Lost Symbol: Lost in Symbology, The Power of Mind, and America

Reading Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol made me realize that I have enough of symbology. Ancient secrets/wisdom/mysteries, mysticism, myth, alchemist, Mason, pyramid, crypt, Runes, the sacred numbers, Astrology, mural, codes, you name it. And don’t forget the religious touch; the cross, the Bible, the altar of sacrifice, prophecies, kingdom of God, divinity, universal truth, men transformation into God, rites, and loads of it. Enough. Enough. Enough.

Before my enough-ism, Robert Langdon’s adventures involving intriguing scenes of solving puzzles and breaking codes is always mind-blowing. Brown’s brilliance is mixing arrays of materials from science to religious teaching, from math to history. This makes a larger audiences. I am constantly aware that I won’t read Brown’s if Langdon knew nothing but chemistry. But this large coverage of knowledge also makes his weakness. I skipped some parts I found uninteresting. Such as mysticism and recitals. The more I read, the more I feel like Langdon; a non-believer.

Da Vince Code and Angels and Demons—the first two Brown’s I read, both are Langdon’s adventures—are page turners, as well as mind openers for those many symbol-ignorant people out there. But of course, DVC is a bestseller also because it sparks controversies which considered as pointing the middle finger in the face of Christianity and other religions in general. The third Brown’s I read is Deception Point—which protagonist is Rachel Sexton—a story of political conspiracy involving NASA and something buried in the Arctic. I enjoyed reading this. A mix of Sydney Sheldon-ish surprises—as always in Brown’s novels—and Michael Crichton-ish science fiction.

And now, Lost Symbol, the enough-ism. This reminds me of a prophecy of a friend of mine, a huge music fan, who said that the age of a band only lasts three albums; tiga kali berarti, setelah itu mati. He believe that after great bands release three great albums, the forth is a mediocrity. It also means that the great bands should give a chance for other new bands to flourish. Maybe that’s what happen to me. Three books and it’s enough. Or maybe three Langdon’s adventures. Brown is a great novelist, though.

But in the end of the novel, Brown touches an interesting topic; the power of mind. Added with themes of transformation of men into God, how God lies within all of us, which makes us capable of doing things bigger than we think, that there will be time when we realize that we can change the physical world just by thinking of it.

I was intrigued by the theme. The power of mind has been a hot discussion for ages, and appears in many literatures, even children’s book. I remember the first “power of mind” theme I read is from the book Mathilda by Roadl Dahl. Ever heard of it? You’ve probably heard of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which also made a good movie. Mathilda is the less famous creation of Dahl. The movie also attracts less attention. It’s about a little girl who has above-average IQ who finds school is boring because she already masters all the school lesson by herself, but is little appreciated by her family and teachers, who think that she’s just an annoying know-it-all. While using the least of her brain in class, she develops a skill of moving things only by thinking of it, particularly when she was very angry and emotional. She exercises a lot until she excels in it, and uses it to kick the bad people from the school and her home that makes her life miserable. In the end, she lost the skill because she no longer needs it, because her mission is accomplished and her life is finally complete.

The second book I read about power of mind is Michael Crichton’s Sphere. It’s about an object at the bottom of the ocean that falls from outer-space. The scientists who find it realize that the object, which happens to be a spaceship, has a very advanced technology; it is operated by mind. In other word, it lets men make things happen just by thinking of them. The scientists finally realize that the technology is too dangerous and humans are not ready to use that kind of thing. Who’s ready, anyway? Well, according to the book; the aliens.

Brown’s depiction of power of mind is more optimistic. He is sure that the time for men to finally realize the power of mind is close. The more people realize this, the more rapid the skill will grow. His explanation is supported by religious philosophy, that God is within all men, but most men fail to see this. Men are the “creators” because we indeed create many things. And the more important, of all men, there is one God. Hence, e pluribus unum; out of many, one. It sounds promising. But I think this is sooooo America-ish :D I feel like reading a book from my American Thought class back then, when my and my classmates’ eyebrows raised most often due to the heavy philosophy. Yep, all Brown’s spiritual base of the power of mind comes from early American values, which stems from thick religious values of the early settlers.

But that is nothing compared to the last word of the book.

Hope.

Shoot! I race back to the front pages to see the publishing year. My suspicion is right. It is published in October 2009. So, Brown finished the book around the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. The moment of Barack Obama. The years when “change” and “hope” are the most frequent words in the media, just like “pembangunan” is the most often word used during the Soeharto era. Well, I assume. It’s a bit different, though. The Indonesian media used the word “pembangunan” often because they had to in order to survive. In the other hand, the American media and artists use the words voluntarily, because most of them are liberal or Democrat supporters. And in a country drowned in a tattered economy and political crisis like America in those years, hope is definitely a fashionable word to end a book about American values.

*FYI, Brown said he has 12 future stories of Langdon :o