The Bare Bones of… “The Da Vinci Code” (book)
What: “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown.
Spoiler Alert: Low | Medium | HIGH!
Summary:
Robert Langdon, an academic specialised in symbols and symbolism, is in Paris for a lecture when he is called to a murder scene. Jacques Saunière, a renowned curator who had an appointment with Langdon but never showed, is found dead in the Louvre, his body put on display beside a riddle written in his own blood. One of the police officers involved is Sophie Neveu, a cryptographer trained by Saunière.
At this time the reader is already aware that someone else has killed Saunière, namely a very religious albino by name of Silas. The involvement of the religious organisation Opus Dei is also revealed, but how all the pieces connect is, of course, a mystery for now.
Sophie sneaks Langdon out of sight and warns him that he is a suspect for the murder. She helps him escape the Louvre, and from there on they embark on a search for the answer to Saunière’s riddle while chased by the French police.
Sophie, not only trained by Saunière but also his granddaughter, discovers her grandfather has sent them on a treasure hunt. And a treasure hunt it is. She and Langdon follow clue after clue, no matter how far-fetched or remote, to discover that Saunière was the main keeper of a great secret: the Holy Grail, or Sangreal.
In the meantime, the albino is still busy fulfilling his divine mission, which includes killing the other three keepers of that secret.
Sangreal, however, can be both San Greal (Holy Grail) or Sang Real (Royal blood). It is true that a lot of speculation exists on this, but Dan Brown goes all out. In the rest of this breakneck treasure hunt that takes Langdon and Sophie from France to London, every symbolism of the holy feminine in existence in European history is tied together towards Mary Magdalene and the possibility that she was the Christ’s wife.
At this point I was very happy to have purchased the illustrated version of the book, since most of the symbolism Dan Brown brings up is visual: drawings and paintings (including Da Vinci’s, obviously), statues, ornaments, etc. Having a reference to what we are meant to see helps to follow the clues Langdon and Sophie are following, if not their reasoning.
Numerous riddles, puzzles, symbols and double-crossings later, the great secret is revealed: Sophie is not Saunière’s granddaughter, as she always believed, but his ward. After the religious and occult symbolism, we are now treated to a touch of Freemasonry. In the Rosslyn church in Scotland, Sophie is reunited with the people who have sought to protect her as a child, and she is given the family she thought she had lost when she as young.
And she learns that she is the last surviving descendant of Mary Magdalene and therefore, so it is suggested, of Jesus Christ himself.
The French police officer turns out to belong to the Opus Dei, and with the bishop responsible for ordering the albino to murder the people he has. Langdon and Sophie are cleared of the murder charges and Langdon returns to Paris with one last riddle: where are the bones of Mary Magdalene? Connecting the dots (quite literally) he follows the treasure hunt back to the Louvre, where it is suggested that her remains are entombed deep below the inverted glass pyramid of the museum.
Story Skeleton:
I’m a sucker for stories involving occult mystery, so I was onto this book like a cat on fish when this came out. In my defence, I had never read a book by Dan Brown before this one, so I went in without knowing anything about his writing style. By the end, I was entertained, but not satisfied. The reason for that was the story structure.
For all the commotion at its release, “The Da Vinci Code” is really nothing more than the average thriller. Yes, the subject sets it apart from the crowd, but beyond that the novel is a relatively simple action-driven ‘plot boiler’: a story consisting of a series of action sequences strung together, wherein each ends with a cliff hanger which must be solved and the solution thereto initiates the next sequence.
It’s a tried and tested way of storytelling you will find in just about every action movie, but I’m not sure if it lends itself to a story that floats on cross-cultural history and religious symbolism. Mysterious events and hidden knowledge wrapped up in a book-long chase give the impression of an intelligent story, but the high-speed action hardly does the message justice. Something is going to get short changed, and it’s not the action…
Nevertheless, Dan Brown deserves merit for two things:
Firstly, he didn’t end the story by letting the Secret go up in flames. The Secret of sangreal was hidden before the story and stays hidden afterwards, but it is not destroyed by circumstance, as some stories in this genre are known to do.
Secondly, he wrapped up at least Langdon’s story by answering the final question: ‘why does anything in the story matter?’ Most plot boiler-style thrillers I have read don’t bother with a justification beyond ‘that is what this character does’. That may be entertaining while it lasts, but not a satisfying read. Dan Brown gave his main character more credit than that, although one can argue about his style.
Lesson learned:
Plot boilers are relatively uncomplicated story structures. The different conflicts don’t run parallel to each other, but come one after the other. First one problem, then the next. It is a comprehensive structure that makes even a challenging subject like that of “The Da Vinci Code” accessible to the mainstream public. Accessible and thus more appealing. That makes the plot boiler a perfect means to introduce complex and expert concepts to a wide audience. In short, blockbuster material!
Next week I’ll hold the spyglass to a type of story with only two possible endings…
