Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code

[beer good]

You're saying Dan Brown writes in Australian grammar?

 

[steffee]

Is there a reason why there is so much belittling going on in this thread?

 

[Mari]

mari - off topic i know.. but i wondered... chatting online with a group of americans one day, another aussie came into chat, and we took off with the conversation - long story short - the americans commented amongst themselves at how different our grammar was to theirs.. do you take that difference between countries into account when you condemn bad grammar?

As it happens, I've never noticed a different grammar among Australians, though certainly many unique and eloquent figures of speech, and also different spelling and punctuation.

 

[zen]

You're saying Dan Brown writes in Australian grammar?

did i say that? can't see it anywhere...... nope, not even on a re-read...

 

[zen]

As it happens, I've never noticed a different grammar among Australians, though certainly many unique and eloquent figures of speech, and also different spelling and punctuation.

lol.. unique and eloquent.. yep, that would be us! our spelling follows the english way of doing things, hardly a surprise i guess..

 

[raffaellabella]

Mari? you let grammar stand in the way of a good read?

and really, raffaellabella, just what was wrong with this book in your esteemed opinion? why have you relegated the book to the stacks of bad literature? did you read past the first page?

Daaahling, as Salman Rushdie said in a NPQ interview, "The Davinci Code is crap." And bad writing makes for bad reading. The book reads like a dime store novel or as if it was written by a 4th grader aspiring to become a writer. It is possible for a book to be accessable and well written.

As for the research, I've said before that I am not an academic but the information that was put in the Davinci Code, which is not fact as Mr. Brown says, could have been done within an hour by googling.

And the Italics were killing me. Bottom Line: I think it took Dan Brown a month to write this book.

 

[Dogmatix]

Okay break it up!

Enough already! Go to your respective corners!

BTW I loved this book and I'm not ashamed to say it. It was an easy read and kept me turning the pages. I have this belief that things become popular BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE ENJOY THEM. This book isn't meant to be a classic it's just a cool adventure story with a historical flavor to it. I've read plenty of literature but sometimes it's just fun to read a plain old story. Popular dosen't equal crap by default.

I know there are plenty of people who think this is great literature or some deep Christian revelation but just because most of us don't agree (and I don't) isn't reason enough to call the book rubbish.

Relax enjoy!

Melissa

 

[SFG75]

Enough already! Go to your respective corners!

BTW I loved this book and I'm not ashamed to say it. It was an easy read and kept me turning the pages. I have this belief that things become popular BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE ENJOY THEM. This book isn't meant to be a classic it's just a cool adventure story with a historical flavor to it. I've read plenty of literature but sometimes it's just fun to read a plain old story. Popular dosen't equal crap by default.

I know there are plenty of people who think this is great literature or some deep Christian revelation but just because most of us don't agree (and I don't) isn't reason enough to call the book rubbish.

Relax enjoy!

Melissa

Gotta agree with drm to some extent here. If you like reading up on Opus Dei and the whole "one world government" thing, then this book is interesting and does shed some light on some interesting related concepts. Good job for breaking things up Melissa.

Also very interesting how this thread is still alive and kicking even though we do have a good number of Dan Brown threads. Nothing wrong with yet another book thread.

 

[Robert]

Another “I hate Dan Brown” thread. Should I be surprised? I think not!

It probably hasn’t occurred to many of you, being literature elitist and all, that he probably writes the way he does to get to his target audience. I got news you for you. Most of the rest of the world doesn’t give a rats ass if doesn’t meet your criteria for literature. It seems to me that because it has done as well as it has, that he has hit his market. Get a life, people.

 

[Bountyhunter]

The uber-intellectuals with there "Darling, you are astonishingly dumb - and because my intelligence is discombobulatingly superior to yours, I say Dan Brown is a terrible peice of sizzling crap."

Geez, shut up.

 

[raffaellabella]

The uber-intellectuals with there "Darling, you are astonishingly dumb - and because my intelligence is discombobulatingly superior to yours, I say Dan Brown is a terrible peice of sizzling crap."

Geez, shut up.

Very funny. So this means that anyone who thinks The Davinci Code stinks is snot-nosed intellectual? I hate to break it to you but not all of mainstream America liked The Davinci Code. And just because there is a mass appeal doesn't mean its not shite. Hey, Hitler was big at one time...

 

[Øystein]

Oh she's having a go at the Germans now!

 

[Stewart]

I'm not an academic, nor a writer, but I can tell bad writing when I read it. And the Davinci Code is on the top of the list of bad literature.

Yes, The Da Vinci Code does sit upon the pile of the worst books in literature; I doubt it sits at the pinnacle. There are loads out there who think it’s a work of art, who crow about how much they learned about history, about how it made them question their faith, about how well-researched it is, and those who think it’s a well-written piece sure to last longer than Warhol’s fifteen minutes in the popular psyche.

It’s not a work of art, to begin with. It’s the literary equivalent of painting by numbers. All four of Brown’s novels are of similar length, feature similar characters, and follow similar patterns. He said it himself in his recent court case in London that he hit upon a formula for writing a novel. This, to me, is a sad thing for a writer to do – trying to squeeze a story into a space to fit a formula, rather than telling the story and letting it run to its necessary length. With The Da Vinci Code, the length was determined long before the book was written.

For history lovers, they will no doubt find that much of the book’s assertions were fabricated to fit the story and its content. I’m not too bothered with the Jesus storyline since I’d read about it before amongst all the other mysteries of Rennes-le-Chateau. We found out that in the plagiarism case, Brown admitted that he did not do the research for his book; instead it was his wife, suspiciously absent throughout the case, that did all the half-baked investigation.

For those that questioned their faith, they must have been questioning it long before for an airport novel to bring about such fears.

And for those that think it’s well-written, go out and read some books. I sometimes get the feeling that people think it’s well-written because they managed to read it. Due to it’s pace it generates a certain “thrill of the chase” that carries them along to the denouement. Sadly, this doesn’t mean it’s well-written; well-plotted, perhaps, but not well-written. Brown is so clumsy with his prose that descriptions aren’t consistent from one paragraph to the next – I’m thinking again of the silhouette with eyes and white hair on the first page.

Nothing wrong with escapism from time to time.

So very true. But give that all fiction is, in essence, escapism, it begs the question why you would wish to escape into a half-baked world where the only people you have for company are a bunch of cardboard cut-outs?

…conspiracy theories are somewhat of a pet interest of mine and Brown did do his homework in that regard(i.e.-Opus Dei)

I’ve also been interested in conspiracy theories and secret histories since an early age. I doubt that Opus Dei is much of a conspiracy theory; the assertion that they have monks is ludicrous.

…it was interesting to read it after everyone here talked about the inaccuracies-things such as the roads being in the wrong location, etc.

Yeah, the geography of Paris was topsy turvy; the UK airport was wrong; there was some incorrect statement about Europeans driving on a certain side of the road; a French cop arriving in the UK and commanding an English police force…just like that!

the 14-year-old daughter of a friend of mine is thinking of reading it. I read the first page to her, and she thought the action in the first few paragraphs was "clever" and "neat." I pointed out the errors in the writing, but her grammar and vocabulary just aren't there yet to recognize the problems.

There’s nothing wrong with reading it; the command of English needed to read it is at that level. You should just hope she doesn’t reach the point of repeating what I overheard from a similar demographic on the train last year: “I’ve read it four times!”

you let grammar stand in the way of a good read?

Grammar counts, silly. Otherwise you get an incoherent mess. And it’s not a good read, remember? It’s a clumsy throwaway read.

and really, raffaellabella, just what was wrong with this book in your esteemed opinion? why have you relegated the book to the stacks of bad literature? did you read past the first page?

I think, first of all, you should really say what you think was right with the book. In your esteemed opinion, of course. As for reading past the first page, the amateurishness of the first page should have been a warning. Did you read past the cover?

Have you read any other books? And Harry Potter does not count!

huh? where did that come from? and why?

You can’t read between the lines? It came from your assertion that The Da Vinci Code is a good book.

chatting online with a group of americans one day, another aussie came into chat, and we took off with the conversation - long story short - the americans commented amongst themselves at how different our grammar was to theirs.. do you take that difference between countries into account when you condemn bad grammar?

Are you sure you are not confusing the difference between grammar and slang?

You're saying Dan Brown writes in Australian grammar?

did i say that? can't see it anywhere...... nope, not even on a re-read...

And we’re back to being between the lines. The fact that you asked Mari whether she had considered the construction of an author’s grammar made it possible that you were inferring Dan Brown wrote in a different Engllish speaking nation’s grammar…whatever that means.

I have this belief that things become popular BECAUSE SO MANY PEOPLE ENJOY THEM.

I have a belief too. It goes along the lines of millions of people are thick as shit and don’t read so when a book comes along written at a fourteen year old’s reading level and they actually manage to finish it they declare it the best book in the world (being the only book they’ve read in their world) and tell other thickos about it. And let’s not forget that it became popular by hype rather than anything approaching talent within it’s pages; that means money – we’re talking millions – spent on advertising and the fact that it spent so long atop bestseller charts doesn’t mean it is a popular book. People need to buy it, afterall, to satisfy their curiosity and many of those people who put it atop charts did not like it.

I've read plenty of literature but sometimes it's just fun to read a plain old story.

There are plenty of books regarded as literature which tell a plain old story. The fun ones are those you can read through without gritting your teeth at the author’s lack of ability.

Popular doesn't equal crap by default.

We know it doesn’t. That’s why many popular books are also great reads.

I know there are plenty of people who think this is great literature or some deep Christian revelation but just because most of us don't agree (and I don't) isn't reason enough to call the book rubbish.

They say a bad workman always blames his tools. Dan Brown is a bad workman and it is nothing to do with his tools – he just can’t use words. So many other great books out there are testament to the fact that wonderful things are possible with words. The Da Vinci Code is not wonderful.

If you like reading up on Opus Dei and the whole "one world government" thing, then this book is interesting and does shed some light on some interesting related concepts

That’s like saying if you like reading up on rafting then go read The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. If you like reading up on a specific topic then you should be hitting the non-fiction shelves; a novel, no matter how erudite, is never going to give you what you need.

It probably hasn’t occurred to many of you, being literature elitist and all, that he probably writes the way he does to get to his target audience.

And finally we get some good old fashioned name calling. Calling people “literature elitists” is the same as saying “I can’t read books and you really are all better than me for being able to.”

Robert, if you think Dan Brown writes the way he does to get to his target audience, what are you referring to? His novel-by-numbers or his actual prose? The former makes it easy for him to write a book and that it nobody’s concern; the problem is the way he constructs prose. It’s too awkward…all that “Australian grammar!”

I got news you for you. Most of the rest of the world doesn’t give a rats ass if doesn’t meet your criteria for literature.

But still you chip in to defend it. You have bruised my elitist self.

Get a life, people.

Get a good book, people.

The uber-intellectuals with there [sic] "Darling, you are astonishingly dumb - and because my intelligence is discombobulatingly superior to yours, I say Dan Brown is a terrible peice of sizzling crap."

Whoa! You could almost be Matthew Reilly with drivel like that. Let’s not forget we’ve had members here who have come along liking The Da Vinci Code but have went away realising it was a bad book. Justin, from New Orleans, springs to mind.

You seem to be under the sad (and sorely mistaken) impression that if something is a bestseller then it is automatically good. McDonalds are quite popular; are they good for you? Similarly Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a very popular book. It’s not good though.

 

[Shade]

Agreed more or less entirely, Stewart.

Now: Bountyhunter. Salt and vinegar for that chip on your shoulder?

 

[beer good]

*takes hat off to Stewart*

 

[steffee]

I have a belief too. It goes along the lines of millions of people are thick as shit and don’t read so when a book comes along written at a fourteen year old’s reading level and they actually manage to finish it they declare it the best book in the world (being the only book they’ve read in their world) and tell other thickos about it.

I would just like to say that I've read it four times!

 

[Zolipara]

Good summary Stewart.

 

[Halo]

Let’s not forget we’ve had members here who have come along liking The Da Vinci Code but have went away realising it was a bad book.

Was that a deliberate grammatical error, Stewart?

Anyway, I'd just like to remind everyone to make sure their comments in this discussion do not become personal insults. Thank you.

 

[steffee]

Yeah Stewart, that's brevity.

 

[abecedarian]

Stewart: Where would you like your chocolate and roses delivered?