May 7, 2010

Dan Brown and the art of letter-writing

I suppose that the art of letter-writing hasn’t completely died out yet, given the example shown above (and, enlarged for easier viewing, below). My thoughts? You can guess. I must say I did find the first two pages of Dan Brown’s latest novel to be most interesting ones of all, given that the following introductory notes appear in quick succession:

“This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously…

FACT:… All organizations in this novel exist… All rituals, science, artwork, and monuments in this novel are real.”

An interesting distinction, to be sure. But why does the book include so many small errors, including on minor Washington, DC geography and Masonic trivia (eg, “Supreme Worshipful Master”)? Some pundits have commented that it was simply artistic license, for example on changing the symbol of a double-headed eagle to a double-headed phoenix. It’s hard to argue with that.

For me, the only real cringe moment in the book involved the description of a libation (and I’m not speaking about episode with the ritual drinking of wine from a human skull). Rather, it was a seemingly epicurean character’s offer of a rather high grade of tea — with “cream and sugar.” Surely no self-respecting tea connoisseur would ever proffer that? (If tea in the English style was on offer, milk, not cream, would be the dairy injection. I personally prefer mine in the Slavic style, in a tea glass and without milk.)