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THE DA VINCI CODE Author Roundtable
5.
FaithfulReader.com: How do you respond when you hear people say things like, "It's no big deal --- after all, it's only fiction"?
Dan Burstein: I happen to agree. I think you can simply enjoy it as a good, entertaining novel (assuming you like this genre), or you can get interested in the issues, the history, the symbolism and the debates, as I did and many others did. Either way, it is just a novel. It can be entertaining or it can be intellectually provocative. But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's a novel. I think the religious people who have used their community's interest in the novel as a jumping off point, and indeed, a new opportunity to provide their own ideas and answers are on the right track. Those who are concerned about "blasphemy" and such are taking a work of pop fiction far too seriously.
Darrell L. Bock: I simply say when millions of readers read a piece of fiction but think that what they are reading may well reflect fact or mostly fact (as the novelist even claims in the way he introduces his novel), then what we have is a novel in "a quasi-non-fictional" guise. So its claims, if they are important enough and misleading enough, need addressing. In book clubs I have run the tape of Dan Brown's claims of truth for his novel and that usually brings the discussion of "it is only a novel" to an end.
Sandra Miesel: I'd say, "Maybe you recognize it as fiction, but a lot of people think this is fact." Brown's novel is going to implant falsehoods in our culture that will last a long time. A large slice of the public will hereafter "know" that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married the way they "know" that a vast right-wing conspiracy killed Kennedy thanks to Oliver Stone's film JFK. The relentless bashing of Christianity in general and Catholics in particular in THE DA VINCI CODE --- which is Brown's deliberate message even when his sources tell him otherwise --- would require answering.
Peter Jones: This work of fiction has an ideological agenda, as many works of fiction do --- see Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Pocahontas, Lion King. Brown resurrects what he calls "pre-Christian" symbols, and by them promotes the ancient spirituality of paganism as a "new" form of Christianity.
We live in a time when the esoteric has gone public! The secret and the "suppressed" now have their day in the sun --- by worshiping it. The Christian winners of history are losing, and about time too, one can hear between the lines!
Example: The ex-Pentecostal kid and sporting icon, Phil Jackson, called by his players "The Zen Master," now practices New Age spiritualism, meditates, studies Eastern religions and Native American cultures. To win games, he encourages his players by chanting, drumming and waving smoke in the air to dispel unwanted spirits --- and wins championships, nine in all. One more winner writing history!
James L. Garlow: If they're regarding it as only fiction they are correct --- it is no big deal. My concern is not with people who know the book is nothing but fiction and should be regarded as such. My concern is with the people who don't seem to understand that it is fiction.
Ben Witherington III: I turn them to page one of THE DA VINCI CODE that has the heading "FACT." On this page Brown claims that the information in the book is accurate, which in turn causes readers to take the information at face value. I'd respond by telling people to beware and recognize the book as not historical fiction, but purely fiction.
Richard Abanes: It would be nice if Dan Brown and Doubleday representatives would stick to saying "it's only fiction." But they are not doing that. They are saying that it is fact-based, that it contains true history, and that it reliably and accurately represents a variety of historical events (e.g., the development of early Christianity, the original teachings of Christ, the formation of the Bible, the artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci, etc.). If Dan Brown and Doubleday had started out their publishing success by making it clear that THE DA VINCI CODE was totally fiction, then I never would have written a book. Interestingly, despite Dan Brown's claims that "All the history" in the novel is "accurate" (see Barnes and Noble interview previously noted), the copyright page of THE DA VINCI CODE actually explains in small print that "All of the characters and events in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental." So exactly what are readers to believe?
Erwin W. Lutzer: THE DA VINCI CODE is a very bold attack against the two doctrines that are central to Christianity: the deity of Christ and the reliability of the New Testament documents. We dare not dismiss it, for the simple reason that some people believe it is historical fiction, that is, based on an alternative understanding of the origins of Christianity.
Carl E. Olson: I sometimes say, "Nobody says that Hamlet is 'only a play!'" or "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is 'only a novel!'" Fiction is a powerful medium that is meant to convey information, although not in a systematic fashion, which is one reason fiction can be so powerful --- readers are often more open to be persuaded by a work of fiction because their defenses can be down and their emotions can be too heavily involved.
Amy Welborn: I say, "YOU'RE RIGHT! It is only fiction!" But the fact is that some readers are accepting the assertions as serious historical theory or possibilities. My book is intended to help them sort it all out.
Steve Kellmeyer: My answer can be found in my response to Question #3.
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