The fact that the public doesn’t scoff at a novel like the Da Vinci Code, and put it in the category of Hudson Hawk, is because of generations of enculturated anti-Catholicism.
The fact that the public doesn’t scoff at a novel like the Da Vinci Code, and put it in the category of Hudson Hawk, is because of generations of enculturated anti-Catholicism.
That may be a part of it, but I also think that it has to do with the historical fiction genre. Usually, when you read historical fiction, you assume that the historical background is not total bunk. If historical background detail is included, you believe that the author has not invented that, but has only evented the particular events of the plot and the particular characters of the novel. DVC turns that on its head by making up historical events and propounding conspiracy theories as fact. Since people are too historically ignorant to sort it out, they assume that Brown’s background history is as believable as Dickens’, and so are misled about the parts of the story that are supposedly “true.”
I don’t know. Where I work, it seems the cathlics are more interested in DVC than other people (protestant, pagans, etc…).
People love conspiracy theories. I don’t think we need anything else (and certainly not another conspiracy!) to explain the popularity of the book.
pentamom, thanks, I’ve been thinking of a way to say that ever since I read the book. Well put.