Anyone planning to see The DaVinci Code this weekend? Raise your hands! hmmm ..... one...two... three ... many. OK! You can put your hands back down. Good! That gives me a group of people to talk to. *smile*
Actually, I'm not sure when I'm going to get to see it. This weekend is already cram-packed with a quick trip to the Dallas area for a meeting and my niece's graduation, followed by a mad dash back to Beaumont to get ready for our congregation's grand finale to our 125th Anniversary celebration on Sunday. Whew!
But I am planning to see it as soon as I'm able. It's hard to judge a book by its cover (especially since it's a movie!), and I haven't read the original, so I'm only operating on second-hand info. It is a work of fiction, and has never purported to be anything other than fiction. Why do people get so bent out of shape over fiction? Fiction authors are permitted flights of fancy, otherwise reading would be a really boring thing to do, and the movie wouldn't be worth going to at all.
Why is it the assumption that by reading the book or watching the movie one would automatically ditch everything one believes in to follow a work of fiction? I'll have to admit that I like the idea that Jesus was married. Brown isn't the first person to posit that, though. In the New Testament culture, I would expect it to be normal for a Jewish man to be married before his thirties, and we really don't know much about Jesus' life from his encounter with the leaders in the temple at age 12 until he began his ministry around the age of 30. Plenty of time to get married! It kind of bugs me when people say that Jesus experienced all of human existence, yet get boggled at the thought that he might have actually married and enjoyed a normal sex life. Isn't sexuality a part of the human experience? *shakes head*
Yes, according to what I've heard, there are other things in the book/movie that run counter to my beliefs. I'm not planning to let them trash everything I believe. Faith operates from a different place. According to the apostle Paul in Hebrews, "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen"(NRSV), so why would I let a fiction author convince me that I should give up my faith? Ain't a-gonna happen!
I am planning to suspend belief for a couple of hours and enjoy a bit of fun at a movie, however. Happy viewing!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I share your bemusement at the furor that surrounds "The DaVinci Code". I read the book, but I fully intend to also see the movie! It was a GREAT piece of FICTION--however, I was moved to do some research as I read. I looked for information on many of DaVinci's masterpieces as I read the story, and was moved to also delve into the facts surrounding Opus Dei.
To me, that is the mark of good fiction. "Good" fiction contains just enough fact to pique the curiosity of the reader, not only making it "believable", but also prompting him or her to separate the fact FROM the fiction!
Post a Comment