Oh My God, You Look Like a Frog!

[spectralbovine]

So I finally read the fucking Da Vinci Code.

And you know what? I enjoyed it.

My earliest recollection of being exposed to the book was Melanie's recommendation three years ago. She loved it; I don't know if it had become immensely popular by then.

Now, she loved it. Nearly everyone else I knew who spoke of the book in the next three years hated

Comments

[sjester]

I read The Da Vinci Code in the middle (literally) of reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and I found it to be pretty much a pale imitation of the latter. Page-turner, yes, but that's not the only thing I look for in my reading material. Also, Dan Brown can't hold a candle to Eco when it comes to semiotics. Eco wrote the book on semiotics. Two, actually. And teaches it every day. Also, I saw the "sangreal" "twist" coming from miles away, but that could just be because I'm a medievalist. Nothing in the book was anything like a big revelation to me. Also, the Opus Dei people are not about the self-flagellation.

Basically, I didn't hate it, but had I taken time to read it in the middle of the school year instead of in the summer, I would definitely want those hours of my life back.

Call me a snob if you want, but there you have it.

[sjester]

Also, Wayside School is awesome.

[dachelle]

I was just about to say that the reason I haven't read The Da Vinci Code is that I read Foucault's Pendulum, and everything I've heard about DVC makes me think it's a poor man's version of FP, so why exactly would I need to read it?

Having said that, I'll probably go see the movie, though. It looks like a fun matinee, popcorn, and mocking time.

[sjester]

Yeah, I'll probably see the movie eventually, because, Ian McKellen. I will watch anything if he's in it. Heck, I'll watch paint drying provided he's standing in front of the wall with the drying paint.

[alannaofdoom]

Ditto to Paul Bettany. Even as an insane self-flagellating albino monk (and, really, why is he albino, Dan Brown? Because it makes him "creepier" or something? Thanks, buddy), I love me some Paul Bettany.

Wait, that's a dangling participle, right? Except without the participle? Whatever, reverse those two clauses and it's a better sentence.

...what if Ian McKellan was standing just to the left of the newly-painted wall?

[sjester]

It really doesn't matter where Ian McKellen is in relation to the newly-painted wall. He could even be standing behind it, so long as he is reading the catalog of ships so that I can hear him.

And speaking of Paul Bettany, have you seen The Reckoning? It's so, so good. We watched it for a Medieval Studies Students Association movie night, and we were actually at a loss to mock it, so good is this movie. So if you haven't seen The Reckoning, go, go now.

[smrou]

Yeah, I read Angels and Demons shortly after reading The Name of the Rose. I would've hated the book anyway because the writing is so clunky and annoying, but that was definitely bad timing, because the comparison of the writing of Eco versus Brown can't be avoided, and Brown doesn't hold a candle.

[sjester]

I love The Name of the Rose. Even if it does make me really sad at the end. It's the book that made one of my favorite professors decide to be a medievalist.

Incidentally, I need to go write a paper about the book and signs of the apocalypse.