Dealing with The DaVinci Code - A Strategy to Minimize Its Impact

E-mail ^ | April 2006 | Anonymous

[Lakeshark]

Alas.....you're so right.....nothing can be trusted...

Are you people really this dumb?

[birbear]

people I work with believe "JFK" was gospel truth and that "The Day After Tommorow" wasn't just Algore's wet dream and thanks to Michael Moore, banks really do hand out firearms to new checking account clients,so I suppose anything's possible.

You should change work environments. :-)

[Cyclopean Squid]

So the dumb people are those who don't blindly trust in the world they are presented? I didn't know intellectual curiosity was the new dumb, and that mental indolence was the surest sign of smarts.

[AnnoyedOne]

Could it be that everything written about him by the people who knew him, every historical reference about him says he wasn't married

Not precisely correct. None of these things say he was married, but none specifically say he was unmarried either. The fact that the Bible does not say he was married is not proof he wasn't. And btw, historical references about him, outside of the Bible, are virtually non-existant.

[RightWhale]

Their writings are.

[Lakeshark]

You can ask if submarines fly, and then claim they do.

Doesn't make you intellectual or intellectually curious.

Just dumb.

[Cyclopean Squid]

That's a complete non sequitur and you know it. I don't appreciate your feeble insults, they are rather unbecoming for a God-fearing person.

[muir_redwoods]

I'll probably see the movie. It was a good, if only passably written yarn based on an old, old story.

No one owns Christianity. Anyone can believe and write what he or she wants. If you don't like the story, don't buy the book and don't see the movie. Otherwise see post # 3

[LifeOrGoods?]

No kidding, Captain Obvious! So were The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or weren't they?!

Just don't call me late for dinner. Never heard of the afore mentioned book.

[birbear]

The movie will do well, and I'll never understand exactly why.

Hehehehe...In my own little humble opinion, the book was popular because it treated a controversial subject in such a "matter of fact" way.

Dan Brown doesn't bop you over the head with the idea that Christ was married. He broaches the subject with an unassuming subtlety. When the Langdon character first mentions it to Sophie, it's kinda like, "Pssst...this is a little secret that only educated people know." And Sophie, thinking she's as educated as Langdon, bites on it. The reader then feels like they are educated because now they know the secret. But it's not super-secret. It's just something that the "better off" know. And they take it as, (excuse the pun) gospel.

A work like "The Last Temptation of Christ" beat you over the head with its "scandalous" tale. Reviewer and reviewer, churches, the main stream media, pounded into the public the crux of "The Last Temptation of Christ". "The Da Vinci Code" touching on a very similar doctrine, used subtlety very well. Now I don't know if that was ever planned from the PR dept. of the publisher, or if it just happened. Seeing the posters and trailers for the movie, it looks like it was well planned.

And the book is a quick read. It's not hard to get into. It's very linear. Actually the producers of "24" wanted the TV rights to the book because they thought they could do a real-time mini-series a la "24". Dan Brown wanted a major motion picture, not TV series so he didn't sell to that producer (I believe it was Brian Grazer). Ironic thing -- Ron Howard bought the movie rights, he's an executive producer of "24", and Brian Grazer works closely with Ron Howard on a lot of Ron Howard's productions.

So you combine this subtlety of being "let it on a secret", a fast read, a "scandalous tale", and the fact that people created a fascination by being against it, you've got a best seller. Which created more people saying that it should be burned. Which increases the fascination. Voila. A best seller for three years.

Sprinkle in Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, some snazzy special effects. Poof -- $300 million movie.

[AnnoyedOne]

He was making reference to an old book that was purportedly the blueprint of the Jews to rule the world, or some such.. and turned out to be completely fraudulent. Hitler and Stalin made great propaganda use of the book.

[AnnoyedOne]

LOL. excellent post, and I think you mailed it dead on the money.

[Rakkasan1]

I'm in a union.idiocy is 'in the contract'.

[Connie Cardullo]

It is based upon a theory about Mary Magdalene being the bride of Christ, and that she bore offspring..
..he DOES touch on some interesting history.

Thanks for the explanation.

I can see why alternative biblical histories in general would be controversial. Still, I don't agree with those who want to shelter the rest of us from heretical ideas.

Where is the problem, other than the OP doesn't agree with these ideas?

[Blue Scourge]

Agreed, every religion has it's kooks, look at the godhatesfags people who go to soldiers funerals and protest gays, they say the soldiers death is Gods punishment for our "acceptance" of homo-sexuals.

[Hodar]

Could it be that everything written about him by the people who knew him, every historical reference about him says he wasn't married.......

Sources?

[2nsdammit]

As was mentioned, none of those things in the story at all.

Nothing personal, but this illustrates how these things get blown out of proportion. People who have not read a book listen to others who may not have read it, who may be getting their information from someone with an agenda. Instead of finding out for themselves, they freak out, protest, etc.

I am constantly remined of Emily Litella when I hear this sort of thing...

"Oh, that's different! Never Mind!"

[weegee]

IT'S FICTION! And of no importance.

So was Fahrenheit 9/11 yet that didn't keep the media from inundating us with updates about how "important" this film was and the "controversies" about its message.

[Radix]

I enjoyed your post.

 

Pardon me for getting distracted....but can you explain to me how Tom Hanks and Ron Howard ever came to be such geniuses?  I'm really dying to know. Well, almost, but not quite. I mean it can't be just the acting or directing. Can it? I doubt that, but I cannot figure out  why else it is so. Call me naive.

 

Honestly, I was sure was surprised to see that Da Vinci book under my Christmas tree...so to speak. Gosh, somebody really likes me I thought at the time. It was my second favorite gift just behind my Gortex® U S Army field jacket, and just ahead of the three feet of snow on that early Winter day. Gosh I use to just love White Christmases.

 

I actually watched the "Last Temptation" on VHS back in the day after the (years after actually) protests ended. I think that it was exactly one day after actually. Coincidence I am sure. Gee, the Man ....was actually interested in a life human? That seems hard to believe considering what we all know in these days. You know, we are all mortal, there is no God, and the Cubs will never win the Series. If there was really a God, then the Cubs would lose in the 7th game. Every thinking person knows that. How could a man destined to save the world ever even for an instant be even remotely interested in those matters which have driven lesser men to acts which have lead to wars and upheaval among societies? 

 

It is not that I am a fan of the likes of Scorsese, but he has made me think at times. Mostly I think that I  despise his ass because (among other things) of his rebuke and pronouncements against our sitting president while he was wining and dining on foreign terrain.  He was dissing our Troops while my son and his comrades were putting their collective asses on the line in order to protect his reprobate self and those of his ilk as well as the rest of us here in the shittiest place on Earth that we can't seem to keep people out of. Still, I did like Temptation, and I liked "Gangs" a whole lot.  Call me a cynic.

 

I suppose that I should simply be understanding and forgiving of those folks who certainly have great need to know just what it was that was going on between Mary Magdalene and Yeshua ben Yoseph..... Clearly something or it would never have been mentioned by  Q, and J, and those other myriad gospel writers.

 

Jack Bauer, that guy is a wimp. He hasn't shot any women in the leg for at least 2 hours. That is three weeks, or 9 months in dog years. 

 

I look forward to future posts from you.

[aShepard]

.....The book has been on the best seller list for years in hardcover.......
...................
The movie will do well, and I'll never understand exactly why................

I think that the book was shallow, and the chapter layout and tension, was written to be sold to a movie studio.

The film will do extremely well

I'm not sure why there's so much debate from the Catholic masses about this novel..

Surely, Catholics must know that the local church officials- and the Vatican - was sucking wealth out of every hamlet for the benefit of the Pope, etc., all in the name of Christ, so why the current outrage about a novel mentioning Mary Magdelene????