Oh, I make no claim that The Da Vinci Code is great literature, just the opposite. It has no themes or significance to make me care about the book once I've put it down, so ultimately it's nothing more than an entertaining diversion--and I expect more than that from fanfic. His prose style is clunky, and as a mystery it is constructed with minimal competence. And for me, my biggest problem is that I read Angels & Demons first, and once a man takes on the Illuminati everything else becomes old hat.
My point is that despite these things, the American public has fallen in love with the book. Sure there are better-written mysteries more deserving of the public's praise, but The Da Vinci Code does have what a mystery needs to have--that connection to the adolescent fantasy in the Mary Sueism of its detective. (We could say similar things about Harry Potter.)
As someone who has only read SS/PS and watched the movies, I won't talk about Rowling's techniques as a writer, but I do think that talking about mysteries helps us to remember the different ways that different people approach texts, and to better make sense of what is happening in that and other fandoms.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-22 12:25 pm (UTC)My point is that despite these things, the American public has fallen in love with the book. Sure there are better-written mysteries more deserving of the public's praise, but The Da Vinci Code does have what a mystery needs to have--that connection to the adolescent fantasy in the Mary Sueism of its detective. (We could say similar things about Harry Potter.)
As someone who has only read SS/PS and watched the movies, I won't talk about Rowling's techniques as a writer, but I do think that talking about mysteries helps us to remember the different ways that different people approach texts, and to better make sense of what is happening in that and other fandoms.
Thanks for your thoughts!