It seems to have disappeared out of this fora, has it gone somewhere else, or was it lost in the switch to vBulletin? I just finished reading the book yesterday (I actually started reading it yesterday too), and wanted to talk about it.
I read it last week while on Spring Break. It was a page turner. I did wonder what was fiction, and what, if anything, was based on fact.
I thought the most compelling thing was looking at Da Vinci's Last Supper, the person to Jesus' right indeed does look like Mary Magdalene. Christian scholars contend that it is in fact his disciple John, painted in an effeminate pose the way Da Vinci usually painted him. I wasn't aware that Da Vinci had ever painted John before. I read a ridiculous review of the book by some Christian magazine where the author tried to tear the book down, but only made herself look like a hypocrite and an idiot. It was quite funny.
Under protest of content, the Christian Right had the thread deleted. (just kidding). If you want to figure out how much is fact or fiction, you can read the very tedious "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". A lot of that book is lifted (at times word for word) by Brown into Da Vinci Code. Basically though, assume the following: a> christianity was largely shaped by various factions within the Church over the years. Doesn't mean religion isn't true (if you believe it to be), just that the Roman Catholic church (and others) molded it into what we know today, it didn't start out that way from day one. Looked at honestly, that isn't a revolutionary or blasphemetic (?) idea, and it doesn't "mean" anything, unless you want it to. You either believe that there was a god and that we've changed the ways in which we worship over the years (which is natural), or you don't. So, nothing new there. b> there may be, or may not be, a Priory of Scion. There was a Knights Templar. c> the mary magdalene/merovingian link can never be "proved", but it is a theory. French assassins from Marsielle killed Kennedy. Also a theory. d> the book is an interesting read, nothing more or less. As a work of fiction, it can't be taken too literally. Though, it is a rip roaring page turner.
I ended up buying it from B&N on the 23rd, finished most of it that day, read the last three chapters on the 24th, and ended up returning it yesterday. The real question is whether or not Mary Magdalene was related to the Merovingian in the Matrix. There is a Priory of Sion (it's registered with the french gvt.). The question is was it started in 1965 by Cocteau, or was he just one of a long line of it's grandmasters? I can't wait for Brown's next book about the Freemasons.
Holy Blood, Holy Grail gets more into detail on the Priory, and the question of if it was controlling the Knights Templar. There is the problem of the fact that it was basically a secret society for about 800 years, then someone started leaking all of this information about it in the 1950s. So, is it a hoax that it was around for 800 years, or is the publishing of the documents a hoax? Anyway.
It's all very fascinating. I love reading religious fiction thriller books like DVC. I read one last summer (Dante's Equation) that related Kabbalahism and science. It was a fictional work, but it was a fascinating book in the DVC mold. Incorporating a lot of facts (and assumptions) into a fictional thriller.
I read the Bloodline of Holy Grail by Laurence Gardner many years ago(is it the same as Holy Blood Holy grail). So when I read Da Vinci Code, I did not think too much of it. Much of the facts in DVC have sunken in my head many years ago. When I reread the Holy Grail again, I admitted getting confused with the details. I wanted to read more things on the subject.... any recommedation.
It's tacky I agree, but when you have $8 in your checking account, and need to pay for gas to commute 40 miles back and forth to work each day, you tend to do some tacky things.
That's a pretty good rundown. I'm Catholic and had no problems with the book, but then I'm not someone who gets worked up and bandys the word 'heretical' around a lot . I think the book was pretty inoffensive, like you said its fiction, and the stuff its based on has (at the very least) a marginal grounding in fact. This is part what made it so interesting to me. I loved it, but I think the hype was a bit much... I read it after it was popular, but before I read all the raving (someone gave it to me for Christmas, I didn't know anything about it). If I'd heard all the hype, I think I might have been a little disappointed.
I figured out "Apple" about 50 pages to early and it ruined the next 50 pages because I was just waiting for them to figure it out.
i read something in the local paper yesterday which said that the Catholic Church and the Christian Right are so upset about this book that no less than 10 "anti-Da Vinci Code" books are due out within the next year, with more to follow. it was ironic as last saturday my gal & i went for a long ride through san diego county and saw TWO signs on churches saying (more or less) "Responses to the Da Vinci Code". clearly it's raised a few hackles somewhere.
well, you certainly could be right; i admittedly know nothing about it; i'm just reporting what was in the paper which did seem to know that a bunch of books were coming out in response to this book to prove it wrong, with one of the reasons being the Da Vinci Code had caused such a stir that they (someone, who knows) felt it necessary to respond. my Catholic friends loved the Da Vinci Code, though they're admittedly lapsed Catholics.
I've scanned the web and read a bunch of reviews. Seems like the reviews from Christian-type websites tend to cite Brown's historical inaccuracies as a reason to discount the novel. The Bible says that Moses and the Patriarchs lived several hundred years each. Can I cite that as an historical inaccuracy?
I don't remember my Bible but wasn't Noah like 900 years old? I could be mistaking him with someone else.