Ugh--I read the thing. Needed to vomit regularly, but I got through it.
It's so dumb. The clues were dumb. The beginning of the Fibonacchi (sp?) sequence is not an impregnable 10 digit code. Clues I saw a mile away included that, plus the backward writing, and if I'd cared at all by then I'm sure I'd have gotten the apple. Characters, motivations, plot twists, all movie-of-the-week at best. More like UPN.
I can't tell whether Brown is pitching it for below-average readers or if that's just as good as he gets.
Which does bring up an interesting question: Are RfC's "pew peasants" ready for literate music?
Sorry to babble, but one more thing: isn't it interesting that it's all about sex? Could it be that readers are convinced for the sake of a drive even more basic than self-deception?
As the old saw goes, "Heresy begins below the belt."
Dan Brown is rubbish -- though I only read chapter 1. Harry Potter is also rubbish -- though I only read the first half of volume I. The trouble is we are deluged with these noisome products that attract up to 40,000,000 readers and cannot treat them with the contempt they deserve without first reading or viewing them. What we need to do is preempt such tyranny of LCD culture by teaching and practicing on all occasions THE CRITICAL SPIRIT. That means challenging also meretricious products like American Beauty, Brokeback Mountain, Pretty Woman, The Passion of the Christ, and whatever other idol is hyped up for us. The forces we are ranged against here are NOT those of popular culture but of EXPLOITATIVE CAPITALISM, which has depleted and denatured popular culture.
cannot treat them with the contempt they deserve without first reading or viewing them
I'm not at all sure what you are suggesting, Spirit. Should one judge a book by its cover? Or reject it out of hand because it makes money?
In any case, it is grave heresy to say Harry Potter is rubbish. Any series of children's books that attacks Nietzsche can't be all bad.
Leave it to Fr. O'Leary to lump The Passion of the Christ together with movies about a prostitute finding true love, homosexuals being unfaithful to their wives, and a middle-aged man committing statutory rape with highschool cheerleader.
By the way, what is LCD culure? The culture of the Liquid Chrystal Display? Seriously, I don't know what the acronym stands for. Lowest common denominator, perhaps? The Passion of the Christ is certainly not an example of that.
Kathy,
I loved your first post in this combox -- everything about it, the spleen and viscera, as well as the observations about the clues, the pitch to below-average readers, and the speculation about readers being duped by a drive more basic than self-deception (Brown's novel ends up being all about sex). Very nicely put. Though I haven't read the novel, I share the sentiment. Thank you.
"Potter," eh? And the alleged "J" in your first "name" is only one letter removed from "H" ... the first letter in "Harry." "O" is a vowel, and so is "a." This is followed by an "r" and then a "d" to indicate that the previous letter should be doubled. Why? That's the next letter, of course: "y." The remaining "an" indicates "an empty space" before getting to your true name.
You, Jordan Potter, are actually Harry Potter. Dan Brown told me. You clearly have an interested motive, and have profited from the millions who have purchased your books.
You have been outed.
Dr. Blosser, thanks, I'm glad you like my spleen. 
BTW, I was browsing the anti-Dumb Vinci Code books and I came across a good one, suitable for non-believers as well as believers. Nancy de Flon and John Vidmar, OP, Paulist Press, 101 Questions and Answers on the Da Vinci Code and the Catholic Tradition. It's like 10 bucks.
It may be like 10 bucks, but is it worth that much?
It's worth $18.50 at least. Archbishop Dolan endorses it. It's good: reasonable, readable, clear, and faithful.
I would recommend it as a Xmas or summer solstice gift to anyone who is on the fence as a result of the yucky original "novel."
For other resources in the anti-Dumb Da Vinci vein, see my page of links.
_You have been outed._
Harry is actually my sister-in-law's nephew's half-brother's son-in-law's fourth cousin twice removed. But through that relationship I will be able to claim a share in the lost Merovingian inheritance and thereby liberate the human race from the Matrix.
Oh, sorry, wrong Merovingian. . . .
Curses. Foiled again.
By the way, your rent is due.
I think that "The DaVinci Code" attempts to copy the style of Eco (i.e. The Name of the Rose), but substitutes controversy for competence. It makes the contempt of Eco all the more delectable.
Even Eco, whose writing I rather enjoyed, couldn't get his facts straight. One thing in particular bugged me -- the Franciscan was forced out of the Dominicans for trying to give advice to an accused heretic. The rules of the Inquisition, however, required that anyone accused of heresy be assisted by at least two competent theologians to advise him and help him frame his responses. This presumably weeded out the confused from the truly heretical.
Umberto Eco write Foucalt's Pendulum? -- which I found to be a complex and thrilling read re: grand conspiracies.
Da Vinci Code was basically a rehash of the equally tasteless and idiotic Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Dan Brown could take lessons from Eco.
The Passion of the Christ, by Mel Gibson, is tasteless sado-masochistic dreck.
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