Da Vinci Crap

Maybe I should devote my blog to terrible literary crimes. I seem to have been doing that a little bit already with my Kaavya rants and my recent Da Vinci Code grumblings. And I plan on continuing the latter:

WHY do people like this book so much!?!

Okay so the movie is getting not-so-rave reviews, but that does not console me on this matter. I just don't get how intelligent people have been hoodwinked by Dan Brown's bad dialogue. I think it might be two-pronged:

a) the poor writing appeals to people who are not as intelligent and don't have the attention span for chapters longer than a page and
b) the anti-establishment, anti-Catholic sentiment that has enraged Mel Gibson and the rest of the church appeals on a certain level to intelligent people who like to read about Jesus being a fraud and having babies with a hooker. Or at least provokes their interest. I'm not kidding. I'm sure that half the reason I was unimpressed with the scandalousness of the Da Vinci Code was because I already sort of covered the Jesus-Mary Magdalene plotline before - in Another Roadside Attraction (Jesus' body, which was never reincarnated, is found hidden away in the Vatican and is part of a giant church conspiracy) and in Dogma. Been there, done that.

Argh. So this is not to say that you are stupid if you like the Da Vinci Code, but it does sort of amaze me that this book has attracted such undying fans. I really genuinely thought that kind of obsession/fanaticism was (and should be) reserved for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter - in other words, for pop culture artifacts I can get behind (albeit some reservations, like, why does the 5th Harry Potter book suck so much, and why does the 3rd LOTR movie go on for 5890 hours, and why does the dialogue in Star Wars make me want to tear my ears out). I guess my disorientation re: Da Vinci Code is more a result of my lack of participation/inclusion in a pop culture phenomenon than of critical study of why it's such a p.o.s. book. I just don't understand it - and that confuses me more.