There is No Bad Publicity

Let's talk about the Da Vinci Code for a minute.

I had no desire to read the book, much less see the movie until I saw all these boneheads protesting it. In fact, I thought I was saving a few of my friends hours of their lives at the Barnes and Noble by saying, "Don't do it. You don't want to be 'that guy.' Here's a copy of Hunter S. Thompson's 'Hells Angels' instead." But then again, I've never been able to get into the big best sellers. I've tried your Celestine Prophecy (too many things to disagree with), your Prozac Nation (too whiney and pathetic) and your Tuesdays with Morrie (too Hallmark Movie Special-esque). I like the off color and bizarre. I proudly display magnets with the faces of Charles Bukowski and William S. Burroughs on my refrigerator.

So why are people so worked up about this? Now I'm curious. I'll admit that I have not read it, but from what I gather it's about the discovery that, God forbid, Jesus married and had children and his decendants are living in France. Aaaanndddd? So what? The only thing that disturbs me about the idea of how arrogant these decendents would be. I don't really care what the author has said on sensationalized news programs about it being based on truth. Of course he's going to say that. He's trying to get your ass in that theater.

Kids, this is a work of fiction. Some might even argue that it's a work of fiction based on another work of fiction. It's not like God wrote the bible himself. Man wrote the bible. And I like to think of it this way - my friends fuck up my stories all the time when they retell them. Maybe Jesus was a real person, but the stories have been told, retold, translated and politically twisted for hundreds of years. How can you fully trust it? Not to mention that many of those stories were not meant to be taken literally. Religion brings about a lot of good things in society, but it also brings out a lot of hatred, intolerance and I'd even be so bold to say that it stifles growth.

Anyway, back to the protests - I'm all for exercising your right to say what you believe. But I think it will create an effect that contradicts what the protests are all about. Drawing attention to something that Hollywood creates will only make people more curious to see why you're so gosh darn pissy about it. It's only a movie. In fact, I almost want to go see the movie just to piss these people off.