The Da Vinci Code vs Angels and Demons - Essay Example

?Introduction Dan Brown created two books, Da Vinci and Angels and Demons, which are similar in nature, yet fundamentally different. Theyare similar because they are both driven by mysteries which take elaborate code-breaking to solve. They are also similar in that they concern the Catholic Church, secret societies and the same man, Robert Langdon, to solve the inherent mysteries in both books. They are also very critical of the Catholic Church. However, they are fundamentally different. Where Angels and Demons has as its focus the conflict between religion and science, Da Vinci has, as its focus, nothing less than the dismantling of the Catholic faith. This paper will discuss these differences and similarities. Discussion Brown was born in 1964 in Exeter, New Hampshire, to a professional musician mother and an English teacher father. While in college, Brown was interested in history and creative writing. Early in his life, in 1985, he attempted a career as a singer and songwriter. His first book was written with Blythe, the woman who would become his wife, and it was a relationship-oriented non-fiction guide written for women. What is important to know about Brown is that he has very specific views about religion, in that he is somewhat irreverent about the subject. He was religious when he was young, then became disillusioned with religion because of a minister who gave him a pat answer regarding the Big Bang Theory verses creationism. Yet Brown also stated that science had a spiritual aspect (Bellucci, 2010). This ethos obviously informed both books, Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code as both books denigrate religion, and religious figures, to a certain extent, and Angels and Demons specifically focuses upon the conflict between religion and science, and how science and religion are possibly connected. The Da Vinci Code does not feature this same conflict, and this is one of the differences between the two novels Angels and Demons is focused upon how science and religion are connected, and it is also focused upon the old school thinking of many religious leaders who denounce science. Leonard Vetra is murdered in the book, and Vetra was working on a project which would prove that Genesis was possible. Genesis is matter from nothing, as Robert Langdon, the main character in both Da Vinci and Angels, points out. Vetra was able to recreate the Big Bang in the CERN Laboratory. This proves that energy is the father of creation, as Leonard Vetra’s daughter, Vittoria says (Brown, 2000, p. 66). The CERN experiment, and the fact that it proved to be ill-fated in Brown’s novel is apparently art imitating life, as the Large Hadron Collider, which is similar to the project that Vetra was working on when he was murdered, has been beset by numerous problems which has been explained by physicists as “God hates Higgs particles and attempts to avoid them” (Leake, 2009). That Brown would include this detail in his book – that the Big Bang Theory can be explained with religious principles, and that religious principles can be explained by the Big Bang Theory – is consistent with Brown’s upbringing and his questioning of his faith and his turn towards science. It is also consistent with his eventual reconciliation between the two concepts. Religion and science and how these are intertwined is a thread throughout Angels and Demons. At the heart of the novel is the threat to level Vatican City with anti-matter stolen from the CERN laboratory. The Camerlengo, who turns out to be the murderer of the popes, gave impassioned speeches early on about how science has grown so fast, too fast, that society cannot keep up. There was also an obvious connection made between what was happening at that moment, in the conflict of science and God, and the persecution of Galileo and Copernicus by the early Catholic Church. The clues which lead Langdon and Vittoria to the mystery which would help them locate the anti-matter, in time to save the Vatican, are also based upon science – the popes who are murdered are symbolically murdered to represent the early elements of earth, wind, fire and water. In the end, the camerlengo had the plot that he would pretend to save the Vatican from the anti-matter, which would not only make him a hero in the eyes of the Catholic faithful, but would hopefully lead him to be elected Pope. This was important to the camerlengo, as he wanted to expose to the people the hazards of science, in that man can create liquid that, with just one drop, a half mile can be vaporized. Therefore, the camerlengo felt that he was doing God’s work in exposing the arrogance of man, with regards to the science that man has created. Science also plays a role in the genesis of the camerlengo himself, as the pope fathered him through artificial insemination (Brown, 2000). While Angels and Demons is focused around science, and the conflicts of science and religion, the Da Vinci Code is really focused upon the dismantling of religion itself. This is the main difference between the two novels. Specifically, Da Vinci posits that not only was Jesus not celibate, but that the married and fathered a child. The child’s lineage is still around today, according to the book, and the children of Jesus’ lineage are protected by the Priory of Sion, which is a secret society associated with the Catholic Church. Da Vinci also dismisses many elements of the Catholic faith, stating that the church should be matriarchal, not patriarchal, as it is based upon Mary Magdalene as a goddess, and Jesus as a mortal man. This characterization is ridiculed by Nelson (2007) who states that there is no evidence that Mary Magdalene was divine, and that, if any female figure should be the focus of the Catholic Church, therefore would be the cornerstone of a matriarchal church, it should be Mary, mother of Jesus. At any rate, Da Vinci manages to completely dismantle the myths upon which the Catholic Church has based its traditions since the dawn of their faith. This is the focus of this book, and science does not figure into this book. As stated above, this is the main difference between the two books. Beyond this major difference, the two books have much in common with one another. Both feature Robert Langdon as the central character. In both, Langdon is called to solve a major mystery with esoteric clues. In both, there is a secret society which is largely misunderstood – in Angels it is the Illuminati; in Da Vinci, it is the Priory of Sion. The thrill of both books are the clues in the middle of them, as they rely upon intellectual pursuits which intrigue many people, and also these clues bring historical meaning to the novel. Both novels, in their way, are also very critical of the Catholic Church. In Angels, the criticism takes the form of how the Church is opposed to science, and, instead of seeing how science and faith co-exist with one another, seeks to undermine science. At least this is the role of the camerlengo in the book – the camerlengo is symbolic of the anti-science wing of the Catholic Church. This is the wing which silenced Galileo all those years ago, and it is this wing which tries to suppress science, and the camerlengo came to represent this. Of course, the irony is that the pope himself apparently believed in science, rather secretly, as he fathered the camerlengo through artificial insemination. Still, this interpretation of Brown’s intent in Angels is indicative that Brown perhaps felt opposed to how the church suppresses science, such as the minister who offered Brown a less-than-satisfying explanation about the Big Bang Theory when Brown was young. Da Vinci like Angels, is also critical of the Catholic Church, although Da Vinci is much more overtly so. There is some sense to be made about Brown’s arguments in this book – such as the argument that Jesus was most likely married, because he was Jewish, and that the Jewish custom during Jesus’ day condemned celibacy and that marriage was a virtual requirement for Jewish men during the day. However, Lacy (2004) disputes that Jesus would have been required to have been married, because Brown stated that marriage was only a “virtual” requirement. This means that some Jewish men were allowed not to be married. Another assertion which makes some sense if the explanation of the Christian holidays – in particular Easter and Christmas, both of which coincide with the changing of the equinox or the solstice, and both of which were honored by early pagans with festivals. Brown’s explanation for the coincidence between Easter, Christmas and pagan holidays is that the early church placed their Christian holidays to coincide with the pagans whom they were trying to convert to Christianity, as a way to appease them and to get them to accept Christianity more readily. These arguments seem plausible, however, critics dispute many of the central tenets of the book and dismiss much of it as figments of Brown’s rather fertile imagination (Lacy, 2004). And, since these alleged historical inaccuracies are the basis of Brown’s dismantling of the Catholic Church and all of its teachings, the book has drawn considerable controversy, much more than Angels and Demons ever did. This was presumably because Angels and Demons did not claim to be based upon historical truths, and did not attempt to dismantle the entire Catholic faith. The only thing historical about Angels and Demons is the existence of the anti-matter at CERN, and this, apparently, is based upon fact (Leake, 2009). Conclusion There are many similarities between Dan Brown’s two bestselling books – Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Both concern conspiracies, both are centered around religion, both involve elaborate code-breaking to solve mysteries, and both are led by Robert Langdon. However, there are fundamental differences as well. Angels focuses upon the conflict between science and religion, and, specifically, focuses upon the Catholic Church’s inherent disdain for science. Da Vinci, however, has a much larger purpose than Angels, and that is to completely dismantle the tenets of the Catholic faith. Since both books are critical of the Catholic Church – Angels implies that the Church is behind the times when it comes to scientific inquiry, while Da Vinci implies that the Catholic Church’s teaches are all false – this criticism of the Catholic Church is the main thing that these two books have in common. Works Cited Bellucci, Elizabeth. Dan Brown: A Biography. Dan Brown: A Biography (2010). Web. 10 May 2012. Brown, Dan. Angels & Demons. New York: Atria Books, 2000. Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Lacy, Norris. The Da Vinci Code: Dan Brown and the grail that never was. Athuriana 14.3 (2004): 81-93. Leake, Jonathan. (2009, October 18) A particle God doesn’t want us to discover. TimesOnline. Nelson, Victoria. Faux Catholic: A Gothic Subgenre from Monk Lewis to Dan Brown. Boundary 34.3 (2007): 87-107. Read More