Cracking the da Vinci Code

May 30th, 2006

The real mystery: Why did Dan Brown use so many adjectives?

Yesterday, I described the price of gas as the number 1 topic for water cooler conversation. Surely the number 2 topic has to be the train wreck that is the Da Vinci Code movie. But I find it intriguing that critics are suddenly crawling out of the woodwork to trash the novel -- I don't recall much negative press when the book first came out -- all I remember is the ka-ching of cash registers across the land...

Still, that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the wickedly funny reviews the book/movie is now garnering. Anthony Lane, in the New Yorker, provides an entertaining read and, as a bonus, offers a profound writing tip along the way. Here is a brief passage from his review:

"Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery." With that one word, "renowned," Brown proves that he hails from the school of elbow-joggers-nervy, worrisome authors who can't stop shoving us along with jabs of information and opinion that we don't yet require. (Buried far below this tic is an author's fear that his command of basic, unadorned English will not do the job; in the case of Brown, he's right.)

Lane reminds us that plain, clear writing is nothing to be ashamed of. Like many writers before him, Brown is undone by adjectives. Adjectives (and their uglier cousins, adverbs) are most often like a rock in the reader's shoe. They irritate.

It's the muscle-power of verbs that makes writing spring to life.