Tuesday, November 11

 
The Da Vinci Crud

Well, Mr. Brown's much-discussed, er, literary masterpiece is becoming omnipresent around here. Not willing to go out and browse at the lovely little Almost Corner Bookshop in Trastevere, some of my friends have been passing around its execrably-written prequel, Angels and Demons. I wouldn't mind except people are starting to go see The Ecstasy of St. Teresa because it's in the book and not, um, because, well, it's The Ecstasy of St. Teresa, the coolest freaking statue on earth. Also, I'm getting a little tired of fielding questions about The Secret Opus Dei Conspiracy To Take Over the World And Force Everyone To Change Their Name to Josemaria And Take Cold Showers Every Day.

(Incidentally, I have yet to find a Catholic World Conspiracy out there, at least one accepting members. The Knights of Malta stopped returning my phone calls. So, please write if any of you are seeking new recruits, as I would like to be Holy Roman Emperor after the Revolution. No blood-oaths, please, but I'm fine with the word "extirpate.")

Anyway, Fr. O. and his seminarian buddies are planning on giving a lecture on the book in the hopes of perhaps chasing away some of those chimeras. For those of you who can't come to Rome and hear him speak, well, there's the next best thing, check out this nice little summa on the subject from the folks at Envoy Encore.

Ironically enough, there are moments when, speaking as a writer, I'm more offended by his purple prose than his preposterous theology. So I prefer to blissfully ignore Dan Brown. As long as we use common sense and recall Church history when questioned, there's not much else we need do to to respond to the book. Unless Bud McFarlane, Michael O'Brien and the Wachowskis want to team up and write a techno-thriller about Opus Dei priests in cassocks karate-chopping the Priory of Sion's backside. Hm, that might just work...um...never mind.

Okay, you can get back to work now. And now we will return to our regularly scheduled Roman travelogues and mannequin nun fashion shows.

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