Da Vinci Code

Finally got down to read this book...


Took me 8 hours of eyepower to finish the entire book! Figured that since the movie is out, better learn abt the story background so as not to be too swaggu when there is discussion on the movie,ha!

Do understand some phrases of French in the book, quite proud of myself! Understand why this book is so popular. The facts are big eye openers and most ppl probably never had seen the actual objects in that way. I was particularly very intrigued by the following passage:

Most of Disney's hidden messages dealt with religion, pagan myth, and stories of the subjugated goddess....

Nor did one need a background in symbolism to understand that Snow White—a princess who fell from grace after partaking of a poisoned apple—was a clear allusion to the downfall of Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Langdon would never forget one of his students bringing in a DVD of The Lion King and pausing the film to reveal a freeze-frame in which the word SEX was clearly visible, spelled out by floating dust particles over Simba's head. Although Langdon suspected this was more of a cartoonist's sophomoric prank than any kind of enlightened allusion to pagan human sexuality, he had learned not to underestimate Disney's grasp of symbolism.

When Langdon had first seen The Little Mermaid, he had actually gasped aloud when he noticed that the painting in Ariel's underwater home was none other than seventeenth-century artist Georges de la Tour's The Penitent Magdalene–a famous homage to the banished Mary Magdalene—fitting decor considering the movie turned out to be a ninety-minute collage of blatant symbolic references to the lost sanctity of Isis, Eve, Pisces the fish goddess, and, repeatedly, Mary Magdalene. The Little Mermaid's name, Ariel, possessed powerful ties to the sacred feminine and, in the Book of Isaiah, was synonymous with “the Holy City besieged.” Of course, the Little Mermaid's flowing red hair was certainly no coincidence either.

I've heard abt the Lion King's section before.. but as for the Little Mermaid, it is a new insight! Quite interesting too, to read abt the various artworks like Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Of course, some parts were too historical and an eyeful to read, just skipped those sections to reach the end of the plot, hee hee.. wunder if the movie version is the same?