So I think the primary reason for all the hubbub is two-fold. First, people who read the book and its "all the history described is fact" preamble rarely take the next step to verify if the material has any historical validity at all. I think it's the intentional blurring of fiction and fact that Dan Brown perpetrates in the book that really annoys people. I can't tell you how many times the more fantastic claims of the book have been relayed to me as fact. Second, people love a conspiracy theory, they love bite sized 'tasty' information (where they need not expend any energy to validate), and stir that with religion and/or the Catholic church, a highly polarizing entity in and of itself, and you get a cocktail for a lot of people to get upset in all sorts of ways.
You and I know the whole thing is bunk (and not well written fiction either) but it's that "wow did you know that jesus was *married*?!" weak theory presented as absolute fact that some feel the need to correct. It's almost like people get upset when you deflate the excitement over this new 'revelation' and resort to something akin to "you must be in on it!". Gah.
Good point. Even though Dan Brown puts a "this is fiction" note at the start of the novel, people who take it seriously have to be the same sort of people who take the JFK conspiracy theory people seriously - occasionally, these folks have something interesting to say, but it's a tiny little gem in an enormous field of rubbish.
2006-05-24EDT17:26:22+00:00
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I actually read the book a while back and I still have a copy. There's no fiction disclaimer other than the standard "resemblance to real people is coincidental" standard printing bit (which should be enough) but I think it's the 'fact' preamble that gets people confused.
There's an unqualified "fact" page with a bit about the Priory of Sion being a secret society (although there's fairly clear evidence that it, in the form d Brown talks about, was a hoax), a bit about Opus Dei being a controversial Catholic sect and lastly the "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."
You're right, there is occasionally interesting little gems, but the rubish/noise usually drowns out the interesting stuff.
2006-05-24EDT18:40:26+00:00
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There's an unqualified "fact" page with a bit about the Priory of Sion being a secret society (although there's fairly clear evidence that it, in the form d Brown talks about, was a hoax), a bit about Opus Dei being a controversial Catholic sect and lastly the "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."
You're right, there is occasionally interesting little gems, but the rubish/noise usually drowns out the interesting stuff.
