Criticisms of Dan Brown

Criticisms of Dan Brown My mind tells me I will never understand JavaScript. And my heart tells me I am not meant to. Dan Brown (1964–) By his own account, Dan Brown got the writing bug while reading Sidney Sheldon’s thriller The Doomsday Conspiracy during a 1993 Tahitian vacation. Brown, who until then was most familiar with the classics, was drawn to Sheldon’s breezy pacing and no-nonsense prose and felt they were something he could replicate. Five years later Brown realized his ambition with the release of his NSA code-breaking saga Digital Fortress. But his big break came in 2003 with The Da Vinci Code, a fast-moving, conspiracy-laden murder mystery in which Brown reprises his tweed-clad hero Robert Langdon and puts him on the trail of the Holy Grail, using da Vinci’s cryptic brushwork for clues. The initial reception was rhapsodic. The New York Times recommended it with â€Å"extreme enthusiasm† and described Brown’s writing as â€Å"gleefully erudite.†[1] To the San Francisco Chronicle, it was â€Å"Umberto Eco on steroids.†[2] The public reaction was just as fervent. The Da Vinci Code moved quickly into the all-time best-seller list. Yet the critical acclaim unraveled almost as quickly as Robert Langdon untangled those knotty riddles. By the time the film version was released, the backlash was in full effect. This time, the New York Times savagely ridiculed Brown’s â€Å"um, prose style,†[3] while the New Yorker called it â€Å"unmitigated junk.†[4] Each of Brown’s subsequent offerings, including the 2013 Dante-inspired Inferno, has been a commercial hit—and a critical flop. Why did Brown’s literary reputation collapse? Well, for one, doubts were cast on the accuracy of The Da Vinci Code’s historical assertions, and for another, Brown was subject to several lawsuits for plagiarism. But mostly it’s about the writing. The cliff-hangers, secret societies, and ancient ciphers may have been enough to distract early reviewers from Brown’s prose, but sooner or later its shortcomings demanded recognition. Brown’s phrasing is excessively weighty, as exemplified by the opening line of The Da Vinci Code:[5] Renowned curator Jacques Saunià ¨re staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery. Hanging the staggaree’s occupation in front of his name knocks the meter out of balance. Worse, the information is gratuitous. In the very next paragraph (and a further ten times in the first two pages), Brown reminds us of Saunià ¨re’s profession, and since the prologue is entitled â€Å"Louvre Museum, Paris, 10:46 pm,† it’s a safe bet Saunià ¨re is renowned. Good fiction, unlike journalism, works the reader’s imagination, yet Brown goes to great lengths to spoon-feed the most glaringly obvious detail. He’ll often use an adverb or adjective multiple times on a page, or even within the same paragraph. In the prologue to The Da Vinci Code almost every action happens â€Å"slowly†; in Inferno, we’re told no less than four times that Langdon’s doctor has â€Å"bushy eyebrows.† Another questionable habit of Brown’s in The Da Vinci Code is his namedropping of high-end products; he rarely misses a chance to shoehorn, QVC-like, their details into the tightest of action sequences (â€Å"Yanking his Manurhin MR-93 revolver from his shoulder holster, the captain dashed out of the office,† or â€Å"Only those with a keen eye would notice his 14-karat gold bishop’s ring with purple amethyst, large diamonds, and hand-tooled mitre-crozier appliquà ©Ã¢â‚¬ ). But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Brown’s got a recipe that sells more copies than good writing ever could: take a mysterious organization or artifact (preferably medieval, definitely controversial) gussy it up and dumb it down until it’s palatable for the layperson, throw in a generous dash of conspiracy theory and plenty of codes, and serve without editing. /* FACT: some time in 1557, Michelangelo Moribundi, the renowned, bald-headed alchemist fashioned a secret code out of bits of asparagus and placed it a long forgotten vault */ function theDaFibonacciCode(numeratiFettucini) { // Wide awake, the bleary-eyed Langdon watched as two tall, lissome, number ones // with big feet and a type of hat, sidled up to the rounded zero var ilInumerati = [0,1,1]; // while theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne morphs eerily into a three theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne = 3, // Now the silent ratio that could not be uttered had come to make it right TheBotticelliVector = 1.61803; while(theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne < numeratiFettucini) { // Somehow another number one appeared and theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne // snatched at it gracefully. theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne = theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne + 1; // The renowned, rounded 16-bit unsigned integer tentatively succumbed to the // strange force of the vector before pushing itself bodily into the hands of //the weakly typed array ilInumerati.push( Math.round(ilInumerati[theIntegerThatIncrementsOneByOne 2] * TheBotticelliVector) ); } // Too many elementi? reminded the five-foot-eleven, bushy-eyebrowed Italian. // Too many elements? if (ilInumerati.length > numeratiFettucini) { // Intelligently, Langdon, sporting a Harris Tweed jacket (J. Crew $79.99), // sliced it with his Modell 1961 Ausfà ¼hrung 1994 swiss army knife ilInumerati = ilInumerati.slice(0, numeratiFettucini); } // The kaleidoscope of truth had been shaken. Now, in front of them, sat the // numerically sequenced sequenza numerica. Like a gleaming cathedral. return ilInumerati; } Dan Brown is right at home with the Fibonacci sequence; indeed, it was cunningly used as a highly secure combination for a safe in The Da Vinci Code. But wait, what’s this? It seems Brown has discovered a dark and mysterious multiplier (The Botticelli Vector, no less), which he uses to derive the next number from the one before. This arithmetic alchemy is all well and good, but we’re left wondering whether he knew he could just add the previous two numbers to make the next one. Anyway, it seems to work, so that’s probably all that matters. Judging by the comments, Brown is approaching this problem as though it were one of his blockbusting potboilers. First there’s the obligatory FACT, which assures us that what follows is rooted in historical accuracy. Then there’s the army of adjectives (because ambiguity is the devil’s tool) and the diligent inclusion of product details even as the action reaches a nail-biting climax. Skipping gingerly over non sequiturs and logical fallacies, we reach the movingly grandiloquent conclusion. Oh, the glory. [1] Janet Maslin, â€Å"Spinning a Thriller from a Gallery at the Louvre,† New York Times, March 17, 2003 (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/17/books/books-of-the-times-spinning-a-thriller-from-a-gallery-at-the-louvre.html). [2] David Lazarus, â€Å"‘Da Vinci Code’ a Heart-Racing Thriller,† San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2003 (http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Da-Vinci-Code-a-heart-racing-thriller-2657352.php). [3] A. O. Scott, â€Å"A ‘Da Vinci Code’ That Takes Longer to Watch Than Read,† New York Times, May 18, 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/movies/18code.html). [4] Anthony Lane, â€Å"Heaven Can Wait,† New Yorker, May 29, 2006 (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/29/060529crci_cinema). [5] Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003).

English: It’s position in the global arena Essay

English occupies an important position in global education at the moment. It seems to be seen as a high status language with an inherent connection to capitalism and globalism. The example websites given, one from a university in the Netherlands and the other from Brazil. Both websites are presented in English as well as their national language, despite the fact that English is a secondary language in both nations. This status, rivalling even the official language of the country, seems to have sprung from a number of sources, not the least the general impression that English has become the new lingua franca. The prestige and encroaching ubiquity of English has contributed to it’s increasingly high position within academia. The history of colonialism, the status of English schools in the wider global community and the inexorable link most countries place between capitalism and English. It is also greatly affected by the various policies adopted by countries. Of course this all begs the question of whether the position of English in higher education is a beneficial one, or another form of English imperialism. Politics plays a hefty role in the position of English and it has always been influenced by the relative prestige it enjoys when compared to other languages. The websites shown both exemplify this status. While both websites are based in countries where the official language is not English (Dutch and Spanish respectively), both either presented in English (the Maastricht website) or have a full English translation available (the San Paolo website)(The University of San Paolo, 2013)(Maastricht University, 2013). This shows the remarkable influence that the English language has a secondary education, especially considering they originate from countries that have no history of British colonialism. Other countries, such as India or Malaysia, have these ties to English through the colonial history of the British Empire. In particular, the legacy of colonialism has had a profound effect on the position of English, not just in higher education, but in the world. During the occupation of the various countries that became part of the British empire, it tended to be the policy to educate the native populace in English, to better integrate them into the lower rungs of government. These countries tend to link English with a higher status of education, and, therefore, enact policies to try to capitalise on this  perceived prestige (Hewings, 2012, p96-99). For example, Mahatma Gandhi was educated in an English university, before returning to lead his nation. Also contributing to this sense of the superiority of English is the fact that many of these countries do not share a common language to begin with (India, Malaysia and a variety of countries). Thus, the enforcement of English in education provided a common language for various regions to communicate. India, in particular, has a strong history of this. In turn, this makes higher education in English almost inevitable, as the high status of higher education is naturally paired with the high st atus of English within these countries. However, this can be quite controversial in within the country, with the general feeling that the use of English for governance and education leads to a degrading of the native languages. It has also lead to questions of the usefulness of teaching in English, due to the very real possibility of students having a less than perfect grasp of the language(Martin, 2012, p125-129). This stems from the fact that being able to speak a language is different from being able to study academically in it(Hewings, 2012, p103-105). While these are valid concerns, the political and social backing of English means that the position of English within the higher education spheres of these ex-colonial territories is well-secured. There are also practical reasons for the position of English in higher education. One reason is that many of the industries that are desirable to students in higher education have higher English language skill requirements. Fields such as science, engineering and programming all rely on a high level of English based technical speech and many higher education courses are offered in English(Hewings, 2012, p115-120). For example, if one wishes to study any of the sciences, one must become familiar with the technical terms and writing of various academic publications, a large proportion of which are published in English. These fields require a higher level of education to enter, and necessitate at least a passing knowledge of English to comprehend. English is also used at the highest levels of business, giving rise to the idea that English has become a global lingua franca for business and technology. Thus many will learn English as a means of appearing more business-like and professiona l, and to help them compete in the global market(Gray, 2012, p146-148). This gives rise to a feedback  loop, wherein to enter these fields, one must speak English well enough to learn them, which in turn causes those fields to be even more locked in to English based higher education. Additionally, a number of industries have sprung up around higher education, such as academic publishing or English language teacher training. These industries provide a sustained push for the position of English, with resources for higher education being produced by publishers based out of English language universities(Gray, 2012, p148-150, p158-161). These publishers have little economic incentive to publish in other languages, thus most high end resources for universities are published and sourced from English speaking countries. This is shown by the high amount of universities that offer their courses in English(Hewings, 2012, p113). This establishes that a large quantity of materials used in secondary education, and a lot of the more prestigious training for teachers of such, stem from English language universities. Even European universities have begun to offer courses entirely in English, especially in the Eastern European countries such as Slovakia. In these countries, especially those that gained their independence with the fall of the Soviet Union, English is seen as the language of capitalism(Prendergast C., 2012, p33-35). As such, younger people, seeking ambitiously to carve a place for themselves, learn English to better place themselves in higher status jobs(Prendergast C., 2012, p35-38 ). In turn, this created a demand for higher education in English, to the point where the price of these courses skyrocketed (Prendergast C., 2012, p33). All of these factors have contributed to the seemingly dominant position of English in higher education. Many people have argued for and against the position of English in higher education, with some claiming that the ubiquity of English allows for greater collaboration and dissemination of information (Prime Minister’s Office, 2008, Seargeant, 2012, p9-10) while others claim that this same ubiquity is pushing out other languages(Sutherland, 2002, Seargeant, 2012, p10) and the features of education that those languages have. This debate further solidifies the position of English within higher education, due to the simple acknowledgement such a debate infers. By the basic fact that such a debate is happening, the participants have agreed that English has a dominating presence within higher education. One such argument posited by  those against the proliferation, is that other languages slide into decline and with them their own particular features within higher education, for example the French thesis-antithesis-synthesis essay(Coleman, 2006, Hewings, 2012, p114-115). If English becomes the sole language of higher education, then these features may simply cease to exist. The counter argument to this is that the growing ubiquity of English allows for a much greater sharing of information due to providing a common point for many different countries. An additional argument against is that teaching in more than one language can be beneficial to the students ((Monaghan, p134 – 136). This argument ignores the difficulties of training teachers in the multitude of languages that they may encounter within the classroom from students of varied backgrounds. Equally, one must not forget that higher education is not only the stage for education but is also a great contributor to the development of science and a retainer of scientific knowledge. By setting the standard of higher education to one language, which did not necessarily have to be English, a much greater pool of knowledge can be made available than might otherwise be possible. Students from various background and cultures would be able to access the same sources of information and, thus have a gr eater chance of advancing and gaining knowledge. In conclusion, the position of English within higher education can be thought of as a useful one. It came about due to the specific historical and political factors unique to English. It just so happened that most of the mathematical, scientific and technological notation is based largely in English (for example, the development of the internet was an American innovation). It also just so happened that the notion of capitalism and big business is also closely associated with English. Equally, the legacy of colonialism has meant that the English language is spread widely around the globe, and is linked to the upper rungs of these societies, due to the government of these colonies being run largely by Englishmen and the natives they taught English too. These factors all combine into a general view of English as being the language of professionalism and of globalism, making it attractive for those with skill sets derived from higher education(). In turn this created demand for English t o be the language these courses were taught in. Whether or not this is a good thing is a matter for debate, but  for good or ill, the fact remains. English enjoys a lofty position within the higher education system of the world. References: Gray J. (2012), ‘English the industry’ in Hewings A. And Tagg C. (eds) The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 137 – 163 Hewings A. (2012), ‘Learning English, learning through English’ in Hewings A. And Tagg C. (eds) The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 93 – 120 Maastricht University (2013) Maastricht University, Leading in Learning [online], http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ (accessed 11/04/2013) Martin P. (2012), ‘Tensions between language policy and practice’ in Hewings A. And Tagg C. (eds) The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 121 – 128 Monaghan F. (2012), ‘English lessens’ in Hewings A. And Tagg C. (eds) The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 129 – 136 Open University (2012), U215, The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University Prendergast C.(2012), ‘English and ambivalence in a new capitalist state’ in Hewings A. And Tagg C. (eds) The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 33 – 39 Seargeant P. (2012), ‘The politics and policies of global English’ in Hewings A. And Tagg C. (eds) The Politics of English Conflict, Competition, Co-existence, Abingdon, Routledge/Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 5 – 32 The University of San Paolo (2013) Universidade de Sao Paulo [online], http://www5.usp.br/en/ (accessed 11/04/2013)

Essay on Happiness and Health in a Connecticut Nursing Home

2. The question presented in this study is would increasing the power and control an individual have over their life cause them to be more happy and healthy? This is an important question because the results could help patients in nursing homes to be both happier and healthier. Langer and Rodins hypothesis was that if patients in a nursing home were given more control over their lives and activities, they would show improvements in mental alertness, activity level, satisfaction with life, and other measures of behavior and attitude. 3. The participants of this study was 91 individuals who were living at Arden House, a Connecticut nursing home. these individuals were separated into two groups, the first group ( containing 8 men and†¦show more content†¦The nurses also reported that the participants who were in the increased-responsibility group showed improvement in activity, health, and behavior well the comparison group was shown to either decline or basically stay the same. More participants from the responsibility group attended the movie, and 10 of them participated in the jelly bean game as compared to the 1 participant from the comparison group. 5. Langer and Rodin concluded that the findings from their study supported their hypothesis, and that individuals are indeed happier and healthier when given some degree of control over their lives. In fact 18 months after the study the participants in the increased-responsibility group were in a super-condition than those who were in the control group. They also found that while 30% of the participants in the comparison group had since passed away, only 15% of the experimental group had died. 6. Probably the biggest concern there is in regards to this study is the one pointed out by Langer and Rodin, which is that it may have been unethical to present the participants with a greater level of control over their lives just to have it taken away. This study impacted the history of psychology by proving that a sense of control is important for peoples physical and mental health. 7. This study changed psychology because it changed how psychologists viewed the importance of control in regards to a persons mental health. This study has also lead toShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Enhanced Personal Responsibility And Choice1294 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction This experimental study was carried out to examine â€Å"the effects of enhanced personal responsibility and choice† on a group of residents who were living a decision-free nursing home environment. The experiment consisted of two groups; the experimental group was given effective communication with emphasis on their personal responsibility, while the communication given to the second group stressed the responsibilities of the institutional staff toward them. 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Essay Development of the Renaissance Centralized Church Plan

Topic: Analyze the development of the centralized church plan in Renaissance architecture (15th and 16th centuries). In your examples, include an analysis of meaning and symbolism. During the Renaissance period, new centralized church plans developed as a result of a more scientific approach to nature. The idea of precise proportions and measurement emerged through Vitruvius’ theory regarding human anatomy. Vitruvius described how human body, with extended arms and legs, fits perfectly into the most basic geometrical shapes: circle and square. This concept triggered the minds of artists during the Renaissance to take on a new approach for church plans (Honour and Fleming 444-445). However, it is not until the fifteenth†¦show more content†¦He believed to thoroughly appreciate Renaissance architecture, one should understand architecture is not based on theories of function but rather view it as mathematical theory of proportion (Smith). Another significance from the Greek Cross central plan is signifying the development of Renaissance architecture. For Alberti and architects of the Renaissance, the emphasis on classicism is ideal, which challenges a different approach from the previous. Pursuing mathematical order and simplicity of pure whites have replaced the Roman gothic style churches (Heydenreich 27). Also, the prominence of classical features is more suited for Alberti’s theory of proportion so that all sizes and shapes are defined. A clear example of Renaissance classicism is S. Sebastiano, where Alberti used Greek-Cross plan that shows almost all of his own theoretical requirements as well as several classical elements in the architectural design (figure 4) (Murray 59). 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