The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition
by Dan Brown
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dan BrownEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Illustrated
Published: 2004-11-02
ISBN: 0385513755
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Doubleday
Book Reviews of The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition
Book Review: Concerning Dan Brown's Gnostic Truthiness
Summary: 1 Stars
This is a silly, slanderous book. I read it about a year ago, just to see what all the fuss was about. Given all the hype surrounding the DaVinci Code, I expected something similar to the Shining, Caine Mutiny, Hunt for Red October, Godfather - you know, a popular classic, with some literary substance.
I must say I am - what's the word? Flabbergasted. Forty million copies sold and counting? This book is simply mediocre. The story is formulaic, the characters are cliches, and the prose is workmanlike at best... The cryptological puzzles are cute, a nice gimmick. But the overall effect is basically a caricature of Umberto Eco. Read Name of the Rose (excellent) and Foucault's Pendulum (good). Both are great novels, historically grounded, and subversive enough in their own way. But too meaty and esoteric for someone whose historical and religious education ended in high school, I guess.
Anyway, as we all know, it's those religious themes that are really behind all the enthusiasm.
Disclaimer: I'm a practicing Catholic who holds the Creed of Nicea-Constantinople to be true. I love the Church, and hold the scriptures written, collated and authenticated by her to be the true Gospel of God's self - revelation unto humanity.
So I can't help deem this book insulting, not to mention rather ridiculous and very unfair. But it's just a book, right? "Just fiction." Why do I care?
Well, Y'all can read and believe what you like, obviously. But out of charity I have to warn you, this novel is not particularly trustworthy. Its claims to veracity are largely false. Caveat Lector.
Furthermore, I have to live in this culture, and even though it's probably futile, I feel I have to speak up in defense of my faith. What you believe is unfortunately going to affect me, politically. Stories are important. They have social consequences. Think of Uncle Tom's Cabin, On the Road, the Fountainhead or what have you. All narrative is myth - we internalize it, it defines our actions, our very selves. The only question is how true are your myths? Are yours true or false?
And if someone were to take and defame and insult you, or the things you hold holy, how would you feel? I guess you have to go on a rampage, riot and burn stuff down before people actually respect you, huh?
As for Mr. Brown and his story, his myth, most of what he represents as factual therein has been either proven false by reputable, dispassionate scholarship (e.g. his claim that the "Priory of Sion" is of medieval origin), or is selectively presented in a highly distorted, blatantly biased manner (e.g. his treatment of Opus Dei), or else is just pure speculative fantasy (e.g. his claims regarding Mary Magdalene or Leonardo, which are hogwash, all without any significant authenticated supporting evidence.)
And I gotta ask: do you really want a return of paganism? Have you read Gnostic texts like those found at Nag Hammadi? Are you ready to embrace them as scripture? Here's a verse from one of the Gnostic gospels found there:
[Simon Peter says to them] "Let Mary go out from our midst, for women are not worthy of life!" [Jesus says in response] "See, I will draw her so as to make her male so that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who has become male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
From the "Gospel of Thomas", 114
This from a text that supposedly promotes the "sacred feminine." There are other passages in these texts that advocate the annihilation of homosexuals. Elaine Pagels passes them off as figurative. Like Mien Kampf was figurative when it came to solving the "Jewish Question" maybe? Could it be first century hate speech? Read the texts for yourself and decide.
So then, would you be willing to stake your life and society on the testimony of the likes of Dan Brown and Elaine Pagels? Do you really think our society- or women- would be better off without Christian faith? Before yo u answer, consider: Dan Brown rhapsodizes about Hieros Gamos as an expression of the "sacred feminine." As if reviving ritualized sex that often involved enslaved temple prostitutes would be the consummation of feminism. Think about that.
Gnostics and pagans are oh so much more tolerant than Christians, eh? Want to revive the gladiatorial blood sport of the Roman Circus? Dispense with turn the other cheek, go back to a life defined by Nietzchean power makes right? Who will rule then? It wasn't just in the West that that mythical "sacred feminine" culture of yore was supposedly suppressed. Patriarchy triumphed virtually everywhere. And feminism arose in an explicitly Christian- protestant, mainly - context. So.. be careful..
Last point: Dan Brown has slandered Opus Dei. While not a member myself, I know people who are, including a good friend of mine. They are good people. Not in any way do they resemble the smarmy and murderous fanatics depicted in the book. I'm really quite piqued by this, because it is simply unmerited, gratuitous bigotry.
Opus Dei is traditional. Their spirituality is serious, substantial stuff. It is rooted in the ancient and medieval practices of the Church. So it is a bit - how do you say - counter cultural? Too staunch for modern milquetoasts? Something like that.
He gets many details concerning Opus Dei wrong, details easily checked through interviews with knowledgeable Catholics, a little research, or even using Google. If he can't get information on his contemporaries straight, what business does he have treating the past?
A partial litany of Dan's screw-ups:
No one in Opus Dei practices mortifications in the disgusting, masochistic fashion depicted in the book.
None of them wear habits (the cloak worn by the albino "monk" assassin Silas). Opus Dei has no monks (monks live sequestered from the world in monasteries or hermitages - the entire point of Opus Dei is to work in, and engage, the world). They all wear normal clothes.
None of them would be likely to put their bishop- or any other member of the Church hierarchy - before God (as the assassin Silas explicitly states he is doing in the book).
None of them would refer to Opus Dei as "a Catholic Church" (words Brown places in the mouth of his Opus Dei bishop in the book - this is just another of the many places he reveals his ignorance of actual Catholic terminology and belief - Opus Dei is a personal prelature, an organization within, which is to say a part of, the Church. Not "a" Church itself.)
And none of them are murderers. Not a single assassin among them. Not one.
Small point, that. Just a quibble.
To conclude: Dan Brown "feels" the "facts" at us. Actual Christianity is uncongenial to popular contemporary sensibilities, and the DaVinci Code gives us a nice happy vision of the way things "really should be." No nasty irrational incarnation. No offensive sexual morality or concepts of holiness. No divinely authoritative Church and scripture. Just a big sham New Age Gnostic Christianism. Jesus was just a nice rabbi who had babies with Mary Magdalene, his super female apostle. Ergo: the Church's ancient testimony and authority is just a crock. But why then is Mary Magdalene and her blood line considered sacred then??? The Holy Grail? What's so "holy" about the bloodline of some goofy dead heretical (from a modern Jewish perspective) rabbi- or carpenter- or whatever he was?
The contention that the Knights Templar, the Cathars and "Priory of Sion," etc. guarded this secret, when they - the Cathars in particular - were the enemies of the Church is moronic. The Cathars guarded a secret that would destroy the Church? Are you people serious?? That. Is. Just. Idiotic. Saying the Earth is flat when you are looking at it from space idiotic.
Anyway, Dan Brown says he doesn't deny the Resurrection. But if that is so, and he really believes what he is spinning in this book (right, whatever- enjoy your loot, Dan) then his story is even more of an incoherent mess. Sophie Neveu is the descendant of the Resurrected God? Yes? No? Huh? Does any one who loves this book even care about plot integrity?
Jesus: "Who do you say that I am?" Dan Brown: "The husband of Mary Magdalene. She's super a cool, kick butt red headed, sexy ur- feminist hoochie momma. That means you, Christ, Jesus, whatever, are sort of super cool, too. I guess... And the Church is a crock.. Just wanted to get that in there.. "
Okay. Sure. Whatever. Like I say, just be careful what you wish were true.
Summary of The Da Vinci Code, Special Illustrated Edition
One of the bestselling novels of all time, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has intrigued and thrilled millions of readers around the world. Now all the artwork, symbols, architecture, and historic locations?over 160 images?are beautifully compiled in this full-color collector's edition.A mind-bending code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe. An astonishing truth concealed for centuries? unveiled at last.
While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, a baffling cipher found near the body. As Langdon and a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci?clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.
The stakes are raised when Langdon uncovers a startling link: the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion?an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others. Langdon suspects they are on the hunt for a breathtaking historical secret, one that has proven through the centuries to be as enlightening as it is dangerous. In a frantic race through Paris, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu find themselves matching wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to anticipate their every move. Unless they can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle, the Priory's secret?and an explosive ancient truth?will be lost forever.
Instantly catapulted to the top of the bestseller lists around the world, The Da Vinci Code is simultaneously lightning-paced, intelligent, and intricately layered with remarkable research and detail. From secrets embedded in the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, to the symbols of ancient Egypt, to the architecture of landmarks such as the Louvre, Westminster Abbey, Rosslyn Chapel, and more, this fully illustrated collector's edition delivers the complete reading experience of Dan Brown's riveting novel?from the opening pages to the unpredictable and stunning conclusion.
With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history.
A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only Neveu's grandfather's murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England, and history itself. Brown (Angels and Demons) has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries--from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. --Jeremy Pugh
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