quasigeostrophy: (hypnotoad)
[personal profile] 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.

Date: 2006-05-26 01:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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.

Date: 2006-05-26 02:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] 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. :-)

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