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June 24, 2005
ONLY A NOVEL
My size 7 foot - 1/3 of Canadians who've read it think the historical claims of DVC are true
The coast-to-coast survey for the National Geographic Channel conducted by Decima Research found that, among 1,005 adults surveyed June 9-12, 16 per cent had read the book in the past two years.
Among those readers, 32 per cent believed the story that "a holy bloodline exists and that this secret has been protected through the ages by a dedicated society," the television channel announced yesterday.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
"War of the Worlds" (1930's)
"Milli Vanilli" (1990's)
"Da Vinci Code" (2000's)
What do these have in common? People believe what they want to believe.
Look at the bright side:
84% of Canadians had the good sense to not even waste their time reading the book, and
only 5% of the poplulation read the book and believe it.
Plenty of folks still believe that Elvis is alive. Or that aliens are hidden at Area 51. Or that the Church banned Latin.
Posted by: Zhou at Jun 24, 2005 3:17:17 PM
Elvis lives!!!!
Posted by: Victor Morton at Jun 24, 2005 3:56:06 PM
I didn't realize anyone took it seriously until one evening when some of the classmates who lived in my barracks gawked in disbelief that I actually doubted what was proven, "documented", historical fact. They even tried to prove it to me using some of the books conclusions as premises.
Posted by: Jonathan Lee at Jun 24, 2005 3:58:21 PM
Off topic question for Victor Morton:
The last couple nights we've been watching a DVD of Cat and Mouse. Nice cute HK romantic comedy, but maybe a bit too long. Have you seen it?
Posted by: Zhou at Jun 24, 2005 4:05:29 PM
I'd say I'm surprised, but I'm not.
Again, I say: It's clear that too often we are not catechizing our flock well.
Posted by: Richard at Jun 24, 2005 4:12:14 PM
Mr. Zhou:
I have not seen CAT AND MOUSE. (Or much else starring Andy Lau, actually.)
Posted by: Victor Morton at Jun 24, 2005 4:13:42 PM
Good grief!
Posted by: John J. Simmins at Jun 24, 2005 4:54:16 PM
Zhou, I thought that Elvis was hidden at area 51.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Jun 24, 2005 5:21:00 PM
Thank God I don't live in that benighted country any more!
Posted by: reluctant penitent at Jun 24, 2005 6:35:44 PM
I don't know what it is about this stupid book. I have a friend who read the book, and it just ruined her mind.
Knowing that I studied medieval lit in college, she confronted me one day and kept on insisting the Grail Quest was something that really happened and that we have all these people who wrote about it and that they must have been looking for something really important. And why was it "hidden" from us all these years?!
Nothing I said would convince her that it really was a just a story. I read from Eschenbach. I read from Chretien. I showed her websites about Wagner. I pointed out the relationship between goofy wicca stuff and late 19th century/early 20th century spirituality. None of it. Not one moment of a long day could convince her that it was just a fantasy.
What is it with this book?
She's not the only one. I've had family members, other friends, co-workers, etc. They know I'm a student of medieval lit. They all ask the same questions...they want to know The Truth!
What is it with this book?
Posted by: TheLeague at Jun 24, 2005 7:28:04 PM
I worked in a (Canadian) bookstore when DVC came out. A large part of the book's success is based on the publisher's massive campaign of pre-release copies sent to booksellers, so before the book became popular some of the staff in my store were already gushing over it.
Now, at the time I was really a pretty poor Catholic. I kept the faith but had all kinds of reasons to dislike the Church.
Anyways, I read DVC and was immediately struck by the fact that it was clearly a very biased work. I had never heard of Opus Dei, but Dan Brown thought it was appropriate to put a link to an anti-Opus Dei website in a work of fiction. I kept reading, and began to recognize the Holy Blood, Holy Grail influences.
After I finished the book, I knew it must be largely false - and in the course of seeking the truth behind these claims I came to realize that most of what I thought about the Church was just as incorrect as Dan Brown.
Now I'm back in the fold, so in a strange way I have to give Da Vinci Code credit for bringing me back to the faith.
Posted by: Allen White at Jun 24, 2005 7:31:50 PM
Aside from being historically incorrect and theologically unsound, how bad is it really that people believe that Jesus has descendants and that there's a "divine lineage"? More than 5% of Canada's population believes in some variation of "property is theft", which is also theologically unsound, and has some pretty awful results both on societies which act on those beliefs, and on people who hold them. (How many people do you know who have that sort of belief have a steady income they didn't inherit?)
I haven't read DVC, but there are plenty worse things in it for people to actually believe; the story doesn't report how many people believed those things.
Posted by: Anthony at Jun 24, 2005 8:50:50 PM
TheLeague - I've really wondered about that too. Is it something in the ink, maybe? (Sounds like a subpar forties horror story - the ink contained a mysterious eastern poison which made them susceptible!)
Posted by: Sonetka at Jun 24, 2005 10:06:41 PM
When faith is gone, cynicism takes over.
And when cynicism takes over, credulity in all kinds of conspiracy theories naturaly follows.
You see the same kind of thinking in Western Europe now. Something like a third of young Germans think 9/11 was a clever plot by the Bush administration.
Posted by: Richard at Jun 25, 2005 10:58:07 AM
Off topic comment for Victor Morton:
I can't believe you support the Huns when they're playing in Europe.
Posted by: Gerry O' Neil at Jun 25, 2005 5:02:15 PM
Richard is right, but I would like to add that sometimes things like this just seem "too cool" to doubt once a person has taken hold of them. I also think some of it may be laziness. When one has read DVC and thinks that in one book they have thoroughly studied the entire history of the Church, it's hard for them to accept that knowing the truth about history is complicated and involves research. TheLeague, your friend probably just din't want to take the hard path of truth. DVC is history lite (in addition to being false), and some people can't handle the strong stuff.
Posted by: Jonathan Lee at Jun 26, 2005 2:04:13 PM
