The book was ******, primarily due to Brown's inept writing talent. The film was marginally better. Damned by faint praise, so to speak.
I take it you like a read? Not being funny by the way, but do you prefer non-fiction or an array of subjects? Myself; i do enjoy certain autobiographies and what is deemed as 'non-fiction'. Mind you, the little-un's 'Laura's Star' was enjoyable the other night
Don't get me wrong. As a concept (which Mr Brown didn't introduce) the issue of Jesus being a mere mortal and having offspring is perfectly plausable. In fact, it makes considerably more sense than the voodoo encrusted clap-trap the church puts out. There's no doubt in my mind that Jesus was just a bloke - a socio-econmic genius for sure, a great philosopher and thinker or sure and a kind and gentle man, right enough. But the 'Son of God'? not on your Job 11:33 he's not. And as for finding out the truth, with the church in tight control of all the published (and more importantly unpublished) scriptures we've not a cat in hell's chance of getting near it. I doubt very much I'd read Holy Blood / Holy Grail. Again, like Brown's poor attempt at mixing fact with hyperbole, I'd suspect it full of heresay and lacking in empirical facts.
Still trying to read it, but keep falling asleep. The book reads like a Hollywood script already (zzz). Not seen the film.
RE: "I'd suspect it full of heresay and lacking in empirical facts." So all novells can disassociate themselves from facts, right? The problem is that if you blend too much fact and fiction people will believe what they want to believe and disregard the truth. But hey, that's a fundamental part of church doctrine anyway. Lennon imagined a world without war, personally I'd prefer to imagine a world without religous zeal and dogma and a church. I suggest that Lennon's wish would be fulfilled almost instantly along with erradicating a bunch of over stuff that taxes the human race. We'd only need some form of psycologocal crutch to handle the afterlife then. Perhaps one of the US TV evangelists could think of something, they'd make a bob or two.
This Henry Lincoln ? Henry Lincoln (b. 1930) is the most popular pseudonym of Henry Soskin, an English writer and actor. He cowrote several Doctor Who multi-part serials in the 1960s, and starting in the 1970s, created a series of books and BBC Two documentaries on the mystery of Rennes-le-Château. He is best-known for being one of the coauthors of the controversial 1982 nonfiction bestseller The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, promoting the hypothesis that the true nature of the quest for the holy grail was that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had actually had a child together, and founded a bloodline which later married into a French royal dynasty, the Merovingians, and was all tied together by a (now proven to be fraudulent) society known as the Priory of Sion. This series of hypotheses was later used as a basis for Dan Brown's international bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code. Lincoln currently lives in the Cotswolds. We've missed the boat here Don. Is there owt else we can make up stuff about and be controversial and (qed) bloody wealhy!
RE: Immensely popular with the general public i thought the book was good but the film was *****, too slow and boring and misses important bits out like everytime they make the film of a book.
RE: This Henry Lincoln ? I saw him interviewed and he was very clear about what was fact and what was hypothesis. Those pentacles though, they keep popping up everywhere. The spires of the churches on Bornholm are in place to within 5" and 100th of a degree. There's definitely something there but the powers that be don't want their life's works to be out of the window. I've got some stuff about a director of BFC but it doesn't need much embelishing.
RE: "I'd suspect it full of heresay and lacking in empirical facts." Well therein lies the problem....too many people either pull the book to pieces because it's factually incorrect or they think it is factually correct....either way they miss the one premise that it's fiction! I'm currently reading "The Plot Against America" by Phillip Roth, the story is that Charles Lindbergh is elected President of the US on the premise that he won't get them dragged into WW2, however he has very anti-Semitic policies and the Jews start to become persecuted in the US and he becomes aligned with Hitler - now whilst there are some factually correct things in the book I don't take any of it is complete fact.
