Davinchi Code By Dan Brown [Archive] - Literature Network Forums

Scheherazade

06-24-2005, 09:16 AM

I agree with Night... Rubbish can be good too... I don't want to be reading 'classics' all the time... Only yesterday I read two books meant for teen girls and I don't think I am mentally less worthy because of that. Eating healthy food is good and desirable but steamed vegetables and boiled rice day after day will get boring... A slice (or two) of pizza or a burger every now and then makes life worth living! :D

I would like to be able to enjoy even the simple things in life... get silly when necessary. And I am glad that I can do that. I read 'classics' and 'rubbish fiction'; I listen to classic music and 70s/80s disco (even dance to it! :eek: ). There is a time and place for everything and there is no need to feel bad about it. After all: All work and no play make Jack a dull boy! ;)

*edit: Deleted my own post while editting! :rolleyes:

Maxos

06-24-2005, 09:17 AM

Yes, of course.

That's why you have no time to waste reading rubbish.

You must chose.

Anyway 99,99999% of people likes taking no decision.

Proportions are respected.

papayahed

06-24-2005, 09:18 AM

side note - how'd that happen How'd my post get above scher's when I'm agreeing with her???????

Logos

06-24-2005, 09:22 AM

:lol: the wizard behind the curtain pressed the wrong button!

side note - how'd that happen How'd my post get above scher's when I'm agreeing with her???????

papayahed

06-24-2005, 09:23 AM

must be opus dei, hehehehe

Logos

06-24-2005, 09:24 AM

I confess, my chocolate binge or junk food is reading Vanity Fair or GQ magazine. :D

Nightshade

06-24-2005, 09:26 AM

she edited!!!
Maxos
Everything is worth somthing which is why I disagree whith the most overated author thread...
Anyway most classics are rubish ever read Richardson's Pamela, or virtue rewarded?
Absaloute rubbish but fasinating!
I suppose you wold say Scifi and fantasy are a waste of time too??

Nightshade

06-24-2005, 09:27 AM

Vanity fair junk reading?! :eek:----Logos beat me!---
Im not sure that qualifies!

Mark F.

06-24-2005, 12:34 PM

Fun to read, but absolute rubbish and Dan Brown is an aweful writer.

mono

06-24-2005, 02:13 PM

As cynical as it sounds, I often get very suspicious of incredibly famous works that envelope a certain kind of phenomenon; some theories, no matter how believable they sound, a reader can still categorize simply as a theory, from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to a chef's superstition of wearing a specific pair of shoes while cooking (one of whom I happened to know :D).
I have not read Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, despite hearing both very good and very bad things about it, and after viewing a documentary on some intriguing Discovery Channel program. The hype about Dan Brown, not only with The DaVinci Code, reminds me of much of the excitement of James Redfield, writing The Celestine Prophecy, The Tenth Insight, and The Celestine Vision. In Redfield's time, readers and bookstores considered him a saint, but, call me crazy, I saw nothing particularly impressive. :confused: For those who enjoy Dan Brown's (or James Redfield's) work, I cannot discriminate nor insult; I only cannot call that genre my 'cup of tea.'

Mark F.

06-24-2005, 07:26 PM

As or the fiction/truth issue, I really hate the way loads of people ended up believing everything in the novel was the truth. For example, the St Sulpice Church had to put up a sign cause tourists were trying to pick up a stone slab. A friend of mine (who incited me into reading this) was completely fooled by this hoax and said that it contained the truth about christianity. Dan Brown's a lucky guy, I've never seen a bestseller stay up for so long, but he's really not a good author I can assure you of that. I've read all but one of his books and they all rely on exactly the same principle, you can read one, no more.

bibliophile

06-27-2005, 07:14 AM

guys and gals that i hope could be my friends because we all share our love for the written works regardless of nationality, race, religion or interests....

I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

you see, right now, i have an undergraduate research that i really need everyone's help. here's the title: an in-depth analysis of the da vinci code and its implications on current religious practices

basically, i need opinions... for starters, that is. then, i would bring issues and then i hope you could also comment on that.

i hope to hear from everyone if it ain't too much to ask, even the moderators..

you will be credited though i know you'll do this out of the goodness of your hearts.. and of course your love for literature :)

thank you.. salamat.. muchas gracias.. to sha.. arigato gozaimasu.. namashte..

Eeyan (bibliophile)

anyway, please email me at [email protected] or send me a private message here..

got to go guys and gals.. got a class.. *damn*

Beaumains

06-27-2005, 07:47 AM

The Da Vinci Code...*sigh* I remember picking up this book when the craze had hit its peak; I expected a great read, but instead I got utter garbage (that's my opinion, no more). The characters, as in much of modern fiction, were weak and undeveloped (once again my opinion) and the story wasn't that clever at all. Brown's knowledge of Gnosticism is questionable at best as well.

cosmo

02-04-2010, 12:15 AM

surely like his books! esp. 'Angels & Demons' & 'The DaVinci Code'.
i think Brown is a feminist. he always presents women as more powerful, smart & quick-witted than men.

conartist

02-04-2010, 05:50 AM

Even if you don't want to call the book bad you have to acknowledge that the writing is incredibly weak and unimaginative. But really you should just call the book bad. The magnitude of the reaction surprised me a lot as the most controversial points, questioning the immortality of Jesus and wotnot, are things that have been being debated over for quite some time. The secret society with Da Vinci and whoever else is all bull**** though; based on a hoax started a few decades ago.

It twisted A LOT with regards to the art it discussed too, which I remember pissed me off more than anything else at the time. I'm pretty sure if the majority of the population had seen Madonna on the Rocks and The Last Supper before a hell of a lot less attention would have been given to the thing.

blazeofglory

02-04-2010, 08:42 AM

What I like of this novel is its illumination that Jesus was married and of course there are glimpses of verity if not proven in the usual sense history is documented. And another aspect I like of this is the writer makes mention of the pagan culture that was ruined by Christianity. I do not consider it in terms of its literary and philosophical standards but some of the things the writer at least tried to communicate to us is really appealing. Considering that I like the novel.

Katy North

02-04-2010, 08:52 AM

While it wasn't an example of classic literature, I have to say I liked the novel. If nothing else, I had fun looking at the art mentioned in the book on the internet at the beginning and got caught up in the action at the end.

PeeSlowlyAndSee

02-04-2010, 12:19 PM

Nick Capozzoli

02-05-2010, 02:01 AM

I actually enjoyed reading both DC and As&Ds, and I liked the movie versions. I understand that Brown "plagiarized" the concept for DC, but so what? He turned the concept into a page-turner mystery novel.

I think that Brown's opinions about the Roman Catholic Church are simplistic, puerile, and prejudiced, but both novels were good reads. I wouldn't compare Brown to Joyce, Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck or anyone worthy of something like a Nobel Prize, but I enjoyed these two novels the way that I enjoy eating an occasional Big Mac or Angus Deluxe. Literary junk food. :nod:

aquarium444

02-05-2010, 04:28 AM

Hi All,

How do you find this book written by Dan Brown?
Do you find the contents all frictional or is there
an element of truth...

Cheers
Speedwhiz

I read it a few years ago and it was fine. Basically there seems to be a lot of plot twists and turns. You feel like there is a big mystery to solve and it is fairly interesting. It opens up a lot of questions.

It is fictional, but it should be real. There is some historical basis such as the Priory of Sion was it? Well a secret society. It just raises questions. The author doesn't try to make it real, but points toward some doubt or new theories on possibilities.

Mutatis-Mutandis

02-05-2010, 05:27 PM

Never had any desire to read it.

The way I saw it, the fact that it was so popular meant that it was probably terrible.

That's what happens when things are popular with the general public, because the general public is, for the most part, stupid.

I'm not saying that people who read Dan Brown's books are stupid, I'm merely pointing out what the general public as a whole typically favors; utter trash like Twilight, for example.

Also, anything that can be considered a "craze" is usually never worthwhile.

It's statements like these that give intellectuals such a bad image to the masses. Really, can you see much of anything way up there on your pedestal?

Personally, I liked The Da Vinci. I don't really think it is as bad as a lot of people here say (especially since I thought it was good). Lots of obnoxious finger waving at the stupid general public. I found it a great read. It moved along fast, and I found the story incredibly clever.

God forbid any literature lovers like or appreciate something popular.

As to the "truth" of the content, after watching a few Discovery channel documentaries on the subjects, what I came away with is that everything the book describes is possible--though Da Vince being a part of some secret society is probably the most remote possibility, though fun to think about. The stuff about Jesus being married and having a child is probably the most possible of what the book suggests: basically none of it can be proven true, but it can't really be proven false, either.

PeeSlowlyAndSee

02-05-2010, 05:43 PM

I'm really happy that you enjoyed reading it.

Mutatis-Mutandis

02-05-2010, 06:07 PM

Well, I'm really happy that you're really happy that I enjoyed reading it.

aquarium444

02-06-2010, 03:42 AM

There aren't many Edgar Allen Poe's left today, but when you think about it, didn't he have an ape doing killings in that one story that I don't remember reading but only hearing about in a documentary.

I don't think that Jesus did have a family though because in the Bible, it does mention genealogy. The patriarchs had families, etc. Why would it suddenly leave out Jesus's family? It does say that he died and ascended to heaven, and he was mortal for the sake of providing an example or something to that effect. Anyway, reading Dan Brown is fun, but it is probably easy to pick apart the arguments. If you read it, you can follow the adventure but don't stop and think. It will have you going though until the end.

If Jesus was a Jew, wouldn't he have black hair and somewhat dark skin? Anyway, how much more confusing can it be but to chose to follow Dan Brown and worry not again. I haven't read "The Lost Symbol" but maybe I should now. There better not be an ape running stuff.

Haunted

02-06-2010, 04:17 AM

^ The Lost Symbol is different — more intellectual and totally creepy. If you like his other books, you will not be disappointed.

The way I saw it, the fact that it was so popular meant that it was probably terrible.

That's what happens when things are popular with the general public, because the general public is, for the most part, stupid.

I haven't met one single person who didn't like Dan Brown's novels until I came to Litnet. It's really sad to hear a comment like this: popular = bad. The logic eludes me.

After years of cramming stuffy literature I couldn't pick up another book for quite some time. The Da Vinci Code was the book where I rediscovered the pleasure of reading. After that several people recommended that I also read Angels & Demons. It's just as gripping but also enlightening. As for the movie, I love how they recreated a key character and added an epic ending.

Both DVC and TLS reveal secrets hidden in plain sight and forever changed the way we see these objects. That's significant.

I wouldn't disregard works based on existing theories. Everything is based on something.

I also wouldn't disregard works just because they're popular. Shakespeare was popular in his own day too.

Mutatis-Mutandis

02-06-2010, 02:00 PM

^ :thumbs_up

LitNetIsGreat

02-06-2010, 02:39 PM

Oh, not another round of Da Vinci Code...

No other book that I have ever come across repulses me as much as this one.

prendrelemick

02-06-2010, 04:03 PM

I have enjoyed many popular books, from Harry potter to Jeffrey Archer, but Dan Brown is in a class of his own.

genji

02-06-2010, 04:24 PM

I haven't met one single person who didn't like Dan Brown's novels until I came to Litnet. It's really sad to hear a comment like this: popular = bad. The logic eludes me.

Dan Brown's work is irritating because it's so badly written it's everything a good book shouldn't be. But if that's the case, then why haven't I put pen to paper and come up with something just as popular and just as captivating for a massive section of the reading public?

Anybody can write - why do some of us choose not to?

Popular != bad. Popular merely = popular.

After years of cramming stuffy literature I couldn't pick up another book for quite some time.

I finished an English degree and immediately jumped into Fred Forsyth, James Herbert and James Clavell. I still read plot-driven books today.

The problem is that many, many people think that listing their favourite books as Dostoevsky or Goethe somehow makes them better people - more erudite or intelligent, and that you can't argue with art. The solution to the problem is to accept that art, when you get right down to it, is really only entertainment. There's no difference between Shakespeare and Dan Brown, Mozart and Beyonce, or Van Gogh and Banksy.

Education can only ever give you a little learning.

LitNetIsGreat

02-06-2010, 05:53 PM

I would agree that just because something is popular doesn’t automatically make it of inferior quality, you only have to list some of the great popular films that have been produced over the years to see that this is so (even if film and TV are the mediums of mass appeal). However a book is not going to reach the best seller lists based on fine writing alone - because most readers are just not interested in the quality of writing, or don’t have the reading experience to know or care that much about it. The mass demand is for “good reads” which usually translates as fast-paced, plot-driven books that maintain interest just long enough until it is consumed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this if that’s what the individual wants.

However this mass market demand means that what will likely appeal to majorities, to the general reading public, isn’t necessarily going to appeal to those who demand more from their reading material.

Personally, I am just not interested in wasting my time and my life reading inferior quality literature. This is my own personal choice. So for me there is no problem. The only problem arises, (well it is not a problem it is just annoying) is when some individuals push poor quality reading material as “good literature” just because they enjoyed it, read it very quickly, or it is popular.

Certainly, if it can be argued that popular it isn’t necessarily bad, then popular isn’t necessarily good either.

genji

02-06-2010, 06:15 PM

... most readers are just not interested in the quality of writing, or don’t have the reading experience to know or care that much about it.

I have the reading experience, I think - or I did have, once upon a time. My dissertation was on Ulysses. I wrote extensively about Christianity in Yeats, exploitation in Dickens and sexuality in Roman literature, as I recall.

Quality, for me, is not about stylistic idiom or classical regurgitation. Quality is only about generating emotion, and an educated, experienced (and jaded) reader's reaction is no more valid than anybody else's.

I don't know much about literature, but I know what I like.

kiki1982

02-06-2010, 06:44 PM

There is still something like technicality. Writing, like Dan Brown's amongst others, is just technically bad. It is so annoying that one wants to chuck the book against the wall. It is not even style alone. It is just unimaginative word choice which is suicidal for any writer.

There are also bad painters: those whose paintings fail to stay on their canvasses. Ok, Leonardo DaVinci experimented with his Last Supper and this resulted in the painting still pealing off the wall now (which is a major problem), but at least the rest of his things, he did conventionally. He was a genious because dared to experiment, and failed in that, but one would never discover if one did not try.

However, a writer who calls himself writer should be able technically to write. One does not call oneself dancer if one lacks the technique to be called that. The average night club dancer is not a dancer, he is a person who occasionaly dances.

Dan Brown's sentences are full of cliches, too short, not imaginative. A good writer could make a much better book of the same plot.

Of course, everything that is popular is not bad. It is not because Vermeer is popular that he is a bad painter, or because Mozart is a popular classical composer that he is a bad one (although his music is predictable and sometimes repetitive, but that can be down to his period, though). But one cannot say that half of the books in the bestseller list are to be deemed well written.

About Joyce can be argued (as many academics have shown) and it is not because one has written essays about great writers and topics that one is an autority (look at the people who criticised Joyce: they are all academics, but they don't agree).

I personally value good sentences and sometimes a good plot, although that is not necessary. The Old Man and the Sea has virtually no plot, and stil it is a gem.

LitNetIsGreat

02-06-2010, 07:01 PM

Quality, for me, is not about stylistic idiom or classical regurgitation. Quality is only about generating emotion, and an educated, experienced (and jaded) reader's reaction is no more valid than anybody else's.

Well then based upon your criteria we can officially establish Da Vinci Code as a masterpiece, as like Kiki, I too at times, would want to chuck the damn thing against the wall - there is enough emotion generated there for sure! And even if you were talking about positive emotion then it fits the bill too, as millions have enjoyed it. A masterpiece it is then!

As for the tired argument that an expert opinion is just as valid as a four year olds I can hardly be further from agreement. The next time I am badly ill in that case, I'll go to a toddler for help and forgo the doctor. It’s just not a valid argument.

Mutatis-Mutandis

02-06-2010, 07:10 PM

I really need to re-read Da Vinci Code. I don't remember the writing being that bad, but I have grown by leaps and bounds as a reader since then. If the writing is technically bad, than there is no real argument against that.

I have always said that when someone reads a bad book, it's cool if you don't like it, but don't try and pass it off as something that should be measured with great pieces of literature. I occasionally read books by R. A. Salvatore and can readily admit he is a poor writer, but I still enjoy them from time to time.

LitNetIsGreat

02-06-2010, 08:16 PM

No, you really shouldn't re-read it!

Oh, I don't want to think about this silly book anymore, it's too painful.

Good night.

papayahed

02-06-2010, 08:51 PM

I really need to re-read Da Vinci Code. I don't remember the writing being that bad, but I have grown by leaps and bounds as a reader since then. If the writing is technically bad, than there is no real argument against that.

oh, it is. But if you are like me you were taken in by the story and forgot about the writing after the 3rd chapter.

aquarium444

02-07-2010, 10:50 AM

If people with degrees are talking up Dan Brown, while the people without degrees want literature, than something is backwards. I want to be able to read books right to left, so I can read the great books of the past. This grade 10 stuff is all that I can muster, if I do any reading at all. I read only the occasional literature, but none of the 800 page classics.