Much ado about a work of fiction - Da Vinci Code

Went today to watch the Da Vinci Code and found movie posters around the theatre bearing the warning: “if not viewed in the fictional vein that’s intended, this story may offend religiously sensitive viewers”.

I watched it at an el-cheapo movie theatre that charges only 30% of what “regular” theatres charge, and has a 99% miro client-base. I love this place ‘cause it offers free-seating, no A/C (especially now that it’s winter with all attendant cold fronts sweeping through), and you can ooh! and aah! to your heart’s content without people beside you hissing “sshhhhhh” and killing your buzz.

[SPOILER ALERT! Those who have not watched it, and plan to watch it, should not read beyond this point]

I loved it! Thought it made for great entertainment. Everything from the 'Silas' character and the fascinating human proclivity towards self-flagellation (literal in this case), to all the signs that the talented two-some were able to interpret. The one cool thing about this movie was the collective, very audible and scandalized gasp from the entire theatre when ‘Sir Leigh’ revealed the true nature of the holy grail.

A friend who has read the book says he won’t watch the movie ('cause it's garnered far too much free publicity, what with all the scandals and threatened bannings) and that he’s upset with the Christian reaction to this heresy and blasphemy. The muslims made everyone aware that they didn’t care for the cartoons, all we’re doing is murmuring our dissent. He complains that the group sex scene (in the book) related to the Priory of Sion keepers cannot possibly be palatable. I was happy to inform him that the movie glossed over that bit of action. Besides, there is a reason why sects, secret societies and cults do not have MASS appeal… because they make their members perform rituals and actions that many would not.

Ultimately, I’m with ‘Robert Langdon’ in asking what difference the “divine vs. mortal” debate makes to the reality on modern-day earth. If the claims of the movie were indeed true, they’d at best serve to strengthen faith in human goodness, divine indulgence, remove religious oppression and restore power to its rightful owners. At worst, they'd make many of us aware of church history, and make us realize that the Bible may have been divinely inspired, but it had mortal editors.

Here are a few links on the story:

The Da Vinci Code: The facts behind the fiction

As premier of 'Da Vinci Code' nears, Catholic leaders urge caution

Vatican appoints official Da Vinci Code debunker

Da Vinci Code outcry grows

Menstruation? Optional

Yet another instance of humans being used as guinea pigs. It's pitched to appear logical and palatable. Yet another manifestation of that feminism backlash, where women actively contribute to their objectification as sex toys. Curiouser and curiouser....

Freedom

Lusaka, Zambia. Monument to Freedom Fighters

Unguja, Zanzibar: Memorial for Slaves who were taken from or passed through these islands.

Only elephants should

Remember only elephants should wear ivory? It was on T-shirts, TV, everywhere you went back in the 80s, culminating in the 1989 PR exercise of the then President Moi burning 12 tons of ivory as a statement against poaching. Don’t know if this brainwashing worked on you, but I realized recently that it had slipped into a corner of my conscience, unobtrusively set up shop, and made its presence felt when I was tempted to wear ivory.

Maputo (the coolest city ever! And that’s probably ‘cause I’ve yet to explore the rest of Mozambique –soon as I complete the ‘how to detect and avoid landmines that were moved to places unknown by the 2000 floods course– I’ll take on that adventure) has several spots where craft traders sell beautiful carvings and earrings, bangles, rings, candleholders, chessboards, and jewelry boxes, all adorned to varying degrees with ivory (and ebony). These are beautiful pieces of art, and part of me would love to buy everything that catches my fancy, while another part bleeds at the thought of strong elegant ebony forests diminishing so that we might have… trinkets… Now, if they were huge imposing artistic pieces guaranteed to be owned by our great grand kids (barring a myriad of insect invasion/rot setting upon them), perhaps my heart would bleed less, but most pieces get you excited in the moment, and in another month, year or two, you have no idea where you put them ….

The earrings are gorgeous large ivory loops, no metal in sight, the bangles would make an awesome match! and the price has me quickly reaching for my purse, only for the refrain “only elephants should wear ivory” to start in my head… At first it’s almost inaudible, eventually reaching a crescendo when I fish out my wallet and start counting out the meticals. It forces me to say ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the seller, who, not understanding the war currently going on inside me, offers to reduce the sale price even further, telling me how beautiful they’ll look on me, how I’ll be his first customer of the day, etc. I walk across the road, wallet still in hand and sit at a café across from the craft market to think about it, or rather, try to get the ‘conservationist concerto’ to can it! long enough for me to make the purchase. Nothing doing. So I walk away empty handed, wanting but knowing it’s not right to…

That social marketing stuff is powerful in a very sneaky way, and it does reach some people, wapende wasipende.

Kaavya Viswanathan

So Ms. Viswanathan has been in the news for the past couple of weeks. Came across her story quite accidentally… was checking how much butt Venus is kicking, and the next picture was hers, with her name below it and no additional information. You can read the story here. Briefly, she’s 19 and a sophomore at Harvard, signed a book deal at age 17, got a 500,000 dollar advance: "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got In". Really impressive story, and I was about to forward it to a friend (to get her working on her daughter who’s showing promise as a budding movie critic, to illustrate that with support and direction, she too could be signing a book deal in no time) when I open the next link and discovered all was not well.

She is accused of plagiarizing passages from two books by the same author… now that the book is under an electron microscope it’s 3 plagiarized authors so far. Na isitoshe! “they” are now looking into articles she wrote while interning at a newspaper… but wait… why stop there, go all the way to the cradle why don’t you!

Lots of blogs about it, tones of schadenfreude (my new favorite word) and most importantly, a young life has taken a hard knock. Allowed myself to sink into “take that wunderkind” for a quick second, then just really sympathized with her 'cause she's just a kid, and i'm sure we all remember how indian kids at school just HAD TO BE the brightest, fastest,...-est. Hope she emerges stronger.

Being a fan of 'chick lit', it tickled enormously to read that a 'great mind' thought "plagiarizing from chick lit has to be some kind of double whammy against artistic integrity".