Is Dan Brown an Idiot, or What?

The answer is, most likely, "What."

Over at The Globe and Mail, Simon Houpt has a pretty extensive article on "Hollywood's dependence on the stereotyped evil albino." Silas, the rather slow-witted dupe of a monk who is one of the principal villains in The Da Vinci Code, happens to be an albino. Naturally, Paul Bettany will also play the character as an albino in the upcoming movie.

The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH)—and Houpt, apparently—choose to read this creative choice as a deliberate affront, just as Opus Dei naturally chooses to take offense to Dan Brown's portrayal of their organization.

But can it be any mere coincidence that, when we are first introduced to Silas, his mentor tells him "Noah was an albino, too"—and that the first result returned when googling +Noah +albino (as one might do when checking Dan Brown's facts) is the website for NOAH?

No, Dan Brown is no idiot. He's trying to expose all kinds of stereotypes and biases—it's just that he doesn't do it through his "surface meaning," which he pretty much tells you to ignore anyway. And he's pretty even-handed.

MORE HERE
Globe and Mail, 15.02.06