Dabar, kai Da Vinčio kodas jau perkeltas į didįjį ekraną, dar daugiau milijonų žmonių turės progos susipažinti su šios istorijos sukeltos diskusijos klausimais. Tiek skaitytojai, tiek ir žiūrovai nori sužinoti, ar filmo kūrėjai pasidavė Vatikano, Opus Dei ir evangelikų, kurie laiko Da Vinčio kodą įžeidžiančiu ir netgi šventvagišku, spaudimui. Šiame Trumpame vadove aptariame Dano Browno argumentus ir šaltinus bei pateikiame istorinį, kultūrinį ir religinį kontekstą, kuris turėtų padėti jums patiems apsispręsti – domėtis toliau ar ne.
Michael Haag, who lived in London, was a writer, historian and biographer. He wrote widely on the Egyptian, Classical and Medieval worlds; and on the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Three stars for the detailed descriptions and research but the book is more concerned with putting Dan Brown down and throwing out his ideas. Would he care? He must be laughing all the way to the bank!
The Rough Guide To The Da Vinci Code (2004) by Michael Haag, Veronica Haag and James McConnachie is a very interesting read.
I found the book very intriguing, quite a page turner and there was clearly a lot of research which went into it. It deals with all things The Da Vinci Code which the name suggests but by consequence has lots of information about religion, art, history and geography and a little bit about mythology and tarot cards. There is also lots of further reading material suggested as well as websites to check out. A really informative glossary is provided too. There is many interesting parts in this book like The Sacred Feminine and all the information about Leonardo da Vinci and it was very interesting to read about all the locations in The Da Vinci Code. Reading the history of parts of Paris, London, Edinburgh, Italy, Jerusalem and New York was very engrossing.
There is parts of the book which are quite old-fashioned. Some of the wording is a bit off. But other than that, quite interesting all in all. Learned a lot from the book and it was enjoyable to read. Lots of great photographs and illustrations to back up a lot of the research.
Reasonably methodical guide examining the factual basis or otherwise, and the sources, of the claims made in Dan Brown's thriller. The overall tone is very much about debunking most of the book, though I expected that. Some of the photos aren't as legible as they could be owing to their being small and in black-and-white, this is very apparent with the artworks e.g. The Last Supper. In the glossary the authors/editors have unfortunately confused pentagon (5-sided shape), pentagram (5-pointed star) & pentacle (5-pointed star enclosed in a circle). I picked up a copy 2nd-hand so this may have been corrected in later editions.
Shame on Rough Guide for publishing such trash! Just one example to show what I mean:- "'The Last Supper' is based on the Gospel of John where the supper is over, the table has been cleared, and Jesus dramatically announces that one among them will betray him. There is no reason why there should be a cup or chalice evident in this scene." (from the Glossary at the back)
Words of sheer lying desperation!
Just look at the actual picture and you see - 1 - Quite a few untouched small bread rolls. 2 - 1 Large Plate with what appears to me to be a joint of meat on it, not yet touched. 3 - Another Large plate with a large mound of something that could be perhaps Humous to spread on your bread?? 4 - Lots and lots of small plates, possibly one for each person. 5 - A Large Plate in front of 'Jesus', which is admittedly empty. 6 - Quite a few drinking goblets. No large single one though.
TOUGH LUCK GUYS - the table hasn't been cleared. I think this is just another example of 'Scotoma' - the mind seeing what it wants to see. And they are SO desperate for The Da Vinci Code to be wrong! So desperate that they lied in print!
Despite the rather pathetic and lamentable opinions and lies of the authors, there is actually useful information in the book, so I gave it two stars.
But after numerous visits to Rennes le Chateau over 20 years, the best key I ever found to the mystery of Rennes was the anonymous French masterpiece Meditations on the Tarot.
This is a great follow-up to reading the novel or watching the movie in order to sweep out some residual cobwebish confusion. I especially appreciate these authors' pointing out Dan Brown's flights of literary license or nonsense. I wish that I had not read Da Vinci Code so long ago. I even read the Glossary for greater gnosis.