The Lost Symbol

[Bull]

I'm not much of a Dan Brown fan, but my brother loaned me his new book and I just finished it. The villian this time is a huge bodybuilder covered in tats. There is the usual ignorant crap about steroids and growth hormone. They turn him from a scrawny kid to The Hulk in just a few years of course, and deform his face to the point where he is no longer recognizable. Silliest of all, they reduce his voice to a whisper; an effect he was told would happen and wanted. Funny...I've known about a thousand juicers, and not one ever lost his voice.

If that weren't enough to put me off Brown, he uses the faux word "disorientated" about a half dozen times. Argh!

[arpeejay]

I'm looking forward to the sequel:

The Lost Synthol!

:-)

<< ducks >>

xoxo

Richard

PS:

I may have to read it now, stupid though it sounds. If it's got a bodybuilder!

[Mdlftr]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

I'm looking forward to the sequel:

The Lost Synthol!

:-)

<< ducks >>

xoxo

Richard

PS:

I may have to read it now, stupid though it sounds. If it's got a bodybuilder!

30 lashes with a wet towel for horrible puns!

[ohiobuck47]

I'm with Richard. If it's got a bodybuilder in it, I gotta read it. Sounds like it could be interesting even if the author didn't research the bodybuilding world well as Bull indicates.

Brian from Ohio

[WhoDunIt]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

I'm looking forward to the sequel:

The Lost Synthol!

:-)

<< ducks >>

xoxo

Richard

ROFLMFAO! I don't care who ya are, now that's funny

[CelticMuscle]

Originally Posted by Bull

I'm not much of a Dan Brown fan, but my brother loaned me his new book and I just finished it. The villian this time is a huge bodybuilder covered in tats. There is the usual ignorant crap about steroids and growth hormone. They turn him from a scrawny kid to The Hulk in just a few years of course, and deform his face to the point where he is no longer recognizable. Silliest of all, they reduce his voice to a whisper; an effect he was told would happen and wanted. Funny...I've known about a thousand juicers, and not one ever lost his voice.

If that weren't enough to put me off Brown, he uses the faux word "disorientated" about a half dozen times. Argh!

And seeing as both Code and Angels were made into films, how about some suggestions for actor for said role?

[Phlex]

Originally Posted by Bull

I

If that weren't enough to put me off Brown, he uses the faux word "disorientated" about a half dozen times. Argh!

For whatever it's worth, the pleonastic 'orientate' (and 'disorientate') appear to be a common UK-English feature. I hear it all the time on the BBC radio streams (free and legal, thanks, Auntie Beeb), and it annoys me beyond reason.

[Jaypat]

Note to self: Do not utilize ?disorient? or lavishly pamper your stories with pleonasms, otherwise you may get a couple of very large, well read gentlemen very angry with you.

[digger]

You couldn't pay me enough to read Dan Brown. Never have and never will.

[Atlas]

When I first read the DaVinci Code, I thought that dear old Dan was quite good at writing, making the reader feel sucked into the story... then I reached the climax, understood where it was aiming for, and, inevitably, dropped the book.

I've never read anything else from him since then. And if that book is so full of crap as Bull says, this will be another book I will gladly ignore.

[Mdlftr]

His villains tend to be physically distinctive:

-remember the albino killer in "Da Vinci Code"?

-the megalomaniac priest in this summer's extravaganza?

So, a tatted, hyoooge bodybuilder is actually pretty predictable as a villain.

Come to think of it, it's more of a twist to have the hyooge bodybuilder turn out to be a nice guy, such as

Andre the Giant in "Princess Bride,"

Ahnuld in "Kindergarten Cop"

--it plays against expectations!

I actually enjoy reading his books. Sort of like Umberto Eco ("Name of the Rose") - "Lite". Very lite!

Mdlftr

[agreatguy6]

disorientated is a word?

: /
It must be to disoriented what I feel unconscionable is to inconceivable.
I mean, just because they're words doesn't mean you should use them lol, especially if they're words that sound like they're wrong.

but in regards to Dan Brown, did anyone else notice in Code that the professor is running down the street mystified by the box and not at all worrying about the fact he's being shot at?
Brown, imho, looooooves to romanticize things to a ridiculous extent.

[Bull]

I have actually seen "orientate" and "disorientate" in online dictionaries, but they make me crazy. To me, it's like saying "informate" instead of "inform."

In fairness, there is a lot of interesting, arcane information in "The Lost Symbol," largely regarding Freemasonry, the Founding Fathers, and the history of Washington DC. But I felt like the plot was just a device to hang all that on. And it is hard to take an author seriously when he is willing to spread ridiculous lies about steroids and stereotype bodybuilders because they make convenient villains.

[agreatguy6]

I think I would like his books more if there were less plot, more weird stuff, and it were filed under Conspiracy Nonfiction.

Because Langdon, or w/e his name is, I find frightfully annoying : /

[mewletter]

Which is why these books are in FICTION section. In the end, people must remind themselves that the whole story is made up.

[agreatguy6]

Oh, it's pretty blatant in its fiction lol. It's just that he includes so much weird trivia, I feel like he'd do better writing a book on oddities than he would writing novels with living encyclopedias for main characters lol

[redwolf64]

Originally Posted by Mdlftr

His villains tend to be physically distinctive:

-remember the albino killer in "Da Vinci Code"?

-the megalomaniac priest in this summer's extravaganza?

So, a tatted, hyoooge bodybuilder is actually pretty predictable as a villain.

Brown is a good "pop" writer that knows how to work the system. He puts in lots of action, a dumb plot you don't have to think too hard about, and distinctive characters -- it all translates well into a movie deal.

I'll wait for the movie to see who they get for the bodybuilder part...

[Slevin]

I just finished the book a few days ago. I must say I was very disappointed with the ending he chose.

It seems like this book was his attempt at an apologetic for The Da Vinci Code

I'm not sure I would file his book under "conspiracy" -- most of the things he presents are no more implausible than any other religion. It's simply a forgotten alternate view of the universe.

I agree he is not the best writer and there was a point in this book where I was l thought "this is ridiculous" -- I admire his attempt to blend all his artistic, science (fiction) and historical talent in one book but it falls short. It's time for him to put the pen down and enjoy his lofty retirement.

[kezzz]

I'm actually starting to read this book after all the bits and pieces that everyone posted here, got me curious as I wanna know what Mak'lah is doing...

[muscl4life]

I finished the book yesterday, not the greatest thing in the world, actualy quite predictable, but I have to say, Mr. Brown knows how to keep a reader entertained (if you just indulge him and overlook the many controversial points he just assumes to be true).


When I first read the villain was a huge muscular man, a lot of things came to my mind, but then it suddenly read like...

"Shit...I think Dan Brown had paid a visit to this forum!"

LOL!

Seriously, it is just as plausible as the things he says that are true in his tale - which is a collection of stereotyped plots he sewed together with his "too fucking perfect" robert Landgon.

A rich little spoiled guy whose father is one of the most powerful men on earth, the little man who forges his own death, takes his multimilionaire assets and just disappears in the world, going to a Greek island where he suddenly is presented to the bodybuilding and takes lots of growth hormones and steroids to change into a 6'3" (god knows how heavy) muscular body and nearly inhuman strength?

Shit, we see this type of plot here all the time! Many stories we've read have this same concept, Dan Brown himself told many times he is fascinated with Internet and technology (to the point that his stories tend to get "old" because they rely so heavily on techno gadgets). Why isn't it possible that he paid a visit to the forum, how many members are there, and how easy it is to remain annonymous in this digital realm?

The guy has been sued because he allegedly stole the ideas for the main plot on Da Vinci Code, who can asure us Mr. Brown didn't "borrow" the ideas for his villain from this forum? The guy even says the villain has a "massive penis" (in fact "massive" is an expression Mr Brown uses a lot in his story, the same problem i have in my stories )

I guess this was the only reason why I have enjoyed the reading, he still didn't make anything great, though, especially for those who know about the whole transformation process, which in the end just absurd, but the idea of making an intelligent villain with "massive muscles" is very kind to me and I think it might have been the only real good thing about the book.

I am sure that when the movie comes out it won't be the same. (For instance, when "Red Dragon" came out, who could even say that guy was "a bodybuilder type"?) they'll just find a tall guy and fill him with fake tattoos.

Anyway,

Cheers !

(especially for you Mr. Brown, if you are still following this forum, of course I am glad you decided to pay such a lovely tribute to our fantasy style )

[nnnrg]

Originally Posted by agreatguy6

disorientated is a word?

: /
It must be to disoriented what I feel unconscionable is to inconceivable.
I mean, just because they're words doesn't mean you should use them lol, especially if they're words that sound like they're wrong.

What? Unconscionable is a perfectly decent word, meaning "a thing which would be so (morally) unacceptable that it must not be permitted" ... inconceivable simply means "a thing which (I) could never have imagined" ... the words are unrelated.

If someone is confunding the words, then they should be made to hold Webster's Unabridged at arms length and read the definitions of all the words starting with "U".

(Yes, I deliberately used "confunding" instead of "confusing" and I am unrepentant.)