So, the movie’s going to come out this weekend and the hype around the movie is building up. You can always figure out what’s the next “new” thing by the number of people indulging in the “new” thing on the GO train to work. When PSP came out, there was always someone next to you fidgeting like the person was having a epilepsy attack. When the Harry Potter books came out there was always someone buried deep in the book. And now Da Vinci is everywhere.
To start off I really hated the book. I read it a year ago and the murder mystery and the “clues” to the mystery within the mystery were too much for me. I too like fiction novels and I love murder mysteries but this book was too sugar-coated with “A = B; B = C; therefore A = C” for my liking.
Having said that, I did like the theory in the book that before Christianity as we know became mainstream, a lot of sects within the movement were trying to promote their own agenda. There was a sect which promoted women as divine beings. The woman, because she perpetuates life, was a goddess to be worshipped. That’s what I found to be an exciting idea in the book. The focus of the general public, I have found, is on the Church greed and not on this central theme of the book. I maybe wrong but most people I have spoken to have not really taken to this fact of the book.
Imagine what the possibilities would have been had women played a far more dominant role in one of the major religions of the world in the last 2000 years. For one the sexual revolution would have probably occurred in 100 AD instead of 1960 AD; there definitely would have been less wars; conflicts would have been easier to resolve; machoism would no have existed in the form it does today; bravado would have been different from the male ego that exists today and a whole lot more.
I wonder if this theme would be shown in the movie? It would be a very brave step on behalf of Ron Howard. Imagine showing that the Church was instrumental in suppressing women on a mainstream movie. I think the Church
is going to go into an overdrive trying to suppress this movie.
Desi In Toronto 