Not Quite

I had wanted to release the Graffiti portion of the website last night, but unfortunately, I didn't. After hanging with my kids for a while, I did two computer caricatures for a woman with whom I work (she asked if I would work on something artsy of her children) and then I hit a brick wall called "fatigue." So I lay on the couch, Da Vinci Code in hand and fell asleep reading.

My daughter read the book about a year ago and told me that I need to read it. Then a friend recommended it to me, knowing my religious stance, and so I've started it.

I'm not too far in yet. Langdon has observed the body and just met Ms. Neveu (sp?).

History is the collective point of view of those who best marketed or offered their points of view. It's not necessarily what actually happened. The subjective nature of memory, screened through our biases and experiences, shade our view. As individuals, we're too small to capture "the truth" ourselves.

At this point in history, I think that a lot of people now notice that the version of events given in the media are not necessarily what happened. What they show may in fact be true, but does it best represent the truth? It's an open question. My opinion is that some reporters are good at getting the gist of the facts to us, and others are obscenely prejudiced and too driven by agenda to be trusted. (I did a fairly robust study of press bias last fall during the election and came away with the assessment that the Associated Press has too many reporters who favor the slant of the Democrats - and as I mentioned, some obscenely so, such as Liz Sidoti.)

My daughter has a deep fascination with history. I've never met a high school student so fluent with information about history as she is. For her, the Da Vinci Code proved riveting. Early church history is a murky topic in many respects, but the translated documents from 2nd and 3rd century forward are fairly available on the web for viewing. You can start with Tertullian and gobble up the writings of those involved in early Christianity.

But I'm quite sure that much has been suppressed. What we know today of early church history is what has been allowed to survive.

I don't know that the truth of early history matters much to a person's elemental faith. I don't expect the book to change my own opinions, but like my daughter, I'm fascinated with Dan Brown's grasp of information.

Tags: bari | my life | da vinci code
by Brett Rogers, 3/31/2005 9:48:56 AM
Permalink

Ahh...indeed most ancient history, and especially church history, is masculine in it's perspective, and church history is, as you said, pretty surpressed. (After all, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
;->) I suspect you will enjoy the DaVinci Code a great deal for it's POV, and from what I know of you, I'm guessing it will get you on an investigative quest. Let us know after you finish it if you think the Pope really needed to appoint a bishop to defend the Vatican and Catholic Doctrine against it.

Posted by Bella, 3/31/2005 1:48:51 PM

Hi Bella

I've now posted my thoughts about the book, now that I've finished it.

In my opinion, the only reason to defend the Vatican and Catholic Doctrine is if Brown had some truth to what he asserted. Otherwise, the charges would be ludicrous on their face and need no response.

Posted by Brett Rogers (http://www.beatcanvas.com), 4/2/2005 9:26:46 PM

Oh lordy. The "T" word. :-) Honestly, I don't know if I buy your premise that the ridiculousness of charges means they need no response, as it assumes the rationality of people, and their abilty to separate fact from fiction. Brown's a good writer, great at mixing what people know to be true with his own ficticious ideas...kind of a really intellectual version of the Star Trek Method of using what people know and adding something in to make it part of their universe ("The virus killed more than Earth's black plague, or the flu epidemic of the early 20th century, or the Kruzan virus on Panopia 6."---you know what I'm talking about.) Personally, I find appointing a bishop to defend the Vatican against the DaVinci Code a bit of overkill, and doubt there is much "truth" to Brown's book..but hey...it's all about media.

Hey, if you need a fun movie about the topic of a desendent of Christ, check out "Dogma". George Carlin plays a bishop. What else do you need to know?

Posted by Bella, 4/3/2005 12:13:57 AM