I just had the most interesting - albeit pathetic - conversation with a library patron.
He asked me if I had read The Da Vinci Code yet. Well of course I haven't. I've been meaning to listen to it on audio, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Then he started talking about how Dan Brown puts so-called "facts" into the story that aren't true.
I stupidly responded, "It's fiction."
He continues to talk and I continue to stupidly say, "But it's fiction."
So in short, my patron said that Brown shouldn't have written the book as "fact."
Uh, he didn't - it's FICTION!
That's the beauty of fiction - you can have talking pigs, yellow skies and tap dancing daisies. Why? Because it's FICTION!
And here I thought that too-stupid-to-live only referred to some romance novel heroines.
11 comments:
Isn't it amazing how all these people flip out over this book? It's fiction! I read it about a year ago just to see what all the hype was about. It's a sort of interesting plot but very predictable. I had the ending figured out about a quarter of the way through it.
I used to work at a Jesuit university and was talking to one of the priets one day about the book. He had read it and just laughed at all the hullabaloo because like you, his reaction was "it's fiction".
One of the main problems I have found about readers of the Da Vinci Code is how many think it is "gospel". I'm talking about well educated people.
Personally, the subject matter didn't bother me, the writing did. I was so bored I didn't even finish it. (I know me against 25 Million, what can I say?)
Another one I haven't read. Other than knowing it's still selling like hot cakes and they are making a movie out of it with Tom Hanks, I know nothing about this book.
I read it and enjoyed it but it was nothing spectacular. It seems to me that many Christians felt threatened by this fictional account of Jesus. I find it amusing that all these books have been springing up "explaining" the Da Vinci Code to the "faithful". Will the next thing be books "explaining" Harry Potter? I can just see it "Harry Potter - fact or fiction?" :)
I loved TDVC because of the pacing, but not half as much as I loved Angels & Demons, the first Robert what's his name book. (How horrible is that? I'm about to say Jordan or Ludlum and neither one of those is it!) A&D could be a great Spielberg movie!!
I read The Da Vinci Code and giggled all the way through it because I've read Grail theory for years and he really does throw every whacked out theory into the pot, along with some things the Roman church has long held as heresy.
I'm Episcopalian and we, on the whole, tend to be a bit more laissez-faire about such things, though I have a friend who goes to the same church who thinks the book is terrible because "some people might think it's real." My response was, "Some people are stupid."
And Tom Hanks is so not who I'd cast in the main role. I always pictured Langdon as Alexis Denisoff.
Oh, reneew? There is a book out to explain Harry Potter to the faithful. It's called "The Gospel According to Harry Potter" by Connie Neal. The friend who's worried about the DaVinci Code brought me a copy from BEA last year.
There's going to be a move? LOL I haven't read it yet. Same with HP.
PS ~ Wendy, did you realize you won my blog contest? go check it out and send me your addy and book choices.
Oh, reneew? There is a book out to explain Harry Potter to the faithful. It's called "The Gospel According to Harry Potter" by Connie Neal. The friend who's worried about the DaVinci Code brought me a copy from BEA last year.
Caro - LOL, I should have known. We Lutherans just don't tend to worry about crap like this either. Well, most of them I know anyway.
Oh, my goodness! I do think that the reason this NOVEL has become the phenomenon it has is because people do confuse it with "history," or "biblical scholarship" or something. It certainly tapped into the whole relgious conversation we're having in this country.
But it is fiction, as you said!
If you're into Dan Brown etc., you may want to check out Lewis Perdue, who says Brown stole his stuff and is suing him for plagiarism. Interesting, at least.
UGH! I have talked to many people that seem to not understand that this is a work of fiction! If people GOT THAT there would never have been any hoopla surrounding the book. People, it's a STORY. *Sigh* I can so relate.
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