The Da Vinci Code
Feb. 4th, 2005 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThey say the Da Vinci Code is badly written. That's enough to put me off. Life is too short.
But what really gets me is that people are reacting as if this stuff about The Priory of Sion and Mary Magdalen and Rennes Le Chateau were new and shocking. It isn't. It's all there in the 1982 non-fiction best-seller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which is still in print. Also it's all over the Net. What sheltered lives some people must lead!
Also, if Brown had researched properly- instead of just reading The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail- he'd have known that the Priory of Sion has long since been revealed as a hoax. I'll admit I didn't know that myself before last night (when Channel 4 revealed all) but if I'd been proposing to put the Priory at the centre of a novel I'd have made damn sure I found out all I could about it before I went ahead and committed myself.
But what really gets me is that people are reacting as if this stuff about The Priory of Sion and Mary Magdalen and Rennes Le Chateau were new and shocking. It isn't. It's all there in the 1982 non-fiction best-seller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which is still in print. Also it's all over the Net. What sheltered lives some people must lead!
Also, if Brown had researched properly- instead of just reading The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail- he'd have known that the Priory of Sion has long since been revealed as a hoax. I'll admit I didn't know that myself before last night (when Channel 4 revealed all) but if I'd been proposing to put the Priory at the centre of a novel I'd have made damn sure I found out all I could about it before I went ahead and committed myself.
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Date: 2005-02-04 02:40 am (UTC)I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, as a piece of light entertainment which required very little thought. One of those 'try not to worry about the plot' things. Not great writing by any stretch, but an entertaining enough thriller.
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Date: 2005-02-04 02:47 am (UTC)Respect!
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Date: 2005-02-04 03:17 am (UTC)Can't you just see a Time Team episode on that?
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Date: 2005-02-04 05:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-02-04 05:47 am (UTC)The Priory of Zion turns out to be a hoax perpetrated by three off the wall Frenchmen in the 1950s. They weren't about black magic, but about restoring the Merovingian dynasty. So whatever this group is that your friend has contacted I imagine it has just "borrowed" the name.
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Date: 2005-02-04 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 05:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 05:49 am (UTC)It's just that this stuff about Sion and Rennes Le Chateau and the Sang Real has been out there for decades and I'm surprised at anyone being shocked or surprised at it.
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-02-04 05:34 am (UTC)I think it's important to remember that Brown's work is intended to be fiction - granted, with enough "realistic" facts thrown in to make some people wonder if it's really fiction, but in the end, that's exactly what it is and nothing more. I think if one keeps that in mind when reading it, it can be enjoyable.
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:13 am (UTC)Maybe it's unrealistic to expect writers of popular fiction to do much research. After all, Conan Doyle placed Taunton at the heart of Dartmoor and all he had to do was glance at the map to discover it's not.
My resentment of Dan Brown stems from my feeling (maybe it's unjust) that he's just taken someone else's book, lightly fictionalized it and now he's making millions. I just don't reckon he's earned his success.
(no subject)
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Date: 2005-02-04 05:52 am (UTC)Like everyone else here, I thought it was a good 'what if' sort of romp, but in my explorations of the Grail legends, there was always that sense of fiction underlying all of it. Even when I visited Glastonbury and the alleged place of King Arthur, I couldn't shake that sense that it was all a fairy tale.
It was, but it was still fun. And so was Glastonbury- it struck me as sort of like Santa Cruz CA without the beach. :-)
Sunfell
(PS: My friend [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] turned me onto your LJ, just in case you're wondering where I came from. She highly recommended you.)
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:20 am (UTC)I'm afraid to go back in case I find the magic has gone.
I'm glad you found me. I was looking at your journal last night- and I like your style.:)
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:16 am (UTC)Also, if Brown had researched properly- instead of just reading The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail- he'd have known that the Priory of Sion has long since been revealed as a hoax.
THANK YOU - I've been saying the same bloody thing since Brown's book came out, but all I got were blank stares. I read the book out of curiosity, and "they" didn't mislead you. It makes John Grisham's books seem like high prose. I suspect Brown knew all along the data was false, but recognized the opportunity for a significant financial score in repackaging Holy Blood's central thesis in a pulp fiction format for mass consumption. Either way, he's certainly laughing all the way to the bank.
I'll be passing on the movie when it comes out.
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:31 am (UTC)Just as well probably or all we'd get would be things written to a formula.
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:26 am (UTC)I'm totally on the fence in this argument, actually. The person in the Last Supper is obviously a woman, and I've got friends of friends who are high-up Masons and believe all this stuff and have interesting books about it, apparently.
I'm sure the Da Vinci Code isn't a work of art by any means, but I read it before the backlash, and as someone who usually gets offended by badly-written books, I loved it. I was enthralled. If you read it as a straight-up mystery, I think it's earned its status.
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Date: 2005-02-04 06:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-02-04 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 07:45 am (UTC)Not as good As The Name of The Rose, but not far off.
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Date: 2005-02-04 07:21 am (UTC)Holzer keeps rising to the top, against all laws of physics.
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Date: 2005-02-04 07:48 am (UTC)The review books somehow always seem to be at the bottom.
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Date: 2005-02-04 10:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 10:50 am (UTC)Yer pays yer money an yer takes yer choice. :)
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Date: 2005-02-04 10:58 am (UTC)I are one. I had heard very little of what was in that book before.
Also, if Brown had researched properly- instead of just reading The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail- he'd have known that the Priory of Sion has long since been revealed as a hoax.
I'm pretty sure he didn't do his own research for this book.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 11:38 am (UTC)Not that there's any virtue in it. All this conspiracy stuff is utterly nonsensical- a kind of porn of the intellect.
Does he really not do his own research? How weird.
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Date: 2005-02-04 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 11:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2005-02-04 10:36 pm (UTC)it`s popcorn, i guess. and we can diss brown, but i think he really is a master- cos he holds my attention and he MAKES me keep on reading. he got skills.
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Date: 2005-02-04 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-04 11:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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