Para hablar de un asunto tan complejo y -al tiempo- tan simple como el fenómeno del Código Da Vinci (primero el libro, ahora la película), hay que estar informado. Al menos, desde algunas de las perspectivas que han convertido el asunto en evento mediático.
Hoy no escribo en primera persona: lo dejo para más adelante (hay otras cosas que hacer en la vida, además de esto). Ofrezco a cambio algunos de los textos de interés que -a medida que fueron apareciendo- ocuparon su sitio en la columna izquierda de este blog, "micro-scriptor.com"
How do you create anticipation for a movie when 50 million readers already know the plot? Jill Stark lays bare the dark arts of marketing that have kept The Da Vinci Code brand in the news.
If Dan Brown finds himself short on inspiration for his next tome, he need only look to the intricate plot unfolding around him. Forget the ancient secret society harbouring dark truths that could topple the Catholic Church and change the course of human history. The real conspiracy is far more intriguing. It may not have a pouting French cryptologist or a self-flagellating albino monk, but this conspiracy is being played out in shadowy boardrooms by unseen figures practised in the Machiavellian art of movie marketing. Their trick? To ensure The Da Vinci Code occupies a front row seat in the public consciousness by maintaining a constant presence in the news. The fiendishly clever part? Convincing us the ensuing publicity is merely a series of random events. (...)
• Let fiction be fiction: Statement by "Da Vinci Code Response Group"
The Da Vinci Code Response Group is a team of Catholics available for comment on the film, co-ordinated by Austen Ivereigh, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster's Director for Public Affairs. It is not an official body of the Catholic Church and contains a diversity of opinions and people, including a Benedictine abbot, two priests, theologians and academics, as well as members of Opus Dei and lay Catholics working in communications.
The group has been formed because the Da Vinci Code is fiction trading as fact. We believe the Da Vinci Code is fun and harmless in so far as it is treated as fiction. We do not believe in condemnations, boycotts or protests. Prickliness on the part of Christians leads us into the trap laid by Dan Brown: that the Church is on the defensive because it is engaged in a cover-up. (...)
• Blessed are the spin doctors
Austen Ivereigh on Opus Dei ("Blessed are the spin doctors"): In the run-up to the release of the film of The Da Vinci Code on 19 May the communications director for the UK branch of Opus Dei, a bundle of nervous energy even in calmer times, can hardly contain himself. ‘This is going to be the most exciting month of my life,’ Jack Valero grins, as he passes me a bundle of some of the astonishing recent coverage: pages and pages from Time magazine, Le Figaro, the New York Times, Eve — upbeat coverage getting inside the ‘real’ Opus Dei, contrasted with the murderous conspirators in the Dan Brown megaseller (...).
Mary Wakefield: "Opus Dei is so normal it’s scary": After three hours with Opus Dei women at Ashwell House in east London I wandered west, half-stunned, like a cat hit by a car. At Oxford Circus the usual loons were saving souls: ‘Repent now, turn to God!’ from a woman on the south side. From a north-end traffic island, megaphone man provided the antiphonal response: ‘Seek salvation before it is too late!’ And in my pocket my mobile, ringing with a message from an Opus Dei publicity man. ‘Hi there! When you’re finished at Ashwell House, come to Notting Hill to have tea with Sebastian. He’s a supernumerary and he plays the cello! I think it’s important that you meet him.’ (...)
The Da Vinci Code is only a novel. It is not a source of serious information, but it does raise some serious questions:
1. Was Jesus Christ really married?
2. Did the Church really create the New Testament?
3. Is sex really meant to be holy?
4. Did Jesus Christ really leave descendents?
5. Is our culture really missing a figure of female sanctity?
6. Should we really pray over the bones of Mary Magdalen?
7. Does a Holy Grail really exist?
8. Did a woman’s womb really carry the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
[Versión en español, aquí]
• Why Jews Should Worry About 'The Da Vinci Code'
With the release of the Sony Pictures version of Dan Brown’s mega-selling 'The Da Vinci Code' in two weeks, worries continue to mount among traditional Christians about both the book’s and the movie’s impact. Should non-Christians be concerned?
Yes, we should. Jews in particular need to be aware of the gift Brown has given, in all innocence, to anti-Semites.
• Boycott Da Vinci Code film urges top Vatican official
By Peter Jennings in Rome - A top Vatican official has urged Catholics worldwide to boycott The Da Vinci Code film when it goes on general release on Friday 19 May.
"The Da Vinci Code is an offensive, anti-Christian novel, full of lies, mistakes, and theological errors about Jesus, the Gospels and the Church," stressed Archbishop Angelo Amato, SDB., Secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
"Catholics should boycott The Da Vinci Code and speak out and reject these lies about the Church," urged Archbishop Amato in an unequivocal non-coded message to more than 100 influential journalists and communications officers, from all five continents, attending the 5th Professional Seminar for Church Communications Officers, in Rome, on 28 April.
"If this book and film had been about the Koran there would be a world revolution," declared the Italian prelate during his thought-provoking lecture: "The Presentation of the Magisterium of the Church in the World of the Media."
Barbara Nicolosi: (...) Here's a typical DVC [Da Vinci Code] inspired dialogue... See if you can find a search for truth in it.
It usually starts with something like this, "Everybody knows that the Church Fathers were liars. Can you prove the compilation of the Bible wasn't pure politics?"
And just when you start saying, "Well, I don't agree that the Church Fathers were--" the questioner moves on with eyes flashing unnaturally, "Why is the Church so afraid of women, huh? Why has it suppressed them since the beginning? Yeah? Answer THAT!"
So, you clear your throat and say, "Well, I wouldn't say that the Church is afr--"
But they've moved on again. "The fact is, there is no evidence for the Resurrection. Have you ever read the Gospel of Mary Magdalen?"
"Well, no, but--"
"See you people are all brain-washed." [exhalation of disgust] "How so many people could be so stupid is amazing to me....Where are my birth-control pills?!"
When you debate with Satan, there is no opportunity for anything but people digging their heels into the sludge of chaos and confusion. (...)
• Y un "cartoon" no exento de interés:
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