Dan Brown Is Free!

Hallelujah! The judge ruled him innocent in all but the court of public opinion. Where most people considered him innocent anyway. Except me. I still think he cribbed a whole lot from the Baigent-Lincoln-Leigh book, but since their book was dead boring, I don't blame him so much. I give him props for re-writing their book in an interesting and suspensful manner.

But more than that, I'm glad for what this means for all writers everywhere. Depending on where you take your literature class, there are only five or nine or seventeen or thirty-one stories out there. (Hero Takes A Journey, etc.) Most books slightly resemble something else that has been written. If you get into the worlds of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, for example, fully 90% of what gets printed are rewrites of either Dune or Lord Of The Rings. Poor Terry Brooks started his career stealing from Tolkein, and continues it by stealing from himself.

Really, though, there were no losers in this case, unless you count the "famously shy" Dan Brown, who had to sit on the stand in England and wax rhapsodic about his Garpian upbringing. (Christmas scavenger hunts? Man, those parents SUCK!!!!) Holy Blood, Holy Grail has sold more copies to the curious self-flagellent, and The DaVinci Code continues to steamroll its way to the upper reaches of the NYT Bestseller List.

All in all, not a bad outcome for wasting the court's time.