That Damn Book (And Film)

[poliphilo]

The Da Vinci Code comes too late for me. I did all this stuff in the 80s and 90s.

I'm not saying I was in the vanguard. As someone in the Observer pointed out this morning, people like Robert Graves and Margaret Murray were putting together theories involving the Great Goddess, the sex life of Jesus and centuries-old ecclesiastical conspiracies over fifty years ago.

And behind them lies Frazer's Golden Bough- one of the key texts of the early 20th century.

What was once the prattle of a few off-centre scholars and pseudo-scholars has finally gone mainstream.

There was a time when I hoped and half-believed it was all true.

But now I know it isn't.

There never was a Goddess worshipping Golden Age.
The Priory de Sion was the invention of a mid-20th century fascist hoaxer.
Opus Dei may be sinister- but it doesn't employ albino hit-men.

And so on...

That's what irritates me about Brown. If he'd done proper research- instead of cherrypicking the conspiracy websites- he'd have known that most of the ideas he's playing with here were shot to pieces ages ago.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated by conspiracy theories, cryptids, ghosts, UFOs and all that stuff.

But I want solid evidence and I want to hear the case for the prosecution.

There's no way I'm going to allow myself to be suckered into becoming a "true believer".

[methodius.livejournal.com]

When I was about 14 i loved a book in our schoopl library called Focus on the unknown. I suppose it was the equivalent of Baigent et al in a later age, but I found it much more interesting. I'd like to read it again, just to see if it was just because I was less critical at that age.