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Mer's Reviews > The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)
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PLEASE do NOT recommend The Da Vinci Code to me because you think it's brilliant. Please do not try to explain to me that it is a "really interesting and eye-opening book." Just don't. Please.
I've read Iain Pear, I heart Foucault's Pendulum, Dashiell Hammett is my hero, Alan Moore is My Absolute Favorite, I listen to Coil on a fairly regular basis, and cloak n' dagger secret society/Priory of Sion/Knights of Templar-tinged num nums make me a very happy girl... but if you truly believe that Brown's stupid airport thriller has ANY right whatsoever to be placed in the same category with Michael "Wooden Dildo Dialogue" Crichton, let alone Umberto Eco, kindly keep this opinion very far away from me, or the ensuing conversation we have will not be constructive or polite in any way.
I loathe Dan Brown. I resent him for spoon-feeding the masses pseudo-intellectual "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" D-grade thriller shite under a pretense of real sophistication, and getting orally serviced by The New York Times for his effort.
I'd heard that the novel was meticulously researched and contained some really interesting and controversial assessments of religious zealotry. Um, not really? Well, not by my Merovingian standards, anyway. :D
Let's put it this way. If Dan Brown was teaching an Insurgent Christian Symbolism in Art and Literature 101 class at my local community college, I'd definitely have a different opinion about him.
But NO. Dan Brown is not a professor of anything but pap. He is a barely competent thriller writer who wrote an AWFUL book that I could not bear to finish because I felt my IQ plummeting a little further with every "Let's Go to Paris! Guidebook" description and blowhard authorial essay. Oh, don't even get me started about those cute soliloquies the main characters are so fond of delivering, ever so calmly, often while cops n' bovvers are chasing them.
The characters are weakly drawn. The dialogue is excruciating. The research is shoddy and self-serving at best. The plot, no matter how open-minded you are, is beyond ludicrous. It's laughable enough to be incorporated into the next Indiana Jones movie. That'd be sweet, dude.
What really irks me are Dan Brown's sanctimonious interviews, wherein he shows off all of his priceless antiques while expressing his abiding convictions that the American public needs a "deeper appreciation" of art and history and culture. What a shallow, self-aggrandizing hypocrite. I'm all for fictional subversion of the dominant Catholic paradigm, but only if the subverter knows what the hell they're talking about. Brown DOESN'T. He's all "la la la, connect the dots" but the picture he comes up with is awkward and unconvincing.
The DaVinci Choad is a dead easy, nay, downright lazy read, and yet droves of people are patting themselves on the back for having read and *gasp* actually understood it. Like this is some spectacular achievement? WHY? What, because the slipcover describes it as "erudite"? Are you fucking kidding me?
Don't believe the hype, kids. You are profoundly more intelligent than this holiday page-turner gives you credit for.
If you really, honestly, just plain liked the book, that's cool I guess. Maybe you also prefer Anne Geddes to Alfred Stieglitz, Kenny G to Sidney Bechet, John Tesh to Igor Stravinsky. Your prerogative. Just.... please don't try to tell me that this is "fascinating" or "meaningful literature". Frickin' read The Club Dumas or something. Then we'll talk, and I won't want to shoot myself in the face.
Alright, glad I purged that poison from my system. Carry on.
I've read Iain Pear, I heart Foucault's Pendulum, Dashiell Hammett is my hero, Alan Moore is My Absolute Favorite, I listen to Coil on a fairly regular basis, and cloak n' dagger secret society/Priory of Sion/Knights of Templar-tinged num nums make me a very happy girl... but if you truly believe that Brown's stupid airport thriller has ANY right whatsoever to be placed in the same category with Michael "Wooden Dildo Dialogue" Crichton, let alone Umberto Eco, kindly keep this opinion very far away from me, or the ensuing conversation we have will not be constructive or polite in any way.
I loathe Dan Brown. I resent him for spoon-feeding the masses pseudo-intellectual "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" D-grade thriller shite under a pretense of real sophistication, and getting orally serviced by The New York Times for his effort.
I'd heard that the novel was meticulously researched and contained some really interesting and controversial assessments of religious zealotry. Um, not really? Well, not by my Merovingian standards, anyway. :D
Let's put it this way. If Dan Brown was teaching an Insurgent Christian Symbolism in Art and Literature 101 class at my local community college, I'd definitely have a different opinion about him.
But NO. Dan Brown is not a professor of anything but pap. He is a barely competent thriller writer who wrote an AWFUL book that I could not bear to finish because I felt my IQ plummeting a little further with every "Let's Go to Paris! Guidebook" description and blowhard authorial essay. Oh, don't even get me started about those cute soliloquies the main characters are so fond of delivering, ever so calmly, often while cops n' bovvers are chasing them.
The characters are weakly drawn. The dialogue is excruciating. The research is shoddy and self-serving at best. The plot, no matter how open-minded you are, is beyond ludicrous. It's laughable enough to be incorporated into the next Indiana Jones movie. That'd be sweet, dude.
What really irks me are Dan Brown's sanctimonious interviews, wherein he shows off all of his priceless antiques while expressing his abiding convictions that the American public needs a "deeper appreciation" of art and history and culture. What a shallow, self-aggrandizing hypocrite. I'm all for fictional subversion of the dominant Catholic paradigm, but only if the subverter knows what the hell they're talking about. Brown DOESN'T. He's all "la la la, connect the dots" but the picture he comes up with is awkward and unconvincing.
The DaVinci Choad is a dead easy, nay, downright lazy read, and yet droves of people are patting themselves on the back for having read and *gasp* actually understood it. Like this is some spectacular achievement? WHY? What, because the slipcover describes it as "erudite"? Are you fucking kidding me?
Don't believe the hype, kids. You are profoundly more intelligent than this holiday page-turner gives you credit for.
If you really, honestly, just plain liked the book, that's cool I guess. Maybe you also prefer Anne Geddes to Alfred Stieglitz, Kenny G to Sidney Bechet, John Tesh to Igor Stravinsky. Your prerogative. Just.... please don't try to tell me that this is "fascinating" or "meaningful literature". Frickin' read The Club Dumas or something. Then we'll talk, and I won't want to shoot myself in the face.
Alright, glad I purged that poison from my system. Carry on.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 1, 2004
–
Finished Reading
April 12, 2007
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-50 of 542 (542 new)
You really need to re-examine Mer's review. It seems like she struck a nerve in your own insecurity rather than truly came across as a "erudite" elitist.If anything you betray the same classist elitism you accuse by praising the work of Dan Brown to open the minds of "the MASSES."
Bad information, bad writing, and poor education are all still poison even if they do contain grains of interest purloined from better minds. I don't see how soccer moms reading Holy Blood Holy Grail and whispering in hushed tones over their latte about the Priory of Scion, Magdalene, Jesus babies, and the infiltration of the Western Hermetic Tradition by evil albinos will in any way open their eyes to the real threat numbing their minds... Of course I mean the Bilderbirg, Evangelical Megachurches, Pat Robertson... oh wait I’m sorry... I mean the Catholic Church, yes them they control it all.. yeah right.
When it comes down to it I think you are the one who are showing a real sense of snobbery and elitism. You who praise the mediocre for leading others to enlightenment you presume to already hold.
Your vehemence betrays a lingering Christian guilt that colors your defense. I wonder how this might all play out if we were discussing how Jonathan Livingston Seagull opened your heart and mind to the endless possibilities of life, or maybe how Ayn Rand really speaks to you, or god forbid, The Celestine Prophecy … It’s deeply telling that a trade paperback NYT bestseller was the first to open your eyes to the possibility of the Grail as a bloodline or that the catholic church has been politicizing its decisions since its beginning while trying to unify or destroy a mass of splintered Gnostic cults. Did you ever once wonder why Easter was named for a pagan goddess? Did no one ever channel surf past Discovery where you may have caught that many ancient Basilica are built on Pagan ruins? The Yule log? If you so blindly accepted these traditions it should not shock me at the slightest you are yet another blindly accepting “seeker” and one of the troglodytes touting this book which I personally find to be an annoyance at best and at worst as debasers to the greater sum of the collective intellect.
I mean, where have you been the past 10 years, reading Dean Koontz? I wouldn't wear it as a badge of honor that Dan Brown introduced you to concepts that are poorly presented, factually flawed, and altogether silly. These same ideas have been widely available a few short steps into the bookstore past the bestseller rack for decades! If it seemed you had used this as a springboard into more scholarly investigations of the topic I could be more understanding. I can tell by your current list of titles that you have barley moved beyond this Templar playpen since you closed the covers of that lofty tome.
Mer is not an elitist... In case you haven’t gathered by now, I am. I think you are childish in your faux intellectualism and nauseating soul searching the many faiths of the world to, as you say, "THINK FOR YOURSELF."
It is not a coincidence that the weak who need to be lead seek endlessly from one dogma to another cobbling together a theologically flawed quilt of culturally and contextually conflictive philosophies and consider themselves freed from some yoke of ignorance. Yes you are free! You are the Theological equivalent to a weekend scrapbook enthusiast. Go back and rifle feverishly through your copy of Catcher in the Rye and muse on what a phoney I am.
Oh, and for the record. Nothing becomes a cross market phenomena in the entertainment industry because “it does good.” This happens because it makes money off lazy fools like yourself. Trust me, I know ;)
It is my sincere hope that I hurt you, and I believe I did just that. Now think about how you may have hurt a sweet girl who was expressing her opinion only to be called a snob in so many words by yourself this fine morning.
Think about how your inability to hold your overactive fingers from ticking out your defensive little missive brought this all about.
I’m not accusing you I’m simply reading you as the simple little booklet you are. Best of luck on finishing some more advanced reading. Set some goals, they are good for the soul.
Now consider your own pleas for respecting the minds of others. Were you not being disrespectful when you offered your unsolicited reply to Mer's review this morning and called her an "elitist."
Ponder that one.
As for Aleister... Did you actually page through 20 titles of some of the most inflammatory literature of the last two centuries until one name jumped out at you? No doubt it was from a vaguely recollected Geraldo episode. Thanks for the chuckle.
Other than an apology to Meredith, which I doubt will ever come... This discussion is at a close.
Praise the Lord!
Amazing!
You'd think that making sweeping generalizations about people who liked Da Vinci Code, and pigeonholing them into categories, and looking imperiously down upon them would be hurtful things to do, as Ryan suggests, and that it would leave you bitter and lonely, but it turns out it's just AWESOME.
A fictional account sometimes opens people's eyes to existence. I know I've experienced it. And sometimes those experiences happen with quite-unremarkable works--_The Fisher King_ film and _ROM: Spaceknight_ comics myself.
My friend counsels me regularly with good advice he drew from a blogger a long time ago. When talking taste, talk about what speaks to you or doesn't speak to you, what appeals to you or doesn't, what you hate or don't. Don't talk about your reaction to the THING as an objective experience. "This book is crap." "This movie sucks."
I thought Mer's review was virtiolic, fascinating, well-written, and inspiring. A review from a person who loves the ideas a book is based on but hates the book is powerful criticism. A reviewer who adored fantasy and children's books years ago described Harry Potter as pap and turned me onto Gormenghast. That is a man whose opinion I will cherish forever. Mer's delving into political and religious conspiracy in her reviews would lead me down that path with confidence. To find the books we want to read next, we depend on cherished friends' opinions here, but also experts whose words let us know there is a fiery dialogue between reader and read coming for us if we try out a few of their favorite books.
Stunning. Cheers. Happiness to all!
Peace out.
My friend counsels me regularly with good advice he drew from a blogger a long time ago. When talking taste, talk about what speaks to you or doesn't speak to you, what appeals to you or doesn't, what you hate or don't. Don't talk about your reaction to the THING as an objective experience. "This book is crap." "This movie sucks."
I thought Mer's review was virtiolic, fascinating, well-written, and inspiring. A review from a person who loves the ideas a book is based on but hates the book is powerful criticism. A reviewer who adored fantasy and children's books years ago described Harry Potter as pap and turned me onto Gormenghast. That is a man whose opinion I will cherish forever. Mer's delving into political and religious conspiracy in her reviews would lead me down that path with confidence. To find the books we want to read next, we depend on cherished friends' opinions here, but also experts whose words let us know there is a fiery dialogue between reader and read coming for us if we try out a few of their favorite books.
Stunning. Cheers. Happiness to all!
Peace out.
"everybody has an opinion and has a right to it"Then why on earth are you sending comments to a complete stranger as if her dissatisfaction with the book somehow negates your reading experience? I don't always agree with reviewers, or even my friends, on what books I like or dislike, but that doesn't stop me from reading and from having a meaningful reaction to the texts I engage.
n.b. - I never got past the first chapter of The DaVinci code because the writing was so clumsy and off-putting, but from the criticism I've read of it, I'd be much more comfortable with it as a runaway bestseller if 1) if relied an more accurate research, 2) there weren't plot holes that you could drive a truck through, and 3) the prose wasn't so godawful. Really, you can write accessible literature without it being just *bad*.
p.s. hi Mer!
Mer - I don't know you from Adam (or Eve, or whatever) - but I agree completely with what you wrote and I laughed out loud at some of the comments from other counter-reviewers above. I'm now off to have a look at the rest of your bookshelves and get my hands on anything you've given 5 stars to (within reason of course!. Ah yes, and Summer - that goes for you too :D
Have a good day, ladies
Em
Thank you, Emma. Yes, come and warm yourself by the towering FLAME WAR. *grin*Be warned if you're not into comics that a lot of the books I gave five stars are actually graphic novels, and therfore my criteria for judging them was different than for, say, Murakami or Kant. :P
Otherwise, nerd up, sister!
Seconding the thanks, Emma! I'll also give the warning that most of my five-star reviews have gone to comics lately, but that's mostly because I'm only reviewing books I've read this year and I've just gone through the entire Love and Rockets series, which is fantastic.
ok - so how is it that the whole comic thing has passed me by?!! sigh. must be getting old ;)Any thoughts on where a comics virgin (as opposed to comic...) should begin on a trail of comic discovery?
Box Office Poison (great twentysomething funny and angst). Blankets (religion and first love). Bone (cartoons morph into fantasy mythology, always fun).
Ah, a question that will make this comments thread run forever. Where to start, where to start...A similar query would be: Any thoughts on where a movie virgin should begin a trail of movie discovery?
Depends on your tastes in other mediums. Fiction or non-fiction, high or low brow, sci-fi or slacker lit?
My short list for a comics newbie is:
Violent Cases by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
-a good tour of the unique formal aspects of the medium
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
-a comic about comics that is entertaining and lights a fire for reading more
Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown
-for the soft-hearted indie boy in your heart, number one selling comic at my neighborhood non-comics bookstore
Jimmy Corrigan: Smartest Kid In The World by Chris Ware
-really amazing storytelling and design, beloved by the McSweeneys set, maybe the best graphic novel ever written
My friend Sean's list is here:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/...
And Comicbookslut provides her list here:
http://www.bookslut.com/comicbookslut...
I'd recommend _Persepolis_ for memoir and _La Perdida_ for literary adventure. Alan Moore's _From Hell_ is a mystical slasher story based on the Jack the Ripper case, and _Love and Rockets_ is a fantastic series that follows two main stories: daily life in a small Mexican village and punk rock girls living the low life outside of L.A. (I'd recommend starting with Book 2 of Love and Rockets, as Book 1 isn't as good an introduction to the series).I'll second _Bone_ and _Jimmy Corrigan_. _Blankets_ was also quite good, but is depressing as hell.
The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman is very well loved by folks who don't like or know comics. Reading "Season of Mists" back in my teens is what graduated me from Spiderman, Batman and X-Men titles.Anything by Alan Moore is pretty mindblowing to me. Watchmen, Swamp Thing, From Hell, all top notch.
Aaaand lessee.... Well, yeah, definitely Love and Rockets.
Moonshadow by John J. Muth and Jim DeMatteis is beautiful and whimsical. Another non-comic-reader comic book.
Cages by Dave McKean.
Bone by Jeff Smith.
Black Hole by Charles Burns, anything by Al Columbia, and certain Dan Clowes books all offer creepy atavistic thrills.
In the badasses with charming accents category, there's Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, and Garth Ennis. They've all put out some classic stuff (check out their DC/Vertigo output first) that is simultaneously very accessible, whipsmart and an utter mindfuck.
Paul Pope's work, though sometimes a bit erratic, is always toothsome. I particularly love his THB books, and a slim volume entitled Escapo.
Epileptic by David B.
Any and all Moebius if you're looking for pure visual sci fi overload/visual spectacle.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee and Bad Art Collection if your angsty inner 13 year old goth needs appeasing.
I'll bring up more when I have a bit more time...
EDIT Heh. RAD. Looks like a bunch of folks beat me to it! Seeing a lot of repeated names and titles. Everything everyone's recommending is great, really. Can't go wrong. THE JOY OF COMIX!!!
Oh! Oh! Also?Anyone on this list who has not yet read SNAKE N' BACON'S CARTOON CABARET should get a copy immediately. Bring it on the bus, read it when you need to laugh out loud.
Seriously one of the weirdest, funniest things I've ever read. Michael Kupperman is so, so underrated.
Transmet is a classic alright. And once you get to know the genre a bit better, Planetary and Next Wave are amazing send-ups as well.Warren's description of Next Wave:
"It’s an absolute distillation of the superhero genre. No plot lines, characters, emotions, nothing whatsoever. It’s people posing in the street for no good reason. It is people getting kicked, and then exploding. It is a pure comic book, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. And afterwards, they will explode."
Well, well, ladies n gents, I *do* seem to have hit a rich seam of information here, don't I?! :)I had a lovely long post all lined up but my browser logged me out and now I'm going to have to rewrite the whole thing. Sigh. The long and short of my post was this: Is this a suitable list?
1) Love & Rockets (book 2?)
2) Moonshadow by John J. Muth and Jim DeMatteis
3) Bone by Jeff Smith
4) Jimmy Corrigan
5) Ex Machina
I have very little exposure to comics (see below) but perhaps my taste in films would be a better pointer than my taste in written literature, so I would ask you to consider this list with the following in mind:
LIKE: (films/tv): X-Men; Mad Max; any mainly plot-devoid goodie v baddie action adventure with schwarzenegger/van damme/seagal et al that isn't too psychologically disturbing; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & similar in genre; Blade; James Bond (last one easily the best since Dr No); Ocean's Eleven; more or less anything with fast cars in. That's definitely the 'frivolous' end of my film taste. If I don't simply need entertaining, then recent films i've seen and enjoyed include 'Shooting Dogs,' 'The Constant Gardener,' 'The Prestige'...
DISLIKE: Dr Who/Torchwood; Dune; any horror movie and most psychological thrillers, inc Silence of the Lambs, American Psycho etc; I liked Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs but most of the rest of Tarantino you can keep... I'm not crazy about subject matter that fucks with my mind - I'm plenty capable enough of doing that by myself!!
My exposure to comics/graphic novels (is this similar to the difference between a short story and a novel in non-graphic literature? or are comics normally like chapters in a story?) is limited to the following:
- Calvin & Hobbes (love, love, love)
- some Anime (which I thought was artistically awesome but the subject matter was a little disturbing (this may have had something to do with the fact that this was hard core anime and i've never seen cartoon characters with breasts and bits like that before!!! my then bf *really* liked it, but that's a whole different story...)
- When the Wind Blows by Raymond Biggs (sp?) - I was eleven and it made me *completely* paranoid for a while!
My taste in non-graphic written literature ranges pretty widely from Shackleton's diaries to Joseph Conrad, Flaubert to Umberto Eco, the Brontes to Kerouac with a little early Douglas Coupland and F. Scott Fitzgerald thrown in for good measure.
With all of the above in mind, how does my list look?
Ah yes, and most important, where does one buy such a thing? Is there going to a hitherto undiscovered corner of my local bookshop that sells them?
Sorry about the length of this post (you should have seen the original!) - I look forward to your replies :D
Em
free sounds good, but i'm apparently the wrong side of the pond for that..Also - please, what's a TPB?
watch out ebay, here i come... :D
and RPG? presumably not Rocket Propelled Grenade? :)Thanks for all your help :D
ok, so, can i just check that i'm getting this right?http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Love-and-Rocket...
or, as recommended by Summer:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Love-and-Rocket...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MOONSHADOW-COMP...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jeff-Smith-Bone...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WARE-Chris-Jimm...
(might pass on this one - £80!!!!)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ex-Machina-Book...
thanks!
Yeah, I'd recommend getting Jimmy Corrigan from the library if you can find it. £80 is a little bit too expensive! I actually get a lot of my comics from the library, but then, I work for the Harvard University system, so I have a lot to choose from.Also, since you're in the U.K., you should be able to get ahold of Neil Gaiman's _Sandman_ books, as he's a British author. I've known several people who have gotten into more "literary" comics reading through the Sandman series.
If you like the anime style, Osamu Tezuka's _Buddha_ series is amazing and wonderful. It's a highly fictionalized account of the life of the first Buddha, and is very cinematic in quality.
Hate to throw my fire on your already blistering-hot comic book list, but if you like Mad Max, you'll LOVE Y: The Last Man ... a post-apocalyptic book with good gender issues and HUMOR. Snazzy stuff.
Brendan - fire is good :) (she says, dragging her knuckles back into her cave...)Talking about knuckle-dragging, am thinking I probably need to drag my teenage male cousins into this, my newest quest. I have a suspicion that they may know quite a lot about all of the above, being cool n all.
also, thanks for the Buddha tip, Summer. I'll try not to come back on here and show my almost total lack of knowledge about Buddhism by saying how it 'opened my mind' (please cf earlier comments about the Da Vinci Code) and how i learned soooo much :)
A toast to Bill Watterson! Humanist treasure. That was the last gasp of truly brilliant funny pages comics.Another two cents for Emma...
You might want to take a look the big red collection of Windsor McCay's Little Nemo In Slumberland strips. They're still awe-inspiring, even a hundred years later. And charming. And adorable. Chris Ware, Moebius, Watterson, and countless others learned a LOT from him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Nemo
Based on your preferences, I'd say Alan Moore's run of Swamp Thing should be considered. Don't be deterred by its categorization as a horror title... it definitely has roots there (woohoo! EC Comics!), but Moore revamped it into a very different beastie.
He took over the faltering DC run early in his career, and it definitely changed the playing field for comics. For one thing, it was the first title to ditch the frumpy Comics Code Authority and gear itself cater to adult readers (not in a porn way).
I'll even go so far as to say it was groundbreaking (an adjective more commonly reserved for his later works like Watchmen, From Hell, and V for Vendetta). I love, love, love Swamp Thing. It's also one of my favorite love stories. (The "Rites of Spring" issue where Swamp Thing and Abby finally kinda sorta "do it" is deeeelightful!)
I brought up Moore in my original review of The DaVinci Choad specifically because, in my opinion, he truly IS subversive and eye-opening in his approach to storytelling/teaching, rather than a mindless regurgitator. (Woops... am I being elitist again? Oh well. Hopefully that Ryan guy isn't still reading this thread, poor bastard.)
ANYhoo.
Moore is THE iconoclast of this wacky hierolyphics-based medium we're all so crazy about. I humbly suggest you check him out.
Oh yeah, and RPG stands for Role Playing Game. NERRRRD UUUUUP.
In my opinion?Boondocks is great, but nowhere NEAR Calvin & Hobbes.
Oh, sure, I see what you mean. I guess I don't think the phrase "truly brilliant" applies to Boondocks, you know? It's really, really great, I like it a lot.
I just don't think it's a timeless classic the way C&H or Little Nemo or The Far Side or Krazy Kat are, in my book. Too topical, too flippant.
(I'm not dissin' it, I swear!)
Oh, man. You're so right about Doonesbury. It's truly hella WICKED brilliant. And quite possibly a timeless classic despite its topical nature, because of the immensely creative way Trudeau presents everything. His disembodied "all hat no cattle" depiction of Bush that eventually morphed into the dented Roman helmet?! OH MUH GAW. *heart snorgle heart heart snorgle*You have a point, guys. Apples & orangutans. Although I do think it's a healthy exercise to compare and contrast acknowledged monoliths of any medium to less acclaimed/groundbreaking works.
But yeah, I think we're getting into semantics, and I wholeheartedly appreciate all the titles being mentioned, so I'll concede. The funny pages aren't such a wasteland after all. :)
And now we all salute as the behemoth amorphous thread sails off into the horizon and we wrap ourselves in our blanket of hand stitched comics pages and wait for Lupe Ontiveros to start hollerin'.
Wait, you mean it's over?!*sob*
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I think I'll miss you most of all.
That flapping twit couldn't philosophize his way out of a paperbag.
Ridiculous bird.
Johnny Flame says FLAME ON!
Ridiculous bird.
Johnny Flame says FLAME ON!
Great review. . .I remember reading this and wondering why anyone would believe it well-researched, profound, or even the slightest bit readable. You aren't elitist, just smart enough to ignore the hysteria and think for yourself.
Great review. . .I remember reading this and wondering why anyone would believe it well-researched, profound, or even the slightest bit readable. You aren't elitist, just smart enough to ignore the hysteria and think for yourself.
If it's worth saying something once, it's worth saying it again.
Hee hee... I think goodreads still has some kinks. Thank you, Deanna!
Wow. Just... wow. He actually came back and deleted all of his own rabid, shit-talking comments.
Way to go, Ryan. You can dish it out, call people nasty names, insult them out of hand, but you most definitely cannot take it.
You, kiddo, are officially the biggest choad that ever choaded from Choadville.
I've deleted a comment before. Realized I was getting too heated about something that shouldn't deserve heat. Like wet toast. Why bother heating it up again? It's already ruined.
Me, I just can't abide a coward. If you're gonna come onto a thread and call me an elitist snob, at least have the spine to stand by your convictions. I'm going to hold you to them.
Yeah, but we probably DID wind up with more comments on any single review in the Current History of GoodReads. Doesn't somebody have a prize around here?
Meh. It's probably a free copy of Angels & Demons.You know, I initially lost all desire to debate with the guy after he was so quick to play his OMGZ Y R U SO MEAN BY THE WAY I HAVE A LEARNING DISABILITY ALSO MY SISTER IZ RETARDED?1! pity card.
Yeesh. Manipulative much? Some mutant strain of Christian guilt is still leading so many of these grab bag New Age potatoheads around by the nose. Seriously, it's Dogma Trading Card collectors like him that keep humanity in the dark ages.
Ryan, you masochist. We all know you're still reading this. Ask yourself why you're so easily threatened by other people's opinions. Why on earth were you compelled to barge onto a complete stranger's thread, angrily insult me and my friends, try to guilt us into agreeing with you that The DaVinci Code is NOT, in fact, a steaming pile of crap, and then when all else failed, entirely erase yourself?
You can rant and rave about your newfound enlightenment and compassion until you're foaming at the mouth, but you're still behaving like a zealot. You've got miles and miles to go before you sleep. For all our sakes, I wish you the best of luck, I truly do.
It's also my fervent wish that Goodreads implements a blocking option VERY SOON. I've personally done more than enough douchebag farming for one season, thanks.
You farm douchebags? What's a douchebag full of when you pick it off the vine?
Also, if Ryan's still reading this, maybe he'll go read some of those really good comic books we recommended.
Also, if Ryan's still reading this, maybe he'll go read some of those really good comic books we recommended.
Ryan, Your failure is complete.
S
OMG. My ribs hurt.Picture this - I came into the office this morning (glorified shed, views over fields, birds doing their singing and nesting thing outside, pretty cold & gloomy today) - a little late after a small 'domestic' with my partner (joy) - a little bit grumpy and not particularly looking forward to the contents of my Inbox (it's going to be 99% customers, which is all good but not v exciting), and the first email I actually notice is that Mer has left a comment for me on Goodreads. Hmmm. Thinking that this da-vinci-comic thread has long since died, I wonder whether Mer has (please God, no) espied one of my lame, half-assed comments on another unworthy tome and has wielded her keys again to bring down the wrath of the Bodleian gods onto my quivering excuse for nascent literary ambition. But no. Alas, alack, poor Ryan.
Poor, poor Ryan. Not only did he unwittingly engage (with some pretty feeble arguments) a Grand Master of verbal mordancy - and, groan, her buddies - but then, seemingly hungry to have more coals of 'public' humiliation heaped onto his already singed head, went and deleted all his comments, thus drawing attention to himself once more. Brendan may be right in thinking that he just came to his senses and realised that he had gone a little too far in the heat of the moment, and I don't know that the guy is necessarily a coward? Whichever way you look at it though, it can't feel good to be given a good verbal kicking and then laughed at, even online, by a bunch of people you don't even know and who clearly have bigger and better verbal boots with which to kick than you. I can't help but feel pity for him.
So, even though I feel an *ickle* bit bad about this, I didn't feel so bad that I didn't kick back from my little desk with my cloudy view this morning and laugh out loud at the comments above. Mer, you really brightened my morning :)
To complete the comics theme, I think someone tricked him into saying his name backwards and his comments disappeared.OH MY GOSH I AM INSUFFERABLE!!!
Yeah, yeah. You're right. Shit sandwich.Maybe I should mention that less than two hours before I came home and discovered his deletions, I was embroiled in a bizarre incident involving a violent schizophrenic hobo wielding a malnourished dog on a length of filthy rope and a bunch of terrified schoolchildren. Some neighbors and I stepped in and it got all cray cray. The cops came and everything.
Sufficed to say, my dander was way up.
Even so? CHOAD.
Oh! Emma, dear... I promise you, I never, ever get mean unless someone flat out insults me (or tries to assault small children). I'm really a very nice person, I promise!!
Summer... OH SNAP.
(Rolling on zee floor, laughing my ass off.)
ok - i've deleted this comment as i really didn't need to ask... daft, very daft...
ewwwww... thanks Mer-and for anyone who is wondering now why Mer is apparently randomly explaining the meaning of choad, it's my fault as i asked and then deleted the question...
sorry...
If I'm so elitist and above-it-all, why are there droves of similarly frustrated reviewers on here from all sorts of backgrounds, writing the same exact thing? So many folks from completely different walks of life seem to think that this poorly-written, factually questionable book insults their intelligence.
I'm all for opening people's eyes to religious hypocrisy. But if you truly believe that "the MASSES" of perfectly sentient and intelligent folks in this country really need to be spoon-fed and led by the hand to such a degree, you're probably part of the problem.
Repeating myself for emphasis: "Don't believe the hype... You are profoundly more intelligent than this holiday page-turner gives you credit for." Does that really sound like something an elitist would say?
I'm not a rocket scientist or a member of the D.A.R.
Nor am I a snob, but thanks for the insult. It's a great way to wake up.
EDIT Note to anyone who thinks Scott and I are talking to ourselves here... a rather high-strung young man had stumbled across my review and basically threw a glorious, three-page tantrum cursing anyone who dares to disagree with him that "The DaVinci Code" is the best thing since sliced holy wafers. Unfortunately, he pussed out and deleted all of his posts. Sigh... if only someone had thought to save them for posterity. They were pretty awesome.