|
THE DA VINCI CODE Author Roundtable
3.
FaithfulReader.com: Why do you think so many people have not only read THE DA VINCI CODE but also accepted it as fact rather than fiction?
Richard Abanes: The answer to this question is really quite simple: People accept THE DA VINCI CODE as fact because Dan Brown has told them it is fact. On the very first page of the novel he states: "FACT: . . . All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." In an interview with Barnes and Noble, he declared: "One of the many qualities that makes THE DA VINCI CODE unique is the factual nature of the story. All the history, artwork, ancient documents, and secret rituals in the novel are accurate --- as are the hidden codes revealed in some of Da Vinci's most famous paintings."
And most recently, in a new page posted at his official website (http://www.danbrown.com/secrets/bizarre_facts/davinci_code.html), Brown lists a number of absolutely false statements, but titles them "Bizarre True Facts from THE DA VINCI CODE." This particular Internet page by Brown actually quotes from a document known as Les Dossiers Secrets, which was found in Paris's Bibliothèque Nationale. According to Brown, it proves that members of the super-secret Priory of Sion organization included Leonardo Da Vinci, Boticelli and Sir Isaac Newton. But Les Dossiers Secrets is nothing but a forgery penned in the 1960s by a French conman and deposited in the Paris library. Although such information is widely known in France and throughout Europe, most Americans are still in the dark about Brown's sources. This ignorance has made Brown a millionaire.
And Brown's publisher, Doubleday, has only made things worse by lending their voice of support for claims that Brown's book is true. Stephen Rubin, president/publisher at Doubleday, has boldly stated: "John Grisham teaches you about torts. Tom Clancy teaches you about military technology. Dan Brown gives you a crash course in art history and the Catholic Church" (Quoted in Bill Goldstein, "As A Novel Rises Quickly, Book Industry Takes Note," New York Times, April 21, 2003). Such an assertion, in my opinion, is terrifically irresponsible, given the fact that Brown so blatantly misrepresents what are, and what are not, verifiable aspects of art history.
Sandra Miesel: To be blunt, a lot of people don't seem to be able to distinguish fact from fiction. "Well, they wouldn't let them print it if it wasn't true." Also, Brown skillfully gives readers the sense that wonderful secrets are being unveiled for them, appealing to the popular appetite for conspiracies. THE DA VINCI CODE is sold as the product of deep, careful research and makes claims for accuracy in its forematter. Many reviewers responded to it as factual and assured readers it was. It would be interesting to see the promotional material that accompanied those (rumored) 10,000 review copies.
Carl E. Olson: I think it's because of a mixture of historical illiteracy, gullibility and interest in conspiracy theories combined with a dislike or unease about any claims to objective truth or moral absolutes. I don't think people are stupid, but many readers have proven to be both intellectually lazy and bigoted, which is always a recipe for disaster.
James L. Garlow: Well, for one reason, it is cleverly written. It causes you to think it is actually fact, when it is merely fiction. Dan Brown makes a statement about facts on the opening page that causes people to think the entire book is fact. He mixes fact with fiction so effectively I call it a work of "fact-ion." Another reason for its success is apparently the lack of historical foundation that characterizes so many people today. If they knew even just a little bit of history, they would know that Dan Brown's book is filled with myth and historical inaccuracies.
Peter Jones: It is well-written and makes statements that, though wrong, fit the spirit of the times.
Steve Kellmeyer: Because Dan Brown pretty much told them to accept it as fact rather than fiction. How many fiction novels start out with the kind of "FACTS" page he provides in both THE DA VINCI CODE and ANGELS & DEMONS? I can't think of any. Like Bill Clinton, Brown has deniability. He encourages the reader to accept everything he says as fact by throwing in historical factoids (like the existence of the Council of Nicea), but he then distorts all the contextual history to fit the fiction he writes. If anyone questions him, he says, "But it's only fiction." At the same time, he keeps stressing how much "solid" research he threw into the novel, how he wouldn't re-write it if it were published as history. It's a marvelous marketing tool.
Darrell L. Bock: Because Dan Brown has claimed it is not merely a novel but a way to explore theories that have been out there for a long time, theories he claims to have carefully researched and believes to be true, theories that if he were writing nonfiction he would still present as he did in the novel.
Ben Witherington III: I think people have accepted THE DA VINCI CODE as fact because they have not been informed enough to know of the viable alternative and intelligent views on the historical Jesus.
Dan Burstein: First, because of Dan Brown's statement at the opening of the book that people take to mean everything is a fact. Second, because THE DA VINCI CODE touches on many things that are facts, but have been so little known, that people are seriously surprised to learn of them. For example, most people read THE DA VINCI CODE having heard somewhere or actually studied in religious school that Mary Magdalene is supposed to be a prostitute in the Bible. When they find out after reading THE DA VINCI CODE that the Church really reversed this "mistake" of Bible interpretation almost 40 years ago, and that Mary Magdalene is no longer considered to have been a prostitute, they are deeply affected. This gives immense credibility to other more fanciful ideas in the book. Finally, we live in an age when so many verifiable cover-ups of heinous crimes and Machiavellian political moves have come to light that readers have a propensity to believe in a well-crafted fictional conspiracy as more likely than not to be true.
Erwin W. Lutzer: First, because it purports to be based on history --- after all, there are Gnostic Gospels that speak about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Also, because some of it is factual (Constantine did in fact call the Council of Nicea, for example), some people think that the rest might be fact as well (the idea that he invented the deity of Jesus). Without knowledge of history, some do not know that while the first idea is fact, the subsequent idea is fiction. Second, the flyleaf of the book says the following are facts...and then lists various organizations and rituals. So it is easy to assume that all of it is fact...and if not fact, at least plausible.
Amy Welborn: Not all have, of course, but those who have accepted it as fact have been taken in by Brown's phrasing of these historical assertions. His scholar characters present these ideas about Jesus' identity and ministry, for example, framed by phrases like, "historians believe" and "scholars say" and "the evidence is clear." He provides a bibliography of real books, not only in the novel but on the website as well.
© Copyright 2010, FaithfulReader.com. All rights reserved.
|
