Finally read The Da Vinci Code
Apr. 18th, 2006 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helen99My mom gave me the Da Vinci Code CD set for my birthday so I used the time driving back and forth from work to listen to it.
It was fast paced and enjoyable, but a little silly at times... There are a lot of chase scenes in which our heroes, through unlikely machinations, manage to stay minutes ahead of a horde of gendarmerie, a killer monk, a mysterious puppetmaster, a treacherous butler, and a desperate bishop. These add spice and adrenaline to the actual plot, which involves figuring out an intricate puzzle left by a dead man that could point to the location and nature of the holy grail. Their sudden (and frequent) epiphanies that allow them to break the code are about as unlikely as being able to evade the entire Paris police department, but I had fun with it nonetheless...
One thing that left me puzzled was why Michael Baigent, the author of "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail" (HBHG) sued Dan Brown et. al. for plagiarism. HBHG is a book that was written as a "documentary" by Michael Bagent in the early 1980s. I believe it made the bestseller list at the time. It was considered controversial in that it openly discussed the possibility that Jesus was married and had a bloodline.
20 years later, Brown, heavily borrowing from the ideas popularized in Baigent's book, wrote the Da Vinci Code. I think he had other sources that he cited, though, and also he heavily referenced his book throughout the text whenever he used someone else's books. Having read both books, I don't think there's any similarity between the books. One is a work of fiction, another a purported documentary (using the term loosely). While one borrowed heavily on the other's ideas, it did not copy the text, and referenced other sources as well as HBHG. Furthermore, HBHG sales have suddenly revived and skyrocketed since the release of the DVC book and the hype for the pending movie, so they really had nothing to complain about, except...
The name of the archvillain of the Da Vinci Code is an anagram of "Baigent"! The villain in the book is a person who arranged for the murder of over 5 people to achieve his ends... It would have looked silly for Baigent to sue for defamation of character, when he isn't even directly named in the book (just anagrammed!) The use of Baigent's anagrammed name tells me that there were probably "issues" between Baigent and Brown way before the release of Da Vinci Code.
It was fast paced and enjoyable, but a little silly at times... There are a lot of chase scenes in which our heroes, through unlikely machinations, manage to stay minutes ahead of a horde of gendarmerie, a killer monk, a mysterious puppetmaster, a treacherous butler, and a desperate bishop. These add spice and adrenaline to the actual plot, which involves figuring out an intricate puzzle left by a dead man that could point to the location and nature of the holy grail. Their sudden (and frequent) epiphanies that allow them to break the code are about as unlikely as being able to evade the entire Paris police department, but I had fun with it nonetheless...
One thing that left me puzzled was why Michael Baigent, the author of "The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail" (HBHG) sued Dan Brown et. al. for plagiarism. HBHG is a book that was written as a "documentary" by Michael Bagent in the early 1980s. I believe it made the bestseller list at the time. It was considered controversial in that it openly discussed the possibility that Jesus was married and had a bloodline.
20 years later, Brown, heavily borrowing from the ideas popularized in Baigent's book, wrote the Da Vinci Code. I think he had other sources that he cited, though, and also he heavily referenced his book throughout the text whenever he used someone else's books. Having read both books, I don't think there's any similarity between the books. One is a work of fiction, another a purported documentary (using the term loosely). While one borrowed heavily on the other's ideas, it did not copy the text, and referenced other sources as well as HBHG. Furthermore, HBHG sales have suddenly revived and skyrocketed since the release of the DVC book and the hype for the pending movie, so they really had nothing to complain about, except...
The name of the archvillain of the Da Vinci Code is an anagram of "Baigent"! The villain in the book is a person who arranged for the murder of over 5 people to achieve his ends... It would have looked silly for Baigent to sue for defamation of character, when he isn't even directly named in the book (just anagrammed!) The use of Baigent's anagrammed name tells me that there were probably "issues" between Baigent and Brown way before the release of Da Vinci Code.