Saturday, October 09, 2004

The Da Vinci Code - The two different perspectives

Well yes I am a late reader. But I did finish "The Vinci Code" yesterday. I sat up whole night reading the book on my comp. Amazing thriller. The official reviews are here.The Da Vinci Code � Book Reviews � Official Website of Dan Brown

But ofcourse I looked around and as expected the book has been controversial enough. Thankfully it hasn't been banned like some others of similar kind. Book puts some question marks on Christianity as we see it today and no wonder some Christian scholars raised a hue a cry against the following paragraph in Chapter 55 among many others.

…“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven….The Bible is the product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.”

The statements are made by the historian character Teabing, answering some questions from the two lead characters about the nature and background of their quest.

Interestingly what made the scholars react against the book was the following text in the prologue of the book
"FACT"
All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate

Read a comprehensible list of the objections of the Christian scholars here . The site mentions itself as Tektonics -The building blocks for Christian faith.

But all said and done, the controversy has helped a book a lot. The book has been on New York Times bestseller list (Fiction of course) for quite some time now. If want my opinion, I loved the book. It builds up amazingly. I couldn't get away from my comp the whole of yesterday night though my eyes were aching. Though its true that the end isn't quite as riveting as the rest of it. But it's still worth it. Even if partially true or fiction, it gives you the story from a different perspective. If you believe being spiritual is different from being religious, and the religions of the world are less than perfect, the book doesn't shake anything inside you. But religion/faith/beliefs are a very personal matter and what might be acceptable to many readers of Dan Brown might also evoke equally opposite reactions from others.

6 comments:

Des said...

>All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate

Hi Sonia
I enjoyed reading your observations. My understanding is that some people, not just "scholars" but well informed people, have been incensed or irritated by this sort of disingenuous observation, which can easily be misinterpreted as a statement that what is described is as it is in the real world. The "descriptions" may well be accurate, but they could be descriptions of fantasies :) And as others more scholarly than I have observed, a lot of the"Wow!" items in the Da Vinci Code have been around for years, commonly known, not taken seriously by serious scholars. But clearly a good read!
Des

Sathyaraj said...

Where can you get the online version of the da vince cod

Anonymous said...

could you pls mail me the soft copy of the book. I'll be greatful to u for that. my mail id is mithin at gmail dot com

thanx in advance
mithin

Anonymous said...

Well done!
[url=http://vwonfzqu.com/ikeb/iemz.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://gentmads.com/gxgc/tfam.html]Cool site[/url]

Anonymous said...

Nice site!
My homepage | Please visit

Anonymous said...

Good design!
http://vwonfzqu.com/ikeb/iemz.html | http://pjuuondm.com/qobu/asxq.html