Chalnoth said:
I always thought that the book was supposed to be pure fiction anyway...
The two main premises of The Da Vinci Code is based on two books (and correctly acknowledged by Brown) :
1)
The Holy Blood, The Holy Grail
This book was a bestseller (though less than a million until Brown's DVC) in the early-80s when it was released. 3 guys co-authored this book as a result of one of them being intrigued by a book written by a Gerard De Sede. In that book, one of the co-authors recognized that De Sede had a secret that he wouldn't tell.
THB,THG is primarily a trip through history. About two thirds of it are the authors reasonings for why they came to think (instead of believe IMO) it is definitely possible that Jesus not only didn't die at Golgotha but that this supposedly unreasonably-quick death (and even resurrection... and of course, without Jesus' Redemption of man by death and subsequent Resurrection, Christianity as we believe it today and for as long as most of care to remember is based on a great hoax, a hoax kept alive by The Vatican as per Brown's "fiction" novel) -- unreasonably-quick because the co-authors say that it would take at the very least 1-2 days for a crucified man, even after much flaying/tortue, to die at the cross and that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had at least one child (a daughter named Sarah) and after a great many generations and as a result of marriages with nobles of Europe, we can have the possibility of someone (or a great many someones) rightfully being able to add "Christ" to their name (although the same co-authors asserted that Jesus' surname was not "Christ" to begin with). How's that for a long sentence?
This -- Jesus didn't die, hence was never resurrected, got married to Mary, had kid(s) which had kid(s) which had kid(s), so-on-so-forth until the present day (where one of the protaganists of Brown's book essentially is one of Jesus' great-bloody-great-grandchild -- is one of TDVC's premises.
Note that I don't know if it was the co-authors' or their publishers request but THB,THG is tacked as "Non Fiction". I have even found it under the "MetaPhysical Studies" sections in some bookstores. I bought and read this book after I read TDVC and still refer to it (because THB,THG has many facts about medieval history) when reading certain parts of the book I'm currently reading, a fictional novel, "The Last Templar" by Raymond Khoury.
2)
The Templar Revelation
Two co-authors studied Leonardo's "Last Supper" and seemed quite convinced that John (immediately to the right of Jesus)was actually Mary Magdalene in the painting and went on to "de-code" that painting even more, leading to the possibilities that Mary and Jesus were husband-and-wife, that hidden "M" in the painting, that hidden sign of feminity (the alphabet "V") that exists when looking at the space between Jesus and John/Mary, Jesus' "twin" in the painting, Leonardo appearing in the painting, no chalice/"cup of Christ"/Holy Grail in the painting, etc.
This -- essentially the name of the book -- is the other premise of TDVC.
Incidentally, the co-authors of (2) has this year released a book called "The Sion Revelation". It is their attempt at investigating the "Is it Fake or What?" Priory of Sion that plays a noticeable part in Brown's book and in (1) above. Although the protaganist of this Priory of Sion had, under oath and in records, said the whole Priory of Sion was a fake created by him, "The Sion Revelation" basically reads like a conspiracy theorists book -- so what if the guy said Priory of Sion is a big hoax?... the hoax is so incredibly elaborate while challenging anyone to prove its inaccuracy that it deserves investigations. The co-authors did this, while also acknowledging the impact TDVC and THB,THG had in the creation of this "The Sion Revelation" book. Maybe this (as well as many other books) is just riding the DVC bandwagon. I read the start, the middle and the end of this book at a bookstore. Never bought it.
Sorry if you already knew all this and was just being a bit critical of the TDVC with your comments.
