I think the issue with them is with Dan Brown's stance that this nonsense actually has historical basis - other than the book from which he stole it from which was written in the 1990s, I mean. And what John says is absolutely spot-on. The writing is so f&^%ing horrible - Brown should be subjected to some sort of Inquisition by his former English instructors, who are probably busy trying to distance themselves. :-) If Dante were alive and writing Inferno, Brown would merit special turf somewhere near Satan's rectum. The real crime is that someone can crap out some pulp like this and get rich from it. Oh wait - that's 95% of pop culture, isn't it? jeff Chris Peel wrote:
I enjoyed it for what it was - a fictional novel. The female side-kick was presumably included on the insistence of the publisher (sex sells, remember) - the only bits of his books that make me groan are the awful anagrams of friends and colleagues he uses for characters names.
What I find laughable is the consternation its met with the church. They objected to Monty Python's Holy Grail, Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ, and now they're (partly) objecting to the Da Vinci Code - don't they realise by doing this that they're actually pouring chip-pan fat on the fires of cover-up and conspiracy theorists everywhere? If they just said "hey, it's only a book - I read it on holiday as well", they'd probably do a lot better...
-----Original Message----- From: klf-bounces+chris=k23productions.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:klf-bounces+chris=k23productions.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of John Milne Sent: 06 May 2006 10:58 To: All bound for Mu-Mu Land. Subject: Re: [KLF] dabbling in forces...
Possibly this is a reference to the 'lost chord' from "Bad Wisdom"?
Remember that King Boy's dad was (is?) a pretty unconventional Church of Scotland minister, with his anti-apartheid stance in South Africa when Bill was born out there. And Bill's love of myth, self-myth and legend must have come from somewhere - where better than an unconventional minister Dad? I suppose it's JUST possible that the Rev Jack Drummond used to tell young William stories about the myths and legends of the Scottish Church ...
... on the other hand, whenever anyone mentions Rosslyn Chapel now, I just groan. I read the "Da Vinci" code about a year ago, and despite drawing on some interesting (but hardly new) alternative Christian stories, the writing in it is DREADFUL. Sophie Evenue (played by Audrey Tatou in the film) is the most weakly-drawn female character I have read in a long time, and the whole thing reads like what it is - a pulp thriller, very 1970s and a bit "Wilbur Smith" in style. Dan Brown's tendency to write supposition as fact is also pretty annoying.
Still, the movie will make loads of money, so no one cares. And the cash-in novels by other writers are entertaining: things with titles like "The Michaelangelo Code", "Picasso's Puzzle", "Warhol's Whatthefuck?" and "Rowlandson and Hogarth's Really Hard Sums". :-)
John