Da Da Vinci code

It's an extreme example of the triumph of hype/marketing/bollox over substance. Hollywwod, the place where vaccuous image means more than truth or quality. Mr.D.Brown should fit in rather well.
matt.

Did you see Crash (to give a recent example)? It was a good film for pushing the audience beyond stereotypes.

A badly written book which used ideas from another book 'The holy blood and the holy grail' which it's own authors have admitted was based, in part, on a hoax. Despite the obvious and overwhlming flaws of both books the da vinci code has a huge following of devotees who ignore any 'evidense' that does not agree with want they want to believe. Now...where have we seen all that before? At least they don't go around burning witches or launching crusades.

On a point of pedentry the book should be called 'The Leonardo Code' as da vinci means 'of or from Vinci'. We do not call Michaelangelo 'Di Simoni' do we? One would have thought Dan Brown would have known this.

Personally I believe much of what the Holy blood holy gail had to say is AT LEAST as credible as a good deal of what the New Testament has to say (which is precious little IMO.

I enjoyed the book and I don't mind if Dan Brown made a lot of money with it. Anyone who wants to question my intelligence now?

It also has the value of reaching a wide range of people with thoughts that challenge their narrow ideas about christianity. I grew up in catholicism. I should know.

quote:

It also has the value of reaching a wide range of people with thoughts that challenge their narrow ideas about christianity. I grew up in catholicism. I should know.

So, teaching one load of bollocks is conteracted by introducing another load of bollocks and pretending THAT's the truth........

And you want us to comment on your intelligence?

Cheers

Don

All together now! Two wrongs don't make a ....................
No offence to anybody who enjoyed the book. After all, there is a catholic range of musical taste on here,(some of my musical tastes may well be scoffed at) why not a broad church of differing literary tastes as well?
For me though d.browns books have all been 10% good idea(the bits he stole, probably)& 90% bollox
matt

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
I enjoyed the book and I don't mind if Dan Brown made a lot of money with it. Anyone who wants to question my intelligence now?

It also has the value of reaching a wide range of people with thoughts that challenge their narrow ideas about christianity. I grew up in catholicism. I should know.

I am all for challenging narrow ideas about Christianity or indeed any of the theistic religions (or even my own). The da vinci code and the holy blood, holy grail does this very well imo however what they offer in its place (although being far from a load of bollocks Don)has little more credibilty (in some aspects)than what it seeks to question (I do not believe either books seek to replace and neither do they set out to teach Don). I'm with you ALexander, the Catholic church needs to be challenged imo. I enjoyed reading the da vinci code, none of it was new to me and I solved all the riddles (easily done having read the holy blood, holy grail)- I had no interested in becoming a born again codist - I just thought it a rollicking good beach book. I am not amazed people do not see through it, they are just as deluded and unquestioning as catholics imo. Debate is good. I understand the catholics in the Philippines are trying to ban the film. This is bad.

Life of Brian all over again then!

Just ignore it - like all manufactured fads it will be all over in a few weeks and the Hollywood marketing gurus will begin pushing their next 'blockbuster' at us.

I loved the book, absolute trash but great fun! Allows even the most dimwitted reader to believe they are cleverly solving all the puzzles ahead of the main protagonists when, in reality, you'd need to be a low grade moron not to know what's around every corner.

Fantastic to see the God squad and Daily Mail readers getting all huffy over it as well!

Doug

I seem to picking up from this thread that a lot of posters don't believe the Da Cinci code is based on fact.

Oh well - it certainly fooled me.

Hey, if facts can include Mary being a virgin but getting pregnant, Jesus dying then coming round a few days later and being able to make a piece of fish go round 5000, why can't the Dcode be just as reasonable.

Its all bullshit fiction, perhaps the bible was written by Browns ancestors.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:

quote:

It also has the value of reaching a wide range of people with thoughts that challenge their narrow ideas about christianity. I grew up in catholicism. I should know.

So, teaching one load of bollocks is conteracted by introducing another load of bollocks and pretending THAT's the truth........

And you want us to comment on your intelligence?

Cheers

Don

You're free to comment. I consider the book good fun , if you're tolerant for some weaknesses. A lot of the criticism is little more than defensiveness about one's place on the intellectual hierarchy (repeat this out loud 5 times quickly).

That's nice value. But more than that, it's got some real mind-opening value.

It puts concepts in people's minds that challenge some silly truths. this is not the same as putting truths against truths. The concepts can be implicit (Jesus possibly being a very human creature with a wife for example) and they don't have to be introduced as hard claims, because it's a novel(well, that can be a bit contentious). I don't know if many people took literal truths from Brown's book ,I had the impression that on average the effect was positive : the benefit of attention without too much 'alternate truth'.

After people read this book, see if they're still receptive for ideas like 'the immaculate conception', even if this theme doesn't occur anywhere in the book.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Hey, if facts can include Mary being a virgin but getting pregnant, Jesus dying then coming round a few days later and being able to make a piece of fish go round 5000, why can't the Dcode be just as reasonable.

Those are what I'd call 'attributes of authority'. They offer little more than confirmation that the source is authoritative (maybe at the time the meaning might have been slightly different).

If you have a 'book of wisdom' then it's still wisdom if there are no attributes of authority. Attributes of authority can help so you pay more attention, but they don't carry a lot of wisdom by themselves.

I'm Brian and so's my wife.

A ripping yarn which should not be taken seriously or literally. A product more of marketing than anything else which has been taken far too seriously by far too many people who seem to got it all out of proportion. Harmless fun seized on by devotees and turned into something it isn’t. So much for the bible. I think the same broadly applies to The Da Vinci Code. A big difference is that the latter is marketed as entertainment and is piling up dollars, whereas the former was marketed at sword point and piled up a lot of bodies. These esoteric Eastern religions seem to cause nothing but trouble.

Cheers

Harry

Alex my deeply held belief in not beliving in things you can't see leads me to my conclusions, authority or no, the bible might just as well be fiction as is the Dcode.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Alex my deeply held belief in not beliving in things you can't see

So don't you believe in electricity? Or gravity?

quote:

Originally posted by JamieWednesday:
If I hear or see one more headline leading to an attempt to push why this book/film is important and whether it's a justifiable narrative to explore the myths of christianity or the very definition of Satan's work, I'll go and f*cking crucify someone.

Is it? I wasn't aware that anyone took it seriously in documentary terms. The only issue as far as I'm concerned is that Dan Brown is an appalling writer and the essence of the book has been stolen anyway. DB is extremely lucky as the book does not deserve it's success. I guess the timing was right and it struck a chord with the public who feel disillusioned with religion in general.

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
Is it? I wasn't aware that anyone took it seriously in documentary terms.

Well the Catholic Church seemed to have got their knickers in a twist about it.

The Da Vinci Cod

That's much more like it.

Now are there some chips to go with it?

quote:

Originally posted by JonR:
Well the Catholic Church seemed to have got their knickers in a twist about it.

Ah yes.. Those in the Vatican. They need to get out more.

quote:

Ah yes.. Those in the Vatican. They need to get out more.

Yes, like Africa, where aids is spiraling out of control helped by the Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo's advice that condoms don't work in preventing the spread of HIV.

Ah, organised religions eh?

Douglas

A one eyed, green cod. Hmmm.....
That would be a Picasso cod surely?

Anyone seen the film? Is it worth seeing, I mean, is it entertaining as in "cheap escapism entertainment for the proletariat" ? My SO has been bitten by the hype and wants to go.

/dl