Memetic Trojan Horse? Da Vinci Code
Tim Boucher has a post about how a Chinese company is offering a DNA test (for the equivalent of $125) that will prove whether or not you are related to Confucius. He then speculates on the implications of the Sangreal (royal bloodline) idea, though he doesn't take it completely to its logical conclusion. So I will.
The Da Vinci Code (both the book and the movie) got a lot of free publicity when the Catholic Church came out against it. I avoided the book, since I already knew about the Holy Blood Holy Grail thing. I did watch the movie, which seemed to me simply a repackaging of the Merovingian-as-descendant-of-Christ narrative promoted by the original book by Baigent in a somewhat irritating thriller format.
Conventional wisdom says that the Catholic Church is merely trying to protect its turf. In particular, the One Church would rather not call attention to the First Council of Nicaea, which consolidated the Christian faith from what had previously been a veritable mob of competing mythologies into a central dogma that was subsequently enforced in a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
Now, the Catholic Church may be evil. But it's not stupid. It would seem to me that the pointy-headed wonks (pun intended) at the top of the Catholic food chain would know that controversy is one the best ways to advertise a new product. (Got New Coke?) This is an old and well-tested formula.
What if instead of trying to stifle the DaVinci Code, they were trying instead to promote it?
Now, why would they want to do such a thing?
One of the insidious ideas I found lurking in the subtext of the Da Vinci Code is the idea of holy bloodlines: the Sangreal, or Royal Blood. If the descendants of Christ are still wandering about in the PostModern age, surely one of them will soon announce His or Her esteemed heritage and offer modern-day salvation? Such a worthy heir would surely be a leader around whom we could rally!
This is a disturbing reemergence of the Divine Right of Kings meme, a seed of proto-fascism.
I don't mean to be paranoid. But we should all be on the lookout for disturbing subtext hidden within ideas that seem, on the surface, to be subversive.
The Da Vinci Code (both the book and the movie) got a lot of free publicity when the Catholic Church came out against it. I avoided the book, since I already knew about the Holy Blood Holy Grail thing. I did watch the movie, which seemed to me simply a repackaging of the Merovingian-as-descendant-of-Christ narrative promoted by the original book by Baigent in a somewhat irritating thriller format.
Conventional wisdom says that the Catholic Church is merely trying to protect its turf. In particular, the One Church would rather not call attention to the First Council of Nicaea, which consolidated the Christian faith from what had previously been a veritable mob of competing mythologies into a central dogma that was subsequently enforced in a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle ways.
Now, the Catholic Church may be evil. But it's not stupid. It would seem to me that the pointy-headed wonks (pun intended) at the top of the Catholic food chain would know that controversy is one the best ways to advertise a new product. (Got New Coke?) This is an old and well-tested formula.
What if instead of trying to stifle the DaVinci Code, they were trying instead to promote it?
Now, why would they want to do such a thing?
One of the insidious ideas I found lurking in the subtext of the Da Vinci Code is the idea of holy bloodlines: the Sangreal, or Royal Blood. If the descendants of Christ are still wandering about in the PostModern age, surely one of them will soon announce His or Her esteemed heritage and offer modern-day salvation? Such a worthy heir would surely be a leader around whom we could rally!
This is a disturbing reemergence of the Divine Right of Kings meme, a seed of proto-fascism.
I don't mean to be paranoid. But we should all be on the lookout for disturbing subtext hidden within ideas that seem, on the surface, to be subversive.
Labels: culture
posted by slomo at 4:52 PM
3 Comments:
absolutely. i totally agree that there is MUCH more going on with this movie than just a simple struggle over story-telling. if you overlay this with people like nicholas de vere who blatantly say that the "grail" bloodline is now and always was intended to rule over humanity you will definitely start getting a serious sinking feeling
it`s the hegelian dialectic again. the church feeds on controversy. there are speakers travelling around debunking the davinci code for open-mouthed churchgoers who haven`t been this entertained on a church pew in years
Honestly, I thought "Preditor Versus Alien" was more intelligent.
Heh heh heh!!!
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