The Da Vinci Code

[poliphilo]

They 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.

Comments

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit unsure that it was a hoax, or was all a hoax, actually, but I haven't read that much about it. I know the guy *says* it was a hoax, but it's possible that either he was misled, or that he was leant on.

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.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

This will sound weird, but I think it's somewhat akin to the Harry Potter phenomenon. If you read it with an open mind and just let yourself enjoy it, you will. If you go looking for all of the things that were "stolen" from other works, you will most assuredly find them and if you let yourself, you will be annoyed.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

All writers steal from other writers. The kind of stealing J.K. Rowling does is justified by the way she combines the ingredients to make something new.

I suspect this excuse doesn't apply to Brown, but I haven't read his book, so I can't be sure.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The Priory of Sion has been declared to be a hoax by the hoaxers (or one or other of them.) The same goes for the story about Sauniere finding a treasure at Rennes Le Chateau.

I'n not sure about the figure in the painting. There's a tradition of painting St John as a girlish figure. and Leonardo was gay and had a thing for effeminate young men. There are several paintings by him of sexually ambiguous figures posing as Christian saints.

There's even an hypothesis (pretty far out, I'll admit) that the Mona Lisa is a self portrait in drag.

But, yeah, he does look like a woman.

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

I know it's been declared a hoax by one of the hoaxers, but one of the others (or the son of) says it's not, so I don't know who to believe. I have this problem with conspiracy theories - my mind stays too open and I have about 15 non-complementary theories floating about in it, none of which I'll totally dismiss!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I trust my nose, and my nose says it's a hoax.

That list of grand masters- Botticelli, Leonardo, Newton, Debussy, Cocteau- it's too grand.

And then Cocteau hands over to Pierre Plantard- the first nobody on the list. No, it just doesn't add up.