# Stellan Skarsgard sums up Dan Brown's writing "talent" for us **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482 "2009-05-15T01:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/41 "2009-05-16T22:33:30Z")
And if I were an author who made excessive factual claims, I’d realize that I was leaving myself open to criticism on that point. If _The Da Vinci Code_ had never been presented as anything more than a “fun fast-paced action thriller” (as **Eyebrows of Doom** described it) then it would be unfair to criticize it for taking liberties with the truth. But Brown has attempted to market the book as something more significant than that, and that’s why the book has received more scorn than the average popular beach novel. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/42 "2009-05-16T23:21:06Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > I’m currently in Paris and I’ve heard stories of hundreds of tourists wandering around the city retracing the _actual true steps_ that the characters trod. In reality, this was a little problematic as Mr. Brown’s grasp of geography was a little tenuous. If he’d done some advanced research (such as maybe looking at a map) it might have been a less non-euclidean adventure. The Parisians were happy enough to take the tourist dollars though. As a Lovecraft fan, I find the use of the words “non-euclidean” and “Dan Brown” in the same sentence offensive. Particularly in that the “The DaVinci Code” probably would have been much better with some Cthulhu tossed in. Either that, or his Tentacleness would awaken and destory mankind, heading to Dan Brown’s house first. Crap, I can’t decide if that would be horrible or totally awesome. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/43 "2009-05-16T23:25:45Z")
> [@BluePitbull](#): > > Why is that improbable? Aside from being a massive cliche by this point? Most authors don’t even try to play that straight anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/44 "2009-05-16T23:57:23Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Aside from being a massive cliche by this point? Most authors don’t even try to play that straight anymore. Neither does Brown. The twist of the book is that the Illuminati have dead for centuries and their role in the story is a complete ruse. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/45 "2009-05-17T01:19:55Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > What do you call the opposite of _schadenfreude_? You know, misery at seeing other people being successful? There must be a name for it. I see an awful lot of it going on here…TRM Yeah, I am sure Stellan Skarsgaard is jealous of Dan Brown’s success. LOL 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/46 "2009-05-17T01:34:52Z")
I remember very well my Mother-In-Law reading the DaVinci Code. I told her my biggest problem with it was all the people who took his plot devices for fact. She laughed and said she knew better. Damned if 50 pages later she wasn’t trying to convince me that the Olympic rings are based on the pattern drawn in the sky from the orbit of the planet Venus because the original games were in Venus’ honour. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/47 "2009-05-17T01:58:11Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Yeah, I am sure Stellan Skarsgaard is jealous of Dan Brown’s success. LOL 😃 Well, how many bestsellers has HE written? Not very many, I’d wager! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/48 "2009-05-17T02:02:13Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Well, how many bestsellers has HE written? Not very many, I’d wager! 😉 Yeah seriously, that hater should go back to Sweden! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/49 "2009-05-17T02:52:46Z")
Just saw the movie. I didn’t think this was possible, but Ron Howard and/or whoever wrote the screenplay absolutely ruined the book. Yeah, it’s _that_ bad. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/50 "2009-05-17T03:29:35Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > **Eyebrows 0f Doom** , you may have forgotten this, but at the height of _DaVinci Code_-mania there were all kinds of “Behind _The Da Vinci Code_” type things on TV, in magazines and newspapers, and in the bookstores. It was _Da Vinci Code_ this and _Da Vinci Code_ that, and unlike with say _Harry Potter_-mania people were acting like this was a book that deserved attention because it contained important facts and ideas. If _The Da Vinci Code_ attracted more scorn than the average fun summer beach read it’s because it was not presented as just another fun summer beach read. True. I can understand the annoyance at people who believed every word of it to be The Truth, and all the hype that surrounded it. I read it a while after all that so it didn’t really have much of an effect on what I thought of the book itself. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/51 "2009-05-17T03:36:32Z")
Damn, didn’t get my edit in fast enough. I just saw the film tonight, and I liked it much more than the book (the ending of which I hated.) I had one question though, as it relates to the book: I only read the book once, several years ago, but wasn’t there some bit at the end where Langdon was in the helicopter as well and he fell out of the helicopter into some body of water? Tell me my mind didn’t just completely make that up? Because I remember thinking how idiotic that was and how from that height, even landing in water would still kill him. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/52 "2009-05-17T03:38:40Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I only read the book once, several years ago, but wasn’t there some bit at the end where Langdon was in the helicopter as well and he fell out of the helicopter into some body of water? Tell me my mind didn’t just completely make that up? Because I remember thinking how idiotic that was and how from that height, even landing in water would still kill him. Yes, in the book he’s in the chopper with the Camarlengo, jumps out, and uses a sort of flying squirrel trick that the Italian bint taught him (:rolleyes:) to minimize his velocity so he doesn’t die when he drops into the Tiber. Musta been one hell of a painful bellyflop anyway… ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/53 "2009-05-17T04:13:25Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Just saw the movie. I didn’t think this was possible, but Ron Howard and/or whoever wrote the screenplay absolutely ruined the book. > > Yeah, it’s _that_ bad. Well when you saw the previews about the evil Illuminati plot you knew it just had to be good! I look at it as an extremely expensive SyFy original movie. The first one didn’t disappoint me because I had no expectations. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/54 "2009-05-17T04:21:24Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Well when you saw the previews about the evil Illuminati plot you knew it just had to be good! I already knew the plot. I’d read the book. The movie departs from the book in quite a few ways, and most of the changes make the plot points nonsensical. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/55 "2009-05-17T05:38:11Z")
So for people who have seen the film, how hot is Ewan McGregor in it? Worth $5.50 to see it in the theater? Or should I wait until it shows up on HBO? (Keeping in mind I am only interested in seeing it for Ewan’s hotness). ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/56 "2009-05-17T13:53:42Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Well when you saw the previews about the evil Illuminati plot you knew it just had to be good! > > I look at it as an extremely expensive SyFy original movie. The first one didn’t disappoint me because I had no expectations. I wasn’t expecting much from the original and I still almost threw the disc across the room when they did the “reveal” at the end. The fact I rented it was the only thing that saved it from that fate. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/57 "2009-05-18T13:59:34Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Stellan Skarsgaard on the other hand is a fabulous and amazing actor, even when he plays in mediocre movies he’s awesome (King Arthur) “Finally a man worth killing.” Yep, Stellan’s special alright. And now that I’ve seen the movie, he’s right about Dan Brown too. > [@mswas](#): > > And when he reproduces he makes some of the most fantastically beautiful offspring alive: Alexander Skaarsgaard. Wow, I never knew about [Alexander](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002907/)! Thank you for fighting my ignorance. Yum! I haven’t seen any of his movies but I will now keep an eye out. **pepperlandgirl** , Ewan is always hot, even when he’s covered neck to toe in priesty garb. Though, I like him much better as [Christian](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/) than as a Christian. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/58 "2009-05-18T17:02:31Z")
I wonder if we can get Dan to work Bob Dobson and the Church of the Subgenius into his next book. Or would that be an insult to Bob and his fine organization? ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482/59 "2009-05-18T17:48:39Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Cliffhangers at the end of each chapter is not exactly an original trick. All the '50s Tom Swift and Nancy Drew books used it, sometimes laughably. I’d have to check, but I think Burroughs did it also, You know, I thought about the plots of _Naked Lunch_ and _Junky_ for five minutes before I realized you meant Edgar Rice and not William S. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stellan-skarsgard-sums-up-dan-browns-writing-talent-for-us/496482.md?page=2)