Dan Brown & Da Vinci Code

Dear Me,

I am really eager to see the
Da Vinci Code fire up the local movie screens here. Yes, one (1) more month and I will be one of the thousands of people queuing up at the box office.

Dan Brown's book has been controversial ever since. The contents of the book have spawned great curiosity and confusion over its fictional and factual nature. Proof of the growing curiosity amongst the readers are the increasing number of daily visits to the Louvre Museum to view the Mona Lisa painting. Da Vinci Code has also stirred sentiments among the people involved with the book, the Catholic Church and the general public. The Catholic Church even come up a set of their books to counter-attack Dan Brown's books. Intellectual people remarked that there was no need for the Catholic Church to come up with books of their own just to negate Brown's. After all, the Da Vinci Code is not entirely based on facts. I'm not a Catholic but I guess Dan Brown's book created negative implications to the beliefs of the foundation of the Catholic Church. *okay, stop. I don't want any debate with reference to the last sentence.*

The controversy did not end there. A British lawsuit was filed against Brown, charging him with plagiarization. Michael Baigent and co-author Richard Leigh claimed that the Da Vinci book is a plagiarized version of their book, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." If I am not mistaken, the case against Brown was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Brown's and Baigent's rivalry even escalated one notch up. Now, both authors are gunning each other in the bestseller lists. In the battleground are the Da Vinci Code (Brown's) and The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-up in History (Baigent's). The latter (book) supposes that Jesus never died on the cross and that he was alive. He and his wife had traveled and probably reached France.

To know more about the Da Vinci Code as explained by the author himself: please visit this site.

The forthcoming movie version of the book is being awaited by a lot of people. I just hope that Tom Hanks will deliver a convincing role as Robert Langdon. I am still working my grey cells thinking who's the best actor to play that role. Hmm. Maybe in 2 weeks' time. :)

I am planning to re-read Da Vinci Code this week. Meantime, Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler will be on standby.

I got an email message in my inbox. Music Inspired By DaVinci. Soundtrack clips from the upcoming movie:
http://www.musicinspiredbydavinci.com/en/discography.php.

By the way, the Da Vinci Code movie will be shown simultaneously worldwide. Here in the Philippines, it will be on May 18 - Thursday.

4 comments:

  1. i wish to make a clear point here. you said there's no need for the catholic to come up with books just to negate Brown's facts. But in Brown's book on the Fact page, last line, i quote "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" When a reader reads the Fact page and then proceed to read the story, they assume what they read are true. The Catholics are just trying to defense their belifs. And they don't want other people to give false perception on them.

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  2. as I said in my 2nd paragraph last sentence, I don't want to debate but since you brought it up, allow me to clarify something. =)

    1. I didn't say that there is no need for the Catholics to come up with books of their own just to negate Dan Brown's books. Let me quote what I said: "Intellectual people remarked that there was no need for the Catholic Church to come up with books of their own just to negate Brown's." (emphasis on the Intellectual People...=)

    2. And regarding your comment about this ---> ["All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" When a reader reads the Fact page and then proceed to read the story, they assume what they read are true. ] ---->

    First, it should be known that Da Vinci Code is a book of fiction.
    Second, concerning the fact page and "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." --> Yes, you are right that readers assume that what was written were true if the Fact page states so BUT you have to take into consideration his claim ("All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." ). Accurate means precise and he referred it to DESCRIPTIONS of artwork, archi, docs, secret rituals. What is contestable here is the DOCUMENTS. Brown just said Descriptions of documents as accurate, but he is NOT referring to the Contents of the documents which are not yet proven to be factual or not.

    okay, i rest my case but this is fun. Hehehe. You know what, I am re-reading the book now. =) It's almost 2 am here.

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  3. I wasn't very impressed with Dan Brown's writing ability in Da Vinci Code but it was an easy book to read due to the fast albeit silly plot, Ivan. I am definitely looking forward to the movie since I expect it to be better than the book.

    The British lawsuit brought by Baigent and Leigh strikes me as silly. Their book sales have soared as a result of Da Vinci Code--you'd think they'd be grateful to Brown instead of suing him.

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  4. utenzi, oh yes but it was interesting. :)

    about the sales thing, maybe it was a strategy to increase their sales. :)

    anyway, i gotta go and pack my summer bag; will hit the beach in a few hours :)

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