The main problem I have with labelling the book a "crock" is that...erm... it's fiction. The problem is if people take it too seriously.
It's a fun mishmash of partial information. But, hey, that's what fiction is. You're not supposed to think that it's actual history. If it was actual history it wouldn't be a fiction novel.
Brown is using lots of bits of separate histories, historical speculation, artistic shorthand, and other bits and pieces of info and tying them together as if they truly fit together. In reality, not so much, for a novel? Yeah, sure, why not? That's what fiction is and I'm not going to complain if fiction doesn't stand up under the scrutiny of reality. (Then again, I'm a sci-fi lover so that's pretty par for the course for me).
I tend to look at it as a fairly standard thriller that pulls in fun bits of disparate history. (I always find it extremely difficult to buy that Mary Magdalene made it to France even if she did happen to marry Jesus. There is substantial evidence that she had a great deal of influence on early Christianity. Still, the craziest theory I've run across was Barbara Theiring's concept of the "resurrection." She had a lot of interesting info on the Dead Sea Scrolls but her theory on the resurrection was so bizarre that it made it impossible for me to take her seriously.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2005-01-03 03:02 am (UTC)It's a fun mishmash of partial information. But, hey, that's what fiction is. You're not supposed to think that it's actual history. If it was actual history it wouldn't be a fiction novel.
Brown is using lots of bits of separate histories, historical speculation, artistic shorthand, and other bits and pieces of info and tying them together as if they truly fit together. In reality, not so much, for a novel? Yeah, sure, why not? That's what fiction is and I'm not going to complain if fiction doesn't stand up under the scrutiny of reality. (Then again, I'm a sci-fi lover so that's pretty par for the course for me).
I tend to look at it as a fairly standard thriller that pulls in fun bits of disparate history. (I always find it extremely difficult to buy that Mary Magdalene made it to France even if she did happen to marry Jesus. There is substantial evidence that she had a great deal of influence on early Christianity. Still, the craziest theory I've run across was Barbara Theiring's concept of the "resurrection." She had a lot of interesting info on the Dead Sea Scrolls but her theory on the resurrection was so bizarre that it made it impossible for me to take her seriously.)