Da Word on Da Vinci

Here's a disclaimer: I never got around to reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and as of this moment I have no plans to see Ron Howard's filmed version, either. I am easily annoyed by people who review things they've neither read nor seen for themselves, and certainly won't fall in that trap myself. I have no beef with Mr. Brown, who has found a lucrative niche for himself in the publishing business; nor with Mr. Howard, who has a solid reputation as a film director and was also mighty cute when he played Opie. I don't believe either of them had any hidden agenda in doing what they do for a living -- which is to write and film things that people will buy/see/read because it appeals to them for reasons that really shouldn't be examined too closely sometimes.

That said, what I am holding forth on is the furor created by the publication of the novel and the release of the film. That I can speak on from first hand experience, and because I can, I will.

When Brown's novel hit the bookstore I was slightly interested, but was in the midst of teaching a very demanding year-long Bible study. I was doing very little outside reading at that point (we were nearing the last half of the study, and I was doing a great deal of reading in preparation for the classes only).

A handful of my students were reading the book, though, and it soon began to interfere with some of our discussions -- to the extent that I had to ask this roomful of adults PLEASE to hold off talking about it until our break for refreshments. It wasn't that discussion of the provocative speculative nature of the novel was disturbing -- it was simply that we had a lot of ground to cover and truly didn't need to add extraneous layers to what were already deep discussions about the nature of faith and the nature of the Holy Trinity.

By the time the class had concluded, I had seen so many articles, TV specials, and headlines, and heard so many people talking about it that the book totally lost its appeal to me. This happens quite often when you're a bookseller -- we've a tendency to want to lead a trend, not follow it.

What really got my attention, though, after deciding (without reading it) that it was a work of fiction, (for Pete's sake!), was a request I received from a regular customer about it. She is a highly intelligent, thoughtful woman, not given to panic in any form, but on one lazy afternoon she came to the desk and said she wished to order 10 copies of the book if we didn't have that many in stock. I said, "So you enjoyed it?"

"Well, 'enjoyed' might not be the word for it," she answered, "but I just have to send a copy to my Catholic friends to try to persuade them they need to leave that church."

Holy Dewey Decimal System! I was flabbergasted, and although I rarely challenge a customer -- especially one who is buying a boatload of books -- I asked her if she realized it was FICTION.

Honey? You never in your life heard someone go on such a rant about how she was sure Dan Brown WANTED to write this as non-fiction but was too terrified that the Catholic Church would dispose of him -- something I have never, ever read anywhere, not even from Dan Brown!

It was just bizarre.

Look, folks. Here's my bottom line on this: As long as there are institutions that are successful and hold sway over the lives of millions of people, there are going to be other people who have a gripe with it and who take an interesting nugget or two and interview a few disgruntled former members, and create from those things a quilt of suspicion. No large institution of any stripe has ever had a history that isn't littered with some negative goings-on, because human beings are, after all, human beings. Even the ones who head up world religions: God (whatever name you wish to give Him/Her) might do the calling, but human nature is awfully good at putting static on the line.

Here's what I wish would happen so we can move on along....

1) If you want to see the movie, please go. It does nice things for the economy. Just don't infer that people who don't want to see it are narrow-minded. I'm not planning on seeing it because this isn't a genre that generally gets me to the theatre. Period.

2) If you don't want to see the movie, that's fine, too. Don't make apologies for that choice, but also don't get on a high horse you don't have a bridle for with those who do want to see it. My oldest son went because he loves history; my younger son went because there were places in the movie he'd recently visited and he thought that was pretty cool. Neither of them are haters of the Catholic Church and both are good boys who have a healthy reverence for their faith even as they grow in it by asking questions.

I suspect there is nothing in the book nor the film that will either make a person denounce their faith or decide to join a church.

And that's today's Mind Marble.