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jmc_bksYou know what I'm talking about, don't you, just from the initials? Because DVC is ubiquitous. On library shelves, at bookstores, in hardback, trade paperback and now mass market paperback. And on the big screen. Saw a preview for it yesterday, along with a preview of the 9/11 movie. DVC's preview was just irritating, while the 9/11 trailer was profoundly disturbing to me.
As I've posted everywhere it seems like, I haven't read DVC. People keep trying to give me copies when they learn that, because how can a voracious reader like me not read THE book of the year, the decade, whatever time measure you'd like to use. Because I'm contrary and I refuse to read something just because pop culture says it's good. Because the fictional story on its own is fine, but the way that people treat it as gospel really makes me uncomfortable. And because the popularity of this "religious suspense" book seems like an exemplar of the recent religiousification of daily life, pop culture and politics that the US seems to be enduring.
Religion isn't bad, in fact, I envy people who have faith since I have none. My suspicion is aroused, though, by organized religion and the messages of different churches that seem to say believe what we believe or suffer eternal hellfire. I feel like this message is being pushed on me from a lot of fronts lately, ranging from politics in the news (religious reasons to ban homosexual marriage and abortion) to my simplest shopping excursions (all of the religious-themed fiction that stares out at me from the bookstore stacks, Target, even the grocery store). I don't care if DVC is cloaked in fiction, a tale about a purported family of Jesus and Mary Magdalene still is about the power of the Catholic Church and its dogma, and it strikes me as a backhanded piece of religious propaganda. Who originally said that there is no such thing as bad press? Even fictionalized and with the CC playing bad guy (I assume, based on the movie preview), isn't the spread of the tale of Jesus more proselytizing?
Maybe I'm just paranoid. It's not like I know all that much about the book or organized religion. Ignore my blathering.
Edited to add: well, just edited really. I've been using the laptop lately, and I've noticed that I have a lot more typos and editing errors. Surely the smaller keyboard and screen aren't the cause of that. I'm just being lazy, I guess.
As I've posted everywhere it seems like, I haven't read DVC. People keep trying to give me copies when they learn that, because how can a voracious reader like me not read THE book of the year, the decade, whatever time measure you'd like to use. Because I'm contrary and I refuse to read something just because pop culture says it's good. Because the fictional story on its own is fine, but the way that people treat it as gospel really makes me uncomfortable. And because the popularity of this "religious suspense" book seems like an exemplar of the recent religiousification of daily life, pop culture and politics that the US seems to be enduring.
Religion isn't bad, in fact, I envy people who have faith since I have none. My suspicion is aroused, though, by organized religion and the messages of different churches that seem to say believe what we believe or suffer eternal hellfire. I feel like this message is being pushed on me from a lot of fronts lately, ranging from politics in the news (religious reasons to ban homosexual marriage and abortion) to my simplest shopping excursions (all of the religious-themed fiction that stares out at me from the bookstore stacks, Target, even the grocery store). I don't care if DVC is cloaked in fiction, a tale about a purported family of Jesus and Mary Magdalene still is about the power of the Catholic Church and its dogma, and it strikes me as a backhanded piece of religious propaganda. Who originally said that there is no such thing as bad press? Even fictionalized and with the CC playing bad guy (I assume, based on the movie preview), isn't the spread of the tale of Jesus more proselytizing?
Maybe I'm just paranoid. It's not like I know all that much about the book or organized religion. Ignore my blathering.
Edited to add: well, just edited really. I've been using the laptop lately, and I've noticed that I have a lot more typos and editing errors. Surely the smaller keyboard and screen aren't the cause of that. I'm just being lazy, I guess.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-12 11:32 am (UTC)Grr.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-12 11:46 am (UTC)I asked a salesperson at Borders about the hb, tpb and mmpb sales. He said that the sales of the hb has slacked only a little bit on release of the tpb and mmpb, and both versions of the pb were flying off the shelves, even with the huge print run. Who is buying all of these copies?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-12 12:48 pm (UTC)I think the hardback sales look inflated b/c it appears they are not counting the special edition illustrated DVC as separate from the regular hardback. A lot of idiots bought the original hardback and then got suckered in to the illustrated version too (*ahem*my mother*ahem*).
It took me until last year to want to read Harry Potter. Something tells me when I get around to the DVC I won't be smacking myself in the head and saying, "Wow, look at what I've been missing!"
Incidentally, I read Brown's Angels & Demons and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't fantastic either, and it ended up getting so OTT towards the end that I just skimmed.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-12 12:54 pm (UTC)I have Angels & Demons in the TBR pile -- another gift from friends who liked DVC. I'll get around to it eventually, but for the time being I'm afraid my irritation about DVC would color my reading of any of Brown's other books. Which, btw, are now being issued in the larger paperback size. Noticed it at Target last night.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-13 10:46 pm (UTC)I don't myself see where the allure lies - I think that probably is a genuinely interesting phenomena. They did a programme about it where they took three people who'd read the book to places that feature in it - nice people - one Christian who was sceptical, and two non-Christians who thought there was more to the book - and it was interesting how the latter persisted in believing in the book, almost beyond the evidence of their own eyes. Even when experts explained why this or that part of the book was clearly fictional, they seemed to be more inclined to doubt the experts than the text. Which, given that it's marketed as fiction, seems so odd. Is it indicative of some deep ambivalence towards the church, or what? I can see where I think the appeal of Harry Potter lies, but what it is it about this book that speaks to so many people?
I think it's probably worth reading in the spirit in which my mother reads Harry Potter - not because she gets much out of the books, but because anything that interests that many people is of interest in itself. Only takes an evening, anyway.
Marianne McA
no subject
Date: 2006-04-14 11:17 am (UTC)I'll probably read DVC eventually for that very reason -- to see what interests people. But I'm a contrarian, so the more people recommend the book, the longer I will put off reading it. Not a pretty part of my character or personality, is it?
-jmc