Librarian's Rant

I've been following the whole Da Vinci Code/Dan Brown trial with bewildered interest. The thing that really bewilders me is that the disputed book, Holy Grail, Holy Blood, has sold about a gajillion more copies since Code came out, to the authors' advantage, not only in money, but also in recognition of their work.

The lines between fiction and nonfiction have always been blurry, but fiction has always been given the latitude to keep them blurred. Now a retired librarian who helped Brown with his research has put his two cents in and makes the same comment.

"The irony of the whole lawsuit is that Dan Brown has made those authors rich because publicity around The Da Vinci Code turned their book into a best seller after being on the back shelf of libraries and bookstores for years," Planton said.

I call it misdirected sour grapes. Brown mentions their book more than once in the Code. Are they bitter because they weren't taken seriously the first time, or that it took a work of fiction to get anybody to read their tome?

I like the Orlando Sentinel's take on it all.

There's talk that this lawsuit will delay the release of the Ron Howard/Tom Hanks big budget flick based on the book. But what about the "campy [gay] porn" parody that's supposed to come out the same day?

Thanks to Chris Z. for several of the links.