The Dan Brown Enigma

by Graham A Thomas

  Brown peppers his stories with academic lectures by the protagonist, in order to provide information for the reader as well as a grounding in reality. Brown tells us these lectures require ‘a firm grasp of specifics. Invariably, when I am preparing to write one of these academic lectures, I ask Blythe to collect and compile as much information as possible on the lecture topic. The Da Vinci Code includes lots of lectures – some long, some short – on topics such as Opus Dei, the Mona Lisa, goddess worship and suppression of the feminine, symbology, Fibonacci, hidden meanings in paintings and other art, and Rosslyn.’[238]

  Three chapters in The Da Vinci Code provide the reader with academic lectures on the Templars, the Priory and the Holy Grail. ‘Chapter 55 deals with Christianity, Constantine and the Bible,’ said Brown in his witness statement. ‘Chapter 58 deals with lost history, Jesus’ marriage and the Grail as bloodline.’

  The sources for these lectures, which Langdon gives in the book, come from the many books that Brown used to research his novel, such as The Hiram Key and The Templar Revelation. Chapter 58 sees Langdon telling Sophie about his ideas on the origins of Christianity, Constantine and the Bible. ‘I was already familiar with much of this information, particularly that about Constantine, the Council of Nicea, and the surrounding politics,’ said Brown. ‘In general terms I have been aware of Constantine’s role in the origin of the Bible as we know it for many years. In addition, I researched the topic while preparing the content of Angels & Demons. But I read a lot more about the topic while writing The Da Vinci Code.’[239]

  Blythe helped her husband research his novels and The Da Vinci Code in particular. Part of that was the Constantine document that she prepared for him. The chapter about Constantine is crucial to the book and talks about how Constantine had copies of the Bible made that did not include the Gospels of Mary or of Philip ‘which both allude to Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus and her important role in his Church. The Gospels of Philip and Mary both come from the Gnostic Gospels and I recall seeing them in many sources,’ Brown explained, citing sources such as The Templar Revelation, The Goddess in the Gospels and The Gnostic Gospels.

  Blythe’s document came from a variety of different sources and texts. Brown needed support for the hypothesis he was trying to create, which would provide that sense of realism and reflect the world in which Langdon lived. ‘I would usually take a document like this, read it, consider it, and blend it in my mind with all the other material that I had read on the topic,’ Brown explained. He would cross-reference other notes and source material before writing a draft that would eventually become a chapter or section of the book. He would go through several drafts before he felt the section was complete and would quite likely refer to the source material again before final completion.

  Chapter 58 sees Langdon and Teabing showing Sophie the bloodline theory and the secret imagery in Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper. ‘I prepared the lecture parts of these chapters in the same general way as I prepared the lecture in Chapter 55,’ Brown explained. ‘A document that I would very likely have looked at while writing such chapters is entitled Langdon Reveals to Sophie. The first part of the document deals with the history of the Knights Templar and it goes on to give an explanation for what they were looking for under the Temple of Solomon. A lot of this information (including some of the text), I believe, had come from The Hiram Key. The document then goes on to look at the Priory of Sion, San Graal, and marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

  ‘All of the research books are different pieces of history in theory. Often the books reach the same conclusions – just in a different way. Blythe likes to mark or underline where she finds common links, as it helps her piece the big picture together. Our studies into the origins of the Christian movement and the ancient mysteries continue to this day. Our research and Blythe’s note-taking is a continual process.’[240]

  While research is crucial for Brown to provide the fact and authenticity he seeks, the other key to creating a realistic feel to the book is ensuring his locations are accurate. One could say that this is Brown’s biggest trademark. Many readers used Angels & Demons as a guidebook to the locations in the Vatican and across Rome for walking in the footsteps of the characters. The same is also true of The Da Vinci Code – location is key.

  Some of the detail of the locations came from online sources or guidebooks and photos, but there is no substitute for going to that location and experiencing it. ‘In the case of The Da Vinci Code, Blythe and I spent a year or so travelling and conducting research during the writing of The Da Vinci Code.’

  Indeed, Brown states that the locations are often as important to him as the symbols, codes and art in telling the story. ‘Locations not only make the read more enjoyable (in my opinion), they add to the credibility of the ideas put forward. They also give the character of Robert Langdon a further opportunity to “teach” readers. Most people are unaware of the pagan origins of the Pantheon, for example, or the existence of demons’ holes in some churches.’

  The Louvre in Paris figures heavily in The Da Vinci Code and that’s because Brown wanted to pay homage to the museum building as a work of art in its own right. He spent a lot of time researching I.M. Pei, the man who designed the famous Louvre Pyramid. Brown’s research on this architect was done online at greatbuildings.com. Here he was able to download the Computer Assisted Drawings of the Louvre pyramid and other famous buildings. ‘I became very frustrated that my inexpensive computer was too weak to fully display these spatial models without crashing. Nonetheless, I could scroll through the rendered frames slowly, and I became very excited about the internet as a tool for researching the architecture of the buildings that I would be writing about.’

  Other sites that Brown featured in his novel include St Sulpice, Notre Dame and Westminster Abbey which, ‘I either visited myself, researched on the internet or used guidebooks,’ he said. ‘One useful research source was Fodor’s Guide to Paris 2001, which particularly has information on the Louvre, St Sulpice, and Notre Dame.’

  One of the key locations in the book is Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. The chapel is famous for its links to the Templars and for its symbols, so it was a must for Brown to include. It is where Sophie discovers her history and heritage, as well as being reunited with her grandmother and brother. Brown’s major sources of information on Rosslyn were the book The Hiram Key and the Rosslyn Chapel’s website. [241]

  At the very end of the novel Brown brings the reader full circle to the final resting place of the Grail. ‘It seemed more appropriate to me that Mary Magdalene would be returned by the Priory to France. The symbolism of the inverted angel at the Louvre – a chalice – appealed to me, so I returned the focus to the Louvre, where the thriller began.’

  Another key element that Brown uses to provide a veil of reality in his novel is information on Leonardo da Vinci. ‘An artist, inventor, mathematician, alchemist, he was a man centuries ahead of his time. Perhaps the greatest scientist the world had ever seen,’ Brown said in his witness statement. ‘Da Vinci faced the challenge of being a modem man of reason born into an age of religious fervour; an era when science was synonymous with heresy.’

  Crucial to Brown’s story is the idea that Da Vinci saw proof of a divine Creator in all of nature’s miracles. ‘The ratio PHl is a perfect example of this. Leonardo da Vinci employed this “Golden Ratio” in much of his religious artwork,’ explained Brown. ‘His philosophy was one in which science and religion lived in harmony. As I have said, I have a fascination with the interplay between science and religion, and I think that’s one of the reasons I became so quickly engrossed in Leonardo da Vinci as a topic. He is perhaps the perfect subject for me, given my love of codes, science, religion, art and secrecy.’[242]

  Art also features very heavily in the book, helping to give the story authenticity and a basis in reality. ‘From the moment I started conceiving The Da Vinci Code, it was a certainty that art would feature significantly,’ Brown
wrote in his witness statement. ‘Langdon is not merely a symbologist, he is an art historian.’

  But The Da Vinci Code remains a novel, a work of fiction and should be taken as such. ‘While the book’s characters and their actions are obviously not real, the artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals depicted in this novel all exist (for example, Leonardo da Vinci’s paintings, the Gnostic Gospels, Hieros Gamos, etc.),’ Brown wrote in his witness statement. ‘These real elements are interpreted and debated by fictional characters.

  ‘If you read the “Fact” page at the beginning of the novel, you will see it clearly states that the descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in the novel are accurate. The “Fact” page makes no statement whatsoever about any of the ancient theories discussed by fictional characters. Interpreting those ideas is left to the reader. My hope in writing this novel was that the story would serve as a catalyst and a springboard for people to discuss the important topics of faith, religion, and history.’[243]

  The Da Vinci Code easily meets the first two principles of good thriller writing but falls down on the third: the idea of it not having to be written to a formula to be good. Indeed, Brown admits in his witness statement that The Da Vinci Code is written to a formula without actually using the word. ‘As with my earlier books, there is a lot in The Da Vinci Code that is familiar – a murder, a chase through foreign locations, the action taking place all in 24 hours, a code, a ticking clock, strong male and female characters and a love interest.’

  Explaining this in his witness statement he goes on to say that the ‘book also builds on what I saw as the great leaps forward I made in Angels & Demons. Again, it is thriller as academic lecture, there is plenty of hidden information, symbology, codes and treasure hunts. And even more so than in Angels & Demons, the reader is accelerated through the book – I used short chapters, ideally with some form of cliffhanger at the end of each one.’

  This brings us to the next principle: is it an adventure? From the reader comments in this chapter we can see that it is. Phrases like ‘breathless chase’ or ‘for someone with a sense of adventure’ prove that it is an adventure. Indeed, the story moves at the high-octane pace that is the hallmark of such great thriller writers as Alistair MacLean, Dick Francis, Robert Ludlum and Fredrick Forsyth. Brown has learned his craft well.

  The final Curzon Group principle says that thrillers should be written in a stylish and witty way. The comments and reviews included in this chapter are only a smattering of what’s out there on The Da Vinci Code. But whether the book is stylish and witty is up to the reader.

  By 2007 there was no sign of Brown’s much anticipated fifth book. A few hints had been dropped. It was to be called The Solomon Key and Brown was going to take on the Freemasons. The book was to be set in Washington DC. Initially, Brown had doubts about setting the book there, as he felt the American capital might lack the grandeur of Rome or Paris. ‘In fact, the more I researched about Washington’s architecture and its history, the more I’m starting to think it may surpass Rome in its secret history.’[244]

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  * * *

  THE WAIT IS OVER

  I wanted to write a thrilling book set in a city that I love that has a lot secrets and great architecture.

  DAN BROWN

  The pressure to produce a success that came even close to that of The Da Vinci Code was intense. Brown wanted to make it as perfect as possible and while it took him a long time to understand and digest the facts he was researching, he was nervous about how well the book would be received. ‘There is a moment in everyone’s life when they’ve had some success when they realise what I am doing now is no longer on the small stage,’ Brown said. ‘This is the big deal and you become self-aware and before when you just wrote for yourself and thought, “This sounds good,” now you write a word and think, “Wow, millions of people around the world are going to read this.”’[245]

  ‘I always think of novels [as] they come together like galaxies, like giant clouds of dust and planet and start to form and we are sort of in the dustcloud at the moment,’ he said to Matt Lauer during an interview on the Today Show. ‘Nature abhors a vacuum and sadly if you are looking to take a vacation and you are a writer it doesn’t happen, the voices are there.’

  Brown decided he would crack on and write a book that he – and others who shared his tastes – would want to read. But the pressure was still there and still as intense.

  On 15 September 2009, six years after The Da Vinci Code, Brown’s fifth novel hit the streets. The book was called The Lost Symbol and was set in and around Washington DC. This time Robert Langdon found himself embroiled with the Freemasons and he didn’t have to leave the country.

  By one minute past midnight the book had sold more than half a million copies in the UK alone, making it the fastest-selling adult fiction book ever, according to The Guardian. In its first two days the book did sell more than a million copies in the UK, Canada and the US, breaking every first-day sales record for adult books. In the UK the Waterstone’s chain reported it was their fastest-selling eBook and hardback of all time, and their highest-selling audio book ever. And that’s for 17 hours of listening! Only J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book has sold more (over two million) in the adult and children’s markets combined within its first 24 hours. Harry Potter may remain unbeatable, but no one can get close to Dan Brown in adult fiction sales. [246]

  A lot of this success was down to the publishers, Doubleday, who launched the book simultaneously worldwide. So confident were they of success that their UK imprint Transworld alone printed a million copies. Tight security surrounded the release, with only four people in the UK having a copy, and they were sworn to silence.

  But Brown and his publishers went much further than just secrecy for the launch – they created a remarkable campaign of disinformation around the book. In April 2009 the publication date was announced as 15 September. Prior to this virtually nothing had been given out by Brown or by the publishers as to what the novel was all about. Over the next five months, intense and hysterical speculation would flood the internet as clues and hints were given out about the new book.

  The title was to be The Solomon Key. ‘This was an interesting title, hinting at a medieval book on magic, The Key of Solomon, supposedly written around the 14th century in Renaissance Italy,’ wrote Simon Cox – a respected historian of ‘obscure and hidden subjects’ in Decoding The Lost Symbol. [247] This man is also author of Cracking The Da Vinci Code, Illuminating Angels & Demons, and The Dan Brown Companion.

  The years between 2003 and April 2009 had been filled with rumours about The Solomon Key. Some believed Brown had scrapped the book or that the court case brought by Baigent and Leigh had taken such a toll on the author that he’d decided to take a long break from writing. ‘It was even claimed that the movie National Treasure had stolen so much of the new book’s thunder that a complete rewrite was called for,’ said Cox.

  ‘A lot of people were trying to figure out what I was writing about,’ Brown said. ‘There were all sorts of people posturing as to what this book was about. I couldn’t very easily walk in and ask all the key questions I needed to know and have somebody send an email “This is what he’s writing about.”’[248]

  The publication date was announced at the London Book Fair. Doubleday (Transworld in the UK) sent out press releases saying that the new Dan Brown book would now be called The Lost Symbol, sparking even more speculation and rumour. Shortly after this announcement Brown’s publishers set up a website, thelostsymbol.com, that had links to Twitter and Facebook pages for Dan Brown. ‘Excitement grew to a fever pitch as overnight thousands of people became Facebook and Twitter followers of Brown.’[249]

  Clues and hints flooded from the Twitter and Facebook pages, some actually providing co-ordinates to specific places. Cox set to work to puzzle out the answers to these clues, one of which was the co-ordinates to Bimini Road. ‘This unusual un
derwater structure off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas is believed by some to be a man-made edifice and a remnant of Atlantis,’ he said.

  More clues were given out, some pointing to the Great Pyramid of Giza while others indicated Newgrange, the rite-of-passage tomb in Ireland known for its alignment to the rising sun on the winter solstice. ‘Possible adversaries and secret societies were hinted at,’ Cox said. Hundreds of internet sites were examining in great detail the places, people and groups being mentioned on the Twitter and Facebook pages. ‘It was an internet feeding frenzy.’

  Suddenly Cox realised that the publishers were playing a game. He remembered that one of the characters in The Da Vinci Code was Bishop Aringarosa and he realised that aringa was Italian for herring and rosa in Italian meant red, so the clues on the Twitter and Facebook pages were probably red herrings.

  He also spotted that the publication date was a clue – 15 September 2009 or 15/09/09, which together added up to 33, the highest numbered rank of the Scottish Rite Freemasons. ‘The Freemasons would be a central theme of the book – something that had been hinted at on the dust jacket of The Da Vinci Code all those years ago.’[250]

  Once the book had been published, Cox soon discovered that most of the clues had indeed been red herrings. ‘There was no Morgan affair, no Aaron Burr, no William Wirrt (and the strange story of his skull), no Knights of the Golden Circle, no substantial mention of Albert Pike, no Benedict Arnold, no Confederate gold, no Babington Plot.’ The Sons of Liberty, Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin and other people and places that Cox had noted on the Twitter and Facebook pages were also absent. Neither was there any mention of Bimini Road or Newgrange, nor anything about the ancient book, The Key of Solomon. The Great Pyramid was mentioned, but in a completely different context.

  Brown and Doubleday had pulled off a hugely effective campaign of misinformation, pushing interest away from the real plot while stimulating massive interest and intrigue so people would rush to the shops to buy the book when it came out. ‘This was something of a coup,’ Cox said. ‘They successfully kept the plot of The Lost Symbol pretty well hidden until the day of publication.’