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Originally Posted by guthmund
I just don't seem to understand why the big stink about this particular book? There are countless books filled to the brim with conspiracy theorys about...well, concerning just about everything and everyone. What makes this book different? Is it because we (the readers) have intensely focused on this book or rather we've been focused intensely on this book?
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Because it has been so very popular. I'm not the only one who finds this noteworthy.
It has spawned an entire industry in follow-up books. It is also notable enough to have had an effect on tourism in the places depicted in the book.
That's what makes it different.
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I think it's the focus that's been put on it. Critics are as much to blame for the "Da Vinci" maddness that they like turning their noses up at. I knew a ton about this book from other sources before I even picked up the book. Articles were everywhere, related material in Time and Newsweek and afterwards a couple of television shows "investigating" the claims made by Brown, one on prime time ABC, no less. You mention the gullibility of the "vast majority." How many millions of books did this guy sell? How many of his millions of readers carry round dog eared copies, threaten tour guides or write nasty letters to the Catholic church? Not many, I'd bet. He's sold millions of books and reached a very big audience. It stands to reason that his "nutball" percentage is going to be a bit higher, but the "vast majority?" I don't think so.
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Well, I never said "vast majority" and I searched this thread and no one else did either.
The point is, and I'm not the only person saying this, is that this
particular book seems to have hit upon a resonance in current "Western" readers; particularly those in the US (though this may simply be because it's sold so well there).
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I think if the "critics" had left this book alone and simply treated it like every other piece of fiction that runs across their desks, it would've died out to it's cult following a long time ago. But they haven't and with a movie coming out their not likely to start ignoring the source material anytime soon.
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Well, I don't think the critics "made" this book. I think, as I said above, it seems to have come at the right time. It plays on peoples fears (vast conspiracy), their yearning for some kind of modern spirituality, the uneasiness after 9/11 etc. These are not only my suppositions, but those of several commentators.
Mr Mephisto