BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Da Vinci Code 'copied book ideas'
Jesus hopping Christ on a trampoline, I thought everybody knew that! Hell, Robert Anton Wilson's The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles was entirely about the bloodline of Christ being whisked away to ancient Gaul and rising as the Merovingians, their secret kept safe by The Knights Templar, and that series is around 20 years old! That's why I haven't bothered to read The Da Vinci Code...it's already been done.
Still, I think, for the most part, that this is just sour grapes on the part of Baigent and Leigh. They wrote a nice, clean, scholarly book that 16 people (including Dan Brown) read, and they didn't make nearly the money that Brown did. If The Da Vinci Code had flopped, there would never have been a law suit. Now they've decided they'd like a little bit of that delicious money buffet.
Of course, Dan Brown could have avoided the entire law suit by acknowledging Baigent and Leigh. (And, honestly, for all I know, he might've; remember, I haven't even read the book.) However, persistent, buzzing rumor about Brown is that he's a bit arrogant, so I can see why he wouldn't've bothered.
Oh well, the thought that writers pretty much steal for a living isn't exactly new. I just thought Brown's particular case had been brought to light already.
Monday, February 27, 2006
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Good writers borrow - great writers steal outright, as I recall. Yeah, it was sour grapes from Baigent and Leigh but you're spot on, it wasn't a new idea. So few things actually are. Aren't there meant to be seven stories in existence, and just a bunch of different ways of telling 'em? I do have Holy Blood, Holy Grail kicking around somewhere, but I didn't read much of it - I did read the Da Vinci Code (you didn't miss much), though. The difference is their writing styles - Baigent and Leigh are, like you say, scholarly types. Dan Brown is the trash-fiction type. It's readable, but it's cheesy as hell when he gets down to the characterisation/relationships. I avoided the movie like the plague.
In the end I got another Baigent and Leigh one about the Dead Sea Scrolls - much better :P
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