All I Hope Ever to Have to Say on "The Da Vinci Code"

[quasigeostrophy]

I liked the book. Not a literary breakthrough and a bit telegraphed, but an entertaining and quick read. Even though I've heard the movie (understandably, considering the book is a lot of exposition) drags, I may go see it for the heck of it.

Currently, I've been half paying attention to a documentary on The History Channel called Beyond the Da Vinci Code which is uncovering the truth behind many of the so-called claims in the novel. I like the approach of this documentary. The facts are being presented neutrally. I've read so many similar debunkings that annoy me with a tone, explicit or implicit, of "Dan Brown got it wrong!"

Give me a break. He wrote a work of fiction!!

Many years ago, I fell in love with a novel called The Eight, the first book by Katherine Neville. It's still one of my favorite books. It's a creative placing of historical characters from around and after the time of the French Revolution linked to another story thread set in the 1970s. They're all where they were, doing for the most part what they did that is recorded historically, when they did it. But Neville changed their motivations, often extremely. To me, whatever his actual intent, Brown's The Da Vinci code is the same sort of thing, except only with present day protagonists.

People having cow puppies about things Brown claims in the novel about the Catholic church and so forth, IMHO, just need to get over it.

Comments

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

I'd agree, except that the book swept through the unwashed masses like a tsunami, and the Great Conspiracy Theory Nut Brain Trust has latched on to it as factual. So debunking it for them isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's always interesting to me to see documentaries exploring the truth behind fictional accounts, cuz, anal hypercritical Virgo here, yanno? In most cases it's just entertaining; in this case I think it's a good shot at the dingbats.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Great Conspiracy Theory Nut Brain Trust

I've always been fascinated by conspiracy theories, but have never bought into them. I've owned and enjoyed Steve Jackson Games' Illuminati since high school. Despite what anyone might think about Coca-Cola and the management at the time, I remember hearing an exec from that company saying about the New Coke Fiasco after it happened, in response to claims they introduced New Coke with the sole intent when it bombed of putting out Coca-Cola Classic to drive its sales even higher.

His response? "We're neither that smart, nor that stupid."

As conspiracy theories go, I think that just about sums up the reality behind many of them. :-)

[krasota.livejournal.com]

I'll give a great big ditto to all of this.

It's fiction. It's extremely well-written popular fiction. It's definitely translatable to the big screen. It's entertaining. It's commercial and therefore isn't so heady and esoteric that the eliterati will devour it. It seems heady and esoteric, so the less snobbish folks and the masses *will* eat it up. It's fiction. It's fun. It's even mildly thought-provoking.

I read it the other day. Enjoyable read. Then I finished an old Ludlum paperback I've been gnawing on. Now I'm reading Map of Bones. It's the week of comfortable thrillers, apparently.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Oooh. Looking at Map of Bones online, it looks interesting.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

It's a quick read, albeit slightly choppier in prose than The DaVinci Code.

I'm highly amused by the upsurge in historical/archaelogical thriller fiction. It's been around for a long time, but now it's becoming popular. It gives me something to read, though, so I can't complain too much.

[elmegil.livejournal.com]

The Codex was rather interesting in its blend of this sort of thing with a bit of a geek esthetic (a virtual realtiy game figures strongly in the story).

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I'm still interested in that, but who knows when I'll have time for another fictional tome like that. If it's the book I'm thinking of, it reminded me of Cryptonomicon a little. Which I liked, but it was just so THICK.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

IIRC, most of the book was inspired by/borrowed from Baigent/Lincoln/Leigh's 1980's book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" - a work of speculative history, FWIW. I read it back in high school and as it was my first taste of an "alternative view" of the historical events surrounding the life of Jesus it had a huge impact - really made me think about religion in the historical context.

Over the years I've grown more skeptical about the book, but keep a battered copy on hand to loan to people, just because I think it's helpful to burst through the Christian mythology so many people are raised with.

I was confused as to why the authors of "HBHG" sued Dan Brown - theirs was a work of history (accurate or not) and "The Da Vinci Code" was a work of fiction - when did it get illegal to base fiction on history?

I did read the Da Vinci Code (or, rather, listened to the audio book) and .. well, it wasn't great, it wasn't awful, I figured DB had fun building a story around an old book. But I do think that for a lot of people the Da Vinci Code was an awakening of sorts, a new way to look at old stories. The controversy never hurts popularity ratings, either :P

[elmegil.livejournal.com]

And it wasn't like he didn't give them enough of a nod for those who wanted to follow up to go buy their books too. They're just wankers trying to get their name in the press.....

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

The History Channel show talked to one of the authors - he indeed seemed like a bit of a wanker.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought it was rather idiotic for them to bring the law suit over a work of fiction.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I simply hated "The Da Vinci Code". The writing gave me a headache.

On the other hand, I adore Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. So what the hell do I know? :)

Are you into English detective fiction at all? Reginald Hill is a simply gorgeous writer, and his Dalziel and Pascoe series gets better with each book.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I can see where Brown's style, in that book anyway, might not leave a large continuum between like and dislike. As I mentioned, even though it's a different topic, for that type of story I liked Neville's The Eight much better.

As for English detective fiction, I've only read some of the Doyle Sherlock Holmes stuff, but I'm always open to suggestions. Especially considering I am a huge anglophile. :-)

[geekchick]

I think not quite what was intended, but try Ellis Peters' Cadfael books. There are a lot of them, but they're all pretty short. Cadfael's a very interesting character. Plus there's the TV series with Derek Jacobi, whom I adore.

Also, try some of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books. (That's Scotland, not England, though. ;) )

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, Cadfael. I've heard about that, and I also love Derek Jacobi, ever since I first saw him in I, Claudius when I was a kid. I've also thought about looking into whether or not DVDs of it are out and adding them to our Blockbuster.com queue, except it already has 584 items on it. :-)

That's Scotland, not England, though. ;)

Like that's a problem for me? ;-)

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

In terms of the Cadfael series, I have to say I'm a huge, huge fan of the books, but wasn't very taken with the TV version despite Jacobi (and I was hoping to be, honestly). So if you don't like that version, I wouldn't say it's reason to cross the book series off of the "possibilities" list.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

The entire Cadfael television series is available on DVD.

Now, how would I know that, I wonder? :)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Love the Cadfael books. I have the whole series in paperback, and revisit it at least once every two years or so.

Rebus is also wonderful.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Reginald Hill is contemporary rather than historical, but his writing is terrific, and as he got deeper into the series, he wasn't afraid to experiment.

Wikipedia lists the novels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalziel_&_Pascoe) in order. I believe they're all available in paperback, except Death of Dalziel, which hasn't yet been released.

The TV series is not available in the U.S. (or in the UK, from what I can tell), damn it. Although it took, in its second season, a major departure from the books, A&E ran the very first one, A Clubbable Woman, which I saw and liked, but another has never crossed the pond, nor does it look to be happening any time soon. Ah, well.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'll file the info for when I feel like I have much time to read fiction again. :-)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that may be awhile :).

[karenthecroccy.livejournal.com]

See, now, I liked Da Vinci Code. Fun, easy read. Made me go "hrmmm" a few times. Dan Brown has a few things that drive me crazy character-wise ... but ... it wasn't all that bad :)

I think some of my sales girls and I will see it Monday

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Dan Brown has a few things that drive me crazy character-wise

Since it's been a while since I read it, I'm trying to remember what those might be. I thought more that his pace was a bit choppy in places.

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

I was annoyed at some of the story changes they make in the movie, in my mind unneccessarily.

But both are fine entertainment. Not to be taken as anything more.

I pretty much grew up reading things like Chariots of the Gods, so this sort of genre is great brain candy to me. And I've loved how, over the years, the things that were 'explained' in Chariots have since been actually explained by further exploration... and reading about them as the scientific story unfolds (a) decade(s) after I read the book is highly entertaining...

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I remember Chariots of the Gods. Now I feel old. :-) I never read it, but I do recall a similar cosnpiracy-theory peak around the same time it came out.