“There lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.” -- Tennyson.
WHY DID I READ THIS BOOK?
Basically, I am not an eager reader of novels which are based on history, and more so if the history relates to religion. Such novels by their very nature are controversial and tend to grow in popularity and readership feeding like a parasite on unwanted controversies.
I desisted from reading this book for almost a year and a half just because of my afore-mentioned inhibitions. That is, until a week back. I received a parcel from Reader’s Digest, which keeps sending me select editions of books, that have been or are best sellers. These select editions comprise on an average four abridged versions of best selling novels. To my initial dismay, one of the abridged versions in this select edition contained, among others, Dan Brown’s -- The Da Vinci Code. Overcoming my inertia, I picked up the book to read deciding to dump it at the first sign of ennui. In the end, I not only read this abridged version but I was so taken in by it that I got the full version from the library and like a hermit, didn’t move out of the house until I finished reading the whole thing.
Well, so much for preconceived notions!
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
“The Da Vinci Code” has turned out to be a super best seller for more than one reason. This highly involving novel by Dan Brown, a name you will not forget in a hurry, takes you on a roller-coaster ride through 2000 year old accepted Christian dogma only to point a finger at Christianity’s most hallowed and revered seat of power – The Vatican. Brown has, obviously, done a lot of research in this field, and had the courage to sit down to pen this breathtaking, but controversial novel.
With “Angels and Demons,” Mr. Brown introduced Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of art history and religious symbology who is loaded with “what his female colleagues referred to as an ‘erudite’ appeal.” No wonder: the new book finds the enormously likable Langdon pondering antimatter, the big-bang theory, the cult of the Illuminati and a threat to the Vatican, among other things. Yet this is merely a warm-up for the mind-boggling trickery that “The Da Vinci Code” has in store.
“The locations, the paintings, the ancient history, the secret documents, the rituals, all of this is factual, the theory about Mary Magdalene is not my theory. It has persisted over the last two thousand years,” says Brown. He learnt about the many codes in Da Vinci’s works when he was studying art history at the University of Seville. As if that was not enough, Brown married an art historian who happened to be a hardcore Da Vinci fanatic. Talk of overkill!
The story starts off pretty uneventfully with Robert Langdon’s highly informative dissertations on art history and other inter-connected topics to mostly stunned students. I never knew art history could be so interesting, at least symbolic art of which the genius Leonardo Da Vinci was most proficient.
A combination of events – 1. The murder of the Curator of the world famous Louvre Museum, Jacques Saunière; within the highly secure precincts of the museum itself. 2. The victim’s naked body in a spreadeagled position resembling the ‘Vitruvian Man,’ Da Vinci’s most famous sketch of the perfect male; as part of a cryptic message. 3. The message itself written beside the corpse on the floor in a seemingly indecipherable code with a pentacle drawn on his naked body. 4. Langdon, coincidently, being present in Paris at the time of the murder.
All these add up to make Robert Langdon the prime suspect in the eyes of Bezu Fache, Captain of the Central Directorate Judicial Police who likes to believe his hunches and go for the jugular. But, Langdon finds an unlikely ally in Agent Sophie Neveu, a crack cryptologist from the French Police’s Cryptology Department. Agent Neveu decides to help Langdon escape from the Louvre and the clutches of the French Police. But, why does the French Agent Neveu help the American Symbologist when she does not even know him in the first place? Well, you’ve got to read this book to know that.
From this point onwards, the story picks up and unfolds at a frenetic pace taking the duo, and the reader, headlong into a quagmire of never ceasing tribulations. The escalating police chase for Langdon’s blood and the numerous puzzles and symbolic codes that are strewn in the path of the protagonists who must unravel it before a deep, sinister force does, kept me on a razor’s edge for most part of the latter half of the story.
Brown keeps our interest going with sensational revelations about Secret Societies. Gnostic Jesus, Mona Lisa’s cynical smile, the secret rituals, the Holy Grail, the discrepancy which the famous painting “the last supper” seeks to highlight, the story of the wronged queen Mary Magdalene, the bloodline of Jesus Christ (whose seed Mary is purported to have secretly carried) which was forced through the ages to live in anonymity for fear of reprisal from the all powerful church. The Knights Templar who suddenly became extremely rich and powerful right under the nose of the Catholic Church because they had access to some incriminating information that could forever break the hold the Church had over its people, the innocent believers.
Many readers felt the ending was a bit soft, but I feel the ending was as good as it can be. But then, it all depends on one’s point of view.
WHAT I THINK ABOUT THIS CONTROVERSIAL BOOK:
There were many unanswered questions in the early period of Christianity, especially, the first three centuries after Christ’s death when Christianity was still a fledgling religion. Many people at that time believed Jesus to be a mortal being, a Saint who died for his people. Many of the historical records maintained by his close followers in the form of scrolls supposedly contained the same allusion, as well as to the fact that Jesus did have a consort (Mary Magdalene) and was largely a honest human being with a healing touch, but helpless in most other things (a far cry from the ‘Son of God’ image).
The advent of Constantine the Great, Emperor of the Roman Empire from 306 AD to 337 AD proved to be a turning point in the history of Christianity. His Edict of Milan (AD 313) proclaimed tolerance of Christianity which also stated Jesus as ‘Son of God.’ But, in doing so it is believed that Constantine in his overzealous attempt to promote Christianity gave secret orders to impound and destroy all the handwritten historical records that conveyed anything, as well as the people who firmly believed in the mortality of Jesus, that would dislodge Jesus from the highest pedestal.
Constantine who ruled for a good part of 31 years saw to it that the entire opposition to his ambitious plan was obliterated, and the religion spread its influence far and wide. He also instilled Vatican as the seat of Christianity and Christian power. Unfortunately, for Christianity, not all records were destroyed.
“If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?” -- Benjamin Franklin.
Continued in Comments Section
MBF
