摘要：丹·布朗携新作《秘密中的秘密》再度归来，符号学家罗伯特·兰登踏上布拉格街头，陷入一场围绕人类意识奥秘的生死追逐。新作延续了布朗标志性的“知识悬疑”风格，在枪声、密道与历史谜题间，穿插着对出版行业、神经科学与印刷文明的思考。《纽约时报》书评人A.O. 斯科特却犀

有趣灵魂说

译文为原创，仅供个人学习使用

The New York Times ｜Book Review

纽约时报 | 书评

Fiction小说类

Dan Brown Returns With a Hyperactive Testament to the Power of Books

丹·布朗携新作回归，以亢奋笔触见证书籍力量

“The Secret of Secrets” follows Robert Langdon as he tries to rescue his lover, a neuroscientist who is targeted by a mysterious organization after a breakthrough.

《秘密中的秘密》讲述罗伯特·兰登试图拯救他的爱人——一位在取得突破性进展后遭到神秘组织盯上的神经科学家。

By A.O. Scott

THE SECRET OF SECRETS, by Dan Brown

《秘密中的秘密》，作者：丹·布朗

Dan Brown’s new novel, “The Secret of Secrets,” sees his recurring hero, Robert Langdon, zigzagging across a hectic day, mostly in Prague, as he is ensnared in a historical conspiracy.Martin Divisek/EPA, via Shutterstock

在丹·布朗的新小说《秘密中的秘密》中，他笔下的常驻英雄罗伯特·兰登深陷一场历史阴谋，在忙乱的一天中（主要是在布拉格）曲折穿梭。马丁·迪维塞克/EPA，经由Shutterstock提供

在丹·布朗最新的TED演讲式旅行惊悚小说《秘密中的秘密》中，你会发现许多令人惊讶的句子。其中一个引起我注意的句子出现在本书开头部分，第七章的开篇：

"世界上最大的图书出版商企鹅兰登书屋每年出版近2万种图书，年总收入超过50亿美元。"

这是一个纯粹的事实性陈述——据我判断，也是准确的——因此是典型的丹·布朗式句子。

当然还有其他种类，包括那些以令人屏息的副词开头的句子（"不可能地"、"非凡地"、"方便地"）；那些突然迸发出激动人心的斜体字的句子；那些完全用斜体字写成的句子。布朗首先是一位动作场面作家，他的英雄罗伯特·兰登不断地热切追逐着那些也在热切追逐他的人，无论是在佛罗伦萨、罗马、巴塞罗那还是其他热门旅游目的地。《秘密中的秘密》近700页的篇幅曲折穿梭于忙乱的一天（主要是在布拉格），其间枪声响起，锁被撬开，发现隐藏通道，惊人的启示在奔逃中接连不断。亢奋的情节推进依赖于令人喘不过气的文字。

但丹·布朗的冒险故事也依赖于某种智力燃料。由于兰登的职业是一位教授（哈佛大学的符号学教授，以防你需要提醒），他的冒险经历中穿插着，或者你可能会说填充着，关于历史、科学、哲学和房地产等诸多主题的简短讲座。作为一部小说，这本书显然以其事实为荣：

1889年，在布拉格市官员参观了巴黎的世界博览会并目睹了古斯塔夫·埃菲尔那座惊艳全场的塔楼之后，他们不久便决定在布拉格建造他们自己的"微型"埃菲尔铁塔。

像埃隆·马斯克的Neuralink这样的公司自2016年以来一直在研究所谓的H2M接口——人机接口——一种能够将从大脑获取的数据转换为可理解的二进制代码的设备。

乔治·华盛顿大桥是世界上最繁忙的机动车桥。

这些也是典型的丹·布朗式句子，简洁说教且易于查证，尽管有时相关性存疑。遇到一位愿意替你完成部分谷歌搜索的作家是件好事。

但回到企鹅兰登书屋，它恰好通过其旗下双日出版社出版了这本书。在现实世界中，布朗本人对那50亿美元的收入贡献了不容小觑的份额。在丹·布朗的宇宙中，PRH出版了罗伯特·兰登的几本书（他将丹·布朗所著的《数字城堡》列为"他最喜爱的小说之一"）。最相关的是，该公司已经签下了一位名叫凯瑟琳·所罗门的潜在畅销书作者，她是一位直觉科学家，其长达数十年对人类意识的研究已经毫无疑问地证明了……

停。扣留关键信息是布朗最喜爱的伎俩之一，所以在我们解析更多情节之前，我应该说，《秘密中的秘密》对我来说，与其说是一部理念驱动的侦探小说或软性旅行色情作品，不如说是一曲对印刷文字力量的忧郁见证。

这本书邀请我们相信，一本书有潜力改变世界。同样也能致人于死地。在一个阅读有时似乎处于不可逆转的衰落期、书籍已将影响力让位于清单文章、播客和视频的时代，拿起一本敢于持相反意见的厚书令人振奋。

凯瑟琳，曾是《失落的符号》（2009年）中兰登的搭档，现在晋升为正式恋人，她提交了一份手稿，承诺将彻底颠覆我们关于意识、死亡和现实本身的基本假设。她认为，我们的大脑并非独立的认知实体，而是通往普遍心智的门户。她的理论植根于神经化学，涉及出体体验、死后生命、预知、多重人格、超心理学以及所有怀疑论者可能斥为胡言乱语的各类相关现象。

兰登在布拉格作为凯瑟琳的"加一"出席一个预告她重大理论的讲座（他们住在四季酒店的套房里），已经克服了他的怀疑。他并非唯一一个。凯瑟琳即将出版的书卷入了一场阴谋漩涡，涉及一位竞争科学家、一位犯罪主谋及其凶残的手下、两面三刀的政府官员、一位叛变的布拉格警察和一个魔像。

或者更准确地说，是"魔像"，正如该角色的专名所呈现的那样。精心保留那个变音符号本身就是对古老印刷价值的致敬。

魔像是一个熟悉的布朗式反派——一个受损的、类怪物的复仇者，既可怜又恶毒，在一个由科学家和官僚的冷静理性主导的故事中，是一张非理性的百搭牌。魔像也将叙事锚定在前现代欧洲的怪异历史中，这对布朗来说，长久以来一直是一个丰饶（且有利可图）的神秘与意义宝库。

不幸的是，这次的重点较少放在过去的迷雾——共济会或圣殿骑士、达·芬奇或但丁、异教徒或教皇——而是更多放在一个觉醒的普遍意识的模糊未来上。凯瑟琳对心智本质的探究如此重要，以至于有权势的人决心摧毁她手稿的每一份实体和数字副本。但我们对她书的内容了解得越多，这一切就越显得像是炒作。随着布朗的书奔向其精心设计的高潮，他（以及兰登）对等待着我们的神经技术进步的激动不已的赞颂，听起来与当前焦虑、厄运般的现实惊人地不合拍。

然而，我发现自己无法强烈反对一本如此热切地相信书籍重要性——以及，就此而言，科学研究、学术声望和豪华酒店重要性——的书。或许最好将《秘密中的秘密》视为一个失落的文明的文物，一种对逝去文学荣光的模糊召唤。它让我怀念一个黄金时代，那时一部书面作品不仅能卖出数百万册，还能激发公众舆论，引发激烈辩论，并将历史转动几度。换句话说，它让我怀念《达·芬奇密码》。◾

You will find many astonishing sentences in “The Secret of Secrets,” Dan Brown’s latest TED-Talk travelogue thriller. One that caught my eye arrives early in the book, at the beginning of Chapter 7:

“The world’s largest book publisher, Penguin Random House, publishes nearly 20,000 books a year and generates over $5 billion in annual gross revenues.”

This is a purely factual — and, as far as I can determine, accurate — statement, and therefore a particular kind of Dan Brown sentence.

Of course there are other varieties, including ones that start with a breathless adverb (“impossibly,” “remarkably,” “conveniently”); ones that burst into excited italics; ones that are entirelyin italics. Brown is above all an action writer, and his hero, Robert Langdon, is continually in hot pursuit of whoever is hotly pursuing him, whether in Florence, Rome, Barcelona or some other popular tourist destination. The nearly 700 pages of “The Secret of Secrets” zigzag across a hectic day, mostly in Prague, during which guns are fired, locks picked, hidden passageways discovered and shocking revelations delivered on the run. The hyperactive plotting runs on hyperventilating prose.

But a Dan Brown caper also runs on a certain kind of intellectual fuel. Since Langdon is, by profession, a professor (of symbology, at Harvard, in case you need reminding), his adventures are punctuated, or you might say padded, with brief lectures on a great many topics in history, science, philosophy and real estate. For a work of fiction, this novel is demonstratively proud of its facts:

In 1889, after Prague city officials visited the Exposition Universelle in Paris and saw Gustave Eiffel’s showstopping tower, they decided soon after to build their own ‘miniature’ Eiffel Tower in Prague.

Companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink had been working since 2016 to develop what was known as an H2M interface — human to machine — a device that could convert data obtained from the brain into understandable binary code.

The George Washington Bridge is the busiest motor bridge in the world.

These, too, are quintessential Dan Brown sentences, briskly didactic and easily checkable, if sometimes of questionable relevance. It’s nice to encounter a writer willing to do some of your Googling for you.

But back to Penguin Random House, which happens to be, through its Doubleday imprint, the publisher of this very book. In the real world, Brown himself is responsible for a non-trivial fraction of that $5 billion. In the Dan Brown universe, PRH is responsible for several books by Robert Langdon (who counts as “one of his favorite novels” “Digital Fortress,” by none other than Dan Brown). Most germane, the company has signed up a potential blockbuster by one Katherine Solomon, a noetic scientist whose decades-long research into human consciousness has proved beyond all doubt that ….

Stop. Withholding vital information is one of Brown’s favorite tricks, so before we unpack more plot, I should say that, “The Secret of Secrets” worked for me less as an idea-driven whodunit or an exercise in soft-core travel porn than as a wistful testament to the power of the printed word.

A book, this book invites us to believe, has the potential to change the world. And also to get people killed. At a time when reading sometimes seems to be in terminal declineand books have ceded influence to listicles, podcasts and video, it’s heartening to pick up a fat volume that dares to insist otherwise.

Katherine, a Langdon sidekick in “The Lost Symbol” (2009), now promoted to full-fledged love interest, has delivered a manuscript that promises to upend our fundamental assumptions about consciousness, death and reality itself. Our brains, she argues, are not self-contained cognitive entities, but rather portals to a universal mind. Grounded in neurochemistry, her theory touches on out-of-body experiences, life after death, precognition, multiple personalities, parapsychology and all kinds of related phenomena that a skeptic might dismiss as mumbo-jumbo.

Langdon, in Prague as Katherine’s plus-one for a lecture teasing her big theory (they’re staying in a suite at the Four Seasons), has overcome his skepticism. He’s not the only one. Katherine’s upcoming book is at the center of a conspiratorial whirlwind that involves a rival scientist, a criminal mastermind and his thuggish minions, duplicitous government officials, a rogue Prague cop and a golem.

Or rather, The Golěm, as the character’s proper name is rendered. The care that went into maintaining that diacritical mark is itself a tribute to the old print values.

The Golěm is a familiar Brown heavy — a damaged, quasi-monstrous avenger both pitiable and vicious, an irrational wild card in a story dominated by the cold reasoning of scientists and bureaucrats. The Golěm also tethers the narrative to the weird history of pre-modern Europe, which for Brown has long been a fertile (and profitable) trove of mystery and meaning.

This time, unfortunately, the emphasis is less on the murk of the past — Masons or the Knights Templar, da Vinci or Dante, pagans or popes — than on a hazy future of awakened universal consciousness. Katherine’s inquiry into the nature of the mind is so consequential that powerful people are determined to destroy every physical and digital copy of her manuscript. But the more we learn about the content of her book, the more it all seems like hype. And as Brown’s book races toward its elaborate climax, his (and Langdon’s) breathless effusions about the neuro-technological progress that awaits us sound jarringly out of sync with the anxious, doomy present.

And yet I find myself unable to argue very strenuously against a book that believes so ardently in the importance of books — and, for that matter, in scientific research, academic prestige and luxury hotels. It may be best to read “The Secret of Secrets” as an artifact of a lost civilization, a misty evocation of vanished literary glory. It made me nostalgic for a golden age when a single written work could not only sell millions of copies, but also galvanize public opinion, spark furious debate and rotate history a few degrees on its axis. In other words, it made me nostalgic for “The Da Vinci Code.”

来源：左右图史