Dan Brown was always one of those writers that was on my summer list…when things slowed down and I could take time out to read a book that was a quick read, had lots of exclamation points and italics, usually was a tale of international intrigue and always wrapped everything up at the end. So when the DaVinci Code came out I bought it and read it and shrugged. My reaction to his outlandish claims was that it was fiction, so what?
When T raised objections to me handing it over to Sticks to read, I told him the same thing — what’s the big deal? You don’t actually BELIEVE this stuff do you?
Well, here’s the thing. People evidently DO believe this stuff, no matter how ridiculous it is. And now that the movie is out the furor is reaching a fevered pitch.
I thought this was an interesting quote from Bruce Fisk, a professor at Westmont College and well-respected Bible scholar:
“Dan Brown is not the first to charge the church with the greatest coverup in human history… He’s just the most successful. For Brown, Jesus is a tragic hero, a victim of early Catholic distortion. Brown’s beef is not with Jesus, but with the church. He is on the campaign against status quo, male-dominated, organized Christian religion.”
Fisk really hit the nail on the head, which is why I shrugged when I read the book the first time. Dan Brown aimed at the church ESTABLISHMENT, and not faith itself. This isn’t much different than what Anne Rice did in her books. So why is this such a big deal now?
It seems to me that the book offers just the right mix of a treasure hunt, mystery and quasi-facts to capture the imagination of a culture that loves a conspiracy theory, but in the end, it’s FICTION. Whether you believe in God or not, don’t be fooled into thinking that Dan Brown wrote anything other than a work of fiction.
I don’t plan to see the movie, but that’s because I never go to movies and rarely find one worth renting and watching at home. The reviews seem to be a mixed bag, and interestingly the ones that don’t like the movie seem to be the hard-core believers in the fiction. Why is that?
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