It’s Only a Thriller, But It’s Taking Over the World

When I first started hearing about Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code a year ago, I thought it was a scholarly work for the general reader along the lines of, say, Guns, Germs, and Steel. Then I learned it was just an ordinary thriller that’s easily polished off in an afternoon.

But maybe it's not so ordinary. On its first anniversary, there are now 6.8 million copies of The Da Vinci Code in print, according to this article from the Christian Science Monitor, making it one of the fastest-selling novels of all time. Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, a number of religious thinkers fear the book "may be sowing doubt about basic Christian beliefs,” and are taking active steps to rebut it.

I remember when Tom Clancy thought he was something. As Dan Brown sits back and rakes in the dough, perhaps educators should consider hiring him to recast all those dry, boring history texts into really cool legal thrillers. Retold as fiction, students might begin to think of history as something that really happened. They'd remember it better, too. (Links from Notes in the Margin.)

Comments

[David Giacalone]

Check out Chuck Colson's The Da Vinci conspiracy column to get a glimpse, with lots of links, of the battle being made to protect the True Faith. My beloved sister emailed the column to me a couple months ago, just in case I was swayed by Brown's book.

Speaking of miracles, just where are you finding the time for the burst of writing, Junior Partner? Don't you have some important deadlines to meet and cramming to do?

[Evan]

David: Thanks for the link. As for the other questions, yes I am busy, but I am finding time to deal with all the pressures and distractions of a lawyer's busy life by cutting down (slightly) on my consumption of reality TV. So far, it seems to be working, although I had a rough time last month whenever I stumbled upon a conversation about "The Apprentice," whatever that was.

[Abnu]

Further to the Christian Examiner Commentary linked by David, above, Jessa Crispin, at Bookslut, notes that, "We are about to see a flood of books released, all trying to debunk The Da Vinci Code. There's Cracking Da Vinci's Code, Breaking the Da Vinci Code, Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction, The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code, etc. Notice that they have similar color schemes, similar fonts, hoping someone won't notice they're not buying the real book."