The Misinterpreted Code
Author: Kadence Buchanan

Dan Brown's mystery/detective novel "The DaVinci Code,"
published in 2003, has sold more than 40 million copies and its
narrative was made into a script for the needs of the recently
released Columbia Pictures film carrying the same title. This
worldwide bestseller has been translated into 44 languages and
is currently the sixth biggest selling book of all time. Can
you imagine which one holds the first place on that bestseller
list? Well, it is the Bible.

By examining Christianity and traveling through history,
Brown's book invites the reader to reconsider what is firmly
believed for centuries now in relation to Jesus Christ's deeds
and life choices. Offering a conspiracy theory, which is headed
by the organization of Opus Dei belonging to the Catholic Church
to cover up the "true" story of Jesus, the plot of the novel has
helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the
Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history
of Christianity.

But regardless of the glowing reviews it received from the New
York Times, People Magazine and the Washington Post, the book
has been heavily critiqued by many as poorly written,
inaccurate and a source of confusion between speculation and
fact. The criticism generated focuses on the speculations made
to base the story's plot and the misrepresentations of core
aspects of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church history and
the numerous descriptions of European art forms, historical
facts and architectural designs. Brown was accused apart from
actually copying the facts of the 1982 published book "Holy
Blood, Holy Grail" written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh
and Henry Lincoln, to distort and fabricate history so as to
serve the story's purpose.

But isn't that exactly what a novel does? Although I have not
been a student of any professional writing classes up until
now, I believe, and that is because I have read a variety of
fiction novels, that the writer creates art by writing a story
and art can take any form. The art form of literature has many
focal points, one of them being fiction. High-fantasy stories
that do not portray real-world historical facts, although very
often the writer is based on them, do not have to suffer that
kind of negative criticism.

Although Brown's book is not one of my favorites, I was
astonished to discover how many people have been attacking the
author for writing a "fake" story, what is known as fiction. It
is generally agreed that it is much more interesting when one
relies on facts, to portray them as they really were recorded
by historians and experts, but this decision belongs to the
writer and has to be taken while writing the story.

Regardless if one disagrees with Brown's theories or finds his
book amusing, the criticism should not be directed, at least in
my opinion, on whether or non professor Robert Langdon and
Sophie Neveu took the right road towards the French country
side, but whether or not one likes the story and finds the
language used and the arguments made by the author accurate and
constructive. Of course, it is always nice to know exactly which
road one should take in order to escape from the Louvre Museum
in case of an emergency, but I will agree with a famous quote
that is accredited to Buddha that "There are two mistakes one
can make along the road to truth... not going all the way and
not starting.

About The Author: Kadence Buchanan writes articles for
http://loveofthearts.com/ - In addition, Kadence also writes
articles for http://itsfamilytime.net/ and
http://allkindsofclothing.com/