Da Hoopla Over Da Vinci

Dan Brown's fictitious mega-seller book "The Da Vinci Code" gets a B grade as a mystery novel, in my opinion. It's like reading a Miss Marple mystery and nearly as boring.

Therefore, I'm absolutely astounded - just shocked - by the hoopla this story continues to garner because it's based upon a riveting myth.

In short, author Brown builds his murder mystery around a secret society whose only purpose in the universe is to preserve the identity of the progeny of Jesus. Did Saint Mary Magdalene and Jesus of Nazareth parent a child? Oh, but wait, there's still more! If they did have a child, is the progeny of their offspring still walking among us today?

"Da hoopla" over this ho-hum Da Vinci Code plot is premised by the sensational concept of a divine progeny. It's an absolutely preposterous idea because there's virtually no way a secret of this "magnitude-10 variety" could remain hidden for two-thousand years, regardless of how many Knights Templar are guarding the evidence.

Furthermore, Brown's uninspiring story spins the sub-culture of the Roman Catholic Church as to mislead readers into actually believing "da falderal" of "Da Vinci's" crazy progeny plot.

Now, that said, I'm as anxious as most other movie goers to see the star Tom Hanks perform the lead role as Robert Langdon, the central character in "Da Vinci - Da-Moooovie". Langdon is the investigator called in by sleuths who show up at the Louvre Musée in Paris, France, to solve a bizarre murder.

By the way, Langdon happens to stumble upon the best kept secret of all time while gum-shoeing his way around Europe. Yes, there's also a girl in the story as well.
Hanks should have little complicated acting to do given the shallow depth of Langdon's character; because, the Brown story is about intrigue rather than character development. It's "da-story", stupid!!! It's about Jesus and his offspring

You see, "da hoopla" in "Da Vinci" is hype over a tale with 2000 year old "legs". Surely, the 12 disciples who followed Jesus of Nazareth somehow germinated this story - or, at least, they didn't squash it.

Those 12 New Testament men disciples were nobody's fools, after all. They observed a lot by "just watching" while Jesus and Mary Magdalene got to know one another. It's written about in the New Testament for everybody to read. In fact, before anybody else saw him, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene after his Resurrection. Obviously, Mary Magdalene was chosen - indeed, singled out - for this awesome honor of seeing the resurrected Jesus. She was special in the heart of Jesus.

There's simply no doubt whatsoever about the close relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus of Nazareth. Actually, there are Biblical scholars who anoint Mary Magdalene as the 13th Disciple because she shared equal status with the other guys. Unfortunately, Saint Mary Magdalene carries the burden of being an equal among her peers, poor lady. Roman Catholics call her "Saint" Mary Magdalene, an honor she rightly deserves.

Brown's use of Leonardo Da Vinci's name as a headline grabber is based upon another myth whereby the famous Italian artist was supposed to be among The Knights Templar involved in this concocted secrecy of the progeny. Oh, well, somebody had to do it - why not Leonardo?

Certainly, I enjoy reading a good mystery story, but da-hoopla over Da-Vinci just doesn't resonate as one of the big who-dun-its with me. Divine progeny is a sensational idea, if only Brown was the first one to think it up, but he wasn't. Of course, Brown didn't plagiarize his novel or the characters he writes about - but he did copy his ideas from lots of other places. Yet, block-buster movies of the past have been made with even less material to work with - take "Titanic", for example. Who'd-a-thought a story with such a sad and predictable ending - the ship does sink - would continue to pack movie theaters, like Titanic did.

Surely, my husband and I will be among the first in line to see Tom Hanks walk his way through "The Da Vinci Code" as Langdon. Maybe, Hanks and his magnetic screen image can even generate some authentic hoopla about Brown's story. It would be a real "hoopla" to see movie going fans, like me, going back into theaters again.

Meanwhile, this cautionary message is for readers and movie goers everywhere: "The Da Vinci Code", by author Dan Brown, is fiction. In other words, it's not based upon facts. Simply put, da-hoopla about Da-Vinci is entirely about publishing profit and big money movies. It's entertainment. And "dat's-da truth"!