THIS THREAD WON'T USE SPOILER TAGS. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ "Angels and Demons" or "The DaVinci Code" THEN YOU SHOULD STOP READING! I WARNED YOU.

I just finished the DaVinci code so that I could see the movie on friday, since I loved Angels and Demons so much. The DaVinci code, however...

Wow. Where the HELL did all of the controversey in this book come from? I thought, you know, it was generally a given to anyone that thinks a little beyond the bible that, yeah, Jesus got married and had a kid, like ANY OTHER MIDDLE AGED JEW. I mean, it wasn't a gigantic thing when Dogma posed the same concept, was it? Granted, literature and pot-head-comedy movies are somewhat different in media, their messages were identical.

I'm sure the entire symbolism and real evidence changed the implications, but really, the book even touches on that: It doesn't take a symbology background to deduce that a middle aged Jewish man is going to get married.

I'm sure some comedian right now is using this very joke:

"I read the DaVinci code (And took 3 days off of work in the process) and I gotta say, I don't know why everyone was surprised that Jesus was married and had a kid. Unless you've never met a Jew in your life, it's not hard to believe that Mary wasn't on Jesus' *** like flys to ****.

Jesus: "Mama!"
Mary: "I'm just saying, Jesus!"
Jesus: "But ma?"
Mary: "Feh! you wanna live the rest of your life alone, Feh! Be my guest!"
Jesus: "Ma, why do you always gatta bring this up while we're praying?"
Mary: "I'm doing you a favor! The other mothas tell me I'm balebetishen yidden!"
Jesus: "Ma, I'm the Son of the Lord! I've got no time for a woman!
Mary: "I can hardly believe that you're not the son of that meshugeneh I call my husband! You're both aidel! Yeach!"
Jesus: "Ma!"

Anyway. I found Angels and Demons to be far more gripping, and far more interesting a book, anyway. I learned a lot more, however, from the DaVinci code. I think, however, they're far too similar for my tastes, in general. I HATE how Longdon generates yet another love interest. That's just silly. His old love interest was completely deus ex machina'd out of the picture, which is even more troubling.

Speaking of Deus Ex Machina: A lot of people broke a lot of international laws. Last I checked, Fache wasn't really in the position to "forgive" national criminal offendors, much less at 2 different country's expenses.

And a question: HOW did The Teacher get the name of the top 4 Priory members? That seems generally impossible, to me. Furthermore, wouldn't it have made FAR more sense to NOT reveal himself to Langdon and Sophie as the mastermind behind all of it until AFTER they'd found the Grail? I mean, it could have been as easy as telling them he'd eascaped. What, are they going to disbelieve him!? Even though it seems unreasonable, he's proven himself very crafty already. He's also their friend and ally. They'd take for granted he was alive, let alone got away from the bad guys, and then they'd work to find the grail. He could (We're forgetting that the police were around the corner, something he didn't know at the time) just played along until they had the grail in their hands, asked them if they wanted in on telling the world, then had his way. His HIDING from them when they come to the cathedral struck me as odd for someone as smart as him.

Anyway, discuss!

It's controversal because it defies people's beliefs.

Hmm...

Angels and Demons had some messed up physics and therefore The da Vinci Code was better.

Jesus dies

Well, Jesus came back too. Apparently. Damn Muggles.

It's not all that unrealistic, and it does mention that Langdon kind of regrets not pursuing it.

I agree that A&D was a little more grippng, and I think that comes from the fact that you have a character trying to attain a position of great power and that the source of conflict is far greater than what's in Da Vinci. They're both still very entertaining though.

The two books are essentially the same book with different characters, items, puzzles, events, etc. The plot and the structure is freaking exactly the same.

(They both rock :p)

...I don't get why people like the Da Vinci Code - It's like Tom Clancy or Michael Critchon only more sucky. Everything in this book is wrong. Every single thing.

I'm interested to hear why people liked it because I can't think of any story that I've ever had such a negative reaction to.

(I'm not talking about this from a religious angle, just a totally lame story angle)

1.) People tend to read both books, compare them, and jump on a bandwagon and say "I like A&D better lol", when they are both basically the same book, like Pommy said.

2.) There is a disclaimer on the front of the Da Vinci Code saying that the only true peice about the book is the descriptions of art peices, documents, etc...Not the storyline, not the "facts" about Jesus, or anything else.

I have no idea why I made that list. I just typed it up.

But the rumors ARE, however, true. I mean, historical evidence IS there. I've known that much, at least, far before this book was released.

Yeah. The theories are out there for sure.

It's controversial because fat people like to piss me off with stupid ****.

I’m still trying to figure out how people still care abut the “priory of sion”. Unlike most conspiracy theory’s, this one was pretty much COMPLETELY DEBUNKED 20 years ago… and yet I still hear yuppies sitting around in coffee houses talking about how “The DaVinci Code” Might be real and how the priory really existed..,

Well, it's obviously not unlikely that someone with Jesus' blood line is still around. However, it's unlikely that his blood stayed in such a perfect, easily traced ancestory. It's more likely there's a whole bunch of people with jesus blood, and none of them know it.

I do not disagree wth that. I just saw something on the History channel a few months ago about this.

Since I don't believe in Chritianity anyways, it makes more sense that Jesus did in fact marry, and had children. And you are right in which Jesus's blood line may be around, but doubtful it's protected. It's more likely that no one knows about it, thus is protected by ignorance.

It'd help his case if he didn't make up most of his "facts". I just laugh when I heard about the templars. "A well executed sting opertion by the Pope"? C'mon. I'm in 11th grade and I know they were rounded up by the French King, I think it was Charles II, for political reasons.

Why don't we introduce the 9/11 conspiricy theory into this thread and kill two birds with one stone?

For every idiotic conspiracy theory there's always a book that goes and shows how stupid it is. They always use a combination of poor research, false statements, and an incredibly one sided version of events to make their theory look plausible. The Davinci Code theory isn't even new. It was disproved long ago, and resurfaces from time to time to make book authors rich.

Okay, now we need a second poll to confirm my theory that everyone's favorite book is the one that they read first.

I have not read either one, I don't know if I will or not. but from the little I know the controversy and problem comes from people accualy taking the stuff seriously. like the people who wrote C.S. Lewis after "Out of the Silent Planet" asking what "Ransom"'s real name was becuase they though it all accualy happened. From what I have heard it's fiction, and he tells you it's fiction OMG maybe it's not real.

but I have not read it so, I can't say for sure.

Maybe you need a little more education, but the Cathloic Church was the most powerful organization i nthe world prior to the Protestant Reformation. They literally owned all of the western world in some way or another. The pope held power over a lot of monarchs and didn't have much trouble influencing them.