quasigeostrophy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quasigeostrophy) wrote2006-05-25 09:50 pm
quasigeostrophy) wrote2006-05-25 09:50 pm
All I Hope Ever to Have to Say on "The Da Vinci Code"
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.
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.
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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. :-)
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Also, try some of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus books. (That's Scotland, not England, though. ;) )
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That's Scotland, not England, though. ;)
Like that's a problem for me? ;-)
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Now, how would I know that, I wonder? :)
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Rebus is also wonderful.
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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.
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