Chapter 23 of that novel was inspired by one of his childhood treasure hunts.[11]
After graduating from Phillips Exeter, Brown attended Amherst College, where he was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. He played squash, sang in the Amherst Glee Club, and was a writing student of visiting novelist Alan Lelchuk. Brown spent the 1985 school year abroad in Seville, Spain, where he was enrolled in an art history course at the University of Seville.[10] Brown graduated from Amherst in 1986.[12][13]
Career[edit]
Composer and singer[edit]
After graduating from Amherst, Brown dabbled with a musical career, creating effects with a synthesizer, and self-producing a children's cassette entitled SynthAnimals, which included a collection of tracks such as "Happy Frogs" and "Suzuki Elephants"; it sold a few hundred copies. The music has been compared to Gary Glitter.[14] He then formed his own record company called Dalliance, and in 1990 self-published a CD entitled Perspective, targeted to the adult market, which also sold a few hundred copies. In 1991 he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as singer-songwriter and pianist. To support himself, he taught classes at Beverly Hills Preparatory School.[15][16]
He also joined the National Academy of Songwriters and participated in many of its events. It was there that he met his wife, Blythe Newlon, who was the academy's Director of Artist Development. Though it was not officially part of her job, she took on the seemingly unusual task of helping to promote Brown's projects; she wrote press releases, set up promotional events, and put him in contact with people who could be helpful to his career. She and Brown also developed a personal relationship, though this was not known to all of their associates until 1993, when Brown moved back to New Hampshire, and it was learned that Newlon would accompany him. They married in 1997, at Pea Porridge Pond, near Conway, New Hampshire.[17] In 1994 Brown released a CD titled Angels & Demons. Its artwork was the same ambigram by artist John Langdon which he later used for the novel Angels & Demons. The liner notes also again credited his wife for her involvement, thanking her "for being my tireless cowriter, coproducer, second engineer, significant other, and therapist".[17] The CD included songs such as "Here in These Fields" and the religious ballad, "All I Believe".[18]
Brown and his wife Blythe moved to Rye, New Hampshire in 1993.[17] Brown became an English teacher at his alma mater Phillips Exeter, and gave Spanish classes to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at Lincoln Akerman School, a small school for K–8th grade with about 250 students, in Hampton Falls.[19]
Brown has written a symphonic work titled Wild Symphony which is supplemented by a book of the same name.[20] The book is illustrated by Hungarian artist Susan Batori[21] which feature simple ambigrams for children, while the visuals trigger the corresponding music in an accompanying app.[22] The music was recorded by the Zagreb Festival Orchestra[23] and will receive its world concert premiere by the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra in 2020.[24] On March 30, 2022, it was announced that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Weed Road Pictures will turn Wild Symphony into an animated musical feature film in the vein of Walt Disney's Fantasia, with Brown writing the screenplay and songs, and Akiva Goldsman producing.[25]
Writing[edit]
Main article: Robert Langdon (book series)
While on vacation in Tahiti in 1993,[10] Brown read Sidney Sheldon's novel The Doomsday Conspiracy, and was inspired to become a writer of thrillers.[10][26][27]
He started work on Digital Fortress, setting much of it in Seville, where he had studied in 1985. He also co-wrote a humor book with his wife, 187 Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, under the pseudonym "Danielle Brown".[28] The book's author profile reads, "Danielle Brown currently lives in New England: teaching school, writing books, and avoiding men." The copyright to the book is attributed to Brown.[29]
In 1996 Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. Digital Fortress was published in 1998. His wife Blythe did much of the book's promotion, writing press releases, booking Brown on talk shows, and setting up press interviews. A few months later, Brown and his wife released The Bald Book, another humor book. It was officially credited to his wife, though a representative of the publisher said that it was primarily written by Brown. Brown subsequently wrote Angels & Demons and Deception Point, released in 2000 and 2001 respectively, the former of which was the first to feature the lead character, Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon.[30] Brown's first three novels had little success, with fewer than 10,000 copies in each of their first printings. His fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became a bestseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list during its first week of release in 2003. It is one of the most popular books of all time, with 81 million copies sold worldwide as of 2009.[31][32] Its success has helped push sales of Brown's earlier books.
In 2004 all four of his novels were on the New York Times list in the same week,[33] and, in 2005, he made Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year. Forbes magazine placed Brown at No. 12 on their 2005 "Celebrity 100" list, and estimated his annual income at US$76.5 million. According to the article published in The Times, the estimated income of Brown after Da Vinci Code sales is $250 million.[34] Brown's third novel featuring Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol, was released on September 15, 2009.[35] According to the publisher, on its first day the book sold over one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the US, the UK and Canada, prompting the printing of 600,000 hardcover copies in addition to the five million first printing.[36]
The story takes place in Washington D.C. over a period of twelve hours, and features the Freemasons. The book also includes many elements that made The Da Vinci Code a number one best seller.
Brown's promotional website states that puzzles hidden in the book jacket of The Da Vinci Code, including two references to the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, give hints about the sequel. Brown has adopted a relevant theme in some of his earlier work.[37]
Brown's fourth novel featuring Robert Langdon, Inferno is a mystery thriller novel released on May 14, 2013, by Doubleday.[38] It ranked No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list for the first 11 weeks of its release, has sold more than 1.4 million copies in the US alone.[39]
In a 2006 interview, Brown stated that he had ideas for about 12 future books featuring Robert Langdon.[40]
Characters in Brown's books are often named after real people in his life. Robert Langdon is named after John Langdon, the artist who created the ambigrams used for the Angels & Demons CD and novel. Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca is named after On a Claire Day cartoonist friend Carla Ventresca. In the Vatican archives, Langdon recalls a wedding of two people named Dick and Connie, which are the names of his parents. Robert Langdon's editor Jonas Faukman is named after Brown's real life editor Jason Kaufman. Brown also said that characters were based on a New Hampshire librarian, and a French teacher at Exeter, André Vernet. Cardinal Aldo Baggia, in Angels & Demons, is named after Aldo Baggia, instructor of modern languages at Phillips Exeter Academy.[41]
In interviews, Brown has said his wife, Blythe, is an art historian and painter. When they met, she was the Director of Artistic Development at the National Academy for Songwriters in Los Angeles. During the 2006 lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement in The Da Vinci Code, information was introduced at trial that showed that Blythe did research for the book.[42] In one article, she was described as "chief researcher".[43]
Doubleday published his seventh book, Origin, on October 3, 2017. It is the fifth book in his Robert Langdon series.[44]
Reception[edit]
See also: Criticism of The Da Vinci Code
Brown's prose style has been criticized as clumsy,[45][46] with The Da Vinci Code being described as 'committing style and word choice blunders in almost every paragraph'.[47] In his 2005 documentary for Channel 4, The Real Da Vinci Code, author and presenter Tony Robinson criticised both the accuracy of the author's historic research and the writing itself, considering the book to be not particularly well written. Much of the criticism was centered on Brown's claim in his preface that the novel is based on fact in relation to Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion, and that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in [the] novel are accurate".[48][49]
Influences and habits[edit]
In addition to Sidney Sheldon, Brown has been quite vocal about a number of other literary influences who have inspired his writing.
Recurring elements that Brown prefers to incorporate into his novels include a simple hero pulled out of their familiar setting and thrust into a new one with which they are unfamiliar, an attractive female sidekick/ love interest, foreign travel, imminent danger from a pursuing villain, antagonists who have a disability or genetic disorder, and a 24-hour time frame in which the story takes place.[3]
Brown's work is heavily influenced by academic Joseph Campbell, who wrote extensively on mythology and religion and was highly influential in the field of screenwriting. Brown also states he based the character of Robert Langdon on Campbell.[50]
Director Alfred Hitchcock appears to be another key influence on Brown. Like Hitchcock, the writer favors suspense-laden plots involving an innocent middle-aged man pursued by deadly foes, glamorous foreign settings, key scenes set in tourist destinations, a cast of wealthy and eccentric characters, young and curvaceous female sidekicks, Catholicism and MacGuffins.
Brown does his writing in his loft. He told fans that he uses inversion therapy to help with writer's block. He uses gravity boots and says, "hanging upside down seems to help me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective".[51]
Copyright infringement cases[edit]
In August 2005 author Lewis Perdue unsuccessfully sued Brown for plagiarism, on the basis of claimed similarity between The Da Vinci Code and his novels, The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). Judge George B. Daniels said, in part: "A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God."[52]
In April 2006 Brown's publisher, Random House, won a copyright infringement case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed that Brown stole ideas from their 1982 book Holy Blood Holy Grail for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. It was in the book Holy Blood Holy Grail that Baigent, Leigh, and co-author Henry Lincoln had advanced the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. Brown apparently alluded to the two authors' names in his book. Leigh Teabing, a lead character in both the novel and the film, uses Leigh's name as the first name, and anagrammatically derives his last name from Baigent's. Mr Justice Peter Smith found in Brown's favor in the case, and as a private amusement, embedded his own Smithy code in the written judgment.[53]
On March 28, 2007, Brown's publisher, Random House, won an appeal copyright infringement case. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales rejected the efforts from Baigent and Leigh, who became liable for paying legal expenses of nearly US$6 million.[54]
Brown has been sued twice in U.S. Federal courts by the author Jack Dunn who claims Brown copied a huge part of his book The Vatican Boys to write The Da Vinci Code (2006–07) and Angels & Demons (2011-12). Both lawsuits were not allowed to go to a jury trial and Jack Dunn claims the Judge in both cases benefited from his decisions by becoming an author published and supported by people associated with Random House, Dan Brown's publisher. In 2017, in London, another claim was begun against Brown by Jack Dunn who claimed that justice was not served in the U.S. lawsuits.[55]
Charity work[edit]
In October 2004, Brown and his siblings donated US$2.2 million to Phillips Exeter Academy in honor of their father, to set up the Richard G. Brown Technology Endowment to help "provide computers and high-tech equipment for students in need".[56]
On April 14, 2011, Dan and his wife, Blythe Newlon Brown, created an eponymous scholarship fund to celebrate his 25th reunion from Amherst College, a permanently endowed scholarship fund at the college whose income provides financial aid to students there, with preference for incoming students with an interest in writing.[13]
On June 16, 2016, Brown donated US$337,000 to the Ritman Library in Amsterdam to digitize a collection of ancient books.[57]
Personal life[edit]
Brown and his wife, Blythe Newlon, were supporters of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.[58][17]
In 2019, after 21 years of marriage, Brown and his wife acrimoniously divorced, with the financial settlement still to be concluded due to Brown's alleged infidelities during the latter part of their marriage.[59] In December 2021, the couple agreed to settle the lawsuit.[60]
Bibliography[edit]
Stand-alone novels[edit]Digital Fortress (1998)
Deception Point (2001)
Wild Symphony (2020), illustrated children's book
Robert Langdon series[edit]
Main article: Robert Langdon (book series)Angels & Demons (2000)
The Da Vinci Code (2003)
The Lost Symbol (2009)
Inferno (2013)
Origin (2017)[61]
Adaptations[edit]
In 2006, Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was released as a film by Columbia Pictures, with director Ron Howard. It was widely anticipated and launched the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, though it received overall poor reviews. It currently has a 26% rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, derived from 165 negative reviews of the 214 counted.[62] It was later listed as one of the worst films of 2006 on Ebert & Roeper,[63] but also the second highest-grossing film of the year, pulling in US$750 million worldwide.[64]
Brown was listed as one of the executive producers of the film The Da Vinci Code, and also created additional codes for the film. One of his songs, "Phiano", which Brown wrote and performed, was listed as part of the film's soundtrack. In the film, Brown and his wife can be seen in the background of one of the early book signing scenes.[citation needed]
The next film, Angels & Demons, was released on May 15, 2009, with Howard and Hanks returning. It, too, garnered mostly negative reviews, though critics were kinder to it than to its predecessor. As of July 2013, it has a 37% meta-rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[65]
Filmmakers expressed interest in adapting The Lost Symbol into a film as well.[66][67]
The screenplay was written by Danny Strong, with pre-production expected to begin in 2013.[68] According to a January 2013 article in Los Angeles Times the final draft of the screenplay was due sometime in February,[68] but in July 2013, Sony Pictures announced they would instead adapt Inferno for an October 14, 2016[69] release date with Ron Howard as director, David Koepp adapting the screenplay and Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon. Inferno was released on October 28, 2016.[70]
Imagine Entertainment was announced in 2014 to produce a television series based on Digital Fortress, written by Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz.[71]
In 2021, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol was adapted into a television series repositioned as an origin story for Brown's Robert Langdon character with Ashley Zukerman playing Langdon.[72] It ran on the streaming service Peacock for one season.[73]
Kang-nam Oh
12 h ·
종교의 미래/미래의 종교
지난 주 스페인 포르투갈 여행을 마치고 돌아왔습니다. 이번 여행과 관계해서 오늘은 책 한 권을 소개하려고 합니다. 미국의 작가 댄 브라운(Dan Brown)을 아실 것입니다. 그의 소설 <다빈치 코드 The Da Vinci Code>는 나오자마자 세계적으로 수 천만 부가 팔린 최대의 걸작이었습니다. 그 외에도 <로스트 심볼> <인페르노> <천사와 악마> <오리진> 등 나오는 책마다 베스트셀러가 되었습니다.
저는 이 중에서 제가 가장 좋아하는 <오리진>에 대해 이야기해 볼까 합니다. 사실 <오리진>은 댄 브라원의 책들 중에서만이 아니라 제가 읽은 많은 소설 중에 단연 최고의 소설 중 하나라 확신합니다. 이 책이 손에 땀이 나도록 흥미진진한 이야기를 전개해 나가기 때문만이 아니라 ‘미래의 종교’/‘종교의 미래’에 대해 설득력 있게 이야기해주고 있기 때문입니다.
스페인을 무대로 전개되는 이 소설이 2017년 한국과 미국에서 동시 출판되었습니다. 그 때 감명 깊게 읽고, 언젠가 스페인에 가봐야겠다는 생각을 했었는데, 드디어 스페인에 가게 되어, 가기 전 <오리진>을 다시 읽고 기억을 새롭게 한 다음 현장을 직접 보게 되었을 때 감동은 이만저만이 아니었습니다.
내용을 소상하게 소개하는 것은 이른바 ‘스포’가 될 것 같아 큰 줄거리만 말씀드립니다.
===
하버드 출신의 천재 과학자 에드먼드 커쉬(Edmond Kirsch)가 스페인 빌바오에 있는 구겐하임 미술관에서 “우리는 어디서 왔는가? 우리는 어디로 가는가?” 우리의 근원(Origin)과 우리의 운명(destiny)에 관한 혁명적 발견을 발표하게 되었습니다. 지축을 흔들 정도로 중대한 발표인만큼 세계의 미디어가 몰려들어 중개를 하고 있었습니다.
생명이 신의 개입이나 외계의 관여 없이 생겨날 수 있다는 것, 그리고 이제 우리의 운명이 어떻게 전개될 것인가 발표하려는 순간 커쉬는 괴한에 의해 암살을 당하게 됩니다.
그 자리에 초청되어 참석하고 있던 커쉬의 스승 하버드대 기호학 교수 로버트 랭던과 그 미술관의 여성 관장 암브라 비델은 이 발표를 계속해서 끝내려고 하는데, 커쉬가 자기의 슈퍼 컴퓨터에 암호로 걸어놓은 마흔 일곱 글자 시구(詩句)를 찾을 수가 없었습니다. 둘은 바르셀로나로 날아가서 커쉬의 숙소인 카사 밀라(Casa Milà) 꼭대기 층에 있는 책들을 샅샅이 뒤져보지만 찾을 수 없었습니다.
커쉬가 좋아한 영국의 시인, 화가, 판화가, 종교 비평가 윌리엄 블레이크(William Blake) 전집을 사그라다 파밀리아(Sagrada Familia) 성당에 맡겨놓았다는 것을 알게 되어 그리로 옮겨가 찾기 시작합니다. 천신만고 끝에 지하에 그의 시집 중 한 페이지가 열린채 전시되어 있는 것을 발견하게 됩니다. 거기에 The dark religions are departed & sweet science reigns (어두운 종교들은 떠나고 감미로운 과학이 지배한다) 라는 시구가 적혀 있었습니다. 마흔 여섯 자 밖에 되지 않는데, &을 본래 뜻인 et로 푸니 마흔 일곱이 되었습니다.
마침내 프레젠테이션이 계속되었습니다. 인간은 곧 멸종 위기에 처해있지만 “미래는 여러분이 상상하는 것보다 훨씬 밝습니다.”로 결론 짖습니다. 결국 커쉬가 전하려던 가장 중요한 기별은 한마디로 낡은 종교는 사라지고 과학이 지배하는 세상이 된다고 하는 것이었습니다.
정말로 종교들은 사라지고 말 것인가? 프레젠테이션이 끝나고 사그라다 파밀리아 성전 주임신부 호아킴 베냐(Beńa) 신부와 랭던 교수의 대화가 의미심장합니다. 랭던 교수에 의하면 블레이크는 사실 “종교에 두 가지 측면이 있다고 믿었지요. 창의적인 사고를 억압하는 어둡고 독단적인 종교들과.... 자기 성찰과 창의력을 북돋는 밝고 탄력적인 종교들.” “아주 쉬운 말로 고쳐쓸 수 있어요. 감미로운 과학이 어두운 종교들을 몰아낼 것이다.... 개화된 종교가 꽃을 피울 수 있도록. Sweet science will banish the dark religions....so the enlightened religions can flourish.”
베냐 신부는 사그라다 파밀리아 교회가 “자연과 직접적으로 연결된... 미래의 교회”를 상징하는 것이라 말합니다. 랭던도 “사그라 파밀리아가 한 발은 과거에, 다른 한 발은 미래에 걸친, 죽어가는 신앙과 새롭게 태어나는 신앙 사이의 물리적 가교가 되지 않을까 생각하고, 만약 그렇게 된다면 사그라다 파밀리아는 상상을 초월할 만큼 지금보다 훨씬 중요한 성당이 될 터”라고 결론 짓습니다.
--
이 책은 표층 종교로서의 종교는 이제 그 명을 다했다는 것을 재확인시켜 주고 있습니다. 현재 세계적으로 일어나고 있는 탈종교화 현상이 이를 증명하고 있습니다. 종교가 인류에 기여하려면 옛날 패러다임이나 세계관에 입각해서 형성된 교리나 예식을 과감히 청산하고 “자기 성찰과 창의력을 북돋는 밝고 탄력적인 종교”로 탈바꿈하는 것이라고 보고 있습니다. 이런 종교는 더 이상 ‘종교’라 할 수도 없는 무엇일 수밖에 없을지도 모르겠습니다.
정선욱
인간이 기복, 안정을 바라는 이상
종교가 사라지기는 어려워 보입니다.
Minjeong Seok
캐나다 제 주위만 봐도 대대로 독실한 기독교/천주교신자들을 가족으로 둔 친구나 회사동료들이 많습니다. 하지만 그 지인들은 교회를 더이상 다니고 있지 않고 자녀들에게 종교생활을 독려하지도 않지요.
종교가 자기성찰과 창의력을 북돋아 탄력적이고 밝은 면을 지향해야 한다시는 말씀에 깊이 공감합니다. 신앙은 꼭 필요합니다.
Hoon Park
Dan Brown 의 광팬으로 그의 책을 모두 읽었으나 저로서는 좀 오래되긴했지만 “Angels and Demons”이 줄을 치며 읽었던 가장 깊은 인상을 안겨주었던 책입니다. 종교와 과학의 접점을 찾으려는 그의 노력이 대단히 가상해보였습니다. 그래서 그곳에 나오는 4개의 교회를 찾아 Rome 로 떠났던 생각이 나네요. 근 20년전 쯤의 일입니다.
Julie Jeong
오교슈님의 Dan Brown 이야기에 흥미가 솓구쳤어요. 남편이 좋아하던 작가라
Brown 의 모든 책이 집에 아직도 자리잡고 있어요 덕분에 저도 첫번 책인 The DaVinci Code 와 Inferno 를 흥미있게 읽었답니다.
오교수님이 언급하신 "오리진' 을 읽어봐야겠어요. 고맙습니다.
======
Dan Brown
82 languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Daniel Brown (disambiguation).
Dan Brown
Born Daniel Gerhard Brown[1]
June 22, 1964 (age 59)
Exeter, New Hampshire, U.S.
Occupation Novelist
Alma mater Amherst College
Genre Thriller, adventure, mystery, conspiracy
Notable works Digital Fortress
Deception Point
Angels & Demons
The Da Vinci Code
The Lost Symbol
Inferno
Origin
Spouse
Blythe Newlon
(m. 1997; div. 2019)[2]
Relatives Gregory W. Brown (brother)
Signature
Website
danbrown.com
Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon novels Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013), and Origin (2017). His novels are treasure hunts that usually take place over a period of 24 hours.[3] They feature recurring themes of cryptography, art, and conspiracy theories. His books have been translated into 57 languages and, as of 2012, have sold over 200 million copies. Three of them, Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and Inferno, have been adapted into films, while one of them, The Lost Symbol, was adapted into a television show.
The Robert Langdon novels are deeply engaged with Christian themes and historical fiction, and have generated controversy as a result. Brown states on his website that his books are not anti-Christian and he is on a "constant spiritual journey" himself.[4] He states that his book The Da Vinci Code is "an entertaining story that promotes spiritual discussion and debate" and suggests that the book may be used "as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of our faith."[5]
Early life[edit]
Daniel Gerhard Brown was born on June 22, 1964, in Exeter, New Hampshire.[6] He has a younger sister, Valerie (born 1968) and brother, Gregory (born 1974). Brown attended Exeter's public schools until the ninth grade.[7] He grew up on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy, where his father, Richard G. Brown, was a teacher of mathematics and wrote textbooks[8] from 1968 until his retirement in 1997.[9] His mother, Constance (née Gerhard), trained as a church organist and student of sacred music.[7] Brown was raised an Episcopalian,[8] and described his religious evolution in a 2009 interview:
"I was raised Episcopalian, and I was very religious as a kid. Then, in eighth or ninth grade, I studied astronomy, cosmology, and the origins of the universe. I remember saying to a minister, 'I don't get it. I read a book that said there was an explosion known as the Big Bang, but here it says God created heaven and Earth and the animals in seven days. Which is right?' Unfortunately, the response I got was, 'Nice boys don't ask that question.' A light went off, and I said, 'The Bible doesn't make sense. Science makes much more sense to me.' And I just gravitated away from religion."[8]
When asked in the same interview about his then-current religious views, Brown replied:
"The irony is that I've really come full circle. The more science I studied, the more I saw that physics becomes metaphysics and numbers become imaginary numbers. The further you go into science, the mushier the ground gets. You start to say, 'Oh, there is an order and a spiritual aspect to science.'"[8]
Brown's interest in secrets and puzzles stems from their presence in his household as a child, where codes and ciphers were the linchpin tying together the mathematics, music, and languages in which his parents worked. The young Brown spent hours working out anagrams and crossword puzzles, and he and his siblings participated in elaborate treasure hunts devised by their father on birthdays and holidays. On Christmas, for example, Brown and his siblings did not find gifts under the tree, but followed a treasure map with codes and clues throughout their house and even around town to find the gifts.[10] Brown's relationship with his father inspired that of Sophie Neveu and Jacques Saunière in The Da Vinci Code, and Chapter 23 of that novel was inspired by one of his childhood treasure hunts.[11]
After graduating from Phillips Exeter, Brown attended Amherst College, where he was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity. He played squash, sang in the Amherst Glee Club, and was a writing student of visiting novelist Alan Lelchuk. Brown spent the 1985 school year abroad in Seville, Spain, where he was enrolled in an art history course at the University of Seville.[10] Brown graduated from Amherst in 1986.[12][13]
Career[edit]
Composer and singer[edit]
After graduating from Amherst, Brown dabbled with a musical career, creating effects with a synthesizer, and self-producing a children's cassette entitled SynthAnimals, which included a collection of tracks such as "Happy Frogs" and "Suzuki Elephants"; it sold a few hundred copies. The music has been compared to Gary Glitter.[14] He then formed his own record company called Dalliance, and in 1990 self-published a CD entitled Perspective, targeted to the adult market, which also sold a few hundred copies. In 1991 he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as singer-songwriter and pianist. To support himself, he taught classes at Beverly Hills Preparatory School.[15][16]
He also joined the National Academy of Songwriters and participated in many of its events. It was there that he met his wife, Blythe Newlon, who was the academy's Director of Artist Development. Though it was not officially part of her job, she took on the seemingly unusual task of helping to promote Brown's projects; she wrote press releases, set up promotional events, and put him in contact with people who could be helpful to his career. She and Brown also developed a personal relationship, though this was not known to all of their associates until 1993, when Brown moved back to New Hampshire, and it was learned that Newlon would accompany him. They married in 1997, at Pea Porridge Pond, near Conway, New Hampshire.[17] In 1994 Brown released a CD titled Angels & Demons. Its artwork was the same ambigram by artist John Langdon which he later used for the novel Angels & Demons. The liner notes also again credited his wife for her involvement, thanking her "for being my tireless cowriter, coproducer, second engineer, significant other, and therapist".[17] The CD included songs such as "Here in These Fields" and the religious ballad, "All I Believe".[18]
Brown and his wife Blythe moved to Rye, New Hampshire in 1993.[17] Brown became an English teacher at his alma mater Phillips Exeter, and gave Spanish classes to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders at Lincoln Akerman School, a small school for K–8th grade with about 250 students, in Hampton Falls.[19]
Brown has written a symphonic work titled Wild Symphony which is supplemented by a book of the same name.[20] The book is illustrated by Hungarian artist Susan Batori[21] which feature simple ambigrams for children, while the visuals trigger the corresponding music in an accompanying app.[22] The music was recorded by the Zagreb Festival Orchestra[23] and will receive its world concert premiere by the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra in 2020.[24] On March 30, 2022, it was announced that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Weed Road Pictures will turn Wild Symphony into an animated musical feature film in the vein of Walt Disney's Fantasia, with Brown writing the screenplay and songs, and Akiva Goldsman producing.[25]
Writing[edit]
Main article: Robert Langdon (book series)
While on vacation in Tahiti in 1993,[10] Brown read Sidney Sheldon's novel The Doomsday Conspiracy, and was inspired to become a writer of thrillers.[10][26][27]
He started work on Digital Fortress, setting much of it in Seville, where he had studied in 1985. He also co-wrote a humor book with his wife, 187 Men to Avoid: A Survival Guide for the Romantically Frustrated Woman, under the pseudonym "Danielle Brown".[28] The book's author profile reads, "Danielle Brown currently lives in New England: teaching school, writing books, and avoiding men." The copyright to the book is attributed to Brown.[29]
In 1996 Brown quit teaching to become a full-time writer. Digital Fortress was published in 1998. His wife Blythe did much of the book's promotion, writing press releases, booking Brown on talk shows, and setting up press interviews. A few months later, Brown and his wife released The Bald Book, another humor book. It was officially credited to his wife, though a representative of the publisher said that it was primarily written by Brown. Brown subsequently wrote Angels & Demons and Deception Point, released in 2000 and 2001 respectively, the former of which was the first to feature the lead character, Harvard symbology expert Robert Langdon.[30] Brown's first three novels had little success, with fewer than 10,000 copies in each of their first printings. His fourth novel, The Da Vinci Code, became a bestseller, going to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list during its first week of release in 2003. It is one of the most popular books of all time, with 81 million copies sold worldwide as of 2009.[31][32] Its success has helped push sales of Brown's earlier books.
In 2004 all four of his novels were on the New York Times list in the same week,[33] and, in 2005, he made Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year. Forbes magazine placed Brown at No. 12 on their 2005 "Celebrity 100" list, and estimated his annual income at US$76.5 million. According to the article published in The Times, the estimated income of Brown after Da Vinci Code sales is $250 million.[34] Brown's third novel featuring Robert Langdon, The Lost Symbol, was released on September 15, 2009.[35] According to the publisher, on its first day the book sold over one million in hardcover and e-book versions in the US, the UK and Canada, prompting the printing of 600,000 hardcover copies in addition to the five million first printing.[36]
The story takes place in Washington D.C. over a period of twelve hours, and features the Freemasons. The book also includes many elements that made The Da Vinci Code a number one best seller.
Brown's promotional website states that puzzles hidden in the book jacket of The Da Vinci Code, including two references to the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, give hints about the sequel. Brown has adopted a relevant theme in some of his earlier work.[37]
Brown's fourth novel featuring Robert Langdon, Inferno is a mystery thriller novel released on May 14, 2013, by Doubleday.[38] It ranked No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller list for the first 11 weeks of its release, has sold more than 1.4 million copies in the US alone.[39]
In a 2006 interview, Brown stated that he had ideas for about 12 future books featuring Robert Langdon.[40]
Characters in Brown's books are often named after real people in his life. Robert Langdon is named after John Langdon, the artist who created the ambigrams used for the Angels & Demons CD and novel. Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca is named after On a Claire Day cartoonist friend Carla Ventresca. In the Vatican archives, Langdon recalls a wedding of two people named Dick and Connie, which are the names of his parents. Robert Langdon's editor Jonas Faukman is named after Brown's real life editor Jason Kaufman. Brown also said that characters were based on a New Hampshire librarian, and a French teacher at Exeter, André Vernet. Cardinal Aldo Baggia, in Angels & Demons, is named after Aldo Baggia, instructor of modern languages at Phillips Exeter Academy.[41]
In interviews, Brown has said his wife, Blythe, is an art historian and painter. When they met, she was the Director of Artistic Development at the National Academy for Songwriters in Los Angeles. During the 2006 lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement in The Da Vinci Code, information was introduced at trial that showed that Blythe did research for the book.[42] In one article, she was described as "chief researcher".[43]
Doubleday published his seventh book, Origin, on October 3, 2017. It is the fifth book in his Robert Langdon series.[44]
Reception[edit]
See also: Criticism of The Da Vinci Code
Brown's prose style has been criticized as clumsy,[45][46] with The Da Vinci Code being described as 'committing style and word choice blunders in almost every paragraph'.[47] In his 2005 documentary for Channel 4, The Real Da Vinci Code, author and presenter Tony Robinson criticised both the accuracy of the author's historic research and the writing itself, considering the book to be not particularly well written. Much of the criticism was centered on Brown's claim in his preface that the novel is based on fact in relation to Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion, and that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in [the] novel are accurate".[48][49]
Influences and habits[edit]
In addition to Sidney Sheldon, Brown has been quite vocal about a number of other literary influences who have inspired his writing.
Recurring elements that Brown prefers to incorporate into his novels include a simple hero pulled out of their familiar setting and thrust into a new one with which they are unfamiliar, an attractive female sidekick/ love interest, foreign travel, imminent danger from a pursuing villain, antagonists who have a disability or genetic disorder, and a 24-hour time frame in which the story takes place.[3]
Brown's work is heavily influenced by academic Joseph Campbell, who wrote extensively on mythology and religion and was highly influential in the field of screenwriting. Brown also states he based the character of Robert Langdon on Campbell.[50]
Director Alfred Hitchcock appears to be another key influence on Brown. Like Hitchcock, the writer favors suspense-laden plots involving an innocent middle-aged man pursued by deadly foes, glamorous foreign settings, key scenes set in tourist destinations, a cast of wealthy and eccentric characters, young and curvaceous female sidekicks, Catholicism and MacGuffins.
Brown does his writing in his loft. He told fans that he uses inversion therapy to help with writer's block. He uses gravity boots and says, "hanging upside down seems to help me solve plot challenges by shifting my entire perspective".[51]
Copyright infringement cases[edit]
In August 2005 author Lewis Perdue unsuccessfully sued Brown for plagiarism, on the basis of claimed similarity between The Da Vinci Code and his novels, The Da Vinci Legacy (1983) and Daughter of God (2000). Judge George B. Daniels said, in part: "A reasonable average lay observer would not conclude that The Da Vinci Code is substantially similar to Daughter of God."[52]
In April 2006 Brown's publisher, Random House, won a copyright infringement case brought by authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claimed that Brown stole ideas from their 1982 book Holy Blood Holy Grail for his 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. It was in the book Holy Blood Holy Grail that Baigent, Leigh, and co-author Henry Lincoln had advanced the theory that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and had a child and that the bloodline continues to this day. Brown apparently alluded to the two authors' names in his book. Leigh Teabing, a lead character in both the novel and the film, uses Leigh's name as the first name, and anagrammatically derives his last name from Baigent's. Mr Justice Peter Smith found in Brown's favor in the case, and as a private amusement, embedded his own Smithy code in the written judgment.[53]
On March 28, 2007, Brown's publisher, Random House, won an appeal copyright infringement case. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales rejected the efforts from Baigent and Leigh, who became liable for paying legal expenses of nearly US$6 million.[54]
Brown has been sued twice in U.S. Federal courts by the author Jack Dunn who claims Brown copied a huge part of his book The Vatican Boys to write The Da Vinci Code (2006–07) and Angels & Demons (2011-12). Both lawsuits were not allowed to go to a jury trial and Jack Dunn claims the Judge in both cases benefited from his decisions by becoming an author published and supported by people associated with Random House, Dan Brown's publisher. In 2017, in London, another claim was begun against Brown by Jack Dunn who claimed that justice was not served in the U.S. lawsuits.[55]
Charity work[edit]
In October 2004, Brown and his siblings donated US$2.2 million to Phillips Exeter Academy in honor of their father, to set up the Richard G. Brown Technology Endowment to help "provide computers and high-tech equipment for students in need".[56]
On April 14, 2011, Dan and his wife, Blythe Newlon Brown, created an eponymous scholarship fund to celebrate his 25th reunion from Amherst College, a permanently endowed scholarship fund at the college whose income provides financial aid to students there, with preference for incoming students with an interest in writing.[13]
On June 16, 2016, Brown donated US$337,000 to the Ritman Library in Amsterdam to digitize a collection of ancient books.[57]
Personal life[edit]
Brown and his wife, Blythe Newlon, were supporters of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.[58][17]
In 2019, after 21 years of marriage, Brown and his wife acrimoniously divorced, with the financial settlement still to be concluded due to Brown's alleged infidelities during the latter part of their marriage.[59] In December 2021, the couple agreed to settle the lawsuit.[60]
Bibliography[edit]
Stand-alone novels[edit]Digital Fortress (1998)
Deception Point (2001)
Wild Symphony (2020), illustrated children's book
Robert Langdon series[edit]
Main article: Robert Langdon (book series)Angels & Demons (2000)
The Da Vinci Code (2003)
The Lost Symbol (2009)
Inferno (2013)
Origin (2017)[61]
Adaptations[edit]
In 2006, Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was released as a film by Columbia Pictures, with director Ron Howard. It was widely anticipated and launched the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, though it received overall poor reviews. It currently has a 26% rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, derived from 165 negative reviews of the 214 counted.[62] It was later listed as one of the worst films of 2006 on Ebert & Roeper,[63] but also the second highest-grossing film of the year, pulling in US$750 million worldwide.[64]
Brown was listed as one of the executive producers of the film The Da Vinci Code, and also created additional codes for the film. One of his songs, "Phiano", which Brown wrote and performed, was listed as part of the film's soundtrack. In the film, Brown and his wife can be seen in the background of one of the early book signing scenes.[citation needed]
The next film, Angels & Demons, was released on May 15, 2009, with Howard and Hanks returning. It, too, garnered mostly negative reviews, though critics were kinder to it than to its predecessor. As of July 2013, it has a 37% meta-rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[65]
Filmmakers expressed interest in adapting The Lost Symbol into a film as well.[66][67]
The screenplay was written by Danny Strong, with pre-production expected to begin in 2013.[68] According to a January 2013 article in Los Angeles Times the final draft of the screenplay was due sometime in February,[68] but in July 2013, Sony Pictures announced they would instead adapt Inferno for an October 14, 2016[69] release date with Ron Howard as director, David Koepp adapting the screenplay and Tom Hanks reprising his role as Robert Langdon. Inferno was released on October 28, 2016.[70]
Imagine Entertainment was announced in 2014 to produce a television series based on Digital Fortress, written by Josh Goldin and Rachel Abramowitz.[71]
In 2021, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol was adapted into a television series repositioned as an origin story for Brown's Robert Langdon character with Ashley Zukerman playing Langdon.[72] It ran on the streaming service Peacock for one season.[73]
References[edit]
^ "The Dan Brown Enigma", Broward County, Florida Library; retrieved August 3, 2017.
^ CASEY, MICHAEL (June 30, 2020). "Ex-wife of 'Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown alleges he led a double life". AP. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
^ Jump up to:a b Brown. Witness statement, pp. 17, 21.
^ Duttagupta, Ishani. "Dan Brown: I would love to write about Hinduism; but don't know enough about Indian culture". The Economic Times. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
^ Brown, Dan. "The Da Vinci Code FAQs". Official Website of Dan Brown. Archived from the original on April 11, 2006.
^ "Dan Brown | Biography, Books, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
^ Jump up to:a b Rogak, Lisa (May 7, 2013). Dan Brown: The Unauthorized Biography, St. Martin's Press. pp. 6-8. Archived at Google Books; retrieved August 3, 2017.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Kaplan, James (September 13, 2009). "Life after 'The Da Vinci Code'". Parade. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
^ Rogak (2013), p. 122
^ Jump up to:a b c d Lattman, Peter (March 14, 2006). "'The Da Vinci Code' Trial: Dan Brown's Witness Statement Is a Great Read". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
^ Brown. Witness statement, p. 36.
^ "Bestselling authors Dan Brown '86, Charles Mann '76 to speak Thursday", amherst.edu, September 24, 2013.
^ Jump up to:a b "Dan Brown '86 Creates Scholarship Fund to Celebrate his 25th Reunion". Creating Connections: A Campaign for Amherst. Amherst College; retrieved August 9, 2012.
^ "Gary GLITTER biography - the Great Rock Bible". Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
^ "Dan Brown Facts". Softschools.com. Archived from the original on June 16, 2015. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
^ "Dan Brown - Book Series In Order". Book Series In order. December 6, 2013. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Walters, Joanna; O'Keeffe, Alice (March 12, 2006). "How Dan Brown's wife unlocked the code to bestseller success". the Guardian. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
^ Rogak, Lisa. The Man Behind the Da Vinci Code – an Unauthorized Biography of Dan Brown. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005; ISBN 0-7407-5642-7
^ "Dan Brown's Education Background". www.eduinreview.com. October 7, 2011.
^ "Wild Symphony by Dan Brown: 9780593123843 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
^ "Home". Wild Symphony. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
^ Wild Symphony - About the Book
^ Wild Symphony - In the Studio
^ Wild Symphony by Dan Brown
^ "MGM, Akiva Goldsman & Dan Brown Team for Animated Feature Take of Kids Book 'Wild Symphony'". March 30, 2022.
^ Sources differ on how Sheldon inspired Brown. He indicates on Page 3 of his witness statement that Sheldon's book was an attention-holding page turner that reminded him how fun it was to read, but the BBC source indicates that he thought he could "do better" than Sheldon.
^ "Decoding the Da Vinci Code author". BBC. August 10, 2004. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ Weaver, Caity (July 29, 2021). "Does 'The Da Vinci Code' Writer Have a Secret?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
^ "Dan Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author of thriller fiction","Bookchor"
^ "DAN BROWN’S BIOGRAPHY"[permanent dead link],"florenceinferno", August 24, 2015
^ Henninger, Daniel (May 19, 2006). "Holy Sepulchre! 60 Million Buy 'The Da Vinci Code'". WSJ. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
^ Marcus, Caroline (September 13, 2009). "Brown is back with the code for a runaway bestseller". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
^ Mehegan, David (May 8, 2004). "Thriller instinct". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
^ "Author Profile","The Daily Star", June 3, 2007
^ Carbone, Gina (April 20, 2009). "Dan Brown announces newbook, 'The Lost Symbol'". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
^ Rich, Motoko (September 16, 2009). "Dan Brown's 'Lost Symbol' Sells 1 Million Copies in the First Day". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
^ "Fans Of Dr. Dan Brown","Writers Cafe"
^ McLaughlin, Erin (January 15, 2013). "New Dan Brown Novel, 'Inferno', Set for May Release". ABC News. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
^ "Dan Brown". Forbes. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
^ Kirschling, Gregory (March 26, 2006). "'Da' Last Big Interview". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ Rogak, p. 22
^ "Librarian comments on 'Da Vinci' lawsuit". USA Today. March 1, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ "Brown duels in court". The Standard. March 16, 2006. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ Raynor, Madeline. "Dan Brown's Origin gets fall 2017 release date". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
^ Chivers, Tom (September 15, 2009). "The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved September 20, 2009.
^ Deacon, Michael (May 10, 2014). "Don't make fun of renowned Dan Brown". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved August 7, 2014.
^ Criticism of The Da Vinci Code, itre.cis.upenn.edu; accessed March 11, 2015.
^ Richard Abanes, The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code (Harvest House Publishers, 2004; ISBN 0-7369-1439-0).
^ David F. Lloyd. "Facing Facts". Archived from the original on May 26, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ Dan Brown: By the Book. New York Times, June 20, 2013.
^ "Brown plays down Code controversy". BBC. April 24, 2006. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ "Author Brown 'did not plagiarise'". BBC. August 6, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ "Judge creates own Da Vinci code". BBC News. April 27, 2006. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
^ Herman, Michael (March 28, 2007). "Historians lose Da Vinci Code plagiarism appeal". The Times. London, UK. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ "Dan Brown faces possible new plagiarism lawsuit over ‘The Da Vinci Code’","MarketWatch", December 14, 2017
^ "Da Vinci Code Author Dan Brown and Siblings, Valerie Brown '85 and Gregory Brown '93 Establish New Fund in Honor of their Father". November 1, 2004. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
^ "Da Vinci Code Author Dan Brown donates to Ritman Library in Amsterdam". June 16, 2016. Archived from the original on July 26, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2016.
^ "Bridges: The Foundation of Our Future: THE NEW HAMPSHIRE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION 2009 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY". 2009. Archived from the original on August 7, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
^ "Da Vinci Code Author Dan Brown Accused Of Living A Double Life In Lawsuit That Sounds Like A Movie Plot". CINEMABLEND. July 1, 2020. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
^ Casey, Michael (December 28, 2021). "'Da Vinci Code' author settles lawsuit alleging secret life". Associated Press. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
^ Flood, Alison (September 29, 2016). "Dan Brown returns to Da Vinci decoder for new novel Origin". The Guardian. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
^ "The Da Vinci Code". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
^ Guest reviewer Michael Phillips, sitting in for Roger Ebert, listed The Da Vinci Code at No. 2 on his list, second to All the King's Men, "Worst Movies of 2006" Ebert & Roeper, January 13, 2007
^ The Da Vinci Code (2006), Box Office Mojo; accessed January 28, 2018.
^ Angels & Demons (2009), Rotten Tomatoes; retrieved October 7, 2011.
^ Fleming, Michael (April 20, 2009). "Columbia moves on 'Symbol'". Variety. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
^ "The mystery of Dan Brown". The Guardian. London, UK. September 15, 2009. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
^ Jump up to:a b Nicole Sperling (January 15, 2013). "Dan Brown: What's the film status of his book 'The Lost Symbol'?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
^ "Tom Hanks' 'Inferno' Shifts Opening to 2016". The Hollywood Reporter. October 9, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
^ "Tom Hanks And Ron Howard To Return For Next Dan Brown Movie 'Inferno'; Sony Sets December 2015 Release Date". Deadline. July 16, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2018.
^ Andreeva, Nellie (September 11, 2014). "ABC Nabs Adaptation Of Dan Brown's 'Digital Fortress' From Imagine & 20th TV". Deadline. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
^ Ma, Wenlei (September 23, 2021). "Dan Brown's hero gets his origin story". news.com.au. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
^ DeVore, Britta (January 25, 2022). "'Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol' Cancelled After One Season by Peacock". Collider. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
External links[edit]
Library resources about
Dan Brown
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Wikiquote has quotations related to Dan Brown.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dan Brown.Dan Brown Official Website
Dan Brown at the Internet Book List
Works by Dan Brown at Open Library
=====================
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Dan Brown
Origin: From the author of the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon Book 5) Kindle Edition
by Dan Brown (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
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Book 5 of 5: Robert Langdon
Editors' pickBest Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
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AudiobookListening Length
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The number one bestseller
'Big ideas and nonstop action.' New York Times
___
Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend the unveiling of an astonishing scientific breakthrough. The evening's host is billionaire Edmond Kirsch, a futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a controversial figure around the world.
But Langdon and several hundred guests are left reeling when the meticulously orchestrated evening is suddenly blown apart. There is a real danger that Kirsch's precious discovery may be lost in the ensuing chaos. With his life under threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao, taking with him the museum's director, Ambra Vidal. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.
To evade a devious enemy who is one step ahead of them at every turn, Langdon and Vidal must navigate the labyrinthine passageways of extreme religion and hidden history. On a trail marked only by enigmatic symbols and elusive modern art, Langdon and Vidal will come face-to-face with a breath-taking truth that has remained buried -until now.
__
Readers love Origin:
***** 'Thrilling, gripping and exhilarating to the end.'
***** 'Full of tension, excitement and intrigue.'
***** 'Action packed, tense, suspenseful, and intelligent'
----
Book 5 of 5
Robert Langdon
Print length
Editorial Reviews
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
======
PROLOGUE
As the ancient cogwheel train clawed its way up the dizzying incline, Edmond Kirsch surveyed the jagged mountaintop above him. In the distance, built into the face of a sheer cliff, the massive stone monastery seemed to hang in space, as if magically fused to the vertical precipice.
This timeless sanctuary in Catalonia, Spain, had endured the relentless pull of gravity for more than four centuries, never slipping from its original purpose: to insulate its occupants from the modern world.
Ironically, they will now be the first to learn the truth, Kirsch thought, wondering how they would react. Historically, the most dangerous men on earth were men of God . . . especially when their gods became threatened. And I am about to hurl a flaming spear into a hornets’ nest.
When the train reached the mountaintop, Kirsch saw a solitary figure waiting for him on the platform. The wizened skeleton of a man was draped in the traditional Catholic purple cassock and white rochet, with a zucchetto on his head. Kirsch recognized his host’s rawboned features from photos and felt an unexpected surge of adrenaline.
Valdespino is greeting me personally.
Bishop Antonio Valdespino was a formidable figure in Spain—not only a trusted friend and counselor to the king himself, but one of the country’s most vocal and influential advocates for the preservation of conservative Catholic values and traditional political standards.
“Edmond Kirsch, I assume?” the bishop intoned as Kirsch exited the train.
“Guilty as charged,” Kirsch said, smiling as he reached out to shake his host’s bony hand. “Bishop Valdespino, I want to thank you for arranging this meeting.”
“I appreciate your requesting it.” The bishop’s voice was stronger than Kirsch expected—clear and penetrating, like a bell. “It is not often we are consulted by men of science, especially one of your prominence. This way, please.”
As Valdespino guided Kirsch across the platform, the cold mountain air whipped at the bishop’s cassock.
“I must confess,” Valdespino said, “you look different than I imagined. I was expecting a scientist, but you’re quite . . .” He eyed his guest’s sleek Kiton K50 suit and Barker ostrich shoes with a hint of disdain. “ ‘Hip,’ I believe, is the word?”
Kirsch smiled politely. The word “hip” went out of style decades ago.
“In reading your list of accomplishments,” the bishop said, “I am still not entirely sure what it is you do.”
“I specialize in game theory and computer modeling.”
“So you make the computer games that the children play?”
Kirsch sensed the bishop was feigning ignorance in an attempt to be quaint. More accurately, Kirsch knew, Valdespino was a frighteningly well-informed student of technology and often warned others of its dangers. “No, sir, actually game theory is a field of mathematics that studies patterns in order to make predictions about the future.”
“Ah yes. I believe I read that you predicted a European monetary crisis some years ago? When nobody listened, you saved the day by inventing a computer program that pulled the EU back from the dead. What was your famous quote? ‘At thirty-three years old, I am the same age as Christ when He performed His resurrection.’ ”
Kirsch cringed. “A poor analogy, Your Grace. I was young.”
“Young?” The bishop chuckled. “And how old are you now . . . perhaps forty?”
“Just.”
The old man smiled as the strong wind continued to billow his robe. “Well, the meek were supposed to inherit the earth, but instead it has gone to the young—the technically inclined, those who stare into video screens rather than into their own souls. I must admit, I never imagined I would have reason to meet the young man leading the charge. They call you a prophet, you know.”
“Not a very good one in your case, Your Grace,” Kirsch replied. “When I asked if I might meet you and your colleagues privately, I calculated only a twenty percent chance you would accept.”
“And as I told my colleagues, the devout can always benefit from listening to nonbelievers. It is in hearing the voice of the devil that we can better appreciate the voice of God.” The old man smiled. “I am joking, of course. Please forgive my aging sense of humor. My filters fail me from time to time.”
With that, Bishop Valdespino motioned ahead. “The others are waiting. This way, please.”
Kirsch eyed their destination, a colossal citadel of gray stone perched on the edge of a sheer cliff that plunged thousands of feet down into a lush tapestry of wooded foothills. Unnerved by the height, Kirsch averted his eyes from the chasm and followed the bishop along the uneven cliffside path, turning his thoughts to the meeting ahead.
Kirsch had requested an audience with three prominent religious leaders who had just finished attending a conference here.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Since 1893, hundreds of spiritual leaders from nearly thirty world religions had gathered in a different location every few years to spend a week engaged in interfaith dialogue. Participants included a wide array of influential Christian priests, Jewish rabbis, and Islamic mullahs from around the world, along with Hindu pujaris, Buddhist bhikkhus, Jains, Sikhs, and others.
The parliament’s self-proclaimed objective was “to cultivate harmony among the world’s religions, build bridges between diverse spiritualities, and celebrate the intersections of all faith.”
A noble quest, Kirsch thought, despite seeing it as an empty exercise— a meaningless search for random points of correspondence among a hodgepodge of ancient fictions, fables, and myths.
As Bishop Valdespino guided him along the pathway, Kirsch peered down the mountainside with a sardonic thought. Moses climbed a mountain to accept the Word of God . . . and I have climbed a mountain to do quite the opposite.
Kirsch’s motivation for climbing this mountain, he had told himself, was one of ethical obligation, but he knew there was a good dose of hubris fueling this visit— he was eager to feel the gratification of sitting face-to-face with these clerics and foretelling their imminent demise.
You’ve had your run at defining our truth.
“I looked at your curriculum vitae,” the bishop said abruptly, glancing at Kirsch. “I see you’re a product of Harvard University?”
“Undergraduate. Yes.”
“I see. Recently, I read that for the first time in Harvard’s history, the incoming student body consists of more atheists and agnostics than those who identify as followers of any religion. That is quite a telling statistic, Mr. Kirsch.”
What can I tell you, Kirsch wanted to reply, our students keep getting smarter.
The wind whipped harder as they arrived at the ancient stone edifice. Inside the dim light of the building’s entryway, the air was heavy with the thick fragrance of burning frankincense. The two men snaked through a maze of dark corridors, and Kirsch’s eyes fought to adjust as he followed his cloaked host. Finally, they arrived at an unusually small wooden door. The bishop knocked, ducked down, and entered, motioning for his guest to follow.
Uncertain, Kirsch stepped over the threshold.
He found himself in a rectangular chamber whose high walls burgeoned with ancient leather-bound tomes. Additional freestanding bookshelves jutted out of the walls like ribs, interspersed with cast-iron radiators that clanged and hissed, giving the room the eerie sense that it was alive. Kirsch raised his eyes to the ornately balustraded walkway that encircled the second story and knew without a doubt where he was.
The famed library of Montserrat, he realized, startled to have been admitted. This sacred room was rumored to contain uniquely rare texts accessible only to those monks who had devoted their lives to God and who were sequestered here on this mountain.
“You asked for discretion,” the bishop said. “This is our most private space. Few outsiders have ever entered.”
“A generous privilege. Thank you.”
Kirsch followed the bishop to a large wooden table where two elderly men sat waiting. The man on the left looked timeworn, with tired eyes and a matted white beard. He wore a crumpled black suit, white shirt, and fedora.
“This is Rabbi Yehuda Köves,” the bishop said. “He is a prominent Jewish philosopher who has written extensively on Kabbalistic cosmology.”
Kirsch reached across the table and politely shook hands with Rabbi Köves. “A pleasure to meet you, sir,” Kirsch said. “I’ve read your books on Kabbala. I can’t say I understood them, but I’ve read them.”
Köves gave an amiable nod, dabbing at his watery eyes with his handkerchief.
“And here,” the bishop continued, motioning to the other man, “you have the respected allamah, Syed al-Fadl.”
The revered Islamic scholar stood up and smiled broadly. He was short and squat with a jovial face that seemed a mismatch with his dark penetrating eyes. He was dressed in an unassuming white thawb. “And, Mr. Kirsch, I have read your predictions on the future of mankind. I can’t say I agree with them, but I have read them.”
Kirsch gave a gracious smile and shook the man’s hand.
“And our guest, Edmond Kirsch,” the bishop concluded, addressing his two colleagues, “as you know, is a highly regarded computer scientist, game theorist, inventor, and something of a prophet in the technological world. Considering his background, I was puzzled by his request to address the three of us. Therefore, I shall now leave it to Mr. Kirsch to explain why he has come.”
With that, Bishop Valdespino took a seat between his two colleagues, folded his hands, and gazed up expectantly at Kirsch. All three men faced him like a tribunal, creating an ambience more like that of an inquisition than a friendly meeting of scholars. The bishop, Kirsch now realized, had not even set out a chair for him.
Kirsch felt more bemused than intimidated as he studied the three aging men before him. So this is the Holy Trinity I requested. The Three Wise Men.
Pausing a moment to assert his power, Kirsch walked over to the window and gazed out at the breathtaking panorama below. A sunlit patchwork of ancient pastoral lands stretched across a deep valley, giving way to the rugged peaks of the Collserola mountain range. Miles beyond, somewhere out over the Balearic Sea, a menacing bank of storm clouds was now gathering on the horizon.
Fitting, Kirsch thought, sensing the turbulence he would soon cause in this room, and in the world beyond.
“Gentlemen,” he commenced, turning abruptly back toward them. “I believe Bishop Valdespino has already conveyed to you my request for secrecy. Before we continue, I just want to clarify that what I am about to share with you must be kept in the strictest confidence. Simply stated, I am asking for a vow of silence from all of you. Are we in agreement?”
All three men gave nods of tacit acquiescence, which Kirsch knew were probably redundant anyway. They will want to bury this information—not broadcast it.
“I am here today,” Kirsch began, “because I have made a scientific discovery I believe you will find startling. It is something I have pursued for many years, hoping to provide answers to two of the most fundamental questions of our human experience. Now that I have succeeded, I have come to you specifically because I believe this information will affect the world’s faithful in a profound way, quite possibly causing a shift that can only be described as, shall we say—disruptive. At the moment, I am the only person on earth who has the information I am about to reveal to you.”
Kirsch reached into his suit coat and pulled out an oversized smartphone—one that he had designed and built to serve his own unique needs. The phone had a vibrantly colored mosaic case, and he propped it up before the three men like a television. In a moment, he would use the device to dial into an ultrasecure server, enter his forty-seven-character password, and live-stream a presentation for them.
“What you are about to see,” Kirsch said, “is a rough cut of an announcement I hope to share with the world—perhaps in a month or so. But before I do, I wanted to consult with a few of the world’s most influential religious thinkers, to gain insight into how this news will be received by those it affects most.”
The bishop sighed loudly, sounding more bored than concerned. “An intriguing preamble, Mr. Kirsch. You speak as if whatever you are about to show us will shake the foundations of the world’s religions.”
Kirsch glanced around the ancient repository of sacred texts. It will not shake your foundations. It will shatter them.
Kirsch appraised the men before him. What they did not know was that in only three days’ time, Kirsch planned to go public with this presentation in a stunning, meticulously choreographed event. When he did, people across the world would realize that the teachings of all religions did indeed have one thing in common.
They were all dead wrong.
CHAPTER 1
Professor Robert Langdon gazed up at the forty-foot-tall dog sitting in the plaza. The animal’s fur was a living carpet of grass and fragrant flowers.
I’m trying to love you, he thought. I truly am.
Langdon pondered the creature a bit longer and then continued along a suspended walkway, descending a sprawling terrace of stairs whose uneven treads were intended to jar the arriving visitor from his usual rhythm and gait. Mission accomplished, Langdon decided, nearly stumbling twice on the irregular steps.
At the bottom of the stairs, Langdon jolted to a stop, staring at a massive object that loomed ahead.
Now I’ve seen it all.
A towering black widow spider rose before him, its slender iron legs supporting a bulbous body at least thirty feet in the air. On the spider’s underbelly hung a wire-mesh egg sac filled with glass orbs.
“Her name is Maman,” a voice said.
Langdon lowered his gaze and saw a slender man standing beneath the spider. He wore a black brocade sherwani and had an almost comical curling Salvador Dalí mustache.
“My name is Fernando,” he continued, “and I’m here to welcome you to the museum.” The man perused a collection of name tags on a table before him. “May I have your name, please?”
“Certainly. Robert Langdon.”
The man’s eyes shot back up. “Ah, I am so sorry! I did not recognize you, sir!”
I barely recognize myself, Langdon thought, advancing stiffly in his white bow tie, black tails, and white waistcoat. I look like a Whiffenpoof. Langdon’s classic tails were almost thirty years old, preserved from his days as a member of the Ivy Club at Princeton, but thanks to his faithful daily regimen of swimming laps, the outfit still fit him fairly well. In Langdon’s haste to pack, he had grabbed the wrong hanging bag from his closet, leaving his usual tuxedo behind.
“The invitation said black and white,” Langdon said. “I trust tails are appropriate?”
“Tails are a classic! You look dashing!” The man scurried over and carefully pressed a name tag to the lapel of Langdon’s jacket.
“It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” the mustached man said. “No doubt you’ve visited us before?”
Langdon gazed through the spider’s legs at the glistening building before them. “Actually, I’m embarrassed to say, I’ve never been.”
“No!” The man feigned falling over. “You’re not a fan of modern art?”
Langdon had always enjoyed the challenge of modern art—primarily the exploration of why particular works were hailed as masterpieces: Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings; Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans; Mark Rothko’s simple rectangles of color. Even so, Langdon was far more comfortable discussing the religious symbolism of Hieronymus Bosch or the brushwork of Francisco de Goya.
“I’m more of a classicist,” Langdon replied. “I do better with da Vinci than with de Kooning.”
“But da Vinci and de Kooning are so similar!”
Langdon smiled patiently. “Then I clearly have a bit to learn about de Kooning.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place!” The man swung his arm toward the massive building. “In this museum, you will find one of the finest collections of modern art on earth! I do hope you enjoy.”
“I intend to,” Langdon replied. “I only wish I knew why I’m here.”
“You and everyone else!” The man laughed merrily, shaking his head. “Your host has been very secretive about the purpose of tonight’s event. Not even the museum staff knows what’s happening. The mystery is half the fun of it—rumors are running wild! There are several hundred guests inside—many famous faces—and nobody has any idea what’s on the agenda tonight!”
Now Langdon grinned. Very few hosts on earth would have the bravado to send out last-minute invitations that essentially read: Saturday night. Be there. Trust me. And even fewer would be able to persuade hundreds of VIPs to drop everything and fly to northern Spain to attend the event.
Langdon walked out from beneath the spider and continued along the pathway, glancing up at an enormous red banner that billowed overhead.
AN EVENING WITH
EDMOND KIRSCH
Edmond has certainly never lacked confidence, Langdon thought, amused.
Some twenty years ago, young Eddie Kirsch had been one of Langdon’s first students at Harvard University— a mop-haired computer geek whose interest in codes had led him to Langdon’s freshman seminar: Codes, Ciphers, and the Language of Symbols. The sophistication of Kirsch’s intellect had impressed Langdon deeply, and although Kirsch eventually abandoned the dusty world of semiotics for the shining promise of computers, he and Langdon had developed a student–teacher bond that had kept them in contact over the past two decades since Kirsch’s graduation.
Now the student has surpassed his teacher, Langdon thought. By several light-years.
Today, Edmond Kirsch was a world-renowned maverick— a billionaire computer scientist, futurist, inventor, and entrepreneur. The forty-year-old had fathered an astounding array of advanced technologies that represented major leaps forward in fields as diverse as robotics, brain science, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. And his accurate predictions about future scientific breakthroughs had created a mystical aura around the man.
Langdon suspected that Edmond’s eerie knack for prognostication stemmed from his astoundingly broad knowledge of the world around him. For as long as Langdon could remember, Edmond had been an insatiable bibliophile—reading everything in sight. The man’s passion for books, and his capacity for absorbing their contents, surpassed anything Langdon had ever witnessed.
For the past few years, Kirsch had lived primarily in Spain, attributing his choice to an ongoing love affair with the country’s old-world charm, avant-garde architecture, eccentric gin bars, and perfect weather.
Once a year, when Kirsch returned to Cambridge to speak at the MIT Media Lab, Langdon would join him for a meal at one of the trendy new Boston hot spots that Langdon had never heard of. Their conversations were never about technology; all Kirsch ever wanted to discuss with Langdon was the arts.
“You’re my culture connection, Robert,” Kirsch often joked. “My own private bachelor of arts!”
The playful jab at Langdon’s marital status was particularly ironic coming from a fellow bachelor who denounced monogamy as “an affront to evolution” and had been photographed with a wide range of supermodels over the years.
Considering Kirsch’s reputation as an innovator in computer science, one could easily have imagined him being a buttoned-up techno-nerd. But he had instead fashioned himself into a modern pop icon who moved in celebrity circles, dressed in the latest styles, listened to arcane underground music, and collected a wide array of priceless Impressionist and modern art. Kirsch often e-mailed Langdon to get his advice on new pieces of art he was considering for his collection.
And then he would do the exact opposite, Langdon mused.
About a year ago, Kirsch had surprised Langdon by asking him not about art, but about God— an odd topic for a self-proclaimed atheist. Over a plate of short-rib crudo at Boston’s Tiger Mama, Kirsch had picked Langdon’s brain on the core beliefs of various world religions, in particular their different stories of the Creation.
Langdon gave him a solid overview of current beliefs, from the Genesis story shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all the way through the Hindu story of Brahma, the Babylonian tale of Marduk, and others.
“I’m curious,” Langdon asked as they left the restaurant. “Why is a futurist so interested in the past? Does this mean our famous atheist has finally found God?”
Edmond let out a hearty laugh. “Wishful thinking! I’m just sizing up my competition, Robert.”
Langdon smiled. Typical. “Well, science and religion are not competitors, they’re two different languages trying to tell the same story. There’s room in this world for both.”
After that meeting, Edmond had dropped out of contact for almost a year. And then, out of the blue, three days ago, Langdon had received a FedEx envelope with a plane ticket, a hotel reservation, and a handwritten note from Edmond urging him to attend tonight’s event. It read: Robert, it would mean the world to me if you of all people could attend. Your insights during our last conversation helped make this night possible.
Langdon was baffled. Nothing about that conversation seemed remotely relevant to an event that would be hosted by a futurist.
The FedEx envelope also included a black-and-white image of two people standing face-to-face. Kirsch had written a short poem to Langdon.
Robert,
When you see me face-to-face,
I’ll reveal the empty space.
—Edmond
Langdon smiled when he saw the image— a clever allusion to an episode in which Langdon had been involved several years earlier. The silhouette of a chalice, or Grail cup, revealed itself in the empty space between the two faces.
Now Langdon stood outside this museum, eager to learn what his former student was about to announce. A light breeze ruffled his jacket tails as he moved along the cement walkway on the bank of the meandering Nervión River, which had once been the lifeblood of a thriving industrial city. The air smelled vaguely of copper.
As Langdon rounded a bend in the pathway, he finally permitted himself to look at the massive, glimmering museum. The structure was impossible to take in at a glance. Instead, his gaze traced back and forth along the entire length of the bizarre, elongated forms.
This building doesn’t just break the rules, Langdon thought. It ignores them completely. A perfect spot for Edmond.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, looked like something out of an alien hallucination— a swirling collage of warped metallic forms that appeared to have been propped up against one another in an almost random way. Stretching into the distance, the chaotic mass of shapes was draped in more than thirty thousand titanium tiles that glinted like fish scales and gave the structure a simultaneously organic and extraterrestrial feel, as if some futuristic leviathan had crawled out of the water to sun herself on the riverbank.
When the building was first unveiled in 1997, The New Yorker hailed its architect, Frank Gehry, as having designed “a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium,” while other critics around the world gushed, “The greatest building of our time!” “Mercurial brilliance!” “An astonishing architectural feat!”
Since the museum’s debut, dozens of other “deconstructivist” buildings had been erected—the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, BMWWorld in Munich, and even the new library at Langdon’s own alma mater. Each featured radically unconventional design and construction,and yet Langdon doubted any of them could compete with the Bilbao Guggenheim for its sheer shock value.
As Langdon approached, the tiled facade seemed to morph with each step, offering a fresh personality from every angle. The museum’s most dramatic illusion now became visible. Incredibly, from this perspective, the colossal structure appeared to be quite literally floating on water, adrift on a vast “infinity” lagoon that lapped against the museum’s outer walls.
Langdon paused a moment to marvel at the effect and then set out to cross the lagoon via the minimalist footbridge that arched over the glassy expanse of water. He was only halfway across when a loud hissing noise startled him. It was emanating from beneath his feet. He stopped short just as a swirling cloud of mist began billowing out from beneath the walkway. The thick veil of fog rose around him and then tumbled outward across the lagoon, rolling toward the museum and engulfing the base of the entire structure.
The Fog Sculpture, Langdon thought.
He had read about this work by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya. The“sculpture” was revolutionary in that it was constructed out of the medium of visible air, a wall of fog that materialized and dissipated overtime; and because the breezes and atmospheric conditions were never identical one day to the next, the sculpture was different every time it appeared.
The bridge stopped hissing, and Langdon watched the wall of fog settle silently across the lagoon, swirling and creeping as if it had a mind of its own. The effect was both ethereal and disorienting. The entire museum now appeared to be hovering over the water, resting weightlessly on a cloud— a ghost ship lost at sea.
Just as Langdon was about to set out again, the tranquil surface of the water was shattered by a series of small eruptions. Suddenly five flaming pillars of fire shot skyward out of the lagoon, thundering steadily like rocket engines that pierced the mist-laden air and threw brilliant bursts of light across the museum’s titanium tiles.
Langdon’s own architectural taste tended more to the classical stylingsof museums like the Louvre or the Prado, and yet as he watched the fog and flame hover above the lagoon, he could think of no place more suitable than this ultramodern museum to host an event thrown by a man who loved art and innovation, and who glimpsed the future so clearly.
Now, walking through the mist, Langdon pressed on to the museum’s entrance— an ominous black hole in the reptilian structure. As he neared the threshold, Langdon had the uneasy sense that he was entering the mouth of a dragon. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
About the Author
DAN BROWN is the author of numerous #1 international bestsellers, including The Da Vinci Code, Inferno, The Lost Symbol, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
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Product details
ASIN : B01LXCD7FU
Publisher : Transworld Digital (October 3, 2017)
Publication date : October 3, 2017
Language : English
File size : 3941 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 466 pagesBest Sellers Rank: #142,660 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)#247 in Religious Historical Fiction (Books)
#420 in Terrorism Thrillers (Kindle Store)
#508 in Historical Thrillers (Kindle Store)Customer Reviews:
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William Hammett
2.0 out of 5 stars Erroneous Theology in Support of the New AtheismReviewed in the United States on August 29, 2018
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Spoiler alert: This review discusses the plot and the philosophical questions and controversies underlying it.
I give this book two stars only because Dan Brown is still skillful at constructing a decent plot structure and managing his narrative pace. In my opinion, however, it is the worst novel he has ever written. The ending and “the culprits” were fairly easy to predict very early on. Brown telegraphed the secrets Robert Langdon and Ambra Vidal would reveal even as Langdon went through his usual machinations of deciphering various symbols while on the run.
As is the case with all of Dan Brown’s novels, the page before chapter one states that “All art, architecture, locations, science, and religious organizations in this novel are real.” This may be technically true, but Brown twists the reality behind the above to suit his purposes and, at times, grossly distorts the underlying truths and meanings of art, science, religious institutions, and locations.
A few examples are in order, although pointing out every discrepancy between what is real and what is fabricated would take a book in itself. First, the narrative states that Michelangelo’s David is effeminate because of its pose. The truth is that Michelangelo was forced to position the David as it now stands because it was necessary to carve around various flaws in the column of marble he had selected for the piece. The David is real, of course, but not the information about its carving or its resulting presentation.
Second, the ultraconservative Palmarian Church is indeed a Catholic schismatic sect that broke away from the Church in 1978, not recognizing any further popes in Rome but rather electing its own. It is not, however, a thriving sect that has hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide who donate veritable fortunes to keep conservative Catholicism alive, which is what the book claims as fact. It is estimated that the sect has fewer than 1,000 followers left and continues to shrink. It has only thirty nuns and a pope who left to get married. That’s conservative? In Origen, the Palmarian church is a popular and wealthy driving force helping to drive Brown’s plot on several fronts. What Brown has written about the church is not in any sense “real.” At the very end, he pulls back and says the church was just a financial scam, but that’s not entirely true either.
But let’s move onto a third example, one that is inferred from both science and religious institutions. This is the biggie.
The book plainly states in multiple chapters that there are only two possibilities: either God created man fully-formed or else Darwinian evolution is correct and negates the possibility that there is a God. Catholic doctrine and most Christian denominations have no argument with science, nor is there any belief that Darwin’s theories preclude the existence of God. The Catholic Church (and its theology) openly acknowledges that the creation story in Genesis and much of the Old Testament are genre fiction and not to be taken literally. The entire premise of the book is that once evolution and its corollaries have been proven correct, such as how the first DNA was created in the primordial oceans, then God can no longer exist. With the exception of many fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, this view is not shared by most Christians, and Genesis is not taken literally by believers.
Brown has made his entire plot revolve around this central question of evolution and the creation of the first living cells. Okay, so what if a lightning strike caused certain molecules to form into one-celled organisms, meaning that God didn’t come from heaven on a chariot and place Adam and Eve in the Garden? Other questions must be answered. Who made the oceans? The planet? The galaxies? Who is responsible for the Big Bang? Brown, who gives enormous shout-outs to New Atheists such as Hawking, deGrasse Tyson, Dawkins, and others, tries to limit the entire debate over the existence of God to a point that is not in contention within Catholicism. The plot, presented as philosophical fact, and its assumption that definitive proof of evolution will put an end to all religions, is absurd—and is most definitely not fact. (Evolution was presumed as fact by most scientists long ago, and religion didn’t die.)
But consider that little sentence at the beginning of the book again: “All art, architecture, locations, science, and religious organizations in this novel are real.” The author has skillfully manipulated his readers into buying into believing that science and religion cannot coexist, a central theme to the book without which there can be no plot. Once the reader believes that little innocent-looking sentence, then the whole philosophical premise of the book is entertained as being a valid argument that will topple religion.
Brown has been hammering away at religion for several years by inserting twisted facts into his plots, and this is a tour de force in inviting the reader to step inside his world of scientific rationalism. But one cannot prove the “supernatural” with “natural” sciences. Science itself admits that beyond an event horizon of a black hole or the instant before the Big bang, physical laws—and physics itself—no longer exist. In Origen, Brown has pulled out all of the stops and tried, once and for all, to bludgeon religion to death with science that modern Catholicism does not repudiate. He has failed miserably and instead has given his readers a diatribe, not an engaging novel of suspense.
So why is this so troubling? I, for one, am tired of trying to read an enjoyable thriller without being hit over the head constantly by the axe Brown has to grind with religion, the Catholic Church in particular. Without contributions from Catholic scholars and monks, learning would not have survived the Dark Ages due to monasteries preserving classical Greek philosophy, and many of the greatest scientific breakthroughs have been made by Christian men and women of faith. Even today, there are millions of scientists who belong to organized religions, scientists who do not believe that science and religion are mutually exclusive.
The character of Robert Langdon remains undeveloped after six Langdon novels, which would qualify most writers for an immediate rejection slip. Yes, we know that he swims every morning, wears a Mickey Mouse watch, has an eidetic memory, and grows irate and frustrated at all people who do not have every nuance of history, art, architecture, and symbology committed to memory. In this latter respect, Langdon never fails to grow aggravating to me and patronizing and condescending to other characters. Yes, Langdon is an uber scholar, but as a human being he is flat, one-dimensional.
And speaking of Langdon, his role in this novel is minimal. He is more of a bystander as Brown preaches his gospel of atheism. He solves a few riddles, but he certainly doesn’t advance the plot.
The copy editing for the book (as with other Brown novels) is bad. Hundreds of compound words are split into two, such as “crossfire.” In the novel we are told that two characters are in “a cross fire.” That literally means that they are somehow threatened by a burning cross. Words are hyphenated that shouldn’t be. Commas are thrown about haphazardly, and sentences that need commas to prevent a misreading have none.
The constant use of italics (and Spanish sentences) is especially annoying. Sentences are italicized at the drop of a hat to show thoughts, alarm, emphasis, etc. These are all valid uses of commas, but they are used thousands of times in the book, and I couldn’t always tell when a sentence was expressing a thought, emphasis, surprise, or all of the above. This overuse of italics slows the reading process and at times makes it unclear who is thinking or speaking.
In terms of using italics to indicate a rise in vocal inflection, there is no rhyme or reason to where the italics are placed. I read many sentences out loud, but they sounded ridiculous and sing-song. The incorrect vocal emphasis compromises the dialogue in hundreds of places.
As usual, Brown revels in describing architecture and art, but his description of architecture was way over the top here. It was pervasive throughout the book and extremely repetitive in spots. I suspect Brown couldn’t resist the descriptions since they are mostly framed as architectural explanations that reinforce the atheism or paganism of the architect. There’s such a thing as too many chambers, staircases, crypts, balconies, and spires. At times, I felt as if I were reading Architectural Digest.
And then there is the anticlimactic ending that runs for seventy-five mind-numbing pages (a video presentation to shock the world into giving up belief in God). The science is shaky at best, and the presentation jumps from one scientific conjecture to another. I felt as if I were sitting in a college auditorium, forced to listen to a longwinded and slightly far-fetched lecture. It’s tedious in the extreme and seventy-five pages of more didacticism and philosophy mixed in with science that again twists facts combined with computer simulations that are both nebulous and a bit hard to swallow.
But wait! Langdon at the last minute asks where physics came from? Who made the laws of science? Maybe there is a higher power after all. Nah. Science is the new religion. Or, well, maybe they can work together. Nah, science is the new religion. But maybe God exists and the fault lies with fundamentalists and evangelicals. No, science is the new religion. The ending is garbled from a narrative perspective, but the message has been driven home. God, according to the narrative, is irrelevant either way. Only science can save the world.
I think Mr. Brown would be well advised to put Robert Langdon on the shelf for a while and write other novels, ones similar to Deception Point or Digital Fortress. When the formula is always so preachy, determined to prove an anti-religious belief ad nauseum, the patience wears thin.
Unfortunately, Brown’s thrillers have become a platform for not-so-thinly veiled attempts to refute God and religion. It has become tiresome. Origen hardly qualifies as fiction because of its heavy-handed rant against religion. As noted, his books are not really based on facts, but he has snookered millions of readers into believing that he and his alter ego, Robert Langdon, know arcane secrets and truths. They don’t.
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Kenneth C. Mahieu
4.0 out of 5 stars 7 Major ingredients of a Dan Brown thriller - Have I missed any?Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017
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From an Amazon book page, an excerpt of a description of Dan Brown's book: "Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science......Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust....before the world is irrevocably altered." Sounds exciting, right? But this was a blurb for "Inferno", Brown's previous book. In many ways it could also apply to 2017's "Origin"(OR).
I'm not suggesting that Brown uses a cookie cutter framework to produce his books, but having read all of the Langdon series, I am struck by some common ingredients. So, off the top of my head, I have attempted below to list familiar elements common to some, if not all, of the five books. I would imagine that most Origin readers have read one or more of the preceding books and might enjoy a quick refresher, since it is seven years since the most recent release. Perhaps you will find a few I have missed...
1) Treasure Hunt. Coded clues leading to other clues. Ultimate destination unknown. Via whatever transportation is available from private jets to a driverless Tesla (OR) - Brown does load up his books with latest technology.
2) Travelogue. The focus in OR is Barcelona but we also get to visit Bilboa, especially the Guggenheim Museum there. I'm not a museum guy but check out Bing Images of that place or YouTube videos of the suspended ferry crossing the nearby river, and perhaps like me you will add it to your list of "Places to Visit Before...." Maybe you would also like to see Budapest's Szechenyi Chain Bridge to which lovers have secured padlocks professing their love. Or Parc Guell!
3) An Attractive Woman as co-star. Young, Intelligent, Beautiful, somewhat virginal. No sex, no bad words in a Langdon. Just a few dead bodies, murders and suicides, maybe too many suicides in OR; the last was not credible for me.
4) Bad Guys. Not always clear who they are, nor whom they work for. Often not the people you were expecting.
5) Action Scenes. Especially ones that will look great on film. How about helicopters plucking surrounded heroes off the roofs of buildings? Not really great climaxes though - OR gets rather talky at the end.
6) Teaching Moments. Usually art, science and technology, in OR lots on quantum computers and software advances to improve forecasting future events. Stay with it, very interesting. But also the Palmariana Church and their popes, and statistical physics.
6) Religion/Theology. often the Catholic Church is the subject and not always kindly; sometimes clergy are suspects in the most convoluted of plots. But remember that Langdon thinks of himself first as a scientist. Toward the end of OR, Langdon is asked, "Do you believe in God?"
7) Treating Readers like Mushrooms. A whispers something to B. B gasps. Totally blown away. Can't believe it. The scene ends, the Reader has no idea what was shared. But don't worry, 200 pages later all will be made clear. It felt to this Reader that occurred at least a half dozen times, and it started to get on my nerves. The good news is that as the end approaches, the reader has several open questions awaiting explanation and making for a certain amount of fun in making "educated" guess as to what all the secrets are, including who is the Regent?
The plot of OR is fairly simple and straight forward. A former student of Langdon, a world renowned scientist, claims that he has the answer to the two basic questions that man has been searching for since the beginning of time: Where do we come from? and Where are we headed? (Given that the title of the book is "Origin", when I first heard the two basic questions I immediately assumed that Origin was the first of two books and that there would be a sequel titled "Destiny" But not to worry. Both questions are answered in "Origin". OR are they?) A worldwide presentation has been scheduled. But something happens, and the video with all the answers is not shown. Langdon and co-star must find it and share it with the World.
Did I like it? Yes, but.
Dan Brown books are always entertaining and I learn a number of new things - see numbers 2 and 6 on the list above. I look upon them though as entertainment, and I enjoyed making lots of footnotes, looking at other resources to check some of Brown's descriptions and claims. Critics love to rip him as a not very good writer but I think they miss the point. Check out recent reviews in the New York Times and Washington Post; they are very different. I feel one critic "gets" Brown and his audience and the other critic.... well, draw your own conclusions. (Hint to readers - don't waste your time going to a newspaper's website and trying to do a search. Go to Google and, for example, search for "NYT Origin review".
I don't know if there'll be another Langdon - in seven years? - but if there is I'll probably read it. I wonder though how much longer Tom Hanks will play Langdon.
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Dan L
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved itReviewed in the United States on June 24, 2023
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Dan Brown once again does not disappoint, I've loved all of the books I have read of his. His stories get me hooked every time. I like the main character, Dr. Langdon, I hope he does not retire him yet. Thanks again Mr. Brown!!
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Anuradha Gupta
4.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Brown tends to stretch the story as far as he canReviewed in India on May 10, 2020
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Dan Brown needs no introduction. At some point in our lives, I assume, we've all heard of him and some have even read him. I have read all his books and was most impressed by them all, despite all the 4 books of the Robert Langdon series being in the same plot design. Origin by Dan Brown is no different. The recipe? A setting featuring a full part Robert Langdon, half a part intellectually sexy lady (preferably more than a decade younger than him), full part country with a tumultuous past and lots of historical and modern architecture and art which allows numerous conspiracy theories around them, a scintillating murder of a renowned person who happened to be Langdon's close friend/known, a delusional assassin following close on the heels of our symbologist and his lady with attempts to silence them as well, a shadowy master ordering the kills, some religious groups and their over-zealous members, jet setting across the country/countries, full part of the ever raging war between religion and science and their flag bearers fighting over a dark/shocking secret and finally, the big reveal...all of this in the span of one night. Phew! Having read Origin now, I am pretty convinced that Mr. Brown has some really cool ideas and some really obvious theories. It's like a guilty pleasure, reading his books, you admit and you feel guilty, you don't admit and you feel guiltier. I had decided not to read any more of his books unless I get good reviews about it or he deviates from his overdone plot design, but given my mild OCD, before it turned to a monster demanding the book to be read, I caved in.
Langdon is in Spain, at the Bilbao Guggenheim museum for an event hosted by his student turned friend, the genius computer scientist Edmond Kirsch and the director of the museum, Ambra Vidal who is engaged to the future king of Spain. Kirsch's guest list includes a variety of names, all of whom know him personally, including an exception, a not so important and out of place Admiral Luis Alvira. Needless to say, this unknown man kills Kirsch just before he was about to reveal a discovery so huge that it would have changed the way people looked at religion, both believers and non-believers alike. Now, running from the Royal guards because Ambra thinks her life is in danger, Langdon and she races against the killer and the police alike who are both after them, to silence them forever. With the motive of the killer quite clear yet his master still behind the curtains, Langdon and Ambra have every reason to doubt everyone who even remotely has any links to any religion.
What was Kirsch's big discovery for which he lost his life? How will Langdon and Ambra save it from getting lost forever with Kirsch dead and apparently no one else in the world who knows what it was about!?
So, down goes the drain on my resolve of not reading any more of Robert Langdon's stories. I just can't stop myself! Having said this, I must also say that this is the book with which I can relate to more levels than any other of Mr. Brown's works. Firstly, I believe I am an atheist. My entire life seems like a sham when I realized that humanity is above God. Didn't I just spend my entire childhood praying to God for things I wanted and yet be mean to the ones less fortunate at times, or have mean thoughts at least!? No doubt I never got what I wanted because, duh, Karma! Secondly, like Mr. Brown, I too believe that an age of digital revolution like never before is just around the corner, a Digi-human or a humanoid or whatever one calls the people surviving it. And lastly, I believe that all religions are a sham. With their histories bloodier than the world wars (or so I feel because there is no end to "My God is mightier than yours") and no respite in sight even though we live in 2020 (I am not getting started on this topic, too vast and debatable), there is nothing as dark as the religions of the world today, twisted and presented to the masses only to fulfill the lusts of a handful of people. Now the question is, what did I like about this book apart from the above-mentioned similarities in thought. I liked the theory on which the whole story is based. The transition from the murdered to the criminal while hopping across the country's finest artistic and historical places with an AI as a super sidekick got the ball rolling for me and pretty detailed insight for amateurs like me who know practically nothing about world history. Not that I would remember all of what was said, but at least I would be able to recollect where I read something and go back and research if it interested me further. What I disliked were the preposterous amount of information and preachy dialogues. I'd be better off with some more conspiracy theories. And also, the same plot design as all Langdon stories. This story, in particular, had some loopholes which I could pick immediately after the completion, a new one for me considering I haven't been able to pinpoint any fault in other Langdon books. I wouldn't tell them here because it would be like giving spoilers. I'd say this was because I've now read 5 of similar stories and readily anticipate what is about to happen long before it happens. Not to mention, I figured out the shadowy master and most of the details once things were moving fast enough. I appreciate how smoothly Mr. Brown amalgamated science, technology, and religion with art and history, a seamless piece of clothing that fits beautifully for everyone. The characters were plenty, some had crucial but short roles, some were just present for the sake of variety, I think, given the length of the book. Each character had depth irrespective of its requirement. A depth that I found boring and unnecessary at times like it was placed there only to increase the length and put the reader away from the main plotline. Having read some fast-paced thrillers before picking this book up, my judgment might be clouded, but I don't think I am wrong in saying that Mr. Brown tends to stretch the story as far as he can and then some more before realizing that it's time. Have you read the book? What are your views? Do leave a comment and let me know.
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Dr Sonal K
5.0 out of 5 stars Pulsating techno-religious drama set in SpainReviewed in India on October 17, 2017
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IN ONE OF HIS INTERVIEW'S DAN BROWN STATES THAT "THE PROBLEM IN MAKING BOOKS INTO MOVIES IS THAT IMAGINATION BECOMES LIMITED. BEFORE THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES EVERY KID WHO READ IT HAD HIS OWN VERSION OF THE WIZARD HERO BUT AFTER THE MOVIES CAME OUT EVERY KID IMAGINED THE SAME DANIEL RADCLIFFE FACE. BOOKS NO LONGER REMAINED OPEN TO ONE'S IMAGINATION." I WOULD AGREE ,AS I STARTED IMAGINING TOM HANKS IN A SUIT WITHIN THE FIRST FEW PAGES OF DAN BROWN'S LATEST NOVEL ORIGIN. BUT THE OTHER CHARACTERS I COULD PICK AND CHOOSE FROM THE VAST ARRAY OF HOLLYWOOD'S ACTORS I LIKED. I COULD STILL IMAGINE THE NEXT PAGE'S HAPPENING OR VISUALISE HOW I WOULD REACT IF I WERE IN THE SCENE. HENCE DESPITE THE MOVIES , ONE'S IMAGINATION STILL RUNS FREE MR.BROWN!
AS AN ARDENT ADMIRER OF DAN BROWN'S WRITING MY SPIRITS WERE DAMPENED AFTER READING INFERNO BUT I STILL BOUGHT A COPY OF ORIGIN ON THE VERY DAY OF IT'S RELEASE HOPING FOR A MORE POSITIVE THEME. HAVING SEEN HIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE I SOMEHOW SENSED THAT SHARJAH WOULD BE FEATURED IN THE BOOK AND IT WAS. ALSO I THOUGHT THAT THE RECURRENT QUESTION OF SCIENCE VERSUS GOD WOULD BE EXPLORED IN SOME NEW WAY ALONG WITH THE TIMELESS QUESTION WHERE DO WE COME FROM ? “Human creation and human destiny. They are the universal mysteries.”
BUT THIS BOOK RUNS MUCH DEEPER.
THE WASHINGTON POST , THE TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN AND THE NEW YORK TIMES HAVE GIVEN VERY SCATHING REVIEWS TO THE BOOK BUT THE REAL REVIEW IS IN THE SALES FIGURES AND THE RECEPTION FROM THE MASSES IT IS AIMED AT. THE CRITICS EVEN NOTIFY TOM HANKS FOR HIS UPCOMING MOVIE SHOOTING IN SPAIN AND COMMENT ON THE BOOK'S FORMULA. THE REASON FOR A FORMULA BEING REPEATED BY SOMEONE IS THAT IT WORKS. IT IS A THRILLER SET IN A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY WITH GREAT HISTORICAL MONUMENTS EXPLORING EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS. HISTORY +BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE + SMART DAMSEL IN DISTRESS + SOLVING CODES + CONTROVERSIES + UNDERDOG GEEKY HERO OVERCOMING ALL OBSTACLES DESPITE CLAUSTROPHOBIA & THE WORLD AGAINST HIM ETC = MILLIONS OF BOOK COPIES SOLD ALONGWITH MOVIE RIGHTS.
“In your world of classical art, pieces are revered for the artist’s skill of execution—that is, how deftly he places the brush to canvas or the chisel to stone. In modern art, however, masterpieces are often more about the idea than the execution.“ THIS INSIGHT FROM THE BOOK IS A VERY SIMPLE WAY TO EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT OF MODERN ART TO THOSE WHO ARE PERPLEXED BY IT. I liked the way he has approached modern art by making Bilbao museum the starting point for the story. The description of ideas behind modern art is a gateway for people who do not appreciate it perhaps and I for one have added the Guggenheim museum to my bucket list.
ON MY PART, I AM FASCINATED BY THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF MONUMENTS AND THE VARIED THEORIES DAN BROWN SHARES USING LANGDON HIS ALTER EGO PERHAPS. I DO NOT MIND THE DESCRIPTIONS ABOUT CITIES AND MONUMENTS WHICH IS WHAT THE CRITICS ABHOR THE MOST IN HIS BOOKS. LEARNING ABOUT A PLACE DURING A STORY IS MORE INTERESTING THAN PICKINGUP A TRAVEL BOOK. I READ HIS BOOKS SLOWLY, SEEING VIDEOS AND PICTURES OF THE PLACES AND READING A BIT ABOUT THEM BEFORE MOVING ONTO THE NEXT MONUMENT. HE MOVES FROM MONUMENT TO MONUMENT AND CITY TO CITY SOLVING A PUZZLE. I AM AS A READER INTRIGUED BY THE PUZZLE AS MUCH AS BY THE ARTWORK AND PASSAGES OR POETRY SHARED DURING THE QUEST. Getting a fresh perspective about works of Nietzsche and William Blake as an interwoven part of the tale makes it DEEPER THAN A SIMPLE THRILLER.
DAN BROWN STEPS CAUTIOUSLY INTO ISLAM for a brief moment AND MOVES INTO THE Familiar territory of Christianity for the rest of the book. He shares the controversies of the Christian world in interesting plot twists.
I like the manner in which he deals with religious fanaticism subtly and even provides a solution of sorts “that the human mind has the ability to elevate an obvious fiction to the status of a divine fact, and then feel emboldened to kill in its name. He believed that the universal truths of science could unite people—serving as a rallying point for future generations.” “That’s a beautiful idea in principle,which is why Edmond hoped science could one day unify us,” Langdon said. “In his own words: ‘If we all worshipped gravity..."
In making up artificial intelligence as a main character Dan Brown shows the contentious cusp between present and future possibilities. To quote“ assess a machine’s ability to behave in a manner indistinguishable from that of a human“ makes it sound achievable. The concept of building intelligence that can be near human but not humane is intriguing and scary both. “the human brain is a binary system—synapses either fire or they don’t—they are on or off, like a computer switch. The brain has over a hundred trillion switches, which means that building a brain is not so much a question of technology as it is a question of scale.“ I WONDER IF THE FUTURISTIC UPGRADED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGANCE WINSTON WHO PUTS SIRI TO SHAME IS BEING DEVELOPED SOMEWHERE.
THE "SMART DAMSEL IN DISTRESS SOLVING CODES" THEME RECURRS HERE AND I WONDER HOW HIS NOVELS WOULD FARE IF THE FEMALE LEAD WOULD BE A MUCH OLDER MARRIED LADY OF GRANDMOTHERLY AGE OR MAY BE EVEN A MALE SCIENTIST? DESPITE THE PLATONIC FRIENDSHIP PORTRAYED, A RAVISHING FEMALE LEAD ADDS AN ELEMENT OF WOW DEFINITELY. THOUGH STATED AT A DIFFERENT POINT IN THE STORY ,AN AUTHOR HAS TO TAP INTO BASIC HUMAN TENDENCIES AT SOME POINT BECAUSE IN DAN BROWN'S OWN WORDS "humans, despite being God’s most sublime creation, were still just animals at the core, their behavior driven to a great extent by a quest for creature comforts." MOST READERS' ATTENTION WOULD BE DRAWN TO ATTRACTIVE FEMALE LEADS IN TROUBLE AND IN HIS NOVELS IT IS BEAUTY WITH BRAINS.
THERE IS A TENDENCY TO INCLUDE INTERNATIONAL CHARACTERS TO GET WIDER AUDIENCE AND AN INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE OF INDIAN ORIGIN MAKES AN APPEARANCE BUT I HOPE DAN BROWN CHOOSES A BETTER INDIAN NAME NEXT TIME.
I HAVE READ ALL OF DAN BROWN'S BOOKS AND MY RATINGS WERE THE HIGHEST FOR THE DIGITAL FORTRESS FOLLOWED BY DA VINCI CODE FOLLOWED BY ORIGIN FOLLOWED BY DECEPTION POINT FOLLOWED BY ANGELS AND DEMONS FOLLOWED BY THE LOST SYMBOL FOLLOWED BY INFERNO. I HATED THE NEGATIVE THEMED INFERNO THE MOST . ALL IN ALL HIS RECENT BOOK"ORIGIN" IS A PLEASANT READ AND I WOULD RATE THE PLOT AS 3.5/5 AND THE WRITING AS 4/5 BECAUSE I LIKE TRAVEL AND MYSTERY BOTH AND DAN BROWN MARRIES THEM IN QUITE A DECENT NARRATIVE. I ALSO LIKED THE WAY I WAS FORCED TO THINK OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE FUTURE IN MYRIAD HUES AND NOT JUST AS AN AID TO HUMAN KIND.
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Shaun Stoddart.
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning readReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2019
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I have read this twice now the first spelling binding the second enthralling.. a great story teller with twists and turns . Over all exciting.
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G C
5.0 out of 5 stars Another thrilling read.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2017
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Dan Brown has this knack of reeling in his readers with exciting twists and turns. A very thought provoking storyline.
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R. Gooch
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2018
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Dan Brown usual gripping tales. Could not put it down. What a storyteller.
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PROLOGUE
As the ancient cogwheel train clawed its way up the dizzying incline, Edmond Kirsch surveyed the jagged mountaintop above him. In the distance, built into the face of a sheer cliff, the massive stone monastery seemed to hang in space, as if magically fused to the vertical precipice.
This timeless sanctuary in Catalonia, Spain, had endured the relentless pull of gravity for more than four centuries, never slipping from its original purpose: to insulate its occupants from the modern world.
Ironically, they will now be the first to learn the truth, Kirsch thought, wondering how they would react. Historically, the most dangerous men on earth were men of God . . . especially when their gods became threatened. And I am about to hurl a flaming spear into a hornets’ nest.
When the train reached the mountaintop, Kirsch saw a solitary figure waiting for him on the platform. The wizened skeleton of a man was draped in the traditional Catholic purple cassock and white rochet, with a zucchetto on his head. Kirsch recognized his host’s rawboned features from photos and felt an unexpected surge of adrenaline.
Valdespino is greeting me personally.
Bishop Antonio Valdespino was a formidable figure in Spain—not only a trusted friend and counselor to the king himself, but one of the country’s most vocal and influential advocates for the preservation of conservative Catholic values and traditional political standards.
“Edmond Kirsch, I assume?” the bishop intoned as Kirsch exited the train.
“Guilty as charged,” Kirsch said, smiling as he reached out to shake his host’s bony hand. “Bishop Valdespino, I want to thank you for arranging this meeting.”
“I appreciate your requesting it.” The bishop’s voice was stronger than Kirsch expected—clear and penetrating, like a bell. “It is not often we are consulted by men of science, especially one of your prominence. This way, please.”
As Valdespino guided Kirsch across the platform, the cold mountain air whipped at the bishop’s cassock.
“I must confess,” Valdespino said, “you look different than I imagined. I was expecting a scientist, but you’re quite . . .” He eyed his guest’s sleek Kiton K50 suit and Barker ostrich shoes with a hint of disdain. “ ‘Hip,’ I believe, is the word?”
Kirsch smiled politely. The word “hip” went out of style decades ago.
“In reading your list of accomplishments,” the bishop said, “I am still not entirely sure what it is you do.”
“I specialize in game theory and computer modeling.”
“So you make the computer games that the children play?”
Kirsch sensed the bishop was feigning ignorance in an attempt to be quaint. More accurately, Kirsch knew, Valdespino was a frighteningly well-informed student of technology and often warned others of its dangers. “No, sir, actually game theory is a field of mathematics that studies patterns in order to make predictions about the future.”
“Ah yes. I believe I read that you predicted a European monetary crisis some years ago? When nobody listened, you saved the day by inventing a computer program that pulled the EU back from the dead. What was your famous quote? ‘At thirty-three years old, I am the same age as Christ when He performed His resurrection.’ ”
Kirsch cringed. “A poor analogy, Your Grace. I was young.”
“Young?” The bishop chuckled. “And how old are you now . . . perhaps forty?”
“Just.”
The old man smiled as the strong wind continued to billow his robe. “Well, the meek were supposed to inherit the earth, but instead it has gone to the young—the technically inclined, those who stare into video screens rather than into their own souls. I must admit, I never imagined I would have reason to meet the young man leading the charge. They call you a prophet, you know.”
“Not a very good one in your case, Your Grace,” Kirsch replied. “When I asked if I might meet you and your colleagues privately, I calculated only a twenty percent chance you would accept.”
“And as I told my colleagues, the devout can always benefit from listening to nonbelievers. It is in hearing the voice of the devil that we can better appreciate the voice of God.” The old man smiled. “I am joking, of course. Please forgive my aging sense of humor. My filters fail me from time to time.”
With that, Bishop Valdespino motioned ahead. “The others are waiting. This way, please.”
Kirsch eyed their destination, a colossal citadel of gray stone perched on the edge of a sheer cliff that plunged thousands of feet down into a lush tapestry of wooded foothills. Unnerved by the height, Kirsch averted his eyes from the chasm and followed the bishop along the uneven cliffside path, turning his thoughts to the meeting ahead.
Kirsch had requested an audience with three prominent religious leaders who had just finished attending a conference here.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Since 1893, hundreds of spiritual leaders from nearly thirty world religions had gathered in a different location every few years to spend a week engaged in interfaith dialogue. Participants included a wide array of influential Christian priests, Jewish rabbis, and Islamic mullahs from around the world, along with Hindu pujaris, Buddhist bhikkhus, Jains, Sikhs, and others.
The parliament’s self-proclaimed objective was “to cultivate harmony among the world’s religions, build bridges between diverse spiritualities, and celebrate the intersections of all faith.”
A noble quest, Kirsch thought, despite seeing it as an empty exercise— a meaningless search for random points of correspondence among a hodgepodge of ancient fictions, fables, and myths.
As Bishop Valdespino guided him along the pathway, Kirsch peered down the mountainside with a sardonic thought. Moses climbed a mountain to accept the Word of God . . . and I have climbed a mountain to do quite the opposite.
Kirsch’s motivation for climbing this mountain, he had told himself, was one of ethical obligation, but he knew there was a good dose of hubris fueling this visit— he was eager to feel the gratification of sitting face-to-face with these clerics and foretelling their imminent demise.
You’ve had your run at defining our truth.
“I looked at your curriculum vitae,” the bishop said abruptly, glancing at Kirsch. “I see you’re a product of Harvard University?”
“Undergraduate. Yes.”
“I see. Recently, I read that for the first time in Harvard’s history, the incoming student body consists of more atheists and agnostics than those who identify as followers of any religion. That is quite a telling statistic, Mr. Kirsch.”
What can I tell you, Kirsch wanted to reply, our students keep getting smarter.
The wind whipped harder as they arrived at the ancient stone edifice. Inside the dim light of the building’s entryway, the air was heavy with the thick fragrance of burning frankincense. The two men snaked through a maze of dark corridors, and Kirsch’s eyes fought to adjust as he followed his cloaked host. Finally, they arrived at an unusually small wooden door. The bishop knocked, ducked down, and entered, motioning for his guest to follow.
Uncertain, Kirsch stepped over the threshold.
He found himself in a rectangular chamber whose high walls burgeoned with ancient leather-bound tomes. Additional freestanding bookshelves jutted out of the walls like ribs, interspersed with cast-iron radiators that clanged and hissed, giving the room the eerie sense that it was alive. Kirsch raised his eyes to the ornately balustraded walkway that encircled the second story and knew without a doubt where he was.
The famed library of Montserrat, he realized, startled to have been admitted. This sacred room was rumored to contain uniquely rare texts accessible only to those monks who had devoted their lives to God and who were sequestered here on this mountain.
“You asked for discretion,” the bishop said. “This is our most private space. Few outsiders have ever entered.”
“A generous privilege. Thank you.”
Kirsch followed the bishop to a large wooden table where two elderly men sat waiting. The man on the left looked timeworn, with tired eyes and a matted white beard. He wore a crumpled black suit, white shirt, and fedora.
“This is Rabbi Yehuda Köves,” the bishop said. “He is a prominent Jewish philosopher who has written extensively on Kabbalistic cosmology.”
Kirsch reached across the table and politely shook hands with Rabbi Köves. “A pleasure to meet you, sir,” Kirsch said. “I’ve read your books on Kabbala. I can’t say I understood them, but I’ve read them.”
Köves gave an amiable nod, dabbing at his watery eyes with his handkerchief.
“And here,” the bishop continued, motioning to the other man, “you have the respected allamah, Syed al-Fadl.”
The revered Islamic scholar stood up and smiled broadly. He was short and squat with a jovial face that seemed a mismatch with his dark penetrating eyes. He was dressed in an unassuming white thawb. “And, Mr. Kirsch, I have read your predictions on the future of mankind. I can’t say I agree with them, but I have read them.”
Kirsch gave a gracious smile and shook the man’s hand.
“And our guest, Edmond Kirsch,” the bishop concluded, addressing his two colleagues, “as you know, is a highly regarded computer scientist, game theorist, inventor, and something of a prophet in the technological world. Considering his background, I was puzzled by his request to address the three of us. Therefore, I shall now leave it to Mr. Kirsch to explain why he has come.”
With that, Bishop Valdespino took a seat between his two colleagues, folded his hands, and gazed up expectantly at Kirsch. All three men faced him like a tribunal, creating an ambience more like that of an inquisition than a friendly meeting of scholars. The bishop, Kirsch now realized, had not even set out a chair for him.
Kirsch felt more bemused than intimidated as he studied the three aging men before him. So this is the Holy Trinity I requested. The Three Wise Men.
Pausing a moment to assert his power, Kirsch walked over to the window and gazed out at the breathtaking panorama below. A sunlit patchwork of ancient pastoral lands stretched across a deep valley, giving way to the rugged peaks of the Collserola mountain range. Miles beyond, somewhere out over the Balearic Sea, a menacing bank of storm clouds was now gathering on the horizon.
Fitting, Kirsch thought, sensing the turbulence he would soon cause in this room, and in the world beyond.
“Gentlemen,” he commenced, turning abruptly back toward them. “I believe Bishop Valdespino has already conveyed to you my request for secrecy. Before we continue, I just want to clarify that what I am about to share with you must be kept in the strictest confidence. Simply stated, I am asking for a vow of silence from all of you. Are we in agreement?”
All three men gave nods of tacit acquiescence, which Kirsch knew were probably redundant anyway. They will want to bury this information—not broadcast it.
“I am here today,” Kirsch began, “because I have made a scientific discovery I believe you will find startling. It is something I have pursued for many years, hoping to provide answers to two of the most fundamental questions of our human experience. Now that I have succeeded, I have come to you specifically because I believe this information will affect the world’s faithful in a profound way, quite possibly causing a shift that can only be described as, shall we say—disruptive. At the moment, I am the only person on earth who has the information I am about to reveal to you.”
Kirsch reached into his suit coat and pulled out an oversized smartphone—one that he had designed and built to serve his own unique needs. The phone had a vibrantly colored mosaic case, and he propped it up before the three men like a television. In a moment, he would use the device to dial into an ultrasecure server, enter his forty-seven-character password, and live-stream a presentation for them.
“What you are about to see,” Kirsch said, “is a rough cut of an announcement I hope to share with the world—perhaps in a month or so. But before I do, I wanted to consult with a few of the world’s most influential religious thinkers, to gain insight into how this news will be received by those it affects most.”
The bishop sighed loudly, sounding more bored than concerned. “An intriguing preamble, Mr. Kirsch. You speak as if whatever you are about to show us will shake the foundations of the world’s religions.”
Kirsch glanced around the ancient repository of sacred texts. It will not shake your foundations. It will shatter them.
Kirsch appraised the men before him. What they did not know was that in only three days’ time, Kirsch planned to go public with this presentation in a stunning, meticulously choreographed event. When he did, people across the world would realize that the teachings of all religions did indeed have one thing in common.
They were all dead wrong.
CHAPTER 1
Professor Robert Langdon gazed up at the forty-foot-tall dog sitting in the plaza. The animal’s fur was a living carpet of grass and fragrant flowers.
I’m trying to love you, he thought. I truly am.
Langdon pondered the creature a bit longer and then continued along a suspended walkway, descending a sprawling terrace of stairs whose uneven treads were intended to jar the arriving visitor from his usual rhythm and gait. Mission accomplished, Langdon decided, nearly stumbling twice on the irregular steps.
At the bottom of the stairs, Langdon jolted to a stop, staring at a massive object that loomed ahead.
Now I’ve seen it all.
A towering black widow spider rose before him, its slender iron legs supporting a bulbous body at least thirty feet in the air. On the spider’s underbelly hung a wire-mesh egg sac filled with glass orbs.
“Her name is Maman,” a voice said.
Langdon lowered his gaze and saw a slender man standing beneath the spider. He wore a black brocade sherwani and had an almost comical curling Salvador Dalí mustache.
“My name is Fernando,” he continued, “and I’m here to welcome you to the museum.” The man perused a collection of name tags on a table before him. “May I have your name, please?”
“Certainly. Robert Langdon.”
The man’s eyes shot back up. “Ah, I am so sorry! I did not recognize you, sir!”
I barely recognize myself, Langdon thought, advancing stiffly in his white bow tie, black tails, and white waistcoat. I look like a Whiffenpoof. Langdon’s classic tails were almost thirty years old, preserved from his days as a member of the Ivy Club at Princeton, but thanks to his faithful daily regimen of swimming laps, the outfit still fit him fairly well. In Langdon’s haste to pack, he had grabbed the wrong hanging bag from his closet, leaving his usual tuxedo behind.
“The invitation said black and white,” Langdon said. “I trust tails are appropriate?”
“Tails are a classic! You look dashing!” The man scurried over and carefully pressed a name tag to the lapel of Langdon’s jacket.
“It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” the mustached man said. “No doubt you’ve visited us before?”
Langdon gazed through the spider’s legs at the glistening building before them. “Actually, I’m embarrassed to say, I’ve never been.”
“No!” The man feigned falling over. “You’re not a fan of modern art?”
Langdon had always enjoyed the challenge of modern art—primarily the exploration of why particular works were hailed as masterpieces: Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings; Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans; Mark Rothko’s simple rectangles of color. Even so, Langdon was far more comfortable discussing the religious symbolism of Hieronymus Bosch or the brushwork of Francisco de Goya.
“I’m more of a classicist,” Langdon replied. “I do better with da Vinci than with de Kooning.”
“But da Vinci and de Kooning are so similar!”
Langdon smiled patiently. “Then I clearly have a bit to learn about de Kooning.”
“Well, you’ve come to the right place!” The man swung his arm toward the massive building. “In this museum, you will find one of the finest collections of modern art on earth! I do hope you enjoy.”
“I intend to,” Langdon replied. “I only wish I knew why I’m here.”
“You and everyone else!” The man laughed merrily, shaking his head. “Your host has been very secretive about the purpose of tonight’s event. Not even the museum staff knows what’s happening. The mystery is half the fun of it—rumors are running wild! There are several hundred guests inside—many famous faces—and nobody has any idea what’s on the agenda tonight!”
Now Langdon grinned. Very few hosts on earth would have the bravado to send out last-minute invitations that essentially read: Saturday night. Be there. Trust me. And even fewer would be able to persuade hundreds of VIPs to drop everything and fly to northern Spain to attend the event.
Langdon walked out from beneath the spider and continued along the pathway, glancing up at an enormous red banner that billowed overhead.
AN EVENING WITH
EDMOND KIRSCH
Edmond has certainly never lacked confidence, Langdon thought, amused.
Some twenty years ago, young Eddie Kirsch had been one of Langdon’s first students at Harvard University— a mop-haired computer geek whose interest in codes had led him to Langdon’s freshman seminar: Codes, Ciphers, and the Language of Symbols. The sophistication of Kirsch’s intellect had impressed Langdon deeply, and although Kirsch eventually abandoned the dusty world of semiotics for the shining promise of computers, he and Langdon had developed a student–teacher bond that had kept them in contact over the past two decades since Kirsch’s graduation.
Now the student has surpassed his teacher, Langdon thought. By several light-years.
Today, Edmond Kirsch was a world-renowned maverick— a billionaire computer scientist, futurist, inventor, and entrepreneur. The forty-year-old had fathered an astounding array of advanced technologies that represented major leaps forward in fields as diverse as robotics, brain science, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. And his accurate predictions about future scientific breakthroughs had created a mystical aura around the man.
Langdon suspected that Edmond’s eerie knack for prognostication stemmed from his astoundingly broad knowledge of the world around him. For as long as Langdon could remember, Edmond had been an insatiable bibliophile—reading everything in sight. The man’s passion for books, and his capacity for absorbing their contents, surpassed anything Langdon had ever witnessed.
For the past few years, Kirsch had lived primarily in Spain, attributing his choice to an ongoing love affair with the country’s old-world charm, avant-garde architecture, eccentric gin bars, and perfect weather.
Once a year, when Kirsch returned to Cambridge to speak at the MIT Media Lab, Langdon would join him for a meal at one of the trendy new Boston hot spots that Langdon had never heard of. Their conversations were never about technology; all Kirsch ever wanted to discuss with Langdon was the arts.
“You’re my culture connection, Robert,” Kirsch often joked. “My own private bachelor of arts!”
The playful jab at Langdon’s marital status was particularly ironic coming from a fellow bachelor who denounced monogamy as “an affront to evolution” and had been photographed with a wide range of supermodels over the years.
Considering Kirsch’s reputation as an innovator in computer science, one could easily have imagined him being a buttoned-up techno-nerd. But he had instead fashioned himself into a modern pop icon who moved in celebrity circles, dressed in the latest styles, listened to arcane underground music, and collected a wide array of priceless Impressionist and modern art. Kirsch often e-mailed Langdon to get his advice on new pieces of art he was considering for his collection.
And then he would do the exact opposite, Langdon mused.
About a year ago, Kirsch had surprised Langdon by asking him not about art, but about God— an odd topic for a self-proclaimed atheist. Over a plate of short-rib crudo at Boston’s Tiger Mama, Kirsch had picked Langdon’s brain on the core beliefs of various world religions, in particular their different stories of the Creation.
Langdon gave him a solid overview of current beliefs, from the Genesis story shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all the way through the Hindu story of Brahma, the Babylonian tale of Marduk, and others.
“I’m curious,” Langdon asked as they left the restaurant. “Why is a futurist so interested in the past? Does this mean our famous atheist has finally found God?”
Edmond let out a hearty laugh. “Wishful thinking! I’m just sizing up my competition, Robert.”
Langdon smiled. Typical. “Well, science and religion are not competitors, they’re two different languages trying to tell the same story. There’s room in this world for both.”
After that meeting, Edmond had dropped out of contact for almost a year. And then, out of the blue, three days ago, Langdon had received a FedEx envelope with a plane ticket, a hotel reservation, and a handwritten note from Edmond urging him to attend tonight’s event. It read: Robert, it would mean the world to me if you of all people could attend. Your insights during our last conversation helped make this night possible.
Langdon was baffled. Nothing about that conversation seemed remotely relevant to an event that would be hosted by a futurist.
The FedEx envelope also included a black-and-white image of two people standing face-to-face. Kirsch had written a short poem to Langdon.
Robert,
When you see me face-to-face,
I’ll reveal the empty space.
—Edmond
Langdon smiled when he saw the image— a clever allusion to an episode in which Langdon had been involved several years earlier. The silhouette of a chalice, or Grail cup, revealed itself in the empty space between the two faces.
Now Langdon stood outside this museum, eager to learn what his former student was about to announce. A light breeze ruffled his jacket tails as he moved along the cement walkway on the bank of the meandering Nervión River, which had once been the lifeblood of a thriving industrial city. The air smelled vaguely of copper.
As Langdon rounded a bend in the pathway, he finally permitted himself to look at the massive, glimmering museum. The structure was impossible to take in at a glance. Instead, his gaze traced back and forth along the entire length of the bizarre, elongated forms.
This building doesn’t just break the rules, Langdon thought. It ignores them completely. A perfect spot for Edmond.
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, looked like something out of an alien hallucination— a swirling collage of warped metallic forms that appeared to have been propped up against one another in an almost random way. Stretching into the distance, the chaotic mass of shapes was draped in more than thirty thousand titanium tiles that glinted like fish scales and gave the structure a simultaneously organic and extraterrestrial feel, as if some futuristic leviathan had crawled out of the water to sun herself on the riverbank.
When the building was first unveiled in 1997, The New Yorker hailed its architect, Frank Gehry, as having designed “a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium,” while other critics around the world gushed, “The greatest building of our time!” “Mercurial brilliance!” “An astonishing architectural feat!”
Since the museum’s debut, dozens of other “deconstructivist” buildings had been erected—the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, BMWWorld in Munich, and even the new library at Langdon’s own alma mater. Each featured radically unconventional design and construction,and yet Langdon doubted any of them could compete with the Bilbao Guggenheim for its sheer shock value.
As Langdon approached, the tiled facade seemed to morph with each step, offering a fresh personality from every angle. The museum’s most dramatic illusion now became visible. Incredibly, from this perspective, the colossal structure appeared to be quite literally floating on water, adrift on a vast “infinity” lagoon that lapped against the museum’s outer walls.
Langdon paused a moment to marvel at the effect and then set out to cross the lagoon via the minimalist footbridge that arched over the glassy expanse of water. He was only halfway across when a loud hissing noise startled him. It was emanating from beneath his feet. He stopped short just as a swirling cloud of mist began billowing out from beneath the walkway. The thick veil of fog rose around him and then tumbled outward across the lagoon, rolling toward the museum and engulfing the base of the entire structure.
The Fog Sculpture, Langdon thought.
He had read about this work by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya. The“sculpture” was revolutionary in that it was constructed out of the medium of visible air, a wall of fog that materialized and dissipated overtime; and because the breezes and atmospheric conditions were never identical one day to the next, the sculpture was different every time it appeared.
The bridge stopped hissing, and Langdon watched the wall of fog settle silently across the lagoon, swirling and creeping as if it had a mind of its own. The effect was both ethereal and disorienting. The entire museum now appeared to be hovering over the water, resting weightlessly on a cloud— a ghost ship lost at sea.
Just as Langdon was about to set out again, the tranquil surface of the water was shattered by a series of small eruptions. Suddenly five flaming pillars of fire shot skyward out of the lagoon, thundering steadily like rocket engines that pierced the mist-laden air and threw brilliant bursts of light across the museum’s titanium tiles.
Langdon’s own architectural taste tended more to the classical stylingsof museums like the Louvre or the Prado, and yet as he watched the fog and flame hover above the lagoon, he could think of no place more suitable than this ultramodern museum to host an event thrown by a man who loved art and innovation, and who glimpsed the future so clearly.
Now, walking through the mist, Langdon pressed on to the museum’s entrance— an ominous black hole in the reptilian structure. As he neared the threshold, Langdon had the uneasy sense that he was entering the mouth of a dragon. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
About the Author
DAN BROWN is the author of numerous #1 international bestsellers, including The Da Vinci Code, Inferno, The Lost Symbol, Angels & Demons, Deception Point, and Digital Fortress. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
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Product details
ASIN : B01LXCD7FU
Publisher : Transworld Digital (October 3, 2017)
Publication date : October 3, 2017
Language : English
File size : 3941 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 466 pagesBest Sellers Rank: #142,660 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)#247 in Religious Historical Fiction (Books)
#420 in Terrorism Thrillers (Kindle Store)
#508 in Historical Thrillers (Kindle Store)Customer Reviews:
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William Hammett
2.0 out of 5 stars Erroneous Theology in Support of the New AtheismReviewed in the United States on August 29, 2018
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Spoiler alert: This review discusses the plot and the philosophical questions and controversies underlying it.
I give this book two stars only because Dan Brown is still skillful at constructing a decent plot structure and managing his narrative pace. In my opinion, however, it is the worst novel he has ever written. The ending and “the culprits” were fairly easy to predict very early on. Brown telegraphed the secrets Robert Langdon and Ambra Vidal would reveal even as Langdon went through his usual machinations of deciphering various symbols while on the run.
As is the case with all of Dan Brown’s novels, the page before chapter one states that “All art, architecture, locations, science, and religious organizations in this novel are real.” This may be technically true, but Brown twists the reality behind the above to suit his purposes and, at times, grossly distorts the underlying truths and meanings of art, science, religious institutions, and locations.
A few examples are in order, although pointing out every discrepancy between what is real and what is fabricated would take a book in itself. First, the narrative states that Michelangelo’s David is effeminate because of its pose. The truth is that Michelangelo was forced to position the David as it now stands because it was necessary to carve around various flaws in the column of marble he had selected for the piece. The David is real, of course, but not the information about its carving or its resulting presentation.
Second, the ultraconservative Palmarian Church is indeed a Catholic schismatic sect that broke away from the Church in 1978, not recognizing any further popes in Rome but rather electing its own. It is not, however, a thriving sect that has hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide who donate veritable fortunes to keep conservative Catholicism alive, which is what the book claims as fact. It is estimated that the sect has fewer than 1,000 followers left and continues to shrink. It has only thirty nuns and a pope who left to get married. That’s conservative? In Origen, the Palmarian church is a popular and wealthy driving force helping to drive Brown’s plot on several fronts. What Brown has written about the church is not in any sense “real.” At the very end, he pulls back and says the church was just a financial scam, but that’s not entirely true either.
But let’s move onto a third example, one that is inferred from both science and religious institutions. This is the biggie.
The book plainly states in multiple chapters that there are only two possibilities: either God created man fully-formed or else Darwinian evolution is correct and negates the possibility that there is a God. Catholic doctrine and most Christian denominations have no argument with science, nor is there any belief that Darwin’s theories preclude the existence of God. The Catholic Church (and its theology) openly acknowledges that the creation story in Genesis and much of the Old Testament are genre fiction and not to be taken literally. The entire premise of the book is that once evolution and its corollaries have been proven correct, such as how the first DNA was created in the primordial oceans, then God can no longer exist. With the exception of many fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, this view is not shared by most Christians, and Genesis is not taken literally by believers.
Brown has made his entire plot revolve around this central question of evolution and the creation of the first living cells. Okay, so what if a lightning strike caused certain molecules to form into one-celled organisms, meaning that God didn’t come from heaven on a chariot and place Adam and Eve in the Garden? Other questions must be answered. Who made the oceans? The planet? The galaxies? Who is responsible for the Big Bang? Brown, who gives enormous shout-outs to New Atheists such as Hawking, deGrasse Tyson, Dawkins, and others, tries to limit the entire debate over the existence of God to a point that is not in contention within Catholicism. The plot, presented as philosophical fact, and its assumption that definitive proof of evolution will put an end to all religions, is absurd—and is most definitely not fact. (Evolution was presumed as fact by most scientists long ago, and religion didn’t die.)
But consider that little sentence at the beginning of the book again: “All art, architecture, locations, science, and religious organizations in this novel are real.” The author has skillfully manipulated his readers into buying into believing that science and religion cannot coexist, a central theme to the book without which there can be no plot. Once the reader believes that little innocent-looking sentence, then the whole philosophical premise of the book is entertained as being a valid argument that will topple religion.
Brown has been hammering away at religion for several years by inserting twisted facts into his plots, and this is a tour de force in inviting the reader to step inside his world of scientific rationalism. But one cannot prove the “supernatural” with “natural” sciences. Science itself admits that beyond an event horizon of a black hole or the instant before the Big bang, physical laws—and physics itself—no longer exist. In Origen, Brown has pulled out all of the stops and tried, once and for all, to bludgeon religion to death with science that modern Catholicism does not repudiate. He has failed miserably and instead has given his readers a diatribe, not an engaging novel of suspense.
So why is this so troubling? I, for one, am tired of trying to read an enjoyable thriller without being hit over the head constantly by the axe Brown has to grind with religion, the Catholic Church in particular. Without contributions from Catholic scholars and monks, learning would not have survived the Dark Ages due to monasteries preserving classical Greek philosophy, and many of the greatest scientific breakthroughs have been made by Christian men and women of faith. Even today, there are millions of scientists who belong to organized religions, scientists who do not believe that science and religion are mutually exclusive.
The character of Robert Langdon remains undeveloped after six Langdon novels, which would qualify most writers for an immediate rejection slip. Yes, we know that he swims every morning, wears a Mickey Mouse watch, has an eidetic memory, and grows irate and frustrated at all people who do not have every nuance of history, art, architecture, and symbology committed to memory. In this latter respect, Langdon never fails to grow aggravating to me and patronizing and condescending to other characters. Yes, Langdon is an uber scholar, but as a human being he is flat, one-dimensional.
And speaking of Langdon, his role in this novel is minimal. He is more of a bystander as Brown preaches his gospel of atheism. He solves a few riddles, but he certainly doesn’t advance the plot.
The copy editing for the book (as with other Brown novels) is bad. Hundreds of compound words are split into two, such as “crossfire.” In the novel we are told that two characters are in “a cross fire.” That literally means that they are somehow threatened by a burning cross. Words are hyphenated that shouldn’t be. Commas are thrown about haphazardly, and sentences that need commas to prevent a misreading have none.
The constant use of italics (and Spanish sentences) is especially annoying. Sentences are italicized at the drop of a hat to show thoughts, alarm, emphasis, etc. These are all valid uses of commas, but they are used thousands of times in the book, and I couldn’t always tell when a sentence was expressing a thought, emphasis, surprise, or all of the above. This overuse of italics slows the reading process and at times makes it unclear who is thinking or speaking.
In terms of using italics to indicate a rise in vocal inflection, there is no rhyme or reason to where the italics are placed. I read many sentences out loud, but they sounded ridiculous and sing-song. The incorrect vocal emphasis compromises the dialogue in hundreds of places.
As usual, Brown revels in describing architecture and art, but his description of architecture was way over the top here. It was pervasive throughout the book and extremely repetitive in spots. I suspect Brown couldn’t resist the descriptions since they are mostly framed as architectural explanations that reinforce the atheism or paganism of the architect. There’s such a thing as too many chambers, staircases, crypts, balconies, and spires. At times, I felt as if I were reading Architectural Digest.
And then there is the anticlimactic ending that runs for seventy-five mind-numbing pages (a video presentation to shock the world into giving up belief in God). The science is shaky at best, and the presentation jumps from one scientific conjecture to another. I felt as if I were sitting in a college auditorium, forced to listen to a longwinded and slightly far-fetched lecture. It’s tedious in the extreme and seventy-five pages of more didacticism and philosophy mixed in with science that again twists facts combined with computer simulations that are both nebulous and a bit hard to swallow.
But wait! Langdon at the last minute asks where physics came from? Who made the laws of science? Maybe there is a higher power after all. Nah. Science is the new religion. Or, well, maybe they can work together. Nah, science is the new religion. But maybe God exists and the fault lies with fundamentalists and evangelicals. No, science is the new religion. The ending is garbled from a narrative perspective, but the message has been driven home. God, according to the narrative, is irrelevant either way. Only science can save the world.
I think Mr. Brown would be well advised to put Robert Langdon on the shelf for a while and write other novels, ones similar to Deception Point or Digital Fortress. When the formula is always so preachy, determined to prove an anti-religious belief ad nauseum, the patience wears thin.
Unfortunately, Brown’s thrillers have become a platform for not-so-thinly veiled attempts to refute God and religion. It has become tiresome. Origen hardly qualifies as fiction because of its heavy-handed rant against religion. As noted, his books are not really based on facts, but he has snookered millions of readers into believing that he and his alter ego, Robert Langdon, know arcane secrets and truths. They don’t.
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Kenneth C. Mahieu
4.0 out of 5 stars 7 Major ingredients of a Dan Brown thriller - Have I missed any?Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017
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From an Amazon book page, an excerpt of a description of Dan Brown's book: "Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science......Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust....before the world is irrevocably altered." Sounds exciting, right? But this was a blurb for "Inferno", Brown's previous book. In many ways it could also apply to 2017's "Origin"(OR).
I'm not suggesting that Brown uses a cookie cutter framework to produce his books, but having read all of the Langdon series, I am struck by some common ingredients. So, off the top of my head, I have attempted below to list familiar elements common to some, if not all, of the five books. I would imagine that most Origin readers have read one or more of the preceding books and might enjoy a quick refresher, since it is seven years since the most recent release. Perhaps you will find a few I have missed...
1) Treasure Hunt. Coded clues leading to other clues. Ultimate destination unknown. Via whatever transportation is available from private jets to a driverless Tesla (OR) - Brown does load up his books with latest technology.
2) Travelogue. The focus in OR is Barcelona but we also get to visit Bilboa, especially the Guggenheim Museum there. I'm not a museum guy but check out Bing Images of that place or YouTube videos of the suspended ferry crossing the nearby river, and perhaps like me you will add it to your list of "Places to Visit Before...." Maybe you would also like to see Budapest's Szechenyi Chain Bridge to which lovers have secured padlocks professing their love. Or Parc Guell!
3) An Attractive Woman as co-star. Young, Intelligent, Beautiful, somewhat virginal. No sex, no bad words in a Langdon. Just a few dead bodies, murders and suicides, maybe too many suicides in OR; the last was not credible for me.
4) Bad Guys. Not always clear who they are, nor whom they work for. Often not the people you were expecting.
5) Action Scenes. Especially ones that will look great on film. How about helicopters plucking surrounded heroes off the roofs of buildings? Not really great climaxes though - OR gets rather talky at the end.
6) Teaching Moments. Usually art, science and technology, in OR lots on quantum computers and software advances to improve forecasting future events. Stay with it, very interesting. But also the Palmariana Church and their popes, and statistical physics.
6) Religion/Theology. often the Catholic Church is the subject and not always kindly; sometimes clergy are suspects in the most convoluted of plots. But remember that Langdon thinks of himself first as a scientist. Toward the end of OR, Langdon is asked, "Do you believe in God?"
7) Treating Readers like Mushrooms. A whispers something to B. B gasps. Totally blown away. Can't believe it. The scene ends, the Reader has no idea what was shared. But don't worry, 200 pages later all will be made clear. It felt to this Reader that occurred at least a half dozen times, and it started to get on my nerves. The good news is that as the end approaches, the reader has several open questions awaiting explanation and making for a certain amount of fun in making "educated" guess as to what all the secrets are, including who is the Regent?
The plot of OR is fairly simple and straight forward. A former student of Langdon, a world renowned scientist, claims that he has the answer to the two basic questions that man has been searching for since the beginning of time: Where do we come from? and Where are we headed? (Given that the title of the book is "Origin", when I first heard the two basic questions I immediately assumed that Origin was the first of two books and that there would be a sequel titled "Destiny" But not to worry. Both questions are answered in "Origin". OR are they?) A worldwide presentation has been scheduled. But something happens, and the video with all the answers is not shown. Langdon and co-star must find it and share it with the World.
Did I like it? Yes, but.
Dan Brown books are always entertaining and I learn a number of new things - see numbers 2 and 6 on the list above. I look upon them though as entertainment, and I enjoyed making lots of footnotes, looking at other resources to check some of Brown's descriptions and claims. Critics love to rip him as a not very good writer but I think they miss the point. Check out recent reviews in the New York Times and Washington Post; they are very different. I feel one critic "gets" Brown and his audience and the other critic.... well, draw your own conclusions. (Hint to readers - don't waste your time going to a newspaper's website and trying to do a search. Go to Google and, for example, search for "NYT Origin review".
I don't know if there'll be another Langdon - in seven years? - but if there is I'll probably read it. I wonder though how much longer Tom Hanks will play Langdon.
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Dan L
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved itReviewed in the United States on June 24, 2023
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Dan Brown once again does not disappoint, I've loved all of the books I have read of his. His stories get me hooked every time. I like the main character, Dr. Langdon, I hope he does not retire him yet. Thanks again Mr. Brown!!
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Anuradha Gupta
4.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Brown tends to stretch the story as far as he canReviewed in India on May 10, 2020
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Dan Brown needs no introduction. At some point in our lives, I assume, we've all heard of him and some have even read him. I have read all his books and was most impressed by them all, despite all the 4 books of the Robert Langdon series being in the same plot design. Origin by Dan Brown is no different. The recipe? A setting featuring a full part Robert Langdon, half a part intellectually sexy lady (preferably more than a decade younger than him), full part country with a tumultuous past and lots of historical and modern architecture and art which allows numerous conspiracy theories around them, a scintillating murder of a renowned person who happened to be Langdon's close friend/known, a delusional assassin following close on the heels of our symbologist and his lady with attempts to silence them as well, a shadowy master ordering the kills, some religious groups and their over-zealous members, jet setting across the country/countries, full part of the ever raging war between religion and science and their flag bearers fighting over a dark/shocking secret and finally, the big reveal...all of this in the span of one night. Phew! Having read Origin now, I am pretty convinced that Mr. Brown has some really cool ideas and some really obvious theories. It's like a guilty pleasure, reading his books, you admit and you feel guilty, you don't admit and you feel guiltier. I had decided not to read any more of his books unless I get good reviews about it or he deviates from his overdone plot design, but given my mild OCD, before it turned to a monster demanding the book to be read, I caved in.
Langdon is in Spain, at the Bilbao Guggenheim museum for an event hosted by his student turned friend, the genius computer scientist Edmond Kirsch and the director of the museum, Ambra Vidal who is engaged to the future king of Spain. Kirsch's guest list includes a variety of names, all of whom know him personally, including an exception, a not so important and out of place Admiral Luis Alvira. Needless to say, this unknown man kills Kirsch just before he was about to reveal a discovery so huge that it would have changed the way people looked at religion, both believers and non-believers alike. Now, running from the Royal guards because Ambra thinks her life is in danger, Langdon and she races against the killer and the police alike who are both after them, to silence them forever. With the motive of the killer quite clear yet his master still behind the curtains, Langdon and Ambra have every reason to doubt everyone who even remotely has any links to any religion.
What was Kirsch's big discovery for which he lost his life? How will Langdon and Ambra save it from getting lost forever with Kirsch dead and apparently no one else in the world who knows what it was about!?
So, down goes the drain on my resolve of not reading any more of Robert Langdon's stories. I just can't stop myself! Having said this, I must also say that this is the book with which I can relate to more levels than any other of Mr. Brown's works. Firstly, I believe I am an atheist. My entire life seems like a sham when I realized that humanity is above God. Didn't I just spend my entire childhood praying to God for things I wanted and yet be mean to the ones less fortunate at times, or have mean thoughts at least!? No doubt I never got what I wanted because, duh, Karma! Secondly, like Mr. Brown, I too believe that an age of digital revolution like never before is just around the corner, a Digi-human or a humanoid or whatever one calls the people surviving it. And lastly, I believe that all religions are a sham. With their histories bloodier than the world wars (or so I feel because there is no end to "My God is mightier than yours") and no respite in sight even though we live in 2020 (I am not getting started on this topic, too vast and debatable), there is nothing as dark as the religions of the world today, twisted and presented to the masses only to fulfill the lusts of a handful of people. Now the question is, what did I like about this book apart from the above-mentioned similarities in thought. I liked the theory on which the whole story is based. The transition from the murdered to the criminal while hopping across the country's finest artistic and historical places with an AI as a super sidekick got the ball rolling for me and pretty detailed insight for amateurs like me who know practically nothing about world history. Not that I would remember all of what was said, but at least I would be able to recollect where I read something and go back and research if it interested me further. What I disliked were the preposterous amount of information and preachy dialogues. I'd be better off with some more conspiracy theories. And also, the same plot design as all Langdon stories. This story, in particular, had some loopholes which I could pick immediately after the completion, a new one for me considering I haven't been able to pinpoint any fault in other Langdon books. I wouldn't tell them here because it would be like giving spoilers. I'd say this was because I've now read 5 of similar stories and readily anticipate what is about to happen long before it happens. Not to mention, I figured out the shadowy master and most of the details once things were moving fast enough. I appreciate how smoothly Mr. Brown amalgamated science, technology, and religion with art and history, a seamless piece of clothing that fits beautifully for everyone. The characters were plenty, some had crucial but short roles, some were just present for the sake of variety, I think, given the length of the book. Each character had depth irrespective of its requirement. A depth that I found boring and unnecessary at times like it was placed there only to increase the length and put the reader away from the main plotline. Having read some fast-paced thrillers before picking this book up, my judgment might be clouded, but I don't think I am wrong in saying that Mr. Brown tends to stretch the story as far as he can and then some more before realizing that it's time. Have you read the book? What are your views? Do leave a comment and let me know.
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Dr Sonal K
5.0 out of 5 stars Pulsating techno-religious drama set in SpainReviewed in India on October 17, 2017
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IN ONE OF HIS INTERVIEW'S DAN BROWN STATES THAT "THE PROBLEM IN MAKING BOOKS INTO MOVIES IS THAT IMAGINATION BECOMES LIMITED. BEFORE THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES EVERY KID WHO READ IT HAD HIS OWN VERSION OF THE WIZARD HERO BUT AFTER THE MOVIES CAME OUT EVERY KID IMAGINED THE SAME DANIEL RADCLIFFE FACE. BOOKS NO LONGER REMAINED OPEN TO ONE'S IMAGINATION." I WOULD AGREE ,AS I STARTED IMAGINING TOM HANKS IN A SUIT WITHIN THE FIRST FEW PAGES OF DAN BROWN'S LATEST NOVEL ORIGIN. BUT THE OTHER CHARACTERS I COULD PICK AND CHOOSE FROM THE VAST ARRAY OF HOLLYWOOD'S ACTORS I LIKED. I COULD STILL IMAGINE THE NEXT PAGE'S HAPPENING OR VISUALISE HOW I WOULD REACT IF I WERE IN THE SCENE. HENCE DESPITE THE MOVIES , ONE'S IMAGINATION STILL RUNS FREE MR.BROWN!
AS AN ARDENT ADMIRER OF DAN BROWN'S WRITING MY SPIRITS WERE DAMPENED AFTER READING INFERNO BUT I STILL BOUGHT A COPY OF ORIGIN ON THE VERY DAY OF IT'S RELEASE HOPING FOR A MORE POSITIVE THEME. HAVING SEEN HIS INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE I SOMEHOW SENSED THAT SHARJAH WOULD BE FEATURED IN THE BOOK AND IT WAS. ALSO I THOUGHT THAT THE RECURRENT QUESTION OF SCIENCE VERSUS GOD WOULD BE EXPLORED IN SOME NEW WAY ALONG WITH THE TIMELESS QUESTION WHERE DO WE COME FROM ? “Human creation and human destiny. They are the universal mysteries.”
BUT THIS BOOK RUNS MUCH DEEPER.
THE WASHINGTON POST , THE TELEGRAPH, THE GUARDIAN AND THE NEW YORK TIMES HAVE GIVEN VERY SCATHING REVIEWS TO THE BOOK BUT THE REAL REVIEW IS IN THE SALES FIGURES AND THE RECEPTION FROM THE MASSES IT IS AIMED AT. THE CRITICS EVEN NOTIFY TOM HANKS FOR HIS UPCOMING MOVIE SHOOTING IN SPAIN AND COMMENT ON THE BOOK'S FORMULA. THE REASON FOR A FORMULA BEING REPEATED BY SOMEONE IS THAT IT WORKS. IT IS A THRILLER SET IN A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY WITH GREAT HISTORICAL MONUMENTS EXPLORING EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS. HISTORY +BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE + SMART DAMSEL IN DISTRESS + SOLVING CODES + CONTROVERSIES + UNDERDOG GEEKY HERO OVERCOMING ALL OBSTACLES DESPITE CLAUSTROPHOBIA & THE WORLD AGAINST HIM ETC = MILLIONS OF BOOK COPIES SOLD ALONGWITH MOVIE RIGHTS.
“In your world of classical art, pieces are revered for the artist’s skill of execution—that is, how deftly he places the brush to canvas or the chisel to stone. In modern art, however, masterpieces are often more about the idea than the execution.“ THIS INSIGHT FROM THE BOOK IS A VERY SIMPLE WAY TO EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT OF MODERN ART TO THOSE WHO ARE PERPLEXED BY IT. I liked the way he has approached modern art by making Bilbao museum the starting point for the story. The description of ideas behind modern art is a gateway for people who do not appreciate it perhaps and I for one have added the Guggenheim museum to my bucket list.
ON MY PART, I AM FASCINATED BY THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF MONUMENTS AND THE VARIED THEORIES DAN BROWN SHARES USING LANGDON HIS ALTER EGO PERHAPS. I DO NOT MIND THE DESCRIPTIONS ABOUT CITIES AND MONUMENTS WHICH IS WHAT THE CRITICS ABHOR THE MOST IN HIS BOOKS. LEARNING ABOUT A PLACE DURING A STORY IS MORE INTERESTING THAN PICKINGUP A TRAVEL BOOK. I READ HIS BOOKS SLOWLY, SEEING VIDEOS AND PICTURES OF THE PLACES AND READING A BIT ABOUT THEM BEFORE MOVING ONTO THE NEXT MONUMENT. HE MOVES FROM MONUMENT TO MONUMENT AND CITY TO CITY SOLVING A PUZZLE. I AM AS A READER INTRIGUED BY THE PUZZLE AS MUCH AS BY THE ARTWORK AND PASSAGES OR POETRY SHARED DURING THE QUEST. Getting a fresh perspective about works of Nietzsche and William Blake as an interwoven part of the tale makes it DEEPER THAN A SIMPLE THRILLER.
DAN BROWN STEPS CAUTIOUSLY INTO ISLAM for a brief moment AND MOVES INTO THE Familiar territory of Christianity for the rest of the book. He shares the controversies of the Christian world in interesting plot twists.
I like the manner in which he deals with religious fanaticism subtly and even provides a solution of sorts “that the human mind has the ability to elevate an obvious fiction to the status of a divine fact, and then feel emboldened to kill in its name. He believed that the universal truths of science could unite people—serving as a rallying point for future generations.” “That’s a beautiful idea in principle,which is why Edmond hoped science could one day unify us,” Langdon said. “In his own words: ‘If we all worshipped gravity..."
In making up artificial intelligence as a main character Dan Brown shows the contentious cusp between present and future possibilities. To quote“ assess a machine’s ability to behave in a manner indistinguishable from that of a human“ makes it sound achievable. The concept of building intelligence that can be near human but not humane is intriguing and scary both. “the human brain is a binary system—synapses either fire or they don’t—they are on or off, like a computer switch. The brain has over a hundred trillion switches, which means that building a brain is not so much a question of technology as it is a question of scale.“ I WONDER IF THE FUTURISTIC UPGRADED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGANCE WINSTON WHO PUTS SIRI TO SHAME IS BEING DEVELOPED SOMEWHERE.
THE "SMART DAMSEL IN DISTRESS SOLVING CODES" THEME RECURRS HERE AND I WONDER HOW HIS NOVELS WOULD FARE IF THE FEMALE LEAD WOULD BE A MUCH OLDER MARRIED LADY OF GRANDMOTHERLY AGE OR MAY BE EVEN A MALE SCIENTIST? DESPITE THE PLATONIC FRIENDSHIP PORTRAYED, A RAVISHING FEMALE LEAD ADDS AN ELEMENT OF WOW DEFINITELY. THOUGH STATED AT A DIFFERENT POINT IN THE STORY ,AN AUTHOR HAS TO TAP INTO BASIC HUMAN TENDENCIES AT SOME POINT BECAUSE IN DAN BROWN'S OWN WORDS "humans, despite being God’s most sublime creation, were still just animals at the core, their behavior driven to a great extent by a quest for creature comforts." MOST READERS' ATTENTION WOULD BE DRAWN TO ATTRACTIVE FEMALE LEADS IN TROUBLE AND IN HIS NOVELS IT IS BEAUTY WITH BRAINS.
THERE IS A TENDENCY TO INCLUDE INTERNATIONAL CHARACTERS TO GET WIDER AUDIENCE AND AN INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE OF INDIAN ORIGIN MAKES AN APPEARANCE BUT I HOPE DAN BROWN CHOOSES A BETTER INDIAN NAME NEXT TIME.
I HAVE READ ALL OF DAN BROWN'S BOOKS AND MY RATINGS WERE THE HIGHEST FOR THE DIGITAL FORTRESS FOLLOWED BY DA VINCI CODE FOLLOWED BY ORIGIN FOLLOWED BY DECEPTION POINT FOLLOWED BY ANGELS AND DEMONS FOLLOWED BY THE LOST SYMBOL FOLLOWED BY INFERNO. I HATED THE NEGATIVE THEMED INFERNO THE MOST . ALL IN ALL HIS RECENT BOOK"ORIGIN" IS A PLEASANT READ AND I WOULD RATE THE PLOT AS 3.5/5 AND THE WRITING AS 4/5 BECAUSE I LIKE TRAVEL AND MYSTERY BOTH AND DAN BROWN MARRIES THEM IN QUITE A DECENT NARRATIVE. I ALSO LIKED THE WAY I WAS FORCED TO THINK OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE FUTURE IN MYRIAD HUES AND NOT JUST AS AN AID TO HUMAN KIND.
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Shaun Stoddart.
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning readReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2019
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I have read this twice now the first spelling binding the second enthralling.. a great story teller with twists and turns . Over all exciting.
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G C
5.0 out of 5 stars Another thrilling read.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2017
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Dan Brown has this knack of reeling in his readers with exciting twists and turns. A very thought provoking storyline.
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R. Gooch
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2018
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Dan Brown usual gripping tales. Could not put it down. What a storyteller.
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