Unsolicited Opinions

There's a saying we have here on the IntarWeb: Don't feed the trolls. Trolls inhabit all corners of the Net. On message forums, newsgroups, and blogs you can find people who post inflammatory messages for the sheer goal of provoking nasty responses from other posters and generally antagonizing everyone else. The only way to defeat a troll is to ignore it; if you don't respond to their messages, they have no means of provoking a fight, and they will eventually get bored and move on.

So what does this have to do with The DaVinci Code? Well, it appears the people who most strenuously object to its subject matter have managed to generate enough controversy to push the movie to a huge box office take on its opening weekend. If they had simply ignored the movie, I doubt so much hype would have been created. Hollywood is laughing all the way to the bank. I wouldn't call author Dan Brown a troll for the Catholic Church, but he, and Columbia Pictures, certainly are making lots of money off of the major controversy all these upset people are stirring up.

If you're screaming about how blasphemous The Da Vinci Code is, you're only feeding the troll (I know, I just contradicited my previous sentence, but it's a metaphor people!).

I read the book and thought it was entertaining. It was a good fast-pased thriller/murder mystery with an interesting twist at the end. The conspiracy theory proposed by the book, and apparently the author, is bunk (don't click this link if you haven't read the book yet and don't want to be spoiled), but it's still a fun story. I'll probably see the movie on DVD though. I don't get to the movies often these days, and I'd like to save my summer movie outings for the biggies like X-Men, Superman, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Does anyone want to complain about the unfair portrayals of genetic mutants, extraterrestrial vigilantes, or 17th century pirates?

Labels: culture wars, religiosity