The Da Vinci Code

[pinksmartie]

Which parts of it are actually true?

[samuel23]

very little of it or almost all of it depending on your religious stance. The places, sculptures and art are factual, but the significance of them has been tilted to fit the story

[Kishimo]

Unfortunately I do not know a great detail about The Da Vinci Code's background, but, going on my knowledge of Angels and Demons, much of the history, locations and dates will have been changed to fit the storyline. For example, in A&D, the illuminati were/are real but not as picky and savage as depicted in the novel and almost all of the dates mentioned were fictional.
I expect Dan Brown will have changed many of the 'facts' to suit himself.

[Andy Cheever]

Its title

[jenstar]

The list of other books by the same author seems to check out.

[nanagedon]

your right samuel23 someone in my seminar actually used the davinci code as an example as if it was some sort of factual book she wouldnt beleive me when i told her it was made up.

[samuel23]

It is very difficult to confirm or refute what was in the mind of someone who painted a picture in the 16th / 17th c. Drawing on historical facts can only explain what the subject matter was, whether it was significant at the time and why it may have been painted in this or that particular style. To give it (the book) credence as a historical reference point is to make some very large leaps of faith and assume some fundamental parts of the book are accurate rather than twisted to fit.
An example of this would be for me to write a book about the universe, saying that it is like looking at the inside of a rolling ball and is expanding all the time so it is as big as we can imagine it. Then backing this up by taking statements and facts, mixing them to fit my theory and producing a believable end result. No-one can state absolutely and finally that I am wrong, because at the moment we don't know how big the universe is or if it is truly expanding or contracting, or if my inside of a ball theory is a reasonable assumption. Some very clever quantum physicists could hold a good arguement agianst my theory but proving it would still be down to a point of view.
There will always be the gullible ones that get carried away and believe it all, just as there will be those that decry Brown and call him a heretic and charlatan. That said, it was a cracking good read.

[pinksmartie]

Yep, I agree it was a really good read. I'm still reading in fact - teabing has just revealeg himself as the teacher... Didn't see that comming.
Thanks for all your replies. It does sound really convincing, but I'm not religious so it's really just another book to me.

[Ray The Grey]

The suppression of women by a specific pope in the 3rd or 4th century when women bishops and archbishops were outlawed. Since then women clergy have been banned until very recently generally. That bit was true. The places exist that were mentioned in the book. Otherwise - fiction