Angels and Demons
Vatican City! Headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, home to the Pope, and a trove of iconic art and architecture. Unlike its name, it is a country and the only country in the world which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Vatican city has museums that go on for miles! St. Peter’s Basilica alone took 120 years to complete. The most fascinating of all facts however is that the Vatican houses one of the biggest book collections in the world. Vatican library features the largest archive of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew artifacts. Reading ‘Angels and Demons’ does make you want to visit Rome and see all those massive tombs and churches for yourself.
Coming to the plot, it has been a long time since I have analyzed a book so critically. But this one had it coming from the start. Dan Brown should be charged as guilty for the relentless meddling he did with historical facts in his ‘Angels and Demons’. To put it mildly, I do not enjoy fiction that deliberately tampers with facts to the extent this one did. This book has sold off literally millions of copies worldwide and what fraction of those readers can we even expect to fact-check everything they read in this page-turning thriller? Many would obviously end up believing everything Brown has written with such exuberating confidence. Especially when in the initial few pages he so assuredly claims that the places mentioned in the book are real and the references to them are entirely factual while most of us know they aren’t. This no doubt creates a semblance of strictest reliability in the minds of the readers which is atrocious and very disappointing if and when they find out the truth. And I, well, checked on the facts after reading the entire 620 pages which means I kind of believed most part of the alluring tale till the very end. It did make the plot quite gripping even for me who doesn’t enjoy history so much. Nonetheless, it was a bummer after I did the fact-checking.
And as for Brown’s depiction of the Illuminati, it is afar from reality. From what I read, it felt like the plot of ‘Angels and Demons’ has tried to mix the two very famous secret societies in human history, the ‘Illuminati’ and the ‘Inquisition’. Since the two originated in two very different timelines(centuries apart), they have little to no connection to each other. One of the most gruesome stories been told in the book, which strongly creates an aura of facticity for the more gullible readers is ‘La Purga’. Regardless that such a story is an embellishment to the plot, it did not really happen. In fact, contrary to the popular belief, historians do not believe that any scientists, including Galileo or Copernicus, were killed or threatened with death by the Catholic Church. Another misleading tale present in the book is about Raphael’s tomb in the Pantheon. There’s is no historical proof that Raphael’s body was relocated here from Urbino. It is thoroughly known that Raphael was buried in the Pantheon from the start. Not surprisingly, there are numerous such inaccuracies in the plot, which is not a very enjoyable part of the book for the reason that most of us want simplicity which involves not mixing facts with fiction. Especially not in the way ‘Angels and Demons’ does.
The sequel to ‘Angels and Demons’ is the blockbuster all of us know about, ‘Da Vinci Code’. I’ve heard a lot about it and personally, I’m even more intrigued to read it after reading ‘Angels and Demons’. Can’t wait to find out what the hype is all about.
Originally published at http://wanderersvice.wordpress.com on November 3, 2020.
