Code Breakers: "The Da Vinci Code" and its discontents.

The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 23, 2004 | John Miller

[Xenalyte]

I'm re-reading HBHG now. I know it's total fiction, but it's still intriguing to ponder.

[theFIRMbss]

>I'm re-reading HBHG now. I know it's total fiction, but it's still intriguing to ponder

If I remember,
the authors make reference to
an on-going fight

between followers
of Jesus, and followers
of John the Baptist.

I was intrigued, but
I've never found anything
that explores this point

at any great length.
(Again, if I remember,
these authors assert

the Jesus/John fight
was so influential that
we get the phrases

"son of a b#tch" and
"john" (a prostitute's client)
from this old squabble . . . )

[KC Burke]

So not only is Brown now pretty well analyzed as a somewhat sinester Pagan propagandist who retreats behind others claiming "its just a novel" while promoting it as really all true but, it is beginning to appear as though he may have plagerized the whole story.

How rich

Its like the case of Arming America where the leftist lost his Bancroft Prize for history when it turned out his research was fabricated to prove his theory.

[Drawsing]

Interesting to note Clive Cussler's endorsement on the front of Perdue's book. His endorsement (if memory serves) is also on the back of The DaVinci Code. You would think he would have noticed the resemblance. Clive Cussler, by the way, is the novelist/adventurer who found the Hunley and many other lost ships.

[theFIRMbss]

>it is beginning to appear as though he may have plagerized the whole story

I've seen similar
kinds of "borrowing" before.
First, some genre or

fringe writer creates   *
something interesting but
not slick, not polished.

Than someone "borrows"
key points, slicks it up mainstream,
and laughs to the bank.

Of course, mainstream cash,
then, can buy the best lawyers
and press mouthpieces . . .

(Every now and then,
they'll steal from a fringe player
like Ellison. Hah!   * *)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

* "MAD ABOUT MUGGLES Next month, the Maryland-based publisher Thurman House will release a title that may sound familiar: The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, by N.K. Stouffer. Larry Potter [!!!] and His Best Friend Lilly, also by Stouffer, will follow this fall. If these books sound like blatant Harry Potter knockoffs, it might surprise you to learn that the Stouffer books actually predate the more famous Potter series by a decade or more. "I get accused every day of copying J.K. Rowling," Stouffer says. First published in 1984, the Rah and Larry Potter books nearly led to a seven-figure publishing and licensing deal. That deal fell through, however, when Stouffer's original publishing company filed for bankruptcy, tying up her rights to the material. A few years later, when Stouff..."

* * "The story behind another entry, "Soldier," is perhaps even more interesting than the story itself.

"Ellison adapted the story for an episode of the original "Outer Limits" television series. Many years later, a certain big-shot movie director took huge chunks of it and turned it into a movie, "The Terminator."

"Yes, the director was James "Titanic" Cameron. Ellison sued Cameron, and now every "Terminator" videotape and DVD credits Ellison for the story idea.

"The lesson: Even the "King of the World" can get taken down a peg if he doesn't behave."

[Oztrich Boy]

I've seen similar kinds of "borrowing" before.
First, some genre or fringe writer creates something interesting but not slick, not polished.
Than someone "borrows" key points, slicks it up mainstream, and laughs to the bank.
Of course, mainstream cash, then, can buy the best lawyers and press mouthpieces . .

That's not the case with The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, by N.K. Stouffer. Larry Potter [!!!] and His Best Friend Lilly, also by Stouffer, will follow this fall. If these books sound like blatant Harry Potter knockoffs, it might surprise you to learn that the Stouffer books actually predate the more famous Potter series by a decade or more. "I get accused every day of copying J.K. Rowling," Stouffer says. First published in 1984, the Rah and Larry Potter books

At best she has two coincidences. The word "muggles" in The Legend of Rah. and the charcter "Larry Potter" in a totally unrelated children's colouring book.

In any case there is no evidence that Stouffer's works, in their current form, existed before c.2000

Check the library of Congress. The woman practically copyrights her shopping lists. The Legend of Rah listed there is just 8 pages long, not the nearly 300 page work she claims was "stolen".
Then there is the little matter of the "publisher's proof" she presented to court as her claim to Larry Potter, printed using technology not available in 1993.

And read the Intro to The Legend of Rah in realmuggles.com. Stouffer's work is "interesting" only in the sense "Michael Jackson* is interesting".

(* The singing, dancing MJ, that is. Michael Jackson the beer and travel writer is actually interesting.)

[Focault's Pendulum]

What does 'Focault's Pendulum' think about "The Da Vinci Code"? </>

John has a long moustache.