Review of “The Lost Symbol”

Here.

EXCERPT:

Dan Brown’s work often has a tone, that few reviewers pick up on, that I think is reflective of a frightening strain in American political life. There is a sort of authoritarian iconoclasm, a distrust of known authority and blind trust in hidden authority, that reminds me of populism and strikes me as strange.

It does seem to be one of the marks of pop culture (and pop politics) in the present hour. A people as ignorant of history, as sodden with emotionalism, as contemptuous and philosophy and theology, and as immersed in selfism as we are is pretty ripe picking for demagogues of whatever stripe. It explains not only Brown but other (cough! cough!) phenomena as well.

And further down, in the comments:

The Rule of Four [1] is an example of a Robert Langdon-style thriller done with intellectual honesty and weight Until then, I just need to wait for Dan Brown’s future books: Publish in Paris, set during the last months of Robert Langdon tenure race, as his attempts to revise and resubmit his latest to American Symbology Review and The Journal of Symbological Research is suddenly erupted by when a faction of regicidal huguenots seize Louis XX [2], the heir of the last Dauphin, and threaten to reveal a secret that would forever discredit the Bulgarian Old Calendarists [3]… Clearly, quite distracting!

Heh!