Would like to know if anyone on here has read the book The Da Vinci code by Dan Brown and will you be watching The real Da Vinci Code on channel 4 thursday at 9pm. I would just like to start a thread on peoples opinions regarding the book and the programme after it is shown.
The book - apart from being written with all the prose style of a 14 year old schoolboy - is a mash of ideas that have been around for ages - Holy Blood,Henry Lincoln,various forgeries that have long been unmasked like the Priory of Sion....from what I've read the Tony Robinson film takes this line and hopefully will stop people taking all this stuff as gospel... Its just a shame that Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco which took all this to its absurb conclusion is fairly obscure while Brown's nonsence sells millions......and we have the Tom Hanks movie to go yet....
I think Dan Brown has given life to something truly fascinating, more so with the Arts! I enjoyed reading this fictional book and Dan Brown has a good imagination, 40 million copies makes it a good book to read, thats fact not fiction! You cannot blame people for wanting to find the truth regarding the existance of God in any shape or form. Angels and Demons was another of Dan Browns books that interested me greatly, not because i believed what Dan Brown had written, but because there was fact behind the story in which science struggled to produce its findings to a religious world, Gallileo would be a good example.
I have not read Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, would that be worth buying? please tell me more about this book.
I've read the Da Vinci Code too and thoroughly enjoyed it. I took it on holiday with me and found it the perfect holiday read. I have a fascination with the Templars and do love a good murder/mystery so it seemed like an ideal choice. I think the point that many people seem to be missing though from reviews I've read is that it is a work of fiction. Dan Brown has made no claims that it is anything other and all of the information he has used in his research is widely available and well known. I don't understand the reason that he is being villified so much for this novel. He's written a best seller and good luck to him. Admittedly it isn't a literary heavyweight but that doesn't make it any less of a good read. I will be watching the programme and I know that Tony Robinson pretty much tears apart all the theories that have been put forward but to the best of my knowledge, that's been done anyway.
I agree with you though shapeshifter that this novel has also given many people an easy introduction into the world of the Templars and the art of the Renaissance.
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I too have an interest in the templars. With the Da Vinci Code like you say a work of fiction! Dan Brown has written it so you cannot help wanting it to become true, which in my opinion is a sign of a good writer! Yes i agree, many writers have jumped on the success of this book and now with the prospect of a hollywood film that i feel may break box office records, who knows it might lead to a world wide treasure hunt! No harm in dreaming!
The Eco novel concerns 3 publishers who have to wade through lots of guff about the Templers and the Grail and every barking theory going - they decide to have some fun by lumping it all together and weaving all the strands to create a completly fictional tale that explains all the inconsistancies.... The only problem is a some of the nutters take this all too seriously and suspect the 3 publishers of revealing a great secret....a great secret they have cooked up for fun but a lot of people take it as fact.
Along the way you discover lots of facsinating stuff about the Templers(both historical and speculative)and the whole Grail/Mary Magdalene stuff....its very well written(he also wrote The Name of the Rose) and a much better read than the Brown novel....
I think I'm actually going to get the Umberto Eco novel StevieB, it sounds fascinating. I think the problem I and probably a lot of people have is that there are too many books and too little time to read them all in! Thanks for the recommendation.
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I loved the book it was great. I never really had a great interest in Art or Religous issues to be honest so i probably wouldn't have chosen this book, it was on a friend's highly recommendation that i read it. It was fascinating though - yeah fine probably not all completely true but it is in the fiction section! All the puzzles and hidden secrets just made it all the more interesting and exciting. I'm just patiently waiting for the film now to come out next year and I'll be watching the Documentary on Thursday just to see what was right and what was wrong about the book.
Carter: did the gang go out again last night? Abby: its not a gang it’s a club Carter: not another stage diving incident I hope Abby: first rule of girls club is you don’t talk about girls club Carter: you’re not going to tell me what you did? Abby: The usual, prank calls, pillow fights, lesbian experimentation
Thanks for the recommendations! I suppose the whole idea of finding "the grail for example" lets peoples imaginations run riot! it's a pitty no one can establish Balance between fact and fiction.
`The Da Vinci Crud` is dreadful! The characters are almost comic -book, there is nothing original in the story and I had to force myself to read the whole thing. For a good factual read about the village of Roslin, home of Rosslyn Chapel, get a hold of `Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel, castle...` by Rev. J. Thompson, available from Rosslyn Chapel shop and probably other places out there too...
[QUOTE]Originally posted by rua: `The Da Vinci Crud` is _dreadful_!
What in the book upsets you the most? I know there are area's in the book that are incorrect for example something is wedged between the frame and the canvas of the mona lisa, The mona lisa is actually painted on wood! there are many other examples in the book that have been covered by writer's such as simon cox! I am actually amazed regarding the interest in this book, more so by those trying to disprove a story of fiction.
<Damian>
Posted
quote:Would like to know if anyone on here has read the book The Da Vinci code by Dan Brown
No. Life is short and I have better things to do with it.
quote:and will you be watching The real Da Vinci Code on channel 4 thursday at 9pm.
No Baldric is a clown. And if he thinks there is anything in this sort of tosh, he's even stupider than I took him for. The media should stop being deferential to self-publicizing ignorant twerps like that and employ a few professional historians instead.
quote:I would just like to start a thread on peoples opinions regarding the book and the programme after it is shown.
Don't waste your time on it. The reviews clued me in on this.
Take the time you would have spent reading this to read something worthwhile instead - such as these, if you haven't already:
Whoops... Tony Robinson was here (Roslin) a couple of months ago to film in the Chapel for the `Real Da Vinci Code` and Stuart Beatie (Rosslyn Chapels Big Boss Man) told him and the film crew to sling their hook!
I haveread the Da vinci Code after much persuasion from pple who have read it... and I totally agree with one of the above post about the writing being akin to that of a 14 yr old- who has just w**ked over a Mills and Boon novel ( ).
The plot based on some facts is intriguing, but I don't actually think that it is relevant as a history discussion point. I think it has more to do with the cultural temprament of our time, and specifically plays on our mistrust of religion and desire to "find" hidden truths and meanings within our culture (Roswell and all the like conspiracy theories)
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
I found the book difficult to put down - until the part where they left the Louvre. The story was a good one and a neat way of relating some of the Grail/Priory theories; however, I agree with the others here who have criticised the characterisations. Talk about stereotypes!
I loved the Research Library where the Librarian is preparing a pot of tea for herself!
As for the theories themselves, I'm far from convinced. I read a few of the books when they first appearred and was mainly interested in the early Christian history aspect of it. Yhere are, though, many tantalising titbits thrown up by the whole affair. I'm looking forward to the programme, but not expecting anything too earth shattering.
Dr Juliette Wood is delivering an ope seminar on the same topic at Cardiff University later this month, by the way.
The Da Vinci Code was a terrible book. I'm in the process of writing up an extensive review that will go on my website. I'll post a link here at the weekend when I get home and access my ftp. The novel was not satisfying on any level for me - Angels and Demons was a far superior trashy airline novel, still suffered from a large proportion of Da Vinci's problems though. I think the worst part of all this has been Dan Brown's deliberate assertion that his writings are based on "fact". This is a very obvious marketing ploy - nothing sells better than religious controversy. A major issue at play here is that there are so many weak Christians out there who only need an alternative theory to have them harping on about "conspiracies" and "cover-ups". It's sad because this feeds the fire of controversy and scandal. Another thing that saddens me is the Church's reaction to it, if they ignored it as the trash that it is rather than condemn or suppress it (as it was in certain hardline countries) no one would have paid it any heed - because it is at its core, a woefully derivative novel. If some would say that supports it being true, I'd say that to those people that you're forgetting that the Church has a responsibility to remind their congregation about the dangers of losing faith and worshipping false idols.
The only appreciation I will show for Brown is to see the huge opening in the market there was for fact-related adventure fiction - I'd realised a similar gap in the market a year previously when I started writing my own novel. What he's done though, is hardly original. He mixes existing legends with existing myths regarding artists and conspiracy theories regarding the Church, tosses in a formulaic plot and cardboard characters and bang! Instant success - purely because of the scandal it created by bringing it together.
This show as well, I fear, will pander to its views and bring up a lot of the templar myth and legend to support his work rather than pointing at the obvious mistakes in his research. For starters, his Opus Dei description is so utterly off the mark that it's actually funny. Also, he says something along the lines of: "many historians accept the ideas proferred by books such Holy Blood, Holy Grail as being entirely accepted" whereas I've read that the majority of historians APART from those who are Grail enthusiasts think it's a load of unsubstantiated rubbish.
Since there's money to be made here, a movie in production, there's little doubt in my mind that it'll be a glowing acceptance of Brown's combination of crackpot-conspiracies.
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