May 14, 2006 12:58 PM
1821 Views
(Updated May 14, 2006 01:00 PM)
The Da Vinci Code, as the author himself states is a work of fiction. However many people have accepted it as truth. I guess not many are good at making judgments these days. The book itself is fast paced, but for a thriller it takes its reader's intelligence for granted.
The opening of the book deals with a person who is shot and has all the time and strength in the world to scribble on paintings, then draw a circle round himself, undress himself and lie naked in a perfect pose so that he appears like Da Vinci's drawing when death approaches only so that he can be a clue to his grand daughter about her secret ancestry.
Any person who loves reading thrillers would expect some intelligent involvement in what he/she is reading. However even for its fast pace the Da Vinci code fails at many places. It seems obsessed with the Opus Dei, which was formed by a priest in the 20th century, Brown has taken a lot of liberties with his work, making it seem stupid to a reader who is aware of historical details.
One thing that Brown and his characters fail to explain is why it is so important that the female lead is a descendant of Jesus. Since in his book Jesus was no son of God, he would be a man, and an ordinary carpenter who managed to fool a lot of people. So how could any royalty be attributed to someone who was a simple carpenter, and who was married to an equally unknown woman of disrepute? It makes no sense.
What Brown is trying to do is mix up two ideas, he wants to show that Jesus had some important role to play in history, what that role is, he fails to explain. But Brown is pretty clear that Jesus is not who He claimed to be. Brown's perception of the infant Church is also a fragmented view, the church that Brown speaks of is not the historical small group of simple, scared fishermen who were so afraid when Jesus died that they locked themselves in a room. According to Brown the Church already is powerful enough to make Magdalene run away to France. By his definition Brown makes the church look like some gang lord organization, whose only purpose is to hide a secret.
Brown has used a sensitive topic to get rich, and it has worked. Out of curiosity, and for sensationalism, many have read the book and are eager to watch the movie. However if people take a closer look at the story that runs through the book, it falls apart terribly.
The end of the book is the most predictable element of the book; I guessed the end of the book after reading the first two pages. Brown has taken common objects, and well known symbols like the Star of David to misguide his readers. People who read the book will start thinking it is fact, and many argue that it is fact without lifting a finger to search for historical accuracy.
As far as reading the book is concerted, I felt I had wasted a good 4 hours of my life on worthless literature.
