Sunday, April 03, 2005
The Da Vinci Code - 25 millions of this? - Updated April 13
Even though I had tons of seriously more important deadlines to fulfill, most of which are already very late (the story of my life), I was completely led astray and started reading the Da Vinci Code today, sigh. This is how evil works in the world... :-) I got up to page 145, and although I have a few things to remark, I'll just jot down my biggest first impression so far: is this all that was required to sell 25 millions books? It would have been impossible to predict such a book would be so popular, it's so fluffy... I wish I wanted to write books like this... ;-) (I saw only one article mentioning figures, but apparently Brown is quoted at having made no less than 50 million dollars off the Da Vinci Code - and he is complaining he's lost his anonimity - oh, the poor sacrificial lamb)
It's almost like a "007 and Alias meet Opus Dei and the Goddess" script. I can just imagine what the movie will be like... Actually, this will certainly be a very fun script to direct, I'd certainly like to apply for the job!
Update April 10 - I'm tired and don't feel like writing a coherent piece on the book, so I'll just jot down some comments:
I am astounded at how much the book really reads like an action movie script! 300 pages and only a few hours of murders, escapes, police chases to keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to know what will happen next! I was waiting to find at any moment in the text: CUT. Next Scene, Teabing enters from screen left. Dim lighting.
25 million books sold - The Opus Dei must be delighted ;-)
Aren't liberals a joy? Dan Brown, this very liberal middle-age author creates a middle-age professor as the main character and pairs him up with a 32 yr old babe, all to represent how much he honors the divine in women. The female character is young, beautiful, smart, dynamic, does spy/police work - I mean, it's whose fantasy? And the conservative Opus Dei are the ones with problems with women... You can tell how much he hates conservatives by the endless ways he demonizes the Opus Dei... At times, I thought I would need to get a paper towel to wipe the bile coming out of the text on the page. Not that they don't have problems, but...
Sophie is the role for Jennifer Garner (Alias TV series), except she's not French. But the Sophie in the book isn't either, she is very American, so the problem wouldn't be with Garner, it starts at the book. I bet the author can't really tell he's not smart enough to construct a more realistic French woman. He must think that building a French female character equals making one totally American, then slap on a French name and voilà, a French character. But the author is very appreciative of women in a nice way too, so I really liked that.
I am praying they won't cast Tom Hanks as the professor, although I think the Langdon casting will be disgusting, because they'll want a big name, and this role would be well played by someone who we haven't seen too much. Langdon's just a nice professor, there's nothing about him that requires good acting or a famous face. That will ruin the movie, because it will ensure that absolutely artificial feeling to the guy the whole time, destroying anyone's willing suspension of disbelief, no matter how willing.
I did find it highly amusing how "educational" this book is, I mean, the guy has a mission, it's not just money. And to think that millions of people would love to discover these religion symbolism wars if it's all watered down and dispersed in a police chase story with word puzzle games, and not some dense and difficult academic book. That is what amazes me, how much the book has sold. Nice to know, nevertheless, that education is quite possible this way.
Every time the author presents a word/poem puzzle, I get the urge to try to solve it with just the clues he has provided up until then, at the same time that I tell myself that it's not possible, having the feeling that these first clues are never enough, and that as the characters try to solve the puzzle, you, the reader, receive more clues and information, so it is impossible to solve any of the puzzles when they first appear in the text. So I was delighted to have solved the language puzzle inside the wooden box, before I read on.
The secret sexual ritual - you can bet some dysfunctional group of people somewhere will want to do this just like in the book, and forget that the author is clueless about the myriad of ways humans can use sex in abusive ways, while preaching it is something sacred and divine.
And the albino as the Frankenstein character, I mean, isn't that some kind of vile discriminatory thing? I kept flashing that 007 character, the very tall guy with the metal teeth. Why do authors need to make these Frankenstein characters have some kind of body disability or with a corporal difference to the norm? Isn't there something ignoble regarding such choices? It's obvious Dan Brown would never make a vile character be a homo and present to his readers the reality of so many homosexuals. But albinos, or very tall, or very short, hey, make them as malignant as you please.
Update April 12:
comments with a smile:
First... the book itself. It's a great read, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. But let's face it, people: this isn't War and Peace.
Someone else said Langdon was just like Indiana Jones
And look at the title of this nice little satire piece:
The D'oh! Vinci Code, Chapter Two
I also found this equally adulating note:
à savoir que Robert Langdon n'est qu'un bête crétin à l'image de... [find out :-) ]
And another blogger is currently re-reading the "Da Vinci Code". Don't mean to pounce but, re-reading? :-)
If you are wondering why it's taking me forever to finish the book, it's because I refused to buy it. I am reading the luxuriously photo illustrated, glossy paper, hard cover edition at my friendly neighborhood megabookstore. For free.
A note about the "woman" in the Last Supper. While examining carefully the figure in the printed photo in the book, it didn't seem like a woman to me. The figure seems like a very young 16th century man, with long, limp hair. Da Vinci didn't draw (most of) his women in that way. See a nice pic of the Last Supper here. The figure with the red tunic, 3rd on the right from Jesus, no beard, has as much of a "woman" look, if we are going to view every guy with no beard and no heavyset features as a woman in the Last Supper. Compare with several other of da Vinci's women paintings here. The Last Supper guys seem different, not like a da Vinci woman.
In fact, I've always thought the Mona Lisa has something of a transvestite air, which I find considerably disgusting. And given that da Vinci was probably a pile of trash in his sexuality, that's probably the joke played on the public with the Mona Lisa.
Not to mention "John, the Baptist," da Vinci's homo porn, an in-your-face disgusting homo painting, not because it is sexually explicit. This John looks exactly like all puffs that would swarm the royal French courts in the 17th and 18th century.
Update April 13
Nice short post on the control of information by the Church in the first centuries. However, he is blind to all the liberal aggression in the Jerry Springer Opera and its barrage of religious insults.
A nice conclusion at the end of this post.
Related entries:
Last Supper Ad Controversy; Jesus as a Woman in Italian Re-enactment of the Passion of Christ; Past Veronese "Last Supper" Painting Controversy; Harry Potter for Adults - Tom Hanks; another recent post.
.
It's almost like a "007 and Alias meet Opus Dei and the Goddess" script. I can just imagine what the movie will be like... Actually, this will certainly be a very fun script to direct, I'd certainly like to apply for the job!
Update April 10 - I'm tired and don't feel like writing a coherent piece on the book, so I'll just jot down some comments:
I am astounded at how much the book really reads like an action movie script! 300 pages and only a few hours of murders, escapes, police chases to keep you on the edge of your seat and wanting to know what will happen next! I was waiting to find at any moment in the text: CUT. Next Scene, Teabing enters from screen left. Dim lighting.
25 million books sold - The Opus Dei must be delighted ;-)
Aren't liberals a joy? Dan Brown, this very liberal middle-age author creates a middle-age professor as the main character and pairs him up with a 32 yr old babe, all to represent how much he honors the divine in women. The female character is young, beautiful, smart, dynamic, does spy/police work - I mean, it's whose fantasy? And the conservative Opus Dei are the ones with problems with women... You can tell how much he hates conservatives by the endless ways he demonizes the Opus Dei... At times, I thought I would need to get a paper towel to wipe the bile coming out of the text on the page. Not that they don't have problems, but...
Sophie is the role for Jennifer Garner (Alias TV series), except she's not French. But the Sophie in the book isn't either, she is very American, so the problem wouldn't be with Garner, it starts at the book. I bet the author can't really tell he's not smart enough to construct a more realistic French woman. He must think that building a French female character equals making one totally American, then slap on a French name and voilà, a French character. But the author is very appreciative of women in a nice way too, so I really liked that.
I am praying they won't cast Tom Hanks as the professor, although I think the Langdon casting will be disgusting, because they'll want a big name, and this role would be well played by someone who we haven't seen too much. Langdon's just a nice professor, there's nothing about him that requires good acting or a famous face. That will ruin the movie, because it will ensure that absolutely artificial feeling to the guy the whole time, destroying anyone's willing suspension of disbelief, no matter how willing.
I did find it highly amusing how "educational" this book is, I mean, the guy has a mission, it's not just money. And to think that millions of people would love to discover these religion symbolism wars if it's all watered down and dispersed in a police chase story with word puzzle games, and not some dense and difficult academic book. That is what amazes me, how much the book has sold. Nice to know, nevertheless, that education is quite possible this way.
Every time the author presents a word/poem puzzle, I get the urge to try to solve it with just the clues he has provided up until then, at the same time that I tell myself that it's not possible, having the feeling that these first clues are never enough, and that as the characters try to solve the puzzle, you, the reader, receive more clues and information, so it is impossible to solve any of the puzzles when they first appear in the text. So I was delighted to have solved the language puzzle inside the wooden box, before I read on.
The secret sexual ritual - you can bet some dysfunctional group of people somewhere will want to do this just like in the book, and forget that the author is clueless about the myriad of ways humans can use sex in abusive ways, while preaching it is something sacred and divine.
And the albino as the Frankenstein character, I mean, isn't that some kind of vile discriminatory thing? I kept flashing that 007 character, the very tall guy with the metal teeth. Why do authors need to make these Frankenstein characters have some kind of body disability or with a corporal difference to the norm? Isn't there something ignoble regarding such choices? It's obvious Dan Brown would never make a vile character be a homo and present to his readers the reality of so many homosexuals. But albinos, or very tall, or very short, hey, make them as malignant as you please.
Update April 12:
comments with a smile:
First... the book itself. It's a great read, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. But let's face it, people: this isn't War and Peace.
Someone else said Langdon was just like Indiana Jones
And look at the title of this nice little satire piece:
The D'oh! Vinci Code, Chapter Two
As Robert Langdon tore the half-eaten croissant out of Sophie Neveu's hands, he pondered the meaning of the ancient gesture with which she responded to his precipitate act of pastry-snatching.
The well-gnawed nails of her Gallic, alabaster hands were clutched tightly to her palm, an obvious association with the ages-old cult of Isis, the desert-goddess of godly desserts. Save one finger, the Sacred Index, which was extended skyward, as the Mid-Lothian Gnostics reputedly so extended their Middle Digits when cut off by rude donkey-cart drivers in the agora.
[more... off color satire follows, but not crude]
I also found this equally adulating note:
à savoir que Robert Langdon n'est qu'un bête crétin à l'image de... [find out :-) ]
And another blogger is currently re-reading the "Da Vinci Code". Don't mean to pounce but, re-reading? :-)
If you are wondering why it's taking me forever to finish the book, it's because I refused to buy it. I am reading the luxuriously photo illustrated, glossy paper, hard cover edition at my friendly neighborhood megabookstore. For free.
A note about the "woman" in the Last Supper. While examining carefully the figure in the printed photo in the book, it didn't seem like a woman to me. The figure seems like a very young 16th century man, with long, limp hair. Da Vinci didn't draw (most of) his women in that way. See a nice pic of the Last Supper here. The figure with the red tunic, 3rd on the right from Jesus, no beard, has as much of a "woman" look, if we are going to view every guy with no beard and no heavyset features as a woman in the Last Supper. Compare with several other of da Vinci's women paintings here. The Last Supper guys seem different, not like a da Vinci woman.
In fact, I've always thought the Mona Lisa has something of a transvestite air, which I find considerably disgusting. And given that da Vinci was probably a pile of trash in his sexuality, that's probably the joke played on the public with the Mona Lisa.
Not to mention "John, the Baptist," da Vinci's homo porn, an in-your-face disgusting homo painting, not because it is sexually explicit. This John looks exactly like all puffs that would swarm the royal French courts in the 17th and 18th century.
Update April 13
Nice short post on the control of information by the Church in the first centuries. However, he is blind to all the liberal aggression in the Jerry Springer Opera and its barrage of religious insults.
A nice conclusion at the end of this post.
Related entries:
Last Supper Ad Controversy; Jesus as a Woman in Italian Re-enactment of the Passion of Christ; Past Veronese "Last Supper" Painting Controversy; Harry Potter for Adults - Tom Hanks; another recent post.
.
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