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Monday, June 04, 2018

05.06.2018 Abut the Books I read: ORIGIN By DAN BROWN

“ORIGIN,” the latest from Dan Brown, a 2018 publication, is another brilliant masterpiece.

It is a masterpiece, inter-alia, for some profound philosophical thoughts on the two fundamental questions humanity had been searching answers for, ever since it developed cognitive abilities:

“Where do we come from? Where do we go?”

The story begins with some awesome description of Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, inside a hall of which, the world famous billionaire futurist, Edmond Kirsch was about to reveal an audacious discovery that answers the two fundamental questions: “Where do we come from? Where do we go?”

If the full revelation went about, the established religions and the faiths of millions and millions of religious followers might be thoroughly shaken. Edmond Kirsch had irrefutable evidence based on some high-tech inventions, as he had claimed. He had just, a few days before, revealed his discovery to three powerful religious leaders – one from the Catholic Church, an Islamic, and Jewish scholar – who were all deeply disturbed by his discovery and the soundness of the evidence he had propounded.

Edmond Kirsch was a former student of Professor Robert Langdon, the world famous Symbologist and Iconologist, who had been invited for the presentation to be made by Edmond Kirsch. And just before the discovery was about to be revealed to the world Edmond Kirsch is murdered on the stage.

And it was now the responsibility of Professor Langdon to complete what Edmon had started – reveal the secret behind the answers to the two questions: “Where do we come from? Where do we go?”

The story ends inside the sophisticated supercomputing center in a disused chapel in Barcelona, Spain, where Edmond’s discovery is revealed to the shocking of the world at large.

As for the story, for someone who regularly reads Dan Brown’s novels, it is not very difficult to guess at least some part of the twists to the storyline. Nevertheless, I appreciate this novel for three or four important reasons:
1.    It opens up a very deep philosophical thought about where humanity came from and where they are headed to. Are we created by God, or are we the product of inevitable laws of physics that govern this universe? Are we going to join the Creator at the end, or are we going to disappear as a race of Homo sapiens? The scientific reasoning proposed is astounding and too much food for thought. I am not going to deal with the answers to the questions, as I prefer that readers read the book for themselves and come to their own conclusions.
2.     Dan Brown is quite adept in describing ancient structures and places – providing some of the rarest of rare information about the places and locations. The details are so captivating that, in fact, when I read his INFERNO during end-2013, with Florence, Italy as the background, I felt so excited and ended up visiting Italy during March, 2014. I visited particularly those places described in INFERNO. It was a very satisfying trip. I get the same feeling about Spain now.
3.  Dan Brown’s earlier works like ANGELS AND DEMONS, DA VINCI CODE, and INFERNO all relate to subjects that tend to provoke questions about some of the established and popular beliefs and faiths. God is a very sensitive subject for most people and most people have deep religious beliefs. I too sometimes wonder whether it is God who created men or Men who created God. Is God a concept? How organic life came into being from inorganic materials? I had always taken keen interest to know the answer. I had read, and I continue to read about this baffling subject from various sources.
4.    I had also developed a liking for Dan Brown’s style of writing and language. I learn a lot from his writing for improving the way I write too.
Summary:

“Origin” is another must-read book from Dan Brown, and I would unhesitatingly recommend this book for all avid readers.

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