blake johnson

Over winter break I decided to read The Da Vinci Code. There is no other book in recent memory which has had such mixed reviews by my friends. I had some people tell me that it was fantastic and fun and others tell me that it was stupid and riddled with eggregious historical errors. I wanted to read this just so that I could form an opinion instead of spouting off with the few tidbits that I knew.

My overall verdict was that it is simultaneously fun and disappointing. It is fun because Dan Brown actually does have some skill at creating a well-paced mystery/thriller. The story proceeds quickly with some exciting intrigue. However, this is all marred by the fact that a work which follows under the banner “FACT” (the header of the first page) has enough errors in it to call into question all references to real people, places, and events mentioned in the story. For instance, Dan Brown perpetuates the myth that Jehovah is the literal name of God (there’s a wide consensus that it is not, see this for a good discussion). One sentence which particulary bothered me was something to the effect that the main character’s previous love interest studied “entanglement physics” and that this had something to do with “satellites and manta ray migrations”.

Say what?! Excuse me? You can’t write something like that and have me take you seriously.