- 4 ay önce
Dan Brown, yeni kitabı "Sırların Sırrı"nı Ertuğrul Özkök'e anlattı.
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01:00İzlediğiniz için teşekkür ederim.
01:29That one began with a death, not with the murder, but the explanation of the death.
01:36So, what is that really?
01:39Because you explained in an extraordinary way in the first pages of the novel.
01:44Do you really believe that that is a simple chemical process?
01:52As you say, then you die, you die.
01:56Well, I did believe it eight years ago when I started writing this book.
02:00I don't believe it anymore.
02:02I've become like Robert Langdon who starts skeptically and ends up a believer.
02:06That was my journey over the many years it took to write this book.
02:10And what I was doing in that prologue by using a neuroscientist who is skeptical and rational.
02:18And she said, listen, you know, life after death is this ridiculous idea.
02:23It doesn't happen.
02:23Of course it doesn't happen.
02:25It's all chemical.
02:26That was my way of telling the reader, don't worry.
02:29This is not a new age, feel good, spiritual sort of book.
02:34This is a book where science takes the lead.
02:36And I'm not going to try to tell you I've had some mystical religious experience and there's life after death.
02:43I'm going to start by saying, no, it's it's impossible.
02:47OK, so now in Frankfurt, you told me that I really don't know when I die one day, I will need a price to call a price or not.
03:06But I'm not sure.
03:07So for the moment, are you sure or not?
03:10No, I'm pretty sure I won't.
03:13I'm not sure any would come talk to me anyway.
03:17No, you know, I think that religion does not have the market cornered on the death experience.
03:28I mean, for whatever religion we happen to be, you know, or agnostic, you know, whatever you are.
03:35I think it's your life experience.
03:37You know, when you die, I think you're thinking of your friends and your family and the people who who you've known, not not of some big mystical something in the sky.
03:46So let's talk about the novel now.
03:51You say that this is the secret of the secret.
03:55So this is the end of the old secrets or this is the beginning?
04:00Because I didn't really get very well.
04:03Well, if there is no anymore a secret.
04:06So why why read another Dan Brown novel?
04:10Well, you know, that's it's a fair question.
04:14You find out on the very last page what the secret of secrets is referring to.
04:18Yes.
04:18But I think in many ways, the secret that we all long to know across every culture, language, demographic is the secret of death.
04:30What what happens?
04:32Is there something beyond that or is that the end?
04:34And the reason it's the secret of secrets is because we'll all learn the answer, but we can't come back to tell you.
04:42And so it's this really fascinating catch 22 where when you finally know that's the moment you can't tell anybody.
04:50But in this novel, you begin to go towards the secrets of the science, perhaps.
04:57Yes, well, I think that science very much so, as is described in the novel, is starting to answer a lot of these big questions and starting to give us a sense that our sense of of how the mind works, how consciousness works, how death works is not not what we thought it was, that there is that there's a secret there that we don't understand.
05:21In that novel, I personally found another Langdon.
05:29Oh, if you've read my books, Langdon in every book meets a different beautiful woman.
05:34He's very lucky.
05:35Yes.
05:36And she's always beautiful and very smart and knows what he needs to know.
05:40And I wanted to show a different side of Langdon.
05:42I wanted to start a book with Langdon in love.
05:45Yeah.
05:46And I wanted it to be a meaningful relationship.
05:49And so rather than saying, this is somebody he's been in love with for a year, which is less interesting, then this is the very beginning of a relationship, but he's known this person his whole life.
06:06And that is suddenly interesting.
06:08When friends become lovers, we have all this familiarity, but now there's this added level of romance.
06:14It's just a fascinating moment.
06:17Yeah.
06:18It was fun to watch.
06:19Yeah.
06:20This is a very interesting, and I love, I love that Langdon in love.
06:25So, Silas and Golem, it seems that they are very similar or not?
06:32No, I don't think they're similar because Silas receives his orders and follows blindly.
06:50And the Golem is built as a protector.
06:54He has a very specific mission, and he does not take orders from anybody.
06:59You know, when he's turned on, when, you know, in the legend, you know, when this creature comes to life, he actually goes out of control because he's so intent on doing what he wants to do, which is to protect.
07:13The reason I chose the Golem, two reasons, really, or three reasons.
07:16One was to talk about the history of Prague and the history of the Jewish people in Prague.
07:21One was because there's a character in the novel who sees themselves as a protector.
07:32And so the Golem is a perfect foil or a parallel for that character.
07:36And also, we're talking about non-local consciousness, being able to turn your brain on and off like a radio.
07:44And that's the way the Golem works.
07:46He's lifeless until you write this code on his forehead.
07:51And it's almost like you've turned a switch, and he suddenly has a consciousness, and he's alive, and he does his thing.
07:56So it worked on many, many levels.
07:57When you wrote The Digital Fortress, it was in 1998.
08:04So you talk about in that novel, it was very, very brilliant, about the digital safety.
08:15Yes.
08:15And it was the beginning of the internet area, digital area.
08:23You really talked about the real problem.
08:27Excuse me.
08:30Now we have really that problem, you know.
08:35So how do you consider yourself as a science fiction writer or a literary writer or a futurologue?
08:46More of the latter.
08:49I don't consider myself a science fiction writer at all because I try to write what's true.
08:54I just try to write, I try to look ahead and say, what's coming?
09:00What is the truth just below the surface that we're going to see very, very soon?
09:06Yeah.
09:06And in some cases, you know, we're already seeing it.
09:10And Digital Fortress, yeah.
09:11I mean, certainly the notion of digital encryption and privacy on the internet and privacy data, national security and civilian privacy.
09:21These are all issues that were not that big at that time.
09:25But I knew they were coming.
09:27And now, of course, it's all we talk about.
09:30And artificial intelligence has really made it challenging to, you know, internet security is going to become more and more difficult because these machines are so powerful that they can break bigger and bigger keys.
09:44Yes, but in that time, it was very early to talk about the security problems of the digital era.
09:53So you saw that from the end of the 20th century.
09:58This is not the only thing that you saw.
10:00For example, in Inferno, you talk about the virus.
10:06It was before the COVID and after we had COVID and a real virus.
10:12Of course, this is not the same in your novel and in the real COVID case.
10:18But you always see something before.
10:23For example, very recently, I watched three documentaries about Da Vinci code.
10:30And most of them, the theologists and religious guys were talking about your thesis in the Da Vinci novel, you know, and I observed that some of them, they already ready to accept what you told in the books.
10:52So, so, so I really wonder, because for me, you are a man of literature, literature, because your writing styles is extraordinary.
11:04Really, I'm a writer.
11:06I have to say that you influenced me too much, you know, especially I never forget that you, when you told me that my real obsession is to make pass the readers.
11:22from one chapter to the other.
11:25So, really, you, you know, the art of writing.
11:29So, for me, that's why I really wonder, what was the writers that influenced you or you like?
11:38Well, many writers, I read all the time as a child.
11:42We had no television.
11:43My parents did not want television.
11:45No television.
11:46No television.
11:47We played music and we read.
11:49Those are the, that's what we did.
11:51And we did puzzles and codes and things.
11:53But I, I started out reading all the same children's books as everybody else.
11:57You know, the Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarry and Maurice Sendak.
12:00Then I moved into, I remember one of the first books that I read that was a novel was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine Alengel, which, which I just loved.
12:12I remember being transported into these characters.
12:14And it was a children's book, but it was a novel.
12:16And then I read all of the Hardy Boys mystery series.
12:19And, and then I went on to Robert Ludlam.
12:24And so, Robert Ludlam really gave me a flavor of international high stakes thrillers.
12:31You know, The Day of the Jackal, The Eye of the Needle were a couple other books that I read by Ken Follett.
12:37But, and then, then it's funny, then, then I ended up in prep school and university where I read the classics.
12:47And I remember reading of Mice and Men and thinking, this is the most beautiful description I've ever heard of a place.
12:56And in those, you know, in his novels, the, the first chapter of every single, the first paragraph of every single chapter is a description of the place.
13:09And I realized like, okay, so place is a character.
13:12Place is always a character.
13:14And you have to set, set it up as a character.
13:17And it interacts with your, your human characters in a very real way.
13:22I read a lot of Shakespeare, love his wordplay, you know, very clever wordplay.
13:29But mostly I read nonfiction.
13:32Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth was very, very influential.
13:37Dictionary of Symbols by Chevalier.
13:40Really, it's a melting pot of a lot of, a lot of different things.
13:45You know, I read generally the nonfiction books underlying the lines, you know.
13:51But in your, never, never a novel.
13:54But in your novel, especially in the last one, you have to see my, my screen now, you know, every page I, I took note, I underlined.
14:04Not because I, I would, I would interview you.
14:08But I want, I really want to keep them as a novel.
14:11So, in that novel, the real knowledge and the fiction is, came together so dense that, that makes the novelty, novelty of the, of the Secrets of Secrets.
14:29And one more time, congratulations.
14:31Thank you very much.
14:32There's a discussion about the religious relics in the Topkapi Palace.
14:37Some say that these are not authentic.
14:40And when I read the pages about the Satanic Bible in, in your book, it was very interesting, really.
14:51I didn't know that book.
14:52I've learned from, really, from Secrets of Secrets.
14:56I want to ask you, what do you think about the, for the religious relics, do we need to prove the authenticity with the carbon tests and everything, like the shots of Turan?
15:11They had a carbon test that it was not authentic.
15:15But some say in Turkey that we don't need.
15:18If the people believe, let them believe.
15:20Yeah, that's a very, very difficult question.
15:25I tend to think that if people believe, you let them believe.
15:28Because a physical object only has value if we give it value.
15:34You know, the Shroud of Turin, for example, or something in Topkapi Palace, as, as a piece of physical matter, doesn't have a lot of value, except that we've given it value.
15:50And so if you're, if you're going to give an object value, and if it inspires people, and you can't be sure, I think you just have to be honest.
15:58Say, you know, we're not sure this is what we think it is.
16:02You know, we're almost positive that's what this is.
16:05And we're excited to have it.
16:06We have no proof.
16:08Yes.
16:09But, yeah, I think you let people believe.
16:12It's important.
16:15Thank you.
16:16Thank you.
16:20So, for your book, you need a research team, I'm sure.
16:30How many people works for a Dan Brown novel?
16:34One.
16:36Really?
16:37It's just me.
16:38I really, I've never had a research team.
16:44And the reason is that if you have a research team, you never have fortunate mistakes.
16:50And a fortunate mistake means, for example, I went to Sagrada Familia Cathedral to research the tomb of Gaudi.
16:59And I could have sent somebody there to get me the information, get me pictures and all that.
17:04But I would never have stumbled into a staircase that I didn't know was there and realized this is a very dramatic place for the villain to die.
17:14And so, usually, and I would say about half the time, I'll go looking for one piece of information and find two or three other pieces of information that only I know I'm going to use.
17:28My assistants would not know I'm going to use it.
17:30They'd ignore it.
17:31They'd say, well, he asked for the tomb of Gaudi.
17:32So, and also, I believe that because I'm writing often about the locations, you have to be there in person and hear what it sounds like and smell what it smells like and really get a sense for what it is to be in that space.
17:51And so, I do it myself.
17:53Now, I have an editor at Random House, Jason Kaufman, who actually plays a role in the novel as Jonas Falkman.
18:02But he, you know, he's my first reader, my first and only reader.
18:07And he and I really, he really understands what it is I'm trying to do in these books.
18:12And we work very closely together.
18:14And then when we're finished, there's a whole army of fact checkers, proofreaders, copy editors, lawyers, like everybody you could imagine goes into the manuscript and tries to tear it apart to find anything that's not accurate or not true or that's, you know,
18:31It's a mistake somehow.
18:33And by the time we're done, I really am very, very confident that what I'm presenting is very, very accurate.
18:41You explained very well that you're an editor in the book also.
18:46He's funny.
18:46So, you have a really great energy, you know, I see you, because you don't change.
18:54The last time, the first, before, before COVID, no?
18:59Yes.
19:00Yeah.
19:00Yeah.
19:01Before COVID.
19:02And you look really great.
19:04Oh, that's nice of you to say.
19:05I'm sure it's just trick photography.
19:07I have some fancy camera that's supposed to make me look good.
19:09I mean, if I push his knee, I'm pretty tired.
19:12Yeah, yeah.
19:12No, no, no.
19:13You look really great.
19:14So, for example, for a book like that, how many interviews do you give?
19:22Oh, boy.
19:23Well, I'll tell you this.
19:26I'll give you an idea of the scale.
19:29Yes.
19:29This book is coming out in 56 languages.
19:32Yes.
19:32I have signed 42,000 title pages.
19:39Took three months.
19:41Three months.
19:4242,000 signatures.
19:45I have given, you know, if you think about it, I'm giving two interviews to Turkey, and
19:50there's, you know, 50 other countries.
19:52Yes.
19:53You can do the math.
19:54And then in the U.S., I've given, I don't know.
19:57Yeah.
19:5815, 20 interviews just in the U.S., probably another 10 in the U.K.
20:02Yes.
20:03So, it's a different kind of the job.
20:08And it's funny when you're a writer, especially when you spend this long on a book, because
20:13I just spent eight years alone in the dark, you know, working on this book all alone.
20:20And all of a sudden, it's done.
20:23And the publisher says, you know, get dressed.
20:26They put a light in your face, and they say, go be interesting.
20:30Go be friendly.
20:31Go be nice.
20:32And you're like, I don't, I'm not even sure I remember how to interact with other people.
20:37So, all of these interviews, I think they're getting better.
20:42I'm starting to sort of come out of hibernation.
20:44So, you told me that, you told me that in the beginning of the interview, that the places
20:52are the characters for you.
20:53Yes.
20:54The cities also are the characters, because you explain such a way that every time I have
20:59the, I have really, I want to go there.
21:04For example, Prague.
21:05I went several times to Prague, but I discovered another Prague now.
21:09So, I have to go.
21:12So, what is the next city?
21:15Well, do you have children?
21:19Yeah.
21:20Okay.
21:21I would like you to imagine, imagine your wife has just given birth.
21:25You're in the hospital.
21:27Yes.
21:27You're sitting beside her bed.
21:28She's holding her newborn.
21:30Yes.
21:30You say, what are we going to name the next child after this one?
21:34Yes.
21:35That's not a good question.
21:39It's too soon.
21:41It's too soon.
21:42It's too soon.
21:43I don't know.
21:44I have ideas.
21:46But I really have been so busy making sure, I'm very, very proud of this book.
21:53I feel that it deserves a good launch.
21:57I hope a lot of people enjoy it.
21:59And so, I'm really focusing on doing everything I can do to help this book.
22:05And there will come a point when I've done everything I can do, and now I look at the next book.
22:11But that's not today.
22:14It's a really, really, very nice book.
22:17Thank you.
22:18And I really sincerely believe that this is one of the best, perhaps, the best for me, after David G.
22:26Thank you.
22:27Well, that means a lot coming from a writer like you.
22:30Thank you.
22:30Mr. Brown, my questions, nearly all these, and that's enough for me.
22:37And I see that you have some, many others interview.
22:42And I already knew you very well, because this is the third time.
22:47I thank you one more time.
22:49Really, you were always very sympathetic for me.
22:54And in my career, to have the interview with you, that was a big chance.
23:01And I wish you a big success.
23:04I read some other books from you, because I'm one of your fans in the world.
23:09And remember, in Turkey, you have a big, and really, I think I'm the biggest fan in Turkey.
23:15And I'm 78 years old, so it means that probably 10 more years, I can wait for the book.
23:27That is funny.
23:28Well, thank you.
23:30It's wonderful to see you again.
23:32And when I come to Turkey next, I will have my friends at Alton Kataplar find you.
23:38I look forward to it.
23:39Okay.
23:40Thank you very much.
23:41Have a good day.
23:42Thank you.
23:45Thank you.
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