Re:The World According to Dan Brown
by haikuginger on Saturday September 30, 2017 @08:28PM
(#15375752)
This[0] is a good sample of what Dan Brown's writing feels like.
[0]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/dont-make-fun-of-re...
I don't think anyone would accuse Dan Brown of being a very fancy writer, but in my experience, most people who hate his work actually hate it for the stories. Dan Brown's stories seem to have the same problem as rushed newspaper articles — they seem clever and interesting when you know nothing about the topic, but if you have a passing familiarity with any of the facts of the story, it becomes painfully obvious that the author is bullshitting their way through gigantic holes in their knowledge of the world.
Dan Brown's novels have shitty plots too. They're all like warmed-over, direct-to-SyFy action thrillers from the 90s, replete with car chases and the like. Not to mention total ass-pulls: his main character for the past few novels is a professor of "symbology", which is totally not a real field.
Being a "writer" is not about the "literary merit of words and sentences". That's a bit like saying being a "programmer" is about the "programmatic merit of the variables and functions".
Dan Brown ain't a good storyteller either. But his stuff does sell, so some people must like it.
Re:The World According to Dan Brown
by phren0logy on Saturday September 30, 2017 @07:35PM
(#15375541)
Yes. The prose is execrable.
Here's something the British author Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials) said in a 2013 TV interview that I've always remembered:
"Yes, there is a difference [between a storyteller and a writer]...For a storyteller, it's the events that are more important than anything else, the events in the story, how they fit together, how they unfold...plot is a very important thing for me.
But for a writer, I suppose words and sentences are the important things and plot is of less importance. Really, of course, they should be of the same importance." [1]
Is Dan Brown a storyteller rather than a writer? (If one goes with Pullman's distinction)?
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd2TNXC4rxU