My three favourite insights from Inferno

Just finished Dan Brown's latest fiction - Inferno! and completed by new year resolution of completing 4 books in a year (1st: Steve Jobs, 2nd: Fifty Shades of Grey, 3rd: PMBOK (I read it 3 times!) + Surviving High School Teen's Novel)

The book was alright - I finished it within a month, which means it was interesting enough for me to sacrifice my nap to read few chapters of it everyday in MRT.

Dante's Map of Hell - The most discussed painting in the novel

The whole book was talking about Dante, which unfortunately not as famous as Da Vinci (at least I never heard of him before I read the book) so my focus was drawn to somewhere else:

1. The main antagonist is actually a biologist trying to save the world from overcrowding. Human's exponential growth is so real - which makes it no difference from cancer: it's a normal cell until the growth become uncontrollable. With more human and scarer resources, people will be living in fear, anger, and end up doing sin. I'm surprised I never viewed it from that angle before. Definitely not when the government here actually trying to get people to make more babies.
2. To make the best lie / fiction, include as much real information as possible in the argument :D Like for all Dan Brown's novels, all artwork, literature, science, and historical references in the novel are real, which make it so close to heart. I can definitely use this advicede for my future April's Mop joke. 
3. "The human mind has a primitive ego defence mechanism that negates all realities that produce too much stress for the brain to handle. It's a critical part of the human coping mechanism. Without it, we would all wake up terrified every morning about all the ways we could die. Instead, our minds block out our existential fears by focusing on stresses we can handle - like getting to work on time or paying our taxes - It's called Denial" - I never know I have been in denial for so long XD

I like the human overcrowding concept, but the whole story was actually really plain. A biologist created a virus which made 1/3 of the population sterile so that it helps control the population. Robert was trying to contain the virus before it goes out but he failed so now 1/3 of the world population is sterile. The End.

And oh, with so much criticism from Philippines, I kept reading thinking that it will be the main scene of the story. Oh well, it was mentioned in less than 2 pages in the whole novel! and it doesn't even said to carry any hell / sinful stuff :s I really don't understand what the fuss all about. The novel makes much worse reference to other countries and I didn't hear any complain about those.

Now, taking a Candy Crush break before next novel,
ED