A Review: "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown

Started yesterday morning, fixed my bookcase, filed my books on computer (coz I’m so Oc-Oc), then continued reading in the early evening and finished at 2am. Ok, I’ll stop bragging about my speed. God knows Trish and Lee read faster than I do…

I liked it. I wouldn’t call it overly fantastic like other reviews do, nor would I call it "shocking" either. Many were cautioning me that I’d be horrified and learn all sorts of things I never thought of. Didn’t happen. And that disappointed me since I expected the book to shock the pants off of me.

Many have said that if I were a staunch Catholic (I’m not), I’d be horrified (I wasn’t, but not coz I wasn’t staunch) and shocked and hurt and blah-blah-blah. Again, I wasn’t. The history of the Church has never been kept and I’ve heard all about what I’ve read while I was still in High School Knights Templar? Check. Da Vinci’s hidden codes in his many paintings? Check. The Church’s stupid past? Got that. The Church’s violent pass? Covered. See? Nothing surprising. The people who read it and got "shocked" probably skipped history (world and religion) class in High School. Or college. Either way, they didn’t study hee.

Ok, now we go to the story itself (spoilers, for those who haven’t read).

Sophie is unbelievable as a police cryptologist. Fine, she solved a few things and did some smart moves. Still, as a police officer – or close to it – she should know what Captain Fache is up to. While searching out the clues for the Holy Grail, she should’ve anticipated Fache’s moves and remained one step ahead without them ever really getting as close as they did in the book. As a cryptologist, she and Richard should be a bit equal when it comes to the clues left. Especially since we’re talking about her grandfather who entertained her all throughout her growing years by the very kind of puzzles he left her since he died. And she can’t solve most of them. Then again, I suppose if she could solve all of them, then Richard’s close proximity would’ve been superfluous, yes?

About their so-called romantic relationship: 1st chapter, he’s going on about how he’s craving female companionship on a more frequent basis while the back cover talks about him being paired up with Sophie on a life-threatening, suspense-filled puzzle game. Every single movie, book, and series the mass media has released has always made sure that 2 people of the opposite sex thrown in strenuous circumstances always end up lovers, somehow. Just once, I’d love to read a book or watch a movie where they just end up good friends, for a change. And the romance was pulled in such a way that it was totally unbelievable. Too contrived. Too outta nowhere. You know their going to end up together because mass media works like that but you’re never shown how, it jumps out of nowhere. Any "tender" moments were signs of friendship. Then again, Dan Brown didn’t write for their love story, he wrote for the controversy, so why should I nitpick that bit?

Ok, on to the "controversy". Jesus got married to Mary Magdalene and had kids. Or a kid. Whatever. So what? Yes, it changes and shatters the very foundation the Catholic Church was built upon but since the Priory Sion has no intention of releasing them, what’s the big? And if Teabing wants to release it, so what? I’m not shocked by it. In fact, in a weird way, I don’t even care. The Church taught that Jesus was a virgin and was celibate and blah-blah. If he wasn’t, would it really be so bad? I don’t think so. It just goes to show that Jesus was human. Whether he had sex with his wife, or a gazillion women for that matter, I don’t think it changes who he was (unless he had sex with them all at the same time, in which case, he’s a big hypocrite, but that didn’t happened, so what’s the worry?). He was still, and always will be, the most influential person that ever walked this earth. Was he powerful? Yes, very. But not just because he was God, but because of who he was as a person. Forget his divinity-which-was-a-result-of-a-vote. He was still flesh and blood and was bounded by the rules of said genetic makeup. Whether he is in truth divinity or not is moot point. The way he acted made him divine. The fact that he was as human as the rest of us and yet didn’t succumb to temptation of sin and lead an profoundly exemplary life makes him "divine" in my eyes. If his descendants are off running all over the globe, what do I care? Just because you have Christ’s DNA don’t mean shit. Did they do anything worthy of Jesus’ other than being born? No. And unless they stand up and do something fantastic, whether good or bad, then that’s when they’ll matter. Who cares if their royalty? Is Jerusalem even still under a monarchy nowadays? Do they even want to "regain" their "throne"? Leave them alone, for godsakes’.

And about the Holy Grail… I was never interested in it, not as a lover of history or even a treasure hunter, which I’m not. But pretend I’m the latter. Hello?! Why would I want something I know everybody else in the world wants?! I don’t want to live my life looking over my shoulder for the gun pointed at me. I don’t want to worry about something physical being stolen, a thing that’ll never be safe wherever I put it coz everyone is after it. They say it can make you live forever. I don’t want to live forever. The joy and beauty in life is the very fact that it ends. I think I read it in an Anne Rice book – which says it so much nicer than I can – that immortals envy the living. The beauty of life is in the fact that everything is fleeting, you enjoy things because you know that they don’t last; that you could die, get sick, or grow old. Immortals don’t have that blessing. Day in and day out, they remain the same, never changing. How can they enjoy life when they know that they can do or go wherever at this moment in time or a hundred years from now? Mortality is beautiful and those who fear death are those who are afraid of living.

As a lover of history… the mere fact that Jesus drank out of something is important enough for me. I’d only be interested in the Grail because it was something Jesus held in his hands. If it has miraculous properties, good, if none, that’s ok. It would just be a thing like the shroud is a thing and like Jesus’ cave is just a place.

What I loved most in the book are the symbols. I love symbols and learning their meanings. And like what Richard said, symbols mean a variety of things to many people and that’s part of what I like most about it. The ankh, the pentagram, the Star of David (or was it Solomon?); the Egyptian gods who I learned about when we went to Egypt (ok, Kaye, stop bragging and shut up), the Greek or Roman (see? I’m shutting up) gods which everybody learns about in mythology, and the yin yang which I made my own when I first saw it. And I especially enjoyed how Sauntiere could put double meaning in everything. I love that. Wish I could be like that but I don’t think my brain works that way hee

Anyway, the core of the story is a truth that people would kill to keep or share, a truth that could shatter Christianity. But why? Why all the panic and rush and fear? "Where reason ends, faith begins." And if you really believe in something, really have faith in something, even if someone tells you otherwise, you’d still stick to your beliefs or, if you could find merit in the other’s arguments, merge the two sides into one cohesive belief that you can have faith in. Again, I don’t remember where I read it, but I recall someone saying that religion used to be just a set of guidelines, that followers learned all that they could and came up with a belief they found merit in and stuck to that. In other words, you would learn and research the truth before you accept it as your own. But the people didn’t like that since there were too many errors in judgement and/or laziness or whatever, so religion evolved to suit the people’s needs. And thus, religion now leads, orders, commands, and gives the people a bunch of "truths" for them to believe in and people are content. They don’t wish to learn as scholars do, to search for the "truth", rather they prefer to be fed what the truth is and be content with that. They’ll fight for it, die for it, argue for it, because it is easier to believe a truth somebody else believes in and tells you about it rather than do it the hard way and find out the "truth" for yourself. But, really, what is the truth? If you’re allergic to mushrooms, or peanuts (to remain true to the book) and I love peanuts and I’ll tell you that, to me, the truth is that peanuts are good for my health, is that your truth then? No. I think somewhere along the line, we lost that. Our desire to find out own religion, our own beliefs. We grew up with everyone telling us that Jesus is a virgin, that he never married, that he’s this, he’s that. But if you bothered to be the one to search out the truth on your own, come up with your own ideas about Jesus, then finding about Jesus’ marriage or homosexuality or whatever "bad" anybody else tells you about Him won’t matter. Because you have found the truth you searched for. Because the core of your truth is more important that a few technicalities.

In a David Eddings' book, a character said that religion is "embracing one truth and closing your eyes to everything else – it’s simpler that way". And in life, most religions is just that. We’re learning, though, changing, evolving. And religion follows in suit. It’s stupid to think that religion is static, like "truth". A couple of thousands of years ago, the "truth" was that the Earth is flat. Now it’s not. A couple of hundreds of years ago, the "truth" was that there were many Gods. Now there’s only one. And the different religions with different beliefs compromise by saying it’s all one God, just… different faces. Nothing in the world is static, not even "truth", because the "truth" now might not be the truth 10 years from now.

The world is changing, it always does. And whether or not Jesus was married and his descendants walk this Earth is irrelevant. Jesus’ one greatest talent was looking at the world and knowing what should be changed, he was "blessed" because he didn’t really have to search for the truth, because he somehow already knew it. He was persecuted because of this and likewise immortalized due of this. He is now "divinity" because unlike all other truths, His truth stands true from the beginning of time until the end. But, really, all he did was look at life and see it for what it was, even the hidden depths that life has to give. While others were concerned about themselves, money, power, prestige, Jesus took one look at life and realized that the only thing that lasts, that never really changes, is the nature of love.

And, really, isn’t that the very basis of His teachings? If He was married; then that only means that he experienced love himself; love for God, love for humanity, and love for his wife. I don’t see why it has to change anything unless you "embraced one truth and closed your eyes to all else".

At the end of the book, you wonder: what is the purpose of the story? Scare you? Make you wary of your Christian beliefs? Hate Opus Dei and it’s members? Dislike and judge albinos? Hate the French police? Take up cryptology 101? Study symbols and their histories? Pay closer attention and start decoding Da Vinci’s arts? No. The book is just another one of many catch-me-if-you-can suspense fiction books that are out by the millions. The fact that it’s rooted in history isn’t even a big deal since every author does that to make his/her story authentic. And, besides, researching is a successful author’s passion – it has to be, otherwise he/she wouldn’t be able to sell any book due to lack of credibility. What makes "Da Vinci" different, though, is that it smacks one of the richest and most popular seat of power in the word: the Catholic Church. Compare America to Rome and, really, there’s no contest. And also, the author gives only so much information, enough but not all, which keeps you at the edge of your seat throughout the book, until the end.

At the end. With the stupid contrived "love" story. I wish Dan Brown just cut that part out. Really.

Edit: Does this blog make it seem like I didn't like it? Well I do. Really. A lot. I'd recommend it to everyone