The mind boggles
For some incomprehensible reason, I'm up in the morning, watching (I think) Good Morning America. I kinda feel that watching this show is making my IQ drop--as if waking up before 11am isn't bad enough. What's worse, they did a fairly lengthy segment about the Da Vinci Code controversy, and I think the very existence of this controversy (controversy!) is making everyone on the entire planet stupider.
The Da Vinci Code is a novel. Fiction. Bad fiction.
For example, opening the book at random, here's how chapter 20 starts (the emphasis in the quote is mine):
Emerging from the shadows, Langdon and Sophie moved stealthily up the deserted Grand Gallery corridor toward the emergency exit stairwell.I swear, that's exactly what's written. Not only does Dan Brown start the chapter by repeating the same verb in immediately adjacent sentences, that verb is the vaguest, dullest verb available in the English language. A writer of D&D novels or Harlequins would probably have to expend effort to produce prose that leaden.
As he moved, Langdon felt like he was trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle in the dark.
Anyway, Good Morning America informs me that Catholics in India (supported by Muslims--yay interfaith cooperation!) are threatening a hunger strike in response to the movie release.
Also, some pastor has called the Da Vinci Code movie the greatest threat to Christianity ever. Ever! Way worse than being fed to Roman lions.
(And according to Jack Van Impe, whose broadcasts I've been following with great interest, the Da Vinci Code is also a sign of the End Times. So, OK, it's a really terrible book, but I don't think the ugliness of the writing is quite that momentous.)
Next they did a story on the "Christian Deliverance" movement, which, as best as I can tell, consists of Protestants who go around conducting exorcisms despite never having been to seminary or studied theology.
Honestly, getting exorcised looks like fun. You thrash around, spit, talk in a scary voice... I think I would be a great exorcee if I ever got the chance. I could insult the exorcist and his ridiculous moustache to my heart's content, and blame it on the demon afterwards.
Then again, the "recommended donation" is apparently $120. So maybe I'll give it a pass.
posted by Toby at 7:24 AM
8 Comments:
The Da Vinci code is not made for people like you. It is made for mass consumption. The people who are getting worked up about this haven't suddenly got dumber, they have always been dumb. There is so much controversy because the writing is so simple and easily consumed by the masses
Someone told me people are upset because the book is about Jesus not going to heaven and instead claims that Jesus has children here on earth. What's wrong with God babies? I bet they were the cutest little asian kids in Hebrew school.
I liked "The Last Temptation of Christ" way better...
I can understand opus dei getting pissed off and demanding some sort of "this is fictional" thing, despite the fact that they're kinda evil...
but the damn albinos are protesting, too! "not all albinos are evil!" tho I disagree (they're creepy, therefore evil), I don't think ONE albino character being evil means ALL albinos must be evil.
evidently albinos are shitty at logical arguments.
Something can be for mass consumption and still be deep and fulfilling, like our fine friend Shakespeare. What I can't understand is that a sloppily written, abysmally researched diatribe of half-understood goddess worship and fabricated Biblical inconsistencies (like there weren't enough real inconsistencies, Dan?) becoming one of the most defining cultural phenomena of our time. There've been innumerable quality films and novels in the last decade that were at least as accessible as the Da Vinci Code, minus the pretentiousness and the asinine "education" the damnable book purports to author.
Which is a lengthy way of saying I've been having a good time watching the critics rip it to bleeding chunks.
And I managed to leave a glaring grammatical misstep in the midst of a tirade about poor writing.
Sounds about right to me.
And the last word was supposed to be offer, not author. I'll just keep my comments to myself from now on.
So, I guess you learn a lot about effective communication in UN school.
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