Da Vinci Code Historical Seminar
Susan Vigilante at NRO writes a pretty funny article detailing her talk with people at the Minnesota public school and their depth of ignorance on the subject
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That was really funny!
“The Jesuits’ motto is ‘The end justifies any means.'” (That would have to be a somewhat loose translation of “Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam,” more typically rendered as “To the greater glory of God.”)
I think they must be confusing St. Ignatius Loyola with Niccolo Machiavelli. An honest mistake certainly. It’s so easy to confuse the words of a Catholic saint with a political theorist.
Oh what fun it would be to drop in on that lecture.
I think it is going to be a long winter in MN … I attended a dinner party where a woman across the table was going on loudly about the fabulous & oh, so informative book w/another diner, and strongly encouraging her to read the book … “must read book” … why? because you will learn so much about (wink, wink) the Catholic church (nod, nod the head while winking) and the Opus Dei organization followed by a few more nod nods ….
oh how I wanted to ask the very educated woman if this is how she learned about history through fiction ….. me oh my
I think I might have to attend this “class”. I’ve been meaning to re-read “The DaVinci Hoax”, and I have “Cracking the DaVinci Code” right here…but if I go, or any others of you from MN… it may mean we need to purchase the trash Dan Brown book just so we can mark it up.
Any others from MN out there willing to overflow the class with more knowledge than this “teacher” can handle?
I’ll sponser a book-burning party, though….
That was one awesome article…oh the ignorance of people nowadays, how great they amuse us!
-Harrison
What about “The Giotto Code?” Poor Giotto gets no respect. In terms of revolutionary art — he’s your man, DaVinci followed in Florentine tradition.
But then… I guess Dan Brown couldn’t have that swell Mona Lisa book cover with the big shred across it. The St. Francis of Assisi frescos wouldn’t have played as well.
Julie, if I lived out that way, I would love to be there. Keep trying.
Susan is Jonathan Lee’s godmother. She’s cool. I’ve sometimes wished she would run for office: she’s very articulate and utterly impossible to intimidate.
pml: “oh how I wanted to ask the very educated woman if this is how she learned about history through fiction….”
Why didn’t you?
I don’t think this story is as funny as some of you do. It foments the bigotry that has made far too many Americans despise the Church based on lies and deceit. Not funny at all.
My brush with DaVinci Code admirers was a couple years ago in a graduate course in education at a satellite of Saginaw Valley State University. The instructor asked us about our favorite books and an elementary school teacher gushed about it. And then the INSTRUCTOR gushed about it.
And then I knew that this would be the lamest class I’d taken. (Yes, even worse than the mini-course on ice ages and global warming by the Communist geologist at my alma mater. Yes, even worse than the “Media Harms” class taught by Catherine McKinnon’s lover.) And it was.
The instructor was just like Langdon, the “hero” of the book. He told us what he thought was the truth and woe to us if we disagreed. He used examples of his experiences to “prove” his view. At one point, I brought up methods that worked in my class that contradicted his viewpoint and he had the audacity to say, “That’s the problem with anecdotal evidence. It isn’t factual.” (Although, to be honest, I’m not sure he realized that he had implied I was a liar.)
I suppose that’s what irked me the most about Code: a supposedly smart heroine not arguing with this putz who shows up with a bizarre theory. And about her parentage, no less. A REAL heroine would have cracked his skull even before saying, “Prove it!”
Mea culpa. I know this is long. I tried to revise it, but I’ve got a mighty hate for this book that goes to the depths of my Catholic feminist soul.
My hope is that DaVinci Code lovers, (who, from my point of view have fallen for, or sought out, anti-Catholic propoganda), will actually research Church history and discover the truth. The truth of this book is that it doesn’t hold up to truth on many levels: theologically, historically — in art, Church and architecture. It doesn’t hold up even logically. Is it logical that any painter from this time busied himself with wending in codes into paintings? No.
I work in advertising. I wish I had a nickel for everytime I’ve heard the “subliminal message” conspiracy of which I’m often accused of perpetrating. For the record: I spend my client’s money on making their product or service look good. I do not throw in naked women or men as an “extra” way to sell it. I would be fired. I’m thinking DaVinci would be too.