John Oliver's Last Week Tonight

I just realised I had actually forgotten Dan Brown exists.

The Da Vinci Code? Really? This is not being late to the party, this is arriving a decade after the party has ended and wondering where everybody went.

And what point does Oliver make so long after everyone else has stopped caring?

The riddle poem is too easy to solve. That's it. Nevermind that this was a popular novel for the masses, so the author probably kept it simple on purpose to let the audience feel clever for solving it before the characters do, which is not all that uncommon.

I also get the impression that this was an elaborate setup so John could say "fuck you, apple" on air.

Edited by Redmess on Jan 10th 2022 at 12:13:28 PM

Yeah, funny how he just slipped out of collective consciousness. I remember that, at the height of his popularity, people claimed he was the successor of, now late, Umberto Eco.

Eco wasn't amused.

Yeah, no shit Eco was not amused. That's not exactly a compliment.

Wow, this is a good one for me, because I studiously ignored that book and movie out of the admittedly highly prejudicial belief that it was fucking stupid, and lo I am now proven right. All hail John Oliver, mighty art cryptographer!

Just to be clear, John is covering well trodden ground here, and his particular complaint is rather minor when it comes to this book, which has faced much harsher criticism than "oh, the riddle was too easy".

What's next, John? The cake is a lie?

Seriously, though, I have read the book, and it is entertaining enough on its own, as a work of fiction. The real major deal breaker with this book was its notorious claim of authenticity, which was Blatant Lies. If Dan Brown had made no such audacious claims, this would have been just another fanciful mystery novel with a lot of Critical Research Failure, which could have been handwaved somewhat as artistic license.

Umberto Eco actually quipped in an interview that Dan Brown's essentially a character from one of his novels.

For those who don't know, Eco is the sort of author who meticulously, exhaustively researches his subjects for his novel, and was a real stickler for getting the details right. That should tell you exactly why the man loathed Dan Brown in particular so much, especially after people started comparing the two.

There's a reason we got a trope named Dan Browned.

In Brown's defense, I think that even if "symbologist" isn't a real job, it should be. I mean, how is "semiotician" a better word for someone who studies symbols?

So not only does this video tear into a book I have a really frustrating relationship with, but references one of my favourite paintings by my favourite surrealist artist (funnily enough, I have a bookmark of it)? Hell yes.

I laughed really hard at the 'everyone's dad loved this' joke because both my dad and my dad's dad are big fans (so is one of my grandmothers). I read it when I was fourteen on their recommendations, and absolutely couldn't stand it - especially after finding out about all of the art history it gets wrong, stuff that too many people now take as fact because of the darn book - but it meant that I at least got to read my grandparent's pretty illustrated edition. Dan Brown's books are also the source of one of the most infuriating mansplaining experiences of my entire life (ramble in the note). ^note  A customer called one of my favourite books garbage and then told me I should read good authors, like Dan Brown. It went downhill from there. He thought that Digital Fortress was an accurate representation of cyber security and hacking. I seem to recall the NSA agent main character of that book using her boyfriend's first name as a password. Seriously?

But I guess I get why they're popular. They're quick airport thrillers that don't require a ton of investment, and almost every chapter ends on a cliffhanger to propel you through the story. I even liked Angels and Demons alright, although that thing is also riddled with inaccuracies.

I don't know if there's anything in the 'symbology' in the Langdon books that I read that couldn't be covered by an advanced degree in art history or anthropology, honestly.

Edited by Pseudopartition on Jan 10th 2022 at 10:20:40 AM

Yeah, say what you will, Dan Brown sure can write a page turner.

Though it's also undeniable that his work did some damage.

Remember, a lot of people actually believed that stuff.

Well, yeah, when the foreword claims it is all true...

Unfortunately people tend to take bestseller authors at their word.

And nowadays people are quite fed up with conspiracy theories, so his work hasn't really aged well either.

Nevermind the issues people have with his prose.

I didn't realize the writing was that bad. Maybe the translation made some... improvements.

As it came up earlier, here's one quote from Umberto Eco when being asked about Brown in an interview:

John begins the new season with a look at critical race theory.

Edited by windleopard on Feb 21st 2022 at 9:56:45 PM

You know, "confidently complaining about something you don't know shit about" really sums up the American right in a nutshell, doesn't it.

Eh, the Right doesn't have a lock on that kind of stupidity, but they do have by far the loudest voices.

Right, must have missed the last time the American left completely made something up and then kept screaming on TV about how it needs to be opposed.

Nuclear power?

The origins of the anti-vax movement. Of course, then the Right took it up as their cause...

Alt-medicine, hating on electric vehicles, anti-nuclear power, NIMBYism with respect to housing construction... the left is hardly immune to stupidity.

I was giving the finger to the computer screen a lot more than usual in this episode. Total manufactured crisis.