Dan Brown Interview

"I find the most interesting villians do the right things for the wrong reason or the wrong things for the right reason. I love the grey area between right and wrong" (Brown).

Dan Brown is a very interetesting fictional novelist. He uses the past and art to drive his plot  in the story. Here is an interview of Dan on NPR that I heard on the radio a year ago. He describes his new book as well as how he writes such great best sellers.
Dan Brown Interview

This interview intruged me right away. I thought it was interesting that even a great American novelist doesn't have a certain way to write a best seller. Once, I took a song writing class online that was taught by Pat Pattison. Pat had a certain way to write songs: to think of ideas, make words that make sense and rhyme, make a structure to the piece, and finally write it all out. He had a procedure of writing a song but Dan Brown says he does not have that kind of process. Instead, Brown writes in a free form with some ideas, actions, and history.  

Also, Dan Brown has an interesting way of creating Villains. In the last two Robert Langdon books, there has been an assassin or killer that works for an ancient cult. In the book Inferno, it seems that Dan makes an evil scientist that tries to decrease the over populated world. This villain seems to be doing things fora a good cause but doing it in a bad way, like chemical diseases to kill off a population. I think this use of a villain is interesting, it reminds me of Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb because his actions are meant to be for the bad but sometimes end up helping the community. This use of a villain that works for good but does bad makes for a round character and more of an interesting conflict.

Dan Brown's use of the ancient history and mythology makes the new book interesting to me as well. In the book Angles & Demons, Dan writes about the Vatican City and Rome with the concept of the Illuminati when in the new book, Inferno, Dan writes about one of my favorite topics, Divine Comedy. I think when books or other media use allusions throughout the book, it makes the text a lot more amazing. When I was a kid I enjoyed reading nonfiction books about the mythology of the world. When I was in middle school, I listened to heavier bands. Now I listen to indie rock, but then my favorite band was Alesana. The band used many allusions. Off their second album, "On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax" the artists used direct allusion to Icarus. Also on the album there were allusions to Paris from the Trojan War, Nero, Alchemy, and Sirens. In their latest album, called: "A Place Where The Sun Is Silent" they wrote a short epic poem based on Dante's experience through  the underworld. They used this story to make an album where each song would represent another event/chapter in the book, or each ring of hell. Though I have grown a little out of my teen angst stage, I still find the allusions in Brown's books interesting.

When I first heard this interview in the car while driving past Culvers, the thing that stuck in my head was the fact that Dan Brown travels to the places he writes about so he can understand the scenes his books take place in. Also, he asks questions that propel his story's historical attributes. This really made me want to explore the churches and cities myself, learning more history so I could write songs or poems that refer to ancient mythology.

-What story from history or mythology interests you?