Da Vinci Code
Okay, I’m getting annoyed with this whole Da Vinci Code thing. It is fiction, F-I-C-T-I-O-N, fiction. Pretty soon Christians will be calling for a boycott of anything C.S. Lewis related because Jesus wasn’t a big fluffy lion. Get real! Of course all they are really doing is advertising for the boycotted item. Only the nutjobs are really going to boycott it and probably millions of people who wouldn’t normally give it the least bit of thought are going to flock to the movie and/or read the book just to see what the fuss is all about. I read the book partly because of this myself.
And my thoughts on the books? It started out really good. It was very entertaining and interesting. The main problem I had with it was that the supposedly smart protagonists became retards towards the end. Once they figured out who the knight was for the second cryptex, it became so completely obvious what the orb was. Then, while they pondered this for a ridiculous amount of pages, Dan Brown constantly put forward clues to the reader about the answer. Why don’t you just beat me over the head with it, Dan? Also, I figured out the identity of the Teacher about a hundred pages before I was supposed to. Granted, Mr. Brown was tricky enough to make me occasionally doubt my conclusion, but I was right in the end. So, these two problems made the book almost unreadable until both of these points were resolved. After that, it improved again. Now I’ll have to see the movie just to spite the nutjobs.
As far as the blasphemy goes, whatever. There was a lot of false facts and exaggerations, but, again, it’s fiction. There were some truths as well that paint the Catholic church in a bad light. Oh well, they’ve earned it.
May 15th, 2006 at 11:56 am
John, I can’t speak for “Christians”, but as a Catholic I can tell you that the objection the Church has (and I have) to the book is not the blasphemy, nor the obvious anti-Catholic ax grinding that is going on (we’re pretty used to that).
It’s the fact that Brown uses absolute fabrication to blacken the Church’s eye and that he has intimated that his book is only part fiction…check the preface.
As you say, the Church has done a fine job of blackening it’s own eyes, and I hold the hierarchy accountable for aiding and abetting in way too many instances…so if someone wants to throw stones through the Church’s windows, OK fine…but don’t make crap up to do it.
May 15th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
I’m not John and yes Brown intimated that his book is only part fiction. It is only part fiction, mostly so, but there is still truth in it. Truth makes fiction all the more fun. Aside from that, anything presented as true in a fictional book should be taken with a grain of salt, even a preface. As to the preface, my copy has acknowledgments at the front that asserts research, but not truth. There is also, at the beginning of the novel, a small section that list facts. I have seen this in many novels including some fantasy novels. If it said “Fact: The overlord of the Dragon Empire was overthrown in…..”, would you believe it? Well, maybe you would, but it should probably be taken as fiction none the less.
I was actually shocked at how positively the book portrayed Catholics and their church considering the complaints. It made the assumption that the modern Catholic church and Catholics, aside from a few nutjobs, are doing mostly positive things in today’s world. That must be fiction too, eh? Just imagine how much positive stuff could be done if they put as much time and energy into it as they put into whining about a fictional book.
May 15th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
can I play too?!?!? I think a good example might be those lemony snicket books. at the front of them it says that everything in them is compleately true. where though is the out rage at the incompitence of the authorities? Why didn’t the people angered by the da vinci code do something to fix the system that hurt those children so. its almost like they knew it was fiction or something.