Dan Brown & Bad Books

Mention made in lecture, a propos the concept of 'glorious junk', that Dan Brown, famous of course for his The Da Vinci Code, is an execrably bad writer. My colleague faculty Dr. Paul Budra includes this book in his excellent course on "Bad Books." When I teach it, I show in objective detail its manifold failings, yet conclude by explaining its one aspect of significant literary merit.

Judgement against Brown's dreadful writing is all-but a commonplace.

• Here is a link to a Christopher Hitchens article condemning Dan Brown's writing -- a condemnation with peculiar merit given that Hitchens is arguably the world's foremost anti-Catholic.
• Britain's august Daily Telegraph lists & laments "author Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences."
• Slate.com sees the humour in Brown's draughting disabilty and provides the world with "The Dan Brown Sequel Generator: Plug in a city and a sect, and our computer will do the rest." Have fun with this!