Log In

Home
    - Create Journal
    - Update
    - Download

LiveJournal
    - News
    - Paid Accounts
    - Contributors

Customize
    - Customize Journal
    - Create Style
    - Edit Style

Find Users
    - Random!
    - By Region
    - By Interest
    - Search

Edit ...
    - Personal Info &
      Settings
    - Your Friends
    - Old Entries
    - Your Pictures
    - Your Password

Developer Area

Need Help?
    - Lost Password?
    - Freq. Asked
      Questions
    - Support Area



Like a book club, except with more sex! ([info]notjo) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2009-09-20 18:29:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
I doubt your committment to edginess
Once, long ago, an author released a book unto the world. And this book was considered to be awful by many many many critics, to the point where much parody was made of the author, the book, and the fans. This mockery ramped up when a movie was made, and even more people were introduced to the author. And, of course, all truly "hip" readers turned up their noses, refusing to call that... that... tripe... literature.

I am, of course, talking about Dan Brown.

Over at
Literary Tattoos, Loosma writes:

I love Dan Brown, particularly his Robert Langdon series and I have huge respect for him and his research for his new book The Lost Symbol. I'm reading that now and I'm having a hard time putting it down but there are some great quotes in here. I keep wanting to highlight them and come back because sometimes I come across a sentence that hits me hard just because it relates to me in a way. As do everyone when they tattoo a quote or lyric or whatever on their body

Anyway, so really if any readers of those books have gotten a tattoo relating to the plot or through some quote in there? Especially puzzle lovers? lol



Marvel at the pretentiousness, when we're assured that people are basically sheep and only the amazing folks at Literary Tattoos are capable of sorting that a dancing dog isn't that big a deal.

Be assured that a book is no longer any good once it's popular.

Discuss how Brown does research wrong! Have other people insist that Dan Brown actually does lots of research and is very accurate! (I skipped that, because I am an historian who lives with a theologian, so LOL NO)

OMG! Everyone is so meeen! - not from the OP, although she agrees. More MEEEN!

The OP ultimate tacks on her flounce, in bold:
Ok ok! I got the message! Dan Brown sucks, I have horrible literary sense, the oprah book club thing is probably I something should check into, etc etc etc. Anyway, everyone is entitled to their opinion, regardless of how polite or bitchy it was presented but to each their own.



I just want you all to know that I hated Dan Brown before it was "in" to hate Dan Brown. I bet it's now ~edgy~ to be scholar who loves Dan Brown for the plot, and I totes want to be ~edgy~. Dan Brown Forever! Go Robert Langdon!


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]eleutheria
2009-09-21 01:26 pm UTC (link)
Wait. Tremaine as in the guy who writes Celtic mysteries about an early Irish nun? Those are as poorly researched as Dan Brown?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]brennalarose
2009-09-21 03:42 pm UTC (link)
Oh, no, he's done his research. I think he specializes in Irish medieval history. It's that they both have scholarly overtones and undercurrents that manage to annoy me if I focus on them. Tremaine has an ugly, though understandable, habit of putting two chapters worth of glossary and milieu set up in the front of the book "for those of you just joining us" and then repeats the information or new info that has very little relevance to the plot at great length. One book (I'm packing to move so I can't check the title) stalled out for a page and a half while he explained what seemed to me to be the finer points of Irish law in the time.

As much as I love the banter and relationship between the two leads, sometimes I wonder if the Saxon monk/apothecary isn't just there to experience culture shock so the nun can explain it to someone without breaking the fourth wall.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]magnolia_mama
2009-09-21 06:39 pm UTC (link)
I think he specializes in Irish medieval history.
Celtic history and culture in general; he publishes his non-fiction under Peter Berresford Ellis. I agree with you about his tendency to show off his research - I've read 2 of the Sister Fidelma books but couldn't take any more of the infodumping.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]brennalarose
2009-09-21 08:31 pm UTC (link)
I just grit my teeth and skim the infodumps. There's at least a good story there, usually, though I always feel cheated when the murderer goes and suicides.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]eleutheria
2009-09-22 12:53 pm UTC (link)
Ah, okay. Ellis, IIRC, is one of the go-to authors for Pagans interested in the history of druidry, so I was a little alarmed to see him grouped with Dan Brown.

Yeah, the exposition is a bit much, but I'm interested in the history so I usually don't mind it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


(Read comments) -

 
   
Privacy Policy - COPPA
Legal Disclaimer - Site Map