  |
|
|
|
A professor of literature at London University, Roberts takes offense to the errors in Dan Brown's writing style and the faulty reasoning underlying "The Da Vinci Code"
The title of Adam Roberts’ witty parody of The Da Vinci Code speaks for itself. There is something suspect, perhaps downright fishy, about Dan Brown’s bestselling novel. The Da Vinci Cod sets out to parody the overall sloppiness of The Da Vinci Code. Roberts does not touch on the specific mistakes that Brown makes about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the Vatican, paganism, early and medieval Christianity, modern day Catholicism, the life and work of Leonardo, and much more (1). Such issues are best kept to serious-minded work by scholars such as Sandra Miesel. Rather, Roberts creates an exaggerated mock-story that illustrates the absurdity of Brown’s style of writing and reasoning. The Da Vinci Cod features a preposterous plot that begins when a London curator is found dead with a cod shoved down his throat, beneath the mysterious message, “THE CHATHOLIC CURCH HAD ME MURDERED!” The typos are clear, but to complicate the message and thus further the plot, the “anagrammatologist” Robert Donglan rearranges the letters to get “H! THE CCC COME HARD, HURDLE A COLT” (2). And so begins Donglan and French crypotologist Sophie Neveu’s whirlwind chase after misconstrued clues and factual misrepresentations. Included in this is the apparently fish-shaped layout of London’s streets, and the discovery that the Mona Lisa is actually a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci’s younger sister, Eda (hence properly titled, the Mona Eda). While this exaggeration of Brown’s work is humorous and often plain silly, the flaws he illuminates in Brown’s work should not be taken lightly. The “Mona Eda” episode points to Brown’s actual misinterpretation of the Mona Lisa, where the name is turned into the anagram “Amon L’isa.” Brown explains to readers that “Amon” is the name of the Egyptian God of masculine fertility, and “L’isa” is an ancient pictogram for the Egyptian goddess of fertility (2). Such an interpretation neglects the widely accepted fact that the Mona Lisa portrays a real woman, Madonna Lisa, the wife of Francesco Bartolomeo del Giciondo (1). Such carelessness is mocked throughout The Da Vinci Cod, using the sloppy writing style of Brown’s and similar best-selling thrillers. Exaggerated examples of redundant dialogue and meandering, fact-filled digressions about the size and population city of London, among other topics, entertain the reader, as does the rapid, far-fetched plot. More importantly, The Da Vinci Cod is also an apt reminder that such heavily promoted, poorly researched fiction should never be elevated to fact. References: 1. The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code. Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel. Ignatius Press: 2004. 2. The Da Vinci Cod: A Fishy Parody by Don Brine. Adam Roberts. HarperCollins: 2005 3. The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown. Anchor: 2006.
The copyright of the article Talking Back to Dan Brown in Mystery/Crime Fiction is owned by Kelley Wadson. Permission to republish Talking Back to Dan Brown in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
