Ruminations On The Success Of The Da Vinci Code
December 22nd 2006 05:23
Every now and again, something will be released that will cause a sensation of negative publicity. A recent example would be Dan Brown's “The DaVinci Code”, a novel denounced by Christians worldwide for its tales of conspiracy theories covering up the true events of Jesus' life and unorthodox interpretations of classical art, among other things. It's easy to see why it struck such a raw nerve - in a society like ours, which has a purely Christian foundation, most people wouldn't look at Leonardo DaVinci's famed painting of The Last Supper and see obscure symbolism in facial expressions and body language that points to a total New Testament spin-job.
If the Christian establishment had completely ignored the book, it might not have become one of the biggest-selling novels of all time – because, as many people can tell you, the book itself is fucking awful; third-rate theology-major lit-minor two-dimensional bargain-bin paperback garbage from the get-go.
But why wouldn't Christian power-mongers be angry? The book is superficially clever enough to convince the sort of person who believes what they read in Women's Weekly that it's telling the truth.
What if the saviour was married to a whore? What if the Vatican are an elitist cadre of bloodthirsty conspirators, dedicated to suppressing the ugly truth at all cost? What if not all albinos are timid? What if everything you believe about God and the Universe and the afterlife and Holiness is based on bullshit? What if the truth was there all along, dangling under our noses, hidden in the way John is buttering his dinner roll?
Terrifying, indeed...for some of us, anyway.
The DaVinci Code has been torn to pieces, basically. Its every theory and insinuation has been discredited by scholars, critics and academics the world over. Christianity's dubious credibility has remained more or less undented. And Dan Brown, who never set out to change the course of religious history, but only to tell a rollicking yarn, laughs contemptuously at the free publicity he got by poking the hornet's nest as he swims a leisurely backstroke through an Olympic swimming pool filled with money, surrounded by a harem of leggy blonde concubines bearing glasses of vintage champagne.
Sunrise, sunset.
If the Christian establishment had completely ignored the book, it might not have become one of the biggest-selling novels of all time – because, as many people can tell you, the book itself is fucking awful; third-rate theology-major lit-minor two-dimensional bargain-bin paperback garbage from the get-go.
But why wouldn't Christian power-mongers be angry? The book is superficially clever enough to convince the sort of person who believes what they read in Women's Weekly that it's telling the truth.
What if the saviour was married to a whore? What if the Vatican are an elitist cadre of bloodthirsty conspirators, dedicated to suppressing the ugly truth at all cost? What if not all albinos are timid? What if everything you believe about God and the Universe and the afterlife and Holiness is based on bullshit? What if the truth was there all along, dangling under our noses, hidden in the way John is buttering his dinner roll?
Terrifying, indeed...for some of us, anyway.
The DaVinci Code has been torn to pieces, basically. Its every theory and insinuation has been discredited by scholars, critics and academics the world over. Christianity's dubious credibility has remained more or less undented. And Dan Brown, who never set out to change the course of religious history, but only to tell a rollicking yarn, laughs contemptuously at the free publicity he got by poking the hornet's nest as he swims a leisurely backstroke through an Olympic swimming pool filled with money, surrounded by a harem of leggy blonde concubines bearing glasses of vintage champagne.
Sunrise, sunset.
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