The Da Vinci Code

[pineapple stu]

Saw a couple of people knocking it on the Michael Moore thread, but found others saying how great it was on a couple of other threads. So what's people's views of it in general?

I thought it was a great book, with lots of interesting asides. The main storyline is one you want to believe and is backed up with lots of persuasive-sounding circumstantial evidence about conspiracies, but a lot of the other stuff is genuine (e.g. the Knights Templar's story, the Gospel according to Mary Magdelane, who wasn't the prostitute, etc.). Was talking to about it in work and people thought the entire thing was made up and that none of it had any factual grounding.

Anyone read any of the books about it? The Truth and Fiction in Da Vinci Code is one which explores the historical aspect more and corrects some of Brown's errors. There's The Da Vinci Hoax, The Da Vinci Code Decoded, Cracking the Da Vinci Code, The Magdalene Legacy: The Jesus and Mary Bloodline Conspiracy. Think there's as many seeking to debunk the entire book as there are looking to uncover some of the facts the book was based on. Are these any good?

Anyone read any of his Dan Brown's books?

[harpskid]

I thought the Da Vinci Code was a fascinating read. Just finished it last week, and would definitely recommend it.

The storyline is great and as you say Pineapple, has some great asides, like the stuff about Mary Magdelene, The Last Supper and the Knight's Templar.

I found it really interesting and will be making one of the books you mentioned next on the reading list.

[dahamsta]

To be completely honest, I think the people that complain about it are complete morons. If anything the book made me spend some time on Wikipedia researching things in more detail. (Yes, I'm aware that Wikipedia can't be relied upon 100% either, but I take it with a pinch of salt. In the same way I took the book with a spoonful.)

I'd imagine that these are the same morons that say Michael Moore's books and movies put spin on the issues they cover. Like, duh.

adam

[noby]

Whatever about conspiricy theorys, and truths and half-truths, I thought it was a great book. I'm not a very prolific reader, but this was very easy to read - almost screenplay like.

I just keep picturing Tom Hanks and saying NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[Corky]

Thought it was an excellent read, couldnt put it down and thats what a thriller should be about. Besides having an exciting story line, the background was very interesting. I too went onto the net after finishing it to find out a little more. Havent read any of the spin-offs but I did see a documentary about it introduced by Tony Robinson (extreme archaelogist bloke from Discovery). Went into it fairly well but in the end I dont think it proved anything either way.
Read 'Deception Point' as well and I thought it was a fairly good book, exciting story line and all that but the background was probably not as interesting as The DaVinci Code. My mate read it too and thought it was absolute muck, but the only other book he ever read was the DaVinci Code and its a hard act to follow....

[tetsujin1979]

I read it on a flight over to the states last year, and I have to say I couldn't put it down and thought (at the time) it was one of the best books I'd ever read. Looking back, it still is a good read, but the short chapters and every chapter ending on a cliffhanger encourages you to keep reading to see what happens next. The research is supposed to be dodgy at best. I saw the Tony Robinson (I still can only think of him as Baldric!!) documentary and thought it was fair and went through each of the points raised in the book and the only one they couldn't completely discredit was about the Last Supper, is it St John or Mary Magdalene?

The only other book by Dan Browne I've read is Digital Fortress, and I thought it was muck, but I can see where some of his writing style evolved from that book into the Da Vinci Code.

His next book is supposed to deal with the Masons, doubtless it'll sell by the bucketload.

[dahamsta]

The only other book by Dan Browne I've read is Digital Fortress, and I thought it was muck

Absolutely. Awful.

[Ash]

Da Vinci Code was a deadly read. I read most of another book called
"Breaking The Da Vinci Code" but the author argues that what Dan Browne says
is totally incorrect because ... wait for it ... The Bible clearly states otherwise!
This was his arguement against most of the codes in the book. Bit daft seeing
that the whole thing about the Da Vinci Code is that the Bible isnt the full story.

Other than that Ive read Digital Fortress and Deception Point. Both good reads
in my opinion. Just started Angels and Demons the other day.

[pineapple stu]

the author argues that what Dan Browne says is totally incorrect because ... wait for it ... The Bible clearly states otherwise!

Yeah, that's quite a common reply to the book alright. I was looking at a website there about Leonardo's The Last Supper and the whole issue of the person at Jesus' right being Mary Magdelane and not a disciple. The website pointed out that there was no mention of Mary Magdelane being at the Last Supper in the Bible. Which, of course, is exactly the point. Articles like these really almost make you believe the exact opposite argument at times! The knife thing is cool though!

[Ash]

Yeah, the knife thing was mad. After reading about it I actually routed
around the parents house and found a last supper pic and there it was!
Never noticed it before but then again Ive no interest in religion so I never
really looked

[noby]

In fairness Stu, the arguement could be used both ways.

It's not in the Bible because of some 'cover-up', but a few hundred years later a nutty artist drew it, so it must be true.

[pineapple stu]

Fair enough point, though it is widely known that there were about 80 Gospels written, one of which was by Mary Magdelane herself, and that the Council of Nicaea sat down to decide the compostion on the New Testament. You can't argue conclusively, as these people are trying to do, that because the Bible doesn't say something, it didn't happen when you choose to ignore 98% of the books.

[REVIP]

The Catholic group BASIC say da Vinci got the whole thing wrong anyway!

Check: http://www.iol.ie/~duacon/supper.htm

Here's what they say:

Leonardo da Vinci's great masterpiece "The Last Supper" is for many Christians the clearest image they have of Christ's last meal with his disciples. Yet though it is great art, da Vinci's painting is bad history. All the details in da Vinci's painting are inaccurate:

The painting shows daylight outside the window, but the actual Last Supper took place at night

The figures are seated about the tables on benches, whereas Jesus and his disciples reclined on couches

Da Vinci shows a meal of fish and ordinary bread, yet a Passover meal consists of unleavened bread, roast lamb and bitter herb

Da Vinci shows only Jesus and the twelve apostles, omitting:

women, yet the Passover had to be eaten by whole families includingwomen

children, yet the laws of Passover require children to ask questions so
that they can learn the meaning of the Passover meal from their parents

the disciples who prepared the meal during the day

Da Vinci shows thirteen Renaissance Italian males in oriental costume in a Florentine palace, not a Jewish celebration of the Passover in Palestine

[Gareth]

**SPOILERS IN THIS POST FOR ANYONE WHO HAS NOT READ THE BOOK**

I read a vast number of books. I read the De Vinci code book on my return from A Coruna from Shels Euro game. I read it and the best I could say about it was it was written like a true Airplane trash novel is written. The characters were undeveloped and shallow, with a lack of any real spark between any of them. The actual story was a very poor thriller/crime novel. Take the first few chapters, and the eloborate death setup. The first thing that hit me was the very experienced Detective thinking a man would go to such lengths before he died only to write the name of his killer on his chest? The fact that the main character and the girl solved every clue within 2 pages of discovering the inital problem was so ridulious. Find clue, think for ten seconds, solution is found. Multiply this scenerio by round 40 and you have the book.

The only thing going for it was the premise but having read about this "stunning" revelation Dan Brown has unearthed (mainly from a thousand books previously written) is the basis of this books success. It makes people feel like they have also discovered an incredible scandal. The only good thing about this book is the possibly of introducing people to start reading. Personally I found it to be a poorly written, poorly developed crime novel.

This is just my opinion and I completely am open to healthy debate on this subject, albeit I really find myself stressing over people having conversations about this subject purely based on their Dan Brown reading and think they are experts.

[ken foree]

The only thing going for it was the premise but having read about this "stunning" revelation Dan Brown has unearthed (mainly from a thousand books previously written) is the basis of this books success. It makes people feel like they have also discovered an incredible scandal. The only good thing about this book is the possibly of introducing people to start reading. Personally I found it to be a poorly written, poorly developed crime novel.

yea it might have an imaginative story in parts ? but the man's writing (from the first 20 pages of angels and demons a colleague gave me) seems shocking. gobs of better stuff out there

[niamh]

I thought the book was good. I thought Angels and Demons was good and particularly apt given recent events in the Vatican. But they are fiction, while making difficult and complex theories more accessible than some of the academic books around.
However I am tackling one of the truth about the Da Vinci code books at the moment. It is bascially a collecting of interviews and essays on each theory of the book ie Mary Magdelene and lets the reader make up their own mind.
For the record, the way the church treated her in their early decades, for a woman who clearly had such an important role in Jesus' life, is nothing short of a disgrace and is one of the reason's I have little or no respect for the current establishment.

[Gareth]

I am not religious. I have to start off with that.

Niamh, more commonly in the past in many cultures, not all cultures mind, there was a general lack of equal rights for women. The fact the Church possibly wrote one such woman's role out of a story that could be just a story is one of millions of mistreatments of women in the past. They still currently exclude women out of a number of key areas, namely priesthood, but if you are disgusted at the current Church establishment due to Magdelene possible exclusion from the story of jesus, then you have to be disgusted with nearly every country in the world, because in the history of the world, few nations can say they treated women fairly or equally if any?

I think too much hearsay and misinformation will span from Dan Brown's book because everyone is writing books thrown together to cash in on the Di Vinci Code profits.

[Bolnoy Bratchny]

The characters were undeveloped and shallow, with a lack of any real spark between any of them.

It makes people feel like they have also discovered an incredible scandal. The only good thing about this book is the possibly of introducing people to start reading. Personally I found it to be a poorly written, poorly developed crime novel.

As one of those people who "knocked" this book on the Micheal Moore thread i couldnt agree with you more. The book does keep your interest but the already bad plot goes totally pear shaped about half way through. I am not religious, in fact consider myself atheist/agnostic at best, so i dont disagree with it on moral grounds like a lot of people. There are so many holes in the plot/research it just gets really annoying.

I think the one thing that annoys me most is people who have read it saying they looked at Da Vinci's last supper and "oh my god, it is a woman". So what???? it was painted about 1400 years after the supposed last supper took place its not a bloody photograph, plus as i understand it Da Vinci was a bit of a flaming homosexual with a thing for young boys which he often incorporated into his work.

At the end of the day i think its worth reading so that people can make up their own minds on it. Personally i feel this book will appeal to people who watch CSI Miami and think its cool but dont get annoyed by its total removal from reality i.e. blonde model type turning up in $100,000 hummer and evening dress dropping hairs all over crime scene.

[paul_oshea]

i think a guy made a lot of money from nothing more than conspiracy theories...

[Docboy]

AS someone who grew up reading all my da's thriller books I couldn't see what all the hype was about. Sure, the one thing you can say is that it's hard to put down but that is par for the course in this genre,ending chapters on a cliffhanger start the next with the revealing moment nothing in the middle only for another cliffhanger to spring up, sometimes laughably.

Then again, if it gets people reading.................