The Da Vinci Code - A Comedy of Errors

Well, there's a reason the book's shelved in the fiction section.

IMO, Dan Brown is an art history buff who was fascinated by the mystery surrounding the Mona Lisa and Da Vinci's works in general, and his life including his legendary membership in the Priori de Sion. So he wrote a novel to explain his link to the priori, the symbology of his work and how it involved the Catholic Church. What became of it was an entertaining work of *fiction* that happened to say some not-so-nice things about the Catholic Church. BUt Brown's clearly not the first person to raise some of the issues he talked about.

Bt, to your point, if people try to glean fact form a work of fiction merely from what is presented in that, work, well that's lazieness. What you would hope form any work of historical fiction that it would ellicit an interest in the subject matter that would spawn a sort of knowledge quest.

The same type of person that takes as fact anything written in a novel is the same type of person that gets their "truth" from Rush Limbaugh or Fox News.

Legendary is the operative word, since the Priori de Sion was founded in 1956, by which time Leonardo was, uh, quite dead.

The Priory of Sion is an esoteric order legally established in France in 1956 by Pierre Plantard (1920-2000), yet claiming great antiquity. Legends connected with the Priory of Sion have generated great interest through the years, particularly as a result of the publication in 1982 of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by British journalists Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln.

'Course, he was a brilliant man, so who knows. He coulda figured out a way to live forever on this earth. Maybe he's still alive hiding out in a cave in Afganistan. Maybe he became Osama's technical advisor.

Just because the priori wasn't *legally* established until 1956 doesn't mean it didn't exist before then.

and awaaaaaaaaaaay we go!

 <keeping my tuckus on the sidelines for this one>

True enough, true enough.

Listen, I'm off to have lunch with Jimmy Hoffa and a couple of aliens that live in my neighbor's basement. Apparently, the aliens know who really shot JFK, and Hoffa says that if I can get him tickets to the Final Four he'll force it outta them.

LOL, I've got till May on this one, so I'm in no hurry.  

C'mon...the idea of secret societies of intellectuals (or others for that matter), isn't exactly at the level of conspiracy-theory hogwash.

Just ask W. about the Skull & Bones.

Won't pretend to know enough about writing to comment on the ability of the author, but

VERY entertaining book (not quite as good as Angels & Demons).  

Will DEFINITELY see the movie(s) 

Totally...but my point is that there are these secret societies...

 -- Getting my popcorn and planting my butt next to hangloose-- 

My money's on Dontracy. I'll put up all my winnings from Vegas night at the KofC last week.

I'll take that action. 

What's the spread?  I may go the other way. (Oh wait, I thought I was Wayne Gretzky there for a second)  

Well, me and my fellow co-conspirators are not so much outraged as bemused.

Why, in reference to the upcoming film, I hear that even Pope Benedict was heard to say to Laura Bush today, " Ich wundere mich, wenn sie noch feststellen, daß ein Bär wirklich im Holz auspumpt."

Which translates roughly as, "I wonder if they still realize that a bear really does poop in the woods."

(popeandlaurabush.jpg)

Marmadaddy and Hangloose...how's the show so far?

It's really interesting how bent out of shape people can get about a work of fiction. It's just a novel, folks!

<<<Itching, squirming in seat, then going still when marmadaddy looks over>>>

I think, and I'm going out on a limb here to say Don might agree with me, that to claim that the book is automatically complete crap with no basis in historical fact at all is almost as ridiculous as going to the other end of the spectrum and saying that it accurately depicts history as it happened.

Now, some might say the author has taken a few (emphasis on few) accurate historical facts and woven an interesting but false tale.  Others are gullible enough to take this is close to accurate and rest their case there.  If it sounds like I'm fence sitting it's because I really couldn't care less about the issues that the book raises.

The one thing that does get my thither in a dither is (interpret this as you like) members of an organization refusing to consider the possibility that the organization may have interests, abilities, obligations, history and secrets beyond what they are aware of.  I believe in blind faith in God.  I do not believe in blind faith in organizations controlled by men, be they religious or otherwise.  That is a dangerous road and leads to, well, look around.

Getting ready to leave, so I'll address the rest of your post later (I may have been clouded by my sh*tty day in making a too broad assertion of the personal attack thing...so I'll go ahead and apologize for that now).

But I want to clarify my Clarence Thomas example: didn't mean to say he was a leftie...obviously he's not. My point was Holmes is a token leftie the way Thomas was a token black SCOTUS appointee.

I take your point.

I'd be interested in going through the claims in the book and seeing which are historically accurate and which are not.

Just for a starter, again, there are no monks in Opus Dei.

John, there also may be an interesting ecumenical opportunity here.

DaVinci lived 1427-1519. Martin Luther lived 1483-1546. So essentially all of the history of DaVinci, his relationship to the church, and church history starting with DaVinci and going back to Christ is a history that all of us Christians share in common.

I just think that's interesting.