Exhale

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

All art is quite useless.

Oscar Wilde, Preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Ok, before struggling Lit students rejoice, the last bit about 'all art being quite useless' was Wilde's own potshot at the Victorian, utilitarian concept that "good Literature" had to have a social function; ie promoting and enforcing morality, ethics and other desirable practices. He wasn't denouncing his own craft. Sorry.

(And incidently, that preface was also added in later editions of the novel, when Dorian Gray was being used as prosecutional evidence against Wilde to prove and successfully try him of "gross indecency". Ok but that's another story altogether.)

But gross indecency aside, and the fact that I still believe in some form of censorship, he had a point. Wilde simply felt that Art or Literature should not have any obligation to be 'politically correct' or shall we say, 'morally correct', and that books shouldn't be judged based on whether its themes were ethical or not. Novels had their own inherent value/beauty. So basically - He rejected any link between Art and Morality and espoused "Art for art's sake".

Ok so that's aestheticism 101.

Well, there's been lots of hype over the impending opening of the Da Vinci code movie. Some people say it's 'blasphemous' and 'immoral'. I think the controversy is heightened because Dan Brown purports that there is a factual element in his novel. Well that's funny because I thought the 'Factual element' which he clearly laid out in his preface was meant to dispel such type of debate! Let's see now:

"FACT:
- The Priory of Sion ...is a real organization.
- The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a Catholic sect...
- Descriptions of Artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals...are accurate."
(summary of the 3 paragraphs in the preface of the Da Vinci Code)

And that’s it. The only things delineated very clearly as ‘Fact’ take up less than a page – The existence of certain sects/organizations and that descriptions of art/places/practices/objects.

Hm now oh dear, even after that lucid, simple 3-paragraph long introduction, I the poor hapless reader, am STILL SO CONFUSED! So does the Da Vinci Code say that the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene is irrevocable fact???? I don’t know! Does the Da Vinci Code affirm that the Church’s sneaky rejection of Jesus Christ as a mortal is the Cold Awful Truth!!?? Oh I don’t know what to believe! So is there really a tomb of Mary Magdalene under the Lourve?? This so hard for me!!! Curse you Dan Brown for your deliberately ambiguous and cunningly misleading Preface!! It’s full of hidden meaning and symbolism and it’s not my fault I don’t have a Harvard symbologist and French cryptologist to help me with basic comprehension! I know there’s some secret, devious message behind all the iambic pentameter (I don’t even know what that is but I bet it’s nasty!) and sly references to sacred feminine in your preface but I just can’t find it! A pox on you!! And so because I could not be bothered to properly read your puzzling and perplexing preface, and because you have like totally destroyed my faith which is as small as a mustard seed, I shall write in tons of complain letters to the Straits Times and tell the government to BAN YOUR MOVIE! HAH! Take that Tom Hanks!

Sigh.

At the end of the day, it was probably a very shrewd, astute move on the part of Dan Brown to write a novel that combines both Fact and Fiction. It sells. Period. And I can totally see why he would do that. And I can understand why there’s this whole renewed emphasis on “educating” people on what’s fact and what’s fiction in the novel, and I strongly, strongly encourage that because it’s a great time to promote awareness of faith etc. But I think it’s sad that we couldn’t have reacted in a more dignified way. What, we all chuckle at ‘racist’ jokes because it’s ‘all in good fun’ but suddenly morph into ultra sensitive, self righteous Christians when we read one book? And then we have people go around lambasting Dan Brown for being a ‘liar’ and a ‘deceiver’. I mean, those labels might work if the Da Vinci Code claimed to be say, The Gospel according to Dan Brown? George Bush’s national address? A treatise on Theology? But it’s not and never did make such bombast claims. Perhaps there is a reason why the novel is conspicuously absent from the ‘Religion’ shelves?

BECAUSE IT’S A MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/ADVENTURE THRILLER PLACED UNDER THE ‘GENERAL FICTION’ SECTION OF KINOKUNIYA. IT’S WORTH $18. GET OVER YOURSELVES.

Of course there’s bound to be fiction in, you know, A FICTIONAL BOOK even though he does use some elements of fact which are clearly stated in the beginning of the novel. But even then, aren’t most novels somewhat grounded in some form of reality so the reader can relate to it? Doesn’t that sometimes enhance the reading experience? Not all of us are fantasy buffs you know (and even then…). Would you call Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose blasphemous as well? It’s certainly historically situated. So are all Franciscan monks murderous, conspiring homosexuals?

This harkens back to the furore over Harry Potter years ago. Granted Harry Potter and Da Vinci Code deal with very different issues and come from dissimilar contexts, but it’s the same old uncalled for backlash and emotive outpouring of righteous rage. Oh – magic wands and broomsticks. Let’s see. So…that can only mean…erh…Occult, occult, occult!!! Antichrist antichrist antichrist!! Ban the movie, ban the movie!!! Harry Potter teaches your children to take drugs!! Bring on the witch hunts!!!

It’s been 7 years after the first Harry Potter book was released. I think our society is still intact thank you very much. No underage Satanic cults rampaging across the country. Yep. No news is good news.

In any case. Take it simply for what it was meant to be. A book. A fictional book. Literary purists might scoff at it. It does heavily employ what may be termed ‘cheap thrills’. But all the same. A work of fiction. Which just happened to touch on a very touchy subject and made it to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller.

Now calm down and let’s all enjoy another mind-numbing, good ol’ action movie. And hope el Hanko is better than el Cruiso at any rate.

posted by Jeanne @ 5:39 PM