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

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

so i read DVC and decried it- simple, stupid, blah blah. but here`s the thing. i went on to devour two of his other books- digital fortress and deception point. someone said they`re like harry potter, and that`S bang on. he shows you a new world and he whizzes around it with constant plot. also reminds me of 24- the TV show. not something i`D wanna watch twice, but something brilliant the first time round when u don`T know what`s gonna happen.
it`s popcorn, i guess. and we can diss brown, but i think he really is a master- cos he holds my attention and he MAKES me keep on reading. he got skills.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. And story-telling is one of the basic writerly skills and not every novelist has it. For instance, I love Virginia Woolf, but she really struggles at it.