Onto the home stretch before I head off to England! In the meantime I'm just marking time around here. I went up to the high school last night for a football game... my sister's a cheerleader. She's tiny, so she's the one they toss up in the air. Impressive stuff, if nerve-wracking for my mom.
I ran into an old gym teacher at the game. After I filled him in on my plans, he asked what I wanted to do after that. I gave him the spiel... "Grad school in history these days is basically good for going into academia and not much more." He commiserated and suggested teaching high school instead (something I've considered). Then he came up with another suggestion: "You could be the next Dan Brown!"
Urgh. "Yeah, I guess. His history actually isn't all that good. If you look at the things he says carefully he makes a lot of mistakes."
"No, he says it's all true. I've seen him on TV. He's done all sorts of research into this stuff. Where there's smoke there's fire, right?"
Awkward silence.
So there you have it. People actually do buy into Dan Brown's BS. I'm not really sure how to counteract it. Is it even worth the effort? For my own sanity I need to do something. If the general public sees Dan Brown as a reputable historical authority there's something seriously wrong here.
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