Crichton vs Brown

I'm going to attempt to compare two books today. One is Michael Crichton's book State of Fear and the other is Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. I know what you're thinking, "The two books have nothing in common. One is about environmentalism and the other about Christianity's second century developments." The two books seem only to have in common the fact that they are both novels. However, both books try to blend fiction with reality. They both claim that certain references to people, documents, organizations, and events within their respective books are accurate. The contrast then is not about the themes of their books but about the mind set of the two as fictional writers.

Dan Brown claims in the beginning of his book that certain references in his book (references to actual artwork, documents, secret organizations, and people) are accurate. However, he has spawned a whole cottage industry in the evangelical community to prove that his claim of accuracy is false.

Michael Crichton also claims that references he makes in his book are accurate. However, the difference is that Crichton gives actual footnotes so that the reader can check his facts and claim of accuracy. Crichton also ends his novel with a message stating his beliefs on global warming based on the research he has done. He then has two appendices one of which explains why it is bad to blend science and politics. The other appendix explains some of the web sites where world temperatures can be found. He ends with an annotated bibliography telling the reader briefly about the books and articles he read as research for his book. Crichton has done a superior job of blending fact with fiction. I believe this to be a crucial difference in the two authors.

Brown merely asserts that he is accurate, Crichton actually gives evidence that he is accurate. Here is a link to get you started on realizing that Dan Brown's novel is completely fictional http://www.denverseminary.edu/dj/articles2004/0200/0202.php The link is to an article by Craig Blomberg. Blomberg is a New Testament scholar and just briefly outlines some of the inaccuracies of Brown's novel. Among those inaccuracies are Jesus married to Mary Magdalene, 80 gospels in existence, Constantine deciding which Gospels to use for the New Testament. Jesus not being considered divine until Constantine, and that the Priory of Sion has preserved thousands of documents that prove Christianity is false. Blomberg also suggest some books to read that demonstrate Brown's inaccuracies in describing canonical and non-canonical documents.

I'm sure that some novels will try to influence readers to make decisions about political, religious, and social issues. A reader should be cautious and suspicious about any author's attempts at such influence. Brown and Crichton represent examples of an author trying to influence readers with a particular point of view. They also demonstrate which authors should be trusted with that influence.