Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code had stirred a minor controversy when it was released years ago. The movie is far more controversial, and most thinking people asked – what’s the fuss?

Here’s a roundup of the blogosphere’s comments on the book, the movie, and the controversy. My reactions later.

• Atty. Ted Te blogged that “it is ONE OF THE WORST MOVIES TO COME OUT THIS YEAR!” (He wants to be quoted on this.) Then, in reaction to this INQ7 news item, he called the book burning as a form of censorship and a throwback to the time of burning of witches.
• Manolo Quezon says that watching the movie “was a complete waste of time and money”.
• Dean Jorge Bocobo has several entries: Never Underestimate the Power of Story-telling, The Taliban In the Manila City Council, and
  The Da Vinci Code, the Mohammed Cartoons, and Being Consistent. Very erudite man, I tell you.
• The Village Idiot Savant asked, “Dan Brown, where is thy sting?“. The entry led to an interesting discussion between DJB and the blog writer, plus reducing the brouhaha into C# and Visual Basic.NET codes (I love them! Brilliant! I am reproducing them below.)

I have never read the book, nor seen the movie. So I won’t comment on those two. I’d rather deal with the overblown, sensationalized, and irrational reactions made regarding the movie.

Those members of the clergy who called for the ban of the movie are insulting their parishioners when they called for the ban. The call implies that the laity cannot distinguish fact from fiction, that their faith is brittle enough to be easily persuaded by a work of fiction.

The actions of the officials of Legaspi City and Manila are, at best, irrational. DJB has rightly termed City Hall – the Taliban City Council. The Constitution specifically states that the State shall not prefer any religion, yet City Hall acted as if the movie was an affront to the official religion! I agree with DJB, their actions are culpable violations of the Constitution!

The MTRCB thought that it had made a Solomonic decision when it gave the movie R-18 rating, in order to please both sides. Well, you can buy the DVD/VCD later on, or read the book. So whether they ban it or give it a restricted rating, it doesn’t matter. So there’s nothing Solomonic about the decision.

The DVD/bookburning is the most extreme expression of irrationality and silliness regarding this issue. Reminds me of the Inquisition – one of the blackest stains in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. And that controversy about the Rizal Bill. What’s next? Burning Dan Brown at the stake? Behead him?

And the naysayers had given the movie so much publicity. So the more they ranted, the more watched the movie out of curiousity. Very nice. Rant all they want, and Dan Brown laughs his way to the bank (yeah, I know, cliche).

This issue has made one thing clear to me – we as a nation are vacillating between two extremes: tradition with its conformity, and modernity, which calls for challenging all known norms and beliefs. We know now that the traditionalists in general do not trust that we ordinary folks can think for ourselves. What a shame, indeed. What an insult.

The REAL Da Vinci Code:

In VB.NET:

Namespace DVC

Public Class DaVinciCode
Inherits HolyBloodHolyGrail

‘ Set values, later to be overridden by Dan Brown method
Private monksInOpusDei As Boolean = False
Private jesusMarriedMaryMagdalene As Boolean = False
Private existenceOfPrioryOfZion As Boolean = False
Private bibleCollatedByConstantine As Boolean = False
Private nicaeaCreatedDivinityOfChrist As Boolean = False
Private gospelsLaterEditedToSupportClaims As Boolean = False
Private cupMissingFromLastSupper As Boolean = False
Private saintJohnNotInPicture As Boolean = False

Public Sub Book()

While (peopleWillingToBelieveAnything And christianBashingAcceptable)
bookSales = bookSales + 1
movieHype = movieHype + 1
danBrownsBankAccount = danBrownsBankAccount + 1
historicalAccuracy = historicalAccuracy – 1
artHistoryAccuracy = artHistoryAccuracy – 1
skepticism = skepticism – 1
badWriting = badWriting + 1
If (asLongAsItIsNotTheVirginMary) Then divineFeminineSupport = divineFeminineSupport + 1
Dim mainStreamMediaChallengeCredibility As Boolean = False
Dim excuse As String = “It’s a fictional book”
Dim action As String = “Spend hours writing to debunking books complaining that ” & excuse
Dim seeContradictionSpendingTimeDefendingFiction As Boolean = False
For Each outlet As media In mainStreamMedia
Dim freePublicity As Boolean = True
Dim notPointOutObviousFlaws As Boolean = True
Dim dontOffendMuslimsAtAllCosts As Boolean = True
Dim christianBashingOkayThough As Boolean = True
Dim misrepresentOpusDei As Boolean = True
Dim askIsJusticeScaliaAMember As Boolean = True

Next
End While

End Sub
End Class

End Namespace

In C#:

namespace DVC
{
class DaVinciCode : HolyBloodHolyGrail
{
// Set values, later to be overridden by Dan Brown method
bool monksInOpusDei = false;
bool jesusMarriedMaryMagdalene = false;
bool existenceOfPrioryOfZion = false;
bool bibleCollatedByConstantine = false;
bool nicaeaCreatedDivinityOfChrist = false;
bool gospelsLaterEditedToSupportClaims = false;
bool cupMissingFromLastSupper = false;
bool saintJohnNotInPicture = false;

public void Book()
{
while (peopleWillingToBelieveAnything && christianBashingAcceptable)
{
bookSales++;
movieHype++;
danBrownsBankAccount++;
historicalAccuracy–;
artHistoryAccuracy–;
skepticism–;
badWriting++;

if (asLongAsItIsNotTheVirginMary)
divineFeminineSupport++;

mainStreamMediaChallengeCredibility = false;

string excuse = “It’s a fictional book”;
string action = “Spend hours writing to debunking books complaining that ”
+ excuse;
bool seeContradictionSpendingTimeDefendingFiction = false;
foreach (media outlet in mainStreamMedia)
{
bool freePublicity = true;
bool notPointOutObviousFlaws = true;
bool dontOffendMuslimsAtAllCosts = true;
bool christianBashingOkayThough = true;
bool misrepresentOpusDei = true;
bool askIsJusticeScaliaAMember = true;
}
}
}

}
}