The Da Vinci Code - who read the book

**Seamus Fermanagh** · 05-01-2006, 20:16

I actually liked Angels and Demons much better, and put DVC on a par with Digital Fortress.

Good frothy entertainment -- like DuBrul or Cussler but in a different vein.

My Catholic faith was not "shattered" by reading this.

**Somebody Else** · 05-01-2006, 20:34

Lets see... I thought the story-line a little fanciful and very market-orientated (nothing wrong with that - with the number of religious loons in the world, makes perfect sense). Style of writing was... simplistic, easy reading - but not exactly anywhere approaching a sophisticated grasp of the language (again, mass market appeal I suppose).

Nothing quite so vulgar as success...

*edit* I read it, of course, because so many people talk about it - I must after all keep abreast of popular culture... such that it is...

**Kralizec** · 05-01-2006, 20:35

Like seemingly everybody else, I liked Angels & Demons better. I used to think it was because both are based on pretty much the same concept, reading TDVC gave me a deja vu feeling. But the more I think of it, I think A&D was written better too.

Where did he claim any of it was fact?

**Brenus** · 05-01-2006, 20:39

I read it. Find it interesting, more for the question he raised and the debates he created. I was a bit concern by his lack of knowledge of the French History and culture. For a guy allegedly an expert, the First Name of his French Police Officer is weird, and honestly, after more than 35 years lived (mainly) France, I never met somebody with it. Never. The passage on the cross on his chest, due to the law, he couldn’t wear a big cross showing his religious beliefs… Some law applies for every Civil Servant, at school, Police or Taxes Offices.
The other thing which is questionable is about the Merovingian Kings. Believed me, when you speak with a moderately cultivate French of my age about the King Dagobert, the first thing which will come to mind is a small song for kids, written during the French Revolution to ridicule the Kings:
“
Le bon roi Dagobert
A mis sa culotte à l'envers
Le grand Saint Eloi lui dit :
O mon roi votre Majesté est mal culottée
C'est vrai, lui dit le roi
Je vais la remettre à l'endroit

Le bon roi Dagobert
Avait un grand sabre de fer
Le grand Saint Eloi lui dit :
O mon roi votre Majesté pourrait se blesser
C'est vrai, lui dit le roi
Qu'on me donne un sabre de bois

Le bon roi Dagobert
Voulait embarquer sur la mer
Le grand Saint Eloi lui dit :
O mon roi votre Majesté se fera noyer
C'est vrai, lui dit le roi,
On pourra crier: le roi boit.”

There are others, but it will be too long…
I honestly just remember the 1st paragraph.

For the ones a little bit more enthusiastic about Middle Ages they will know that after having been chosen by his father Clotaire II, King of Austrasia, Dagobert will reign on a united kingdom after his father and brother Charibert’s death in 632 (whom he murdered his son to avoid to share the kingdom). He also murdered his Uncle from his mother’s side (Bernufle).
He will not hesitate to exile or kill all opposition
Apparently he died from dysentery in Epinay.
He we know for his taste for gold and his life of debauches. To sustain his style he increase taxes. He pushed so far that he built for himself a huge throne in gold. He had five wives and a great number of concubines. Among cruelties the murder of the Bulgarians is the most known. They were fleeing the Huns and were at first welcome by Dagobert. Then, fearing they could take over the lands he just gave to them, he just make them in one night, 10,000 families in one night.

If THIS guy is in direct line with Christ, good behaviour is not genetically transmittable.

And at his death in 639, the Kingdom is shared between his two sons: Sigebert 3 (9 years old) – Austrasia and Aquitaine) and Clovis 2 (4 years old) –Neustria and Bourgogne)

In 751, the Carolingians replaced the Merovingian.

But, because this book, I now read a book about the Gnosis.