The Manhattan Project
Morning Roundup: Second Helpings Edition
Compromise Uncertain on Same-Sex Marriage Law
Fire at 17th and L NW Forces Evacuations
Sculpture Garden Ice-Skating Rink Remains Closed
Beginning today, every fifth person you see on the Metro for the next nine months will be reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. And for the next year or two, every third tourist you see will be on a quixotic quest to see for themselves all the D.C. "locations" where the fictional events in the book took place.
The question then becomes: will you read it right away in order to at least know what you're up against, or put it off until some lazy holiday weekend or long plane trip? Or perhaps you'll categorically refuse to read it, thus allowing yourself to become even more indignant whenever someone asks you where in D.C. they keep "the Hand of the Mysteries."
The general consensus among critics is that the book is definitely stupid, but maybe not quite so astonishingly stupid as they were expecting.
Are you ready for endless Masonic conspiracy feature segments on every morning TV news show in the country?
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Hell, I'll read it. I read the other two in the Langdon series, so I figure I should absolutely know what I'm up against. I will, however, wait til it comes out in paperback.
All I know is that if you fart the wrong way in the Scottish Rite Masonic "Library," it opens the Chamber of Secrets and you end up having to fight Voldemort over the toilet seat covers. You really need those things. One thing about the Bavarian Illuminati, they may rule the world but they have lousy aim.
i mean, everyone knows that the missing arm of the pentagram between washington circle and the corner of rhode island and connecticut passes through the building where they buried jimmy hoffa's body.
who's bringing the shovels? we got some diggin' to do!
forget shovels! we need explosives!
forget shovels! we need explosives!
I'm definitely reading it (thanks for reminding me that it came out today, Dcist). I've thoroughly enjoyed all of Dan Brown's books to date-not just DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons. I get a kick out of books with conspiracies and secret societies. All in good fiction, right?
I'm not too worried about tourists; I was under the impression that most of the country hasn't read a book past high school anyway, and gauging by the tourists in the Overheard in DC feature, I'm guessing we get quite a few who fall into that category.
If you want to be entertained, you're much better off reading Robert Anton Wilson's "The Illuminatus Trilogy." This is not a recommendation. Fnord.
Heh, Fnord.
I feel a strange sense of unease for no reason, but I feel better shopping at <advertisement/>.
I'm reading it. I love this shit. The Masons have got to love it, all those tourists going to the temple on 16th st.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR2009091500957.html?hpid=artslot
apparently the redskins (can i say that?) are in the playoffs.
a sure sign of fiction.
I feel like the reviews must be giving away the best of the laugh-out-loud dialogue, so I don't feel compelled to read it. The New York Times has my favorite so far:
"'Actually, Katherine, it’s not gibberish.' His eyes brightened again with the thrill of discovery. 'It’s ... Latin.'"
Is anyone else as excited for the National Book Festival this weekend as I am?
I'm a HUGE book snob, and usually turn my nose up at anything non-canonical. But I love me some Dan Brown. It's history, and religion, and politics, and mystery, and suspense, all with a touch of hilarity (because of the bad writing and wacked out conspiracy theories).
Aside from one outing on Saturday night, I think this book will be my weekend. And I'm okay with that.
I like my hate literature straight up, thanks. So, I'll be skipping Dan Brown's latest let's-invent-random-historical-"facts"-and-present-them-as-true-to-demonize-some-civic-organization wankfest, and instead I'll be curling up with The Turner Diaries.
Man, it still galls me that anyone believes that they are learning about "history" when they read Dan Brown's crap.
I like my hate literature straight up, thanks. So, I'll be skipping Dan Brown's latest let's-invent-random-historical-"facts"-and-present-them-as-true-to-demonize-some-civic-organization wankfest, and instead I'll be curling up with The Turner Diaries.
Man, it still galls me that anyone believes that they are learning about "history" when they read Dan Brown's crap.
Whoa! I just looked at the map of the "symbol sites" from the book on WaPo. How could Brown have missed the Tune Inn?!? The "mangy moth-eaten owl" is a symbol of the highest power of Freemasonry. It holds the secret to......I've said too much already.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/the_lost_symbol/pool/