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