We asked Whitey Hagadorn, assistant professor of geology, what he’s been reading lately.  Here is what he told us:

Reading?  Unfortunately, I have had little time to read non-geology literature since moving to Amherst. Most days are spent reading about rocks, fossils and ancient Earth history. So when I do read, my cardinal rules are: 1) it can’t be about geology, and 2) it has to be fun.

On a recent vacation to Croatia, I read three novels by Dan Brown ’86. One was a New York Times bestseller (The Da Vinci Code) and had been in the press lately. The other two included the precursor to The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, as well as a science-esque thriller called Deception Point. 

The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons were absolutely fascinating. Bits of archeology, architecture, religion, science and luck were combined in a frenzy of puzzle solving, relationship building and doomsday averting. The main character in both novels is Robert Langdon, a famous academic symbologist whose curiosity and memory outstrip his tendency for dry puns. Langdon is a bit more intellectual than Indiana Jones, and in each novel is awakened in the middle of the night by a strange phone call requesting him to examine bizarre symbols associated with crime scenes. Inevitably these lead him to discover secret societies that lurk beneath the surface of admired modern-day institutions—societies that have vendettas that could unravel the very fabric of society. Joining with attractive and double-dealing colleagues, he works exhaustively to pursue ancient clues and to separate them from chicaneries. Although the all-nighters and long days of an assistant professor don’t exactly compare to Robert Langdon’s forensic adventures, I was often left wondering how he musters such clarity of thought without having eaten or slept for days. Must be the fiction.

Each of these books begins with a page-long statement titled “Fact.” Like any critical scientist, I am bothered by this word. So as I read these books, I sought to poke holes in these precursor statements. To Dan Brown’s credit, I was unable to do so. Nevertheless, it was good fun.

Now to Deception Point. Like the other novels, it begins with powerful imagery. Geologist Charles Brophy (name sound familiar, anyone?) is thrown, together with his four husky dogs and dog-sled, to his death from a helicopter circling 4,000 feet above the arctic. If that isn’t bad enough, about midway through the book a paleontologist falls into an icy borehole and suffers the most ironic fate: becoming an ice-bound fossil. This book was exciting to read, spinning a tale of a giant scientific ruse, cast amidst the rigor and excitement of making one of the two ultimate discoveries. One discovery is the origin of life, and the second one is the --------- -- ---- ---- ----- -------, which was the focus of this book (sorry, but I can’t give the whole plot away, now, can I?).

Despite the fact that this book broke my Cardinal Rule 1, I really enjoyed reading it. Dan Brown really checked his facts and, like Michael Crichton, has a knack for weaving interesting interpersonal stories into his plot and dialogue. Moreover, he should be commended for not penning too many leaps of faith between accepted historical facts, scientific theories and empirical knowledge.

Finally, if you’ve got any good reads that you’d like to recommend for my next vacation, I’d love to hear from you. Only before you do so, I should tell you about my new cardinal rule, number three: no stories that involve killing the geologists. 

Amherst