[the_old_crowd] Re: Hoy!

[Eileen Rebstock]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of davewitley
> Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 8:56 AM
> To: the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [the_old_crowd] Re: Hoy!

>> I have not read this great work myself, but it amazes me the number
of
> people who have trouble understanding that fiction contains
> propositional falsehoods.

I think the reason people get worked up on the subject is that Dan Brown
*does* claim the book's propositions are true. He allows that his story
is made up but insists that pretty much everything else in the book is
factual. 

The book includes an infamous page of FACTs, apart from the the fiction.
Particularly dubious is the assertion that the Priory of Sion is a real
organization dating back to the eleventh century, instead of the 1950s
invention of a royalist French crank. Though this disclaimer takes the
cake, imho: 

"FACT: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret
rituals in this novel are accurate."

They are demonstrably wrong in almost every possible way. 

Secondly, an annoyingly high proportion of his fans treat his fiction as
FACT. If the general population treated the Da Vinci Code as fiction,
there wouldn't be the big debate there is about it. Instead, it's
difficult to take a step these days without running into someone who
will inform you that they've learnt "interesting things" from the Da
Vinci Code. Some of it's just *headdesky*.

It drives me nuts the same way it drives me nuts to hear the widespread,
"Before Columbus, people thought the world was flat." 

There. I've let a lot of it out.

Eileen