Posted: 12/3/2004 9:00:38 PM EDT
| I'm a little behind the curve on this one, but I just got this book yesterday and finished it tonight. I realize there is quite a bit of embellishment going on, but the symbolism discussed is fascinating. I would love to visit some of the sites discussed. I got the illustrated version of the book with photos of some of the artwork and churches. Pretty cool stuff. |
Well, it's a fun and relatively easy read, suspenseful at times too. But I know that there are several factual inaccuracies in the plot....[pee] |
I started to read it and then got sidetracked and didn't finish. Although that genre isn't necessarily my cup of tea it was interesting. I like reading things with history involved and this was a unique blend of history and fantasy. I'm reading the The Black Tulip (about the Afghan War) now when I finish it I think I'll go back and finish Davinci.
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what dat? Oh my girlfriend gave me her copy of the DaVinci Code, I thought it was poorly written and generaly dopey, and I can't claim to have the highest literary standards (i.e. I think Stephen Hunter is the foremost writer of our time )
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That's actually a really dry read and only a portion of it is relevant. Get Secrets of the Code instead. It has excerpts from the books used in researching The Da Vinci Code and interviews with the authors of those books, and is one of the few "cracking the code" books that wasn't written by fundie Christians hell bent on being right. |
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Sorry, but the book and its premise are absolutely asinine! They posit - Mary Magdalene's role in Christian history was 'suppressed' because the early Church leaders were fearful of giving a....woman...any recognition in the new religion. The authors never considered that statement as being incredbly stupid in view of the treatment that was given another woman in the Story of Christ. You know who she was. Eric The(Gasp!)Hun 
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+1 |
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I haven't read the book but I have read a lot about the book... From what I understand much of the book was lifted from Gnostic teachings- a very strange religious sect to be sure. For some reason I'd never heard much about Gnosticism until the Matrix movies and this da Vinci Code book came out. Anyhoo- my MIL, who has a Masters' in Theology read it and basically laughed it off. There were so many inaccuracies in it that it wasn't a good read- even with the "suspension of disbelief". She said it counted on people to have only a very general idea of what Christianity is- and a not very good understanding of history. |
| I'm a little tainted being a Christian and all but my sister has a PhD in art history and is a full professor in art history and she can tell you the art history "evidence" is garbage. As a lawyer, I would be comfortable taking the opposing side in a "Scopes" trial on the book. |
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From what I studied in college in my Art History classes and my Historical Christian Belief classes I find the Da Vinci Code to be a fun and entertaining book to read, but far from accurate. Dan Brown makes some very innacurate and just plain untrue statements about history in the book that I just assumed to be on purpose for the sake of advancing the story. Nothing wrong with that for entertainment purposes IMO. The only thing I see wrong with the book, is that, with its popularity, many of the masses out there will accept it as historical fact without actually going to the library to do some research for themselves. The Da Vinci Code is nothing more than entertaining fiction...but it's still fiction. |
| i have never been one to read books, even if assigned in high school. but that was one book that i read from cover to cover and its an interesting book. although it is only fiction which most people seem to forget. i got "angels and demons" waiting to be read...i hear its as good if not better than "the da vinci code" so i hope to read it sometime soon. |
I agree. It is entertaining. Whether or not the given interpretations are correct, the symbolism in old architecture (religous, Masonic) is interesting, as well as the use of numeric symbols. I saw something on the History Channel a couple of months ago that dealt with patterns in the Torah. Again, a lot of it is about as reliable as Nostradamus, but still interesting. |
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I've read all of Dan Brown's books, and although he is a good author, he is very, very formulaic. First, start off with an inexplicably sexy cognoscenti, who is pulled by a demanding person in high rank to go on a mission that seems beyond the scope of their skills. Have them meet up with another inexplicably sexy genius of the opposite gender whose particular skills do not seem to match the mission either. Bonus points if one of them is a cryptographer or works in Intelligence, and even more bonus points if one of them is a college professor. At first, the situation will seem only marginally strange, but it will soon develop into a highly convoluted multi-plot with holes and lots of big, sciency words like cypher, antimatter, and chondrule. Then, in a "suprise" plot twist, the villain turns out to be the one they trusted most. They save the day, and then have sex. The end. |
I really enjoyed it and it prompt me to become interested in pagan symbolism and art history. Good book. Angels and Demons sucked ass though. |
Google it and see what you turn up... I was quite surprised with what it came back with when I did it the first time, just after the first Matrix movie came out and someone posted on Fark about the symbolism in it. MIL got her Masters from a large church college in the midwest. |
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If such arcane matters are interesting to you, may I recommend an infinitely better book than 'The DaVinci Code'? Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum', an incredibly well-written story from the author of 'The Name of the Rose'! This book will be one that you will read over and over again, I can assure you! And it dwells mostly on....that most esoteric and intriguing of subjects....the Knights Templar! It's a daisy! Eric The(Eco-Fan)Hun
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Foucault's Pendulum is a great book, and I agree that Eco is a great writer! "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" is actually not intended to be fiction at all, but a lot of the "evidence" in it pretty thin. I still found it to be a fascinating read. |
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I thought it was a good read.. It is fiction. I will find Foucault's Pendulum and read it as well. I'm very grateful and I was blessed to have been to Jeruselum. Prayed at the West (Wailing) wall, walked the path of Christ and been in the room of the last supper. Very powerful stuff. |
It's the same feeling I get with M. Moore's shit. Sure, he's a great movie maker but he's NOT A DOCUMENTARIAN!. I just finished the audio book of Da Vinci and I found it very entertaining. I took it all as The Gospel Truth till I started researching a few days ago. As I've looked stuff up I've learned what I expected, it was a very good story, written from someone's point of view, nothing more. I do want to read the other one though; angels and demons or whatever it was..... |
I had completely forgotten about "The Name of the Rose". I read that book many years ago and remember it to be excellent. I'll have to find "Foucault's Pendulum" and give it a go. Thanks for the tip. |
AMEN BROTHER! PREACH IT TO THEM! Uh... yeah... do that. I am Catholic. |
| I read to the 3rd chapter then stopped. It's an alright book. My big problem is that there are a lot of sub-average intelligence individuals out there who are not too educated on the history of the world. They read this book that uses factual groups, persons, and events and then distorts their involvement through history, and these individuals will come out of the experience with a skewed version of history. But, that's just my beef. |
I've read three of the four, and you can change the names of people and places and its the same fucking book. |
The presence of Mary (the virgin Mary) in the bible is natural. Until the coming of the three great confessional religions, there existed in the western world the "cult of the goddess", or "goddess worship". People worshipped a goddess of fertility. Why is it hard to believe that Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus? I know of no evidence that she was, but it would not surprise me in the least to learn (say, from scrolls or something discovered in Israel) that Jesus was a married man. |
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Jesus followed Jewish Law..itis forbidden for a single Jewish Woman to travel with a group of Jewish men, it is not done, peroid. Remember He said I have come to fulfill the law, why would he take a chance of causing such a scandal? I likethe concept of Jesus being more Human, also in order to get the Emperor to use Christianity as the basis for astate religion, they needed a visible G*d, there for Y*w*h is not a good choice. Remember that the Empire was populated by illeterate people. I for one only need the Thunderous G*D of the Mountain...Sinai that is. |