Do I have to read DaVinci Code to know it's bad?

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Hi everyone,

I’m hoping you can help me. And yes, it’s ANOTHER DaVinci Code question!

I have read various articles about the book, talked with Catholics who have read (okay, tried to read) the book, as well as read many threads here on CA Forums. Must I read the book in order to pass a judgement on it?

I have a friend who’s reading it and who claims that unless I read the book, I have absolutely no right to make a judgement call. She said that would be “ignorant and absurd” of me. She said that would be like those people who deemed The Passion of the Christ as anti-semitic without even seeing the movie.

I need advice. I’d also like to formulate a great response to her argument. What do you think?

Peace to you,
Tricia
 
No. If its garbage stay away from it. It passes itself off as factual when it’s really fiction. Very persuasive, but still fiction.
 
GO to amazon.com you can read an excerpt for free. Read the inside cover, where it mentions that it is a peice of fiction. I was listening to an interview of the writer, and he started it out as a work of fiction and is a work of fiction but his imagination went wild and he began to really believe what he was making up.
 
If you want to critique the book intelligently, I would say read it (You don’t have to put any money in Dan Brown’s pocket to borrow it from the library 😉 ). You can’t offer your own opinion if you haven’t read it (I did read a library’s copy, so I can say it’s pap).

But if you only want to respond to errors of fact presented by the book, and you have trustworthy sources from others who have read it, you have no need to read it.

:twocents:
tee
 
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triciarapp:
I have read various articles about the book, talked with Catholics who have read (okay, tried to read) the book, as well as read many threads here on CA Forums. Must I read the book in order to pass a judgement on it?

I have a friend who’s reading it and who claims that unless I read the book, I have absolutely no right to make a judgement call. She said that would be “ignorant and absurd” of me.
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If the many opinions you have heard come from what you would consider as trusted sources, You should tell your friend that you trust in your friends who have read it and have through solid arguments convinced you that it is fiction and filled with mistruths.

To respond to her “ignorant and absurd” statement, ask her if she has to put her hand on a turned-on hotplate to determine if it would burn her hand or not? Or does she rely on trusted sources?
 
Does one have to dive into a dumpster to know its full of garbage?
 
Well, thanks for the (name removed by moderator)ut! You’ve been very helpful and I appreciate your insights.

Peace,
Tricia
 
Not only the DaVinci Code, but also the book about the Rapture my son calls it the Raptor) . I am reading the Rapture, The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind, by David Currie.

Very “heady” book. Right after I finish reading it, I want to get the Rapture book, then do a side-by-side.

I plan on doing the same with the DaVinci Code, just for the fun of it.

BTW…Currie’s book is very good and very detailed. A good read.

what i do for fun…I need to get a life :whacky:
 
you can get what you need standing at the newstand and thumbing through a few pages, the quality of the writing is so bad you will have enough excuse to save your money.
 
I’ll offer my advice from one who did purchase it because I fell into a similar trap… :tsktsk:

I was taking a course on how to refute the false assertions made by the author. While the book was not required reading, a few people had read it and I felt left out of the loop, as it were and allowed myself to be sucked in.:mad: However, when I tried to read it …I couldn’t. So I just read the parts were it was refuted.
After all is said and done, I really didn’t need it… It is pure trash and full of falsehoods…:twocents: Annunciata
 
I decided to read it so that I could tell people who defended it that I actually read it - it makes me more credible when I tear it to pieces. After your read it, then read the debunking of it. I would recommend The Di Vinci Hoax by Sandra Meisel and Carl Olson. I’ve read the latter a couple times (it has some great history in it - yes, real history) and now feel very confident about taking on anyone who wants to defend Dan Browne’s ludicrous book.
 
I haven’t read the book. But I had the (privilege) misfortune to buy another one of his novels. He could not find his voice. He appeared to have no clear idea who his audience was, and vascillated back and forth. His dialogue was maybe at the level of a sophomore in college, and the rest of it stank. How or why any editor let it out the door is beyond me.

Never mind his “research”, his writing skills are at about trash novel level.

And the arguement your friend is giving you is the equivalent of saying you have to step into a mud puddle to know it is muddy. Hogwash. The accusation against The Passion was, for all I saw, a statement that the information being portrayed was done in an insinuating manner; insinuating that the Jews were solely responsible for the Crucifixion. The arguements against the Da Vinci Code is that it makes a series of historically wrong statements. You have been told what the statements are; you don’t have to read it to know what the contents are about. The contents are factual (this was said on page 92… that was said on page 203). How it was said is a completely different matter; your friend is mixing apples and bicycles.
 
I don’t know the sources of the magazine articles you read, but if they were from good reliable sources like Envoy and Catholic Answers (and not from secular sources), you are probably innoculated by the lies in this book. I would recommend you read Amy Welborn’s De-Coding DaVinci first (see amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592761011/qid=1094083443/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-4474362-9212740?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). It is very short (124 pages) and to the point and completely smashes the assertions found in Dan Brown’s book. Armed thus, you can read the novel and not be harmed.
 
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otm:
And the arguement your friend is giving you is the equivalent of saying you have to step into a mud puddle to know it is muddy. Hogwash.
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:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
tee
 
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asquared:
you can get what you need standing at the newstand and thumbing through a few pages, the quality of the writing is so bad you will have enough excuse to save your money.
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I could not agree more. I don’t really care about the errors in the Da Vinci Code since it is sold in the fiction section of the bookstore. What is truly disturbing to me is that so many people think this book represents great writing. That is truly tragic. The premise of the story is interesting if you’re able to look at it as an adventure story, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired and it is one of the most poorly written books I’ve ever had the misfortune to read.

Pick the dumbest television show you can think of. Whatever show you’ve just picked is better written than The DaVinci Code. :dancing:
 
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was simply popular fiction, diverting, enjoyable, and much more interesting to read because of all the attacks on it. It’s not great literature, and I’d give it a 5 on a 10 scale. I am still amazed that anyone takes it seriously.
 
You do not have to read a book to pass judgement on it. We have the ability to reason and can make judgements without reading a book. We make judgements everyday on things without doing them.

For example, must a kill someone to know murder is bad? Must I witness a murder? I know murder is bad from the facts. I know this book is bad from the facts too! I do not have to be a NAZI in a concentration camp to know what they did was wrong.
 
I would echo Fidelis’ suggestion to read Amy Welborn’s “De-Coding DaVinci” first. It is an easy one-night read and she provides a synopsis of the plot as part of her “debunking”. So you get the Cliff Notes version of the book while reading her book.

After I read her book, I never felt the need to read Brown’s book. I know the basics of the plot already.

Blessings.
 
I read it just to avoid criticism that I wouldn’t know what I was talking about. It’s quite a potboiler and is a fast read; I would compare it to one of those lurid Jackie Collins books. On a human level the book is a mess, but I would read it just to be able to cite the bad examples that stayed in your mind.
 
I’d say that since the book talks about our Lord, St. Mary Magdalene and other New Testament figures, the question to ask first is: “Have you read the entire New Testament?”
 
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