Letter to Dan Brown

This is quite funny. Click on the title to read the entire article. Here is an excerpt from an "anonymous" letter to Dan Brown (author of the DaVinci Code, just in case you have not been keeping up):

(This is a suggestion for his next book)

Your hero is a specialist in ancient documents who wheedles his way into becoming the first unbeliever allowed to examine the cache of ancient fragments of the Koran found in Yemen in 1972. (You can read all about this in the January 1999 issue of The Atlantic.) He becomes the target of a fundamentalist Islamic brotherhood, who keep trying to kill him. He is saved by a beautiful Dubai scholar who is also under attack because of her un-Islamic feminist views.

Gradually they break the encryption of some of the fragments and discover the secret. The Koran was not the work of Mohammed but really the inspiration of his first wife, Khadijah, who had visions she claimed came from God. Since no one would believe in a female prophet, Mohammed became her "front" or mouthpiece. After her death, Mohammed was forced to improvise additional suras on his own. Because of his more bellicose viewpoint, his suras had a more warlike tone and preached Jihad and the murder or enslavement of unbelievers. The assassin brotherhood is dedicated to keeping the true origin of the Koran a secret "for the good of Islam."

The hero and heroine search for the ancient shrine of Khadijah, as described in the fragments, but are pursued by the Brotherhood from Yemen to Europe where.... but you can continue this sort of thing better than I can.

This plot has all the earmarks of another bestseller: danger, intrigue, sex, and the most popular villains around, Islamic terrorists. It also has the feminist slant that helped you so much in selling the Da Vinci Code, i.e. the contrast between the sensitive feminine viewpoint and the bloodthirsty masculine one.

This plot can't miss. It's utterly preposterous and unsubstantiated, but that hasn't stopped you yet. And it'll make a great movie. It's a pity that Omar Sharif isn't young enough to do Mohammed but Barbra Streisand is still around for Khadijah.

The only problem is that a few Islamic groups might get a bit techy, But why worry; you've survived the vicious assassins of Opus Dei, haven't you? By comparison, dodging a few hotheads should be easy. And suppose that they do proclaim a fatwa on you? I'll be great for sales; look what it did for Rushdie. Also it's a chance for you to show the world that you're not afraid to take aim at a militant organization and prove (perhaps literally) that you've got guts.

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Hey, I'd read it...but of course I read and enjoyed The DaVinci Code. A good conspriacy story is always entertaining. Of course writing things that might offend the sensibilities of Muslims is a dangerous thing. Not that I advocate insulting anyone religion...I just have trouble with a religion that condemns people to death for writing something they don't like. Remember Salman Rushdie? Theo van Gogh? Well....I guess it is likely that this is one thriller I won't get to read.

---Katie