**SPOILERS FOR DAN BROWN'S BOOKS**
I have read three of Dan Brown's books: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Digital Fortress. I devoured all of them, they had intricate and clever storylines and interesting background ideas. Dan Brown has come under fire for not being always 'accurate' - something I couldn't care less about, they're only stories after all, meant to entertain - but no critic has seemed to pick up on the fact that, in Dan Brown's world, the guy who looks different, or has a disability, is almost always the bad guy. Not only that, but they are not simply portrayed as people living with a physical difficulty, instead they are !bitter! about the way they're outsiders and choose to commit enormous crimes based on that.
Silas the self-flagellating monk with albinism was given the treatment the character deserved in the media - people found it kind of bizarre. Some with albinism spoke about their amusement that Dan Brown seemed to be ignorant of the effects of the condition except for the obvious aspects of hair, skin and eye colour. The background of Silas is that he becomes a religious fanatic in part because of the way he was mistreated and excluded for having albinism, so he throws himself into the first institution that treats him with any kindness, which is a cult of religious maniacs. Of course, there are other factors too, and the character could be overlooked if it were just an isolated incident. But then there's Teabing, in the same novel, who has a disability and walks with crutches, and who is the bad guy in the end. Then in Angels & Demons there is an old man in a wheelchair who is bitter about his disability since it was caused by his parents denying him medical treatment based on their beliefs. He is also a villain who wants to get back at the entire catholic church because of his bitterness. In the same book is a super-misogynistic arab man, whose attempt to rape the female secondary character is described in pretty horrific detail - and even though she is shown to be a yoga expert who can slip out of tightly tied bonds, of course she has to be rescued by the male hero.
In Digital Fortress there is a Japanese man with genetic deformities and disabilities because of the effects of the atomic bomb, and he is bitter about his condition and so decides to threaten an entire nation's security with a terrorist plot. In the same book, there's also a deaf guy - and what do you know, he's also an assassin.
The only disabled/physically different villain who is not portrayed as bitter because of his condition is Teabing. And there are of course villains who are not either, but they are in the minority, and meanwhile it is shown that 'normal' people (or 'beautiful' in the case of women - in DB's books, 'good' men look normal and 'good' women usually look beautiful) are usually the good people.
There's also a host of cliches about fat people, sex workers and different nationalities.
I've not read Deception Point or the new one yet, but if it follows this pattern, is there any point reading them? The moment someone who looks different or is disabled is introduced, I'll know the ending.
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It's been a few years but I don't remember anyone who has a disability or looks remarkably different in Deception Point. There's a cold, power-hungry woman, but also cold, power-hungry men, as much of it takes place in Washington D.C. and many characters are high level politicians and bureaucrats. There's a beautiful, good, non-white female supporting character who is treated as kind of a sex-kitten.
I'm not going to bother with Digital Fortress or the new one, just because the three DB books I've read were enough.
FWIW, I'd like to point to the teaser trailer for The Albino Code, a parody (created by a self-described "albino") based around the idea, "What if Dan Brown had spent even ten seconds researching albinism?"
I just finished reading a ruthless analysis of dVC at Eragon Sporkings, and the critic points out that as much as Brown claims to be praising and promoting and advancing the-divine-as-feminine, the-feminine-as-divine, he is at some pains to present his real female character as no more than The Hero's slightly dimwitted Girl Sidekick who needs everything explained to her.
I've never felt compelled to comment until now. You are absolutely right.
I read both the Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. I like to read books that are going to be adapted to movies, just to see how they get mangled in the process. Really pulpy stuff. (Come on, a forty-ish, hunky professor at Harvard who's an action hero/charmer of ladies half his age who are way more accomplished?) I was kind of amused at the ludicrous portrayal of the Silas character in Da Vinci Code, I think I told someone I admired Dan Brown's restraint in not adding a hump, a lazy eye, and a lisp to his henchguy.
I enjoyed Angels & Demons a little more, despite the Dan Bro– I mean, the Robert Langdon character who kept throwing out blocks of exposition in dialogue that had to be punctuated every paragraph by his female character's questions. Many of those questions were just the character repeating what Langdon just stated. In essence:
Block of exposition.
"What? Really? That's crazy!"
Block of exposition.
"What? Really? That's crazy!"
Block of exposition.
Repeat for ten pages.
As much as I devoured the books– they are page-turners– the movie version of the Davinci Code really, unintentionally highlighted some of the lame problems with the book. I walked out wishing I'd saved my money and just watched it on HBO.
I devoured the Da Vinci Code (althoug I read The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ten years ago), but I could barely bring myself to finish digital fortress.
I thought the villains were dreadful, yes, but his female characters were flat as hell -pardon my French. The man seems completely unable to assign anything resembling a character to women. He's far too busy describing how absolutely gorgeous they are.
Not sure I agree about the Da Vinci Code.
Sophie was a kick-ass cop who saved Landgon's
ass more than once. The movie portrayal,
however, took all of her agency away and
gave it to Langdon. Sucked ass.
SPOILER THE LOST SYMBOL
The evil guy isn't disabled, but he does
mutilate himself throughout the book, so
perhaps that continues the theme of evil and
physical abnormalities going together. Maybe
not.
Not sure I really buy that Brown is an
ablist, or a misogynist. There's a good guy
in the Lost Symbol who's blind, and a also
a woman with physical problems who's a "good
guy" too, and very powerful.