7.10.2004
In which I finally read "The Da Vinci Code" so you don't have to
The infamous book "The Da Vinci Code" the book that has spent a staggering 68 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List (and is still there currently at #2) along with another book attempting to explain it. There are at least nine books trying to de-bunk it and several others trying to ride on it's coattails. It has spawned a million editorials both positive and negative and it has a movie in the works. So how was it?
"Not now Mary, the Disciples are watching!"
Honestly, I don't see what all the fuss was about.
Dan Brown takes a few old conspiracy theories mixes in a couple Gnostic Gospels adds a touch of goddess worship through the ages and sets it all in a modern-day thriller complete with double-crosses and exotic locales. I read it in the span of a day and found it to be a light slightly entertaining read. Great literature this isn't. Most of the book is lecture-hall exposition as Brown tries to entangle his own theory about the Holy Grail. We get to read countless "shocking" moments as one character or another figures out a clue or remember some vital detail which inexplicably leads to a flashback of the main character teaching a class on the subject at hand. I'm glad I checked it out from the library rather than pay hardcover prices for it.
But we all know why this is causing such a stir, it's because this little fiction novel due to its large sales is starting to worry Christians that people actually believe its contents. I can't remember the last time a fiction novel garnered such attention. Now if this had been passed off as non-fiction I could see why Christian and religious scholars would be quick to dismiss or refute. But this is like refuting Harry Potter.
What this all reminds me of is all those fiction novels published since the 1980s geared at Christians in which members of faiths like Wicca and other pagan movements are revealed to be tools of the devil or baby-killers or drug-dealers or worse. But I suppose if you rattle the cages of "The One True Church" you risk getting something flung at you. I think the real "hot" religious conspiracy theory is the one currently headed by George Bush, but I suppose many Christians wouldn't feel the same way I do.
The infamous book "The Da Vinci Code" the book that has spent a staggering 68 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List (and is still there currently at #2) along with another book attempting to explain it. There are at least nine books trying to de-bunk it and several others trying to ride on it's coattails. It has spawned a million editorials both positive and negative and it has a movie in the works. So how was it?
"Not now Mary, the Disciples are watching!"
Honestly, I don't see what all the fuss was about.
Dan Brown takes a few old conspiracy theories mixes in a couple Gnostic Gospels adds a touch of goddess worship through the ages and sets it all in a modern-day thriller complete with double-crosses and exotic locales. I read it in the span of a day and found it to be a light slightly entertaining read. Great literature this isn't. Most of the book is lecture-hall exposition as Brown tries to entangle his own theory about the Holy Grail. We get to read countless "shocking" moments as one character or another figures out a clue or remember some vital detail which inexplicably leads to a flashback of the main character teaching a class on the subject at hand. I'm glad I checked it out from the library rather than pay hardcover prices for it.
But we all know why this is causing such a stir, it's because this little fiction novel due to its large sales is starting to worry Christians that people actually believe its contents. I can't remember the last time a fiction novel garnered such attention. Now if this had been passed off as non-fiction I could see why Christian and religious scholars would be quick to dismiss or refute. But this is like refuting Harry Potter.
What this all reminds me of is all those fiction novels published since the 1980s geared at Christians in which members of faiths like Wicca and other pagan movements are revealed to be tools of the devil or baby-killers or drug-dealers or worse. But I suppose if you rattle the cages of "The One True Church" you risk getting something flung at you. I think the real "hot" religious conspiracy theory is the one currently headed by George Bush, but I suppose many Christians wouldn't feel the same way I do.
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