Sunday May 12, 2013
Will it set us aflame?
By TAN SHIOW CHIN
star2@thestar.com.my
What can we expect from Dan Brown’s latest novel, Inferno, out on Tuesday?
SO, the last taste we had of Harvard symbologist Prof Robert Langdon was in Dan Brown’s last novel The Lost Symbol, released four years ago.
That book didn’t make as much of an impression on me as the first two Robert Langdon novels, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, so I had to re-read it in preparation for this article. And I discovered an Easter egg! (For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, an Easter egg is a hidden element inserted into a work by its author.) Langdon makes a reference to Dante’s Inferno early on in The Lost Symbol: When bad guy Mal’akh, who has kidnapped Langdon’s mentor and high-ranking Freemason Peter Solomon, first contacts Langdon, he mentions that Solomon is in the Araf.
Langdon’s reply is: “The Araf? Hamistagan? That place to which Dante devoted the canticle immediately following his legendary Inferno?” (For obsessive cross-checking readers like me, see page 64.)
If you haven’t heard by now, Brown’s upcoming Langdon book is called Inferno and revolves around – no prizes for a correct answer – the first part of the classic epic poem The Divine Comedy by Dante, also called “Inferno”.
As with Brown’s first three Langdon novels, I am sure we can expect lots of symbolism, unexpected origins to commonplace words or items, the involvement of a secret society of some sort, and some kind of society-shattering secret, all purportedly based on real organisations, practises or facts.
Add to that an older mentor-type figure – usually male, who makes an appearance at the beginning of the novel to start off the plot, then mostly disappears after that – an intelligent and attractive female sidekick, a really weird and fanatical villain, and (spoiler alert!) a good guy who turns out to be a bad guy a la Sir Leigh Teabing, or a nasty person who turns out to be a good guy a la Inoue Sato.
If Inferno’s plot follows the trend of its predecessors, it will take place over the period of one day, resulting in fast-paced action, interspersed with increasingly lengthy explanations of this or that symbol or practise.
Brown is a good storyteller, but I feel that fame has allowed his trademark exposition of symbols and the like to get too long, exposing his already none-too-strong writing skills. Let’s hope his editor manages to rein him in a bit for Inferno.
I am quite glad that this next novel is returning to Europe though – Italy to be specific – with its deep cultural and historical roots. For those who are not familiar with the novels, Angels and Demons was set mainly in the Vatican City, The Da Vinci Code in Paris and London, and The Lost Symbol in Washington DC.
I mean, I had coincidentally visited a few of the US government buildings prominently featured in The Lost Symbol just months before reading the novel, and there just isn’t as much as a sense of history there as there is in the Louvre or Saint-Sulpice church in Paris (both featured in The Da Vinci Code), which I have also visited. America may be over 230 years old, but it’s still a toddler compared to the Old World!
Although I haven’t read The Divine Comedy, its first canticle’s premise of Dante being given a guided tour of the nine circles of hell by the Roman poet Virgil is certainly promising fodder for a story.
Add to that the fact that the poem is viewed as the (Christian) soul’s allegorical journey towards God, and I’m sure all you imaginative Dan Brown fans out there can sniff a tantalising plot in the making.
The novel also seems to be marking a return to the Catholic-related premises of the first two books, after diverting to the more mankind-centric plot in The Lost Symbol.
Of course, some readers may view the Langdon books as becoming increasingly formulaic, and as one of my editors opined, see Brown as essentially a one-trick pony. However, it may be this exact formula, spiced up with the different settings and conspiracies, that is the key to his success.
As a protagonist, Langdon is quite likeable, although perhaps less “colourful” than many of the anti-hero characters we tend to see nowadays. However, I’m willing to bet that he would be on many an intelligent girl’s fantasy boyfriend list – am I right?
This is, of course, if they have not been adversely scarred by Tom Hanks’ portrayal of the character in the two eponymous films, The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels and Demons (2009). As much as I respect Hanks’ talent, he is no Robert Langdon! I would have loved Harrison Ford in the role, but even my fangirl heart has to acknowledge that he was a bit too old for the job. Anyone have any suggestions on who would suit the role?
Inferno will be out on Tuesday, and like its predecessors, I expect it to be a fast-paced entertaining read. Do I expect it to be a record-shattering cultural phenomenon like its second brother, though? Perhaps not quite, but I do expect the summer holiday season in the West and Brown’s reputation to help it hit the bestsellers lists anyway.
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