On Sunday, October 11, 2009, The New York Times Book Review will publish a review by Maureen Dowd of Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol. That review is available on-line here. (The weekday edition of the Times previously published a review of The Lost Symbol by Janet Maslin; that review, which appeared on Monday, September 14, is available here.) Ms. Dowd’s review contains much inaccurate or misleading information about Freemasonry. I am writing a series of blog posts to address the inaccuracies about Freemasonry that occur in Ms. Dowd’s review. The posts in this series are listed below. (The list will be updated as new posts become available.)
Posts in This Series
- Masonic Oaths: Will Masons really "slit the throats of people who reveal Masonic secrets"? (October 5, 2009): post available here.
- Are Freemasons Anti-Catholic? (October 8, 2009): post available here.
- How Accurate is the Contemporary Catholic Perception of Freemasonry? (October 8, 2009): post available here.
Shameless Plugs
I discuss the basics of Freemasonry in my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which will shortly be available again through Amazon; interested readers may ask to be notified of this availability through leaving me an e-mail at freemasonrybook@yahoo.com . I shall have a great deal to say about Freemasonry as it is depicted by The Lost Symbol in two places:
- one of my two chapters in the forthcoming book edited by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer, Secrets of The Lost Symbol, which you can read about here;
- my own forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Magic, Masonry, Noetic Science, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Publishers’ and agents’ inquiries are welcome!)
[The image is a rare depiction of the Compasses with a Sector (a traditional symbol of a Past Master) with the All-Seeing Eye on a Disk. It was obtained on the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon.]
(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)
Posts
There is no sign of your post; nothing links to it. Anyway, I think you are allowing your leg to be pulled by Maureen Dowd. If you are not careful you will allow your throat to be cut too. It is important to keep laughing.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: The link to the post has been placed. I mistakenly thought I had a few moments to put up the actual post; silly me for not realizing how very quickly people get to these posts!
ReplyDeleteAs far as the matter of legs pulled and throats cut are concerned: Sure, Ms. Dowd's snarky tone is easy to laugh at. However, just behind the snarky tone are some fairly serious and rather nasty inaccuracies about Freemasonry. These ought to be addressed, and I plan to do just that.
In addition, there are a lot of people who will take Ms. Dowd's references to the more lurid myths about Masonry seriously. These people will have serious questions, and I hope to answer them here.
My thanks to you, Anonymous, for your quick comment. I look forward to hearing whether you think my throat has been cut in the process of responding to Ms. Dowd.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. If your throat is cut, we'll know who did it.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the meaning of that symbol?
ReplyDeleteSomething really important about Maureen was the article that I've read , it said Dowd's columns have been described as letters to her mother, whom friends credit as "the source, the fountain of Maureen’s humor and her Irish sensibilities and her intellectual take.
ReplyDeleteSomething really important about Maureen was the article that I've read , it said Dowd's columns have been described as letters to her mother, whom friends credit as "the source, the fountain of Maureen’s humor and her Irish sensibilities and her intellectual take.
ReplyDelete