The Da Vinci Code
Yeah, I read it. Shame on me.
You have to be living under a rock to not know about this book. For good or ill, it has driven even the reading-averse to a bookstore to plunk down some cash. Anything that sells like this warrants a closer examination from someone who wants to be a writer.
However, I did manage to resist long enough to wait for the paperback. $8 is a little better than $15.
Da Vinci is everywhere. Recently, I went to my local Barnes and Noble Leisure Center and had to avoid that towering stacks of Da Vinci Code books flanking the entryway. Pausing at the door threshold, I had a Samson-esque moment; could I push down the pillars of Dan Brown and bring down the whole temple? Deeper in the store, a large table groaned under the stack of all-things-Da-Vinci, or anything-that-might-look-Da-Vinci-ish. It seems that anything with a medieval line drawing on the cover will sell right now.
Stopping by the cafe for my latte, I waited patiently next to yet another stack of Da Vinci material. That was the moment that my faith in capitalism was rewarded. Lying there on the table was a fad mash-up worthy of note: Da Vinci Sudoku. I was simultaneously repulsed and awed. Some enterprising soul had seized on two of the hottest things going and found a way to strike at both. Maybe a year ago, I probably would have seen the Da Vinci Hold ‘Em set with nice, antiquated playing cards and chips stamped with the various inventions of Da Vinci.
I love America.
But to the book. My brother had read it some time ago and has been pushing it on me for a few years. Not because it is a great book, but because he too recognizes that a wannabe-writer needs to understand what is going on here. He described it as the ‘best, lousiest book’ he’s ever read.
I have to agree. I picked it up on a whim, read the first ten pages, and within a day I had finished it. I literally couldn’t put it down, despite groaning at the lousy style, execution and structure confronting me on nigh every page. The book swims with the improbable coincidence, the fortuitous event, and the fortunate past experience that ties in perfectly with present day need. The protagonist, with a few clues, solves a 2,000 year old mystery in a little over twenty four hours. Several times, he ‘just happens’ to have studied something crucial in his past, using these experiences to make the next connection in the chain of puzzles.
Fine, I guess. Obviously you need some deep background to solve these problems. A database administrator isn’t really equipped to piece together a strange sequence of microbiological anomalies, if I may draw an analogy.
It’s just that Brown uses it like a sledgehammer. Langdon is staring at an object that figures heavily as a clue, and we flash back to some college lecture he gave regarding the very object. Within the flash back, some off handed comment unlocks a memory that leads him to the answer.
But I still couldn’t stop reading.
The strength of the Da Vinci Code isn’t in the story, it is in the idea behind the story. I don’t intend to go into it here. The theological implications are fascinating and certainly fun to explore, but they deserve their own post. These ideas are sufficient to push the story along at a strong pace, and you read for that alone. Brown has harnessed some interesting material, packaged it in passable prose, and pushed it out to a market hungry for mysteries beyond what are contained in ‘standard’ theology. I leave it to others to debate or decry the idea that standard theology doesn’t seem to be enough for many people.
The Da Vinci Code serves as a notable flash point between those that argue about the need for Literature and those that are happy to see any book be embraced by people who don’t normally read. I tend to come down on the ‘any book, at least it IS a book’ side. If a few million people pick up the Code as the first book they’ve read in five years, maybe some of them will pick up another. How can that be bad? You aren’t going to hook them with The Brother’s Karamazov.
I still have no plans to see the movie. Certainly, a movie never had to be made from this book, at least not for any artistic need. But given the Da Vinci-Sudoku product, the movie was inevitable. How long before we have a TV series? (Note, I have been reminded that there IS a reality show either on the air or soon to be aired that revolves around puzzle solving with a Da Vinci feel.)
Again, I love America.
Filed under: Reviews (Books and Movies)
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