But what books spark such a frenzy over hidden signs, symbols, etc.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
What Book Sparks the Conspiracy Theories similar to a movie like ROOM 237?
ROOM 237 documents the ideas of a group of people who find hidden meanings in THE SHINING after multiple viewings. This seems to be more common in films than in books. Where multiple viewings of a movie begin to reveal previously hidden insights.
But what books spark such a frenzy over hidden signs, symbols, etc.
But what books spark such a frenzy over hidden signs, symbols, etc.
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In recent times, Dan Brown's novels, especially ANGELS & DEMONS which I read in two sittings, a rare feat for me these days. Does Orwell's 1984 count?
Prashant beat me to it, Patti! I was going to mention Dan Brown's books too.
Haven't read Brown but it makes sense.
I'm with Prashant and Margot: it's Dan Brown. His books traffic in puzzles and symbols and conspiracies. On a completely different level, Thomas Pynchon's V. and GRAVITY'S RAINBOW explore paranoia and conspiracies, too.
Hum, I wish I had something other than Dan Brown's but I can't think of anything at the moment. I wanted Cold in the Light to work that way. :) It didn't :(
Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's ILLUMINATUS trilogy also comes to mind.
Back in the early 1970s CHARIOTS OF THE GODS? fueled a frenzy of looking for signs of alien visitation in everything from the architecture of Stonehenge to the Easter Island monoliths to ancient Aztec, Mayan and Incan art. And it still goes on.
Most recently, I think there's been a huge explosion of non-fiction works on paranormal activity these days leading to all those absurd ghostbuster reality TV shows on cable networks and adding to the never-ending quest for proof of life beyond the grave.
I reviewed a book on my blog last year last year called THE BROTHERHOOD OF VELVET which led people to believe that the Brotherhood of the Bell (completely invented by the author) was a real secret society. The myth of its existence is perpetuated today on a variety of conspiracy theorist websites.
The novel by Richard Adams, WATERSHIP DOWN, elicited a huge amount of this secondary analysis. People drew parallels to everything from the Russian Revolution (or the rise and fall of the Third Reich, take your pick) to techniques of child rearing to the future of mankind on Earth.
I was also going to mention the Illuminatus trilogy.
Jeff M.
Some of Don Dililo's books, like Libra (about Lee Harvey Oswald) and Running Dog (about the search for a reel of film purporting to show Hitler at an orgy) deal less with conspiracies than with the type of people likely to believe them. Personally, I never thought we'd see conspiracy theories like we did about JFK's assassination, but that was before all that birther nonsense about Obama being born in Kenya. Yikes!
Deb
THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION, of course. And similar excuses.
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