A “WTF is this publication?” moment

While reading various conservative political web sites, I stumbled on a link to this Ignatiuis book/DVD/CD called “The Da Vinci Hoax.” The summary in the ad where I saw this indicated this publication would “…expose the many errors and fabrications found in The Da Vinci Code.”

Naturally, I couldn’t skip finding out all the factual errors in a fictional work, so I clicked the link. And to my surprise, I find out that this looks to be intended as a serious work.

Now the insights and arguments of the best selling exposé, The Da Vinci Hoax, are available on DVD. Apologist Carl E. Olson, historian Sandra Meisel, and Jesuit biblical scholar Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. join forces to expose the myths of Dan Brown’s popular novel, The Da Vinci Code.

Using top-notch graphics and outstanding art, this powerful, in-depth documentary gives an inspiring visual and intellectual presentation on the real truth about Christianity, and a devastating critique of the numerous errors and deceptions in The Da Vinci Code about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the early Christians and the Catholic Church.

This was almost to comical to stand. I spoke to some family members. I asked if any of them felt the need to read a rebuttal of a fictional work released years ago. None of them thought any book pointing out the factual errors and fabrications of such a book was necessary.

Try as I might, I couldn’t find the expected 6 book set which would point out the factual errors and fabrications in the Harry Potter books which have been released so far. Thinking perhaps the amount of fabrications in these books combined with their relatively recent releases was sufficient to hinder the publication of such a book, I decided to look further back. Astonishingly, there is also no book written to point out the errors and deceptions in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books either. I’m not certain how much further back I will have to look to find a sufficiently old fictional work which will have a Hoax book to rebutt it.

Once I get done with The Da Vinci Hoax I think I’m going to petition for books to cover Tolkien’s works – I’m almost certain there is no creature like the so-called “Gollum” in his books. Were there such a creature, I’m almost certain we would have found proof of its existance by now. Similarly, I am not sure I believe that a ring can grant invisibility to its wearer, nor that any such ring can only be destroyed by dropping it into lava – especially the claim that only the lava from one particular mountain will melt the ring really pushes that claim into the suspect category. The rest of the books might be real – I can’t tell. But I’m pretty sure those other things are just made up. Now I need to find a book to prove this for me.

[tags]The Da Vinci Hoax, The Da Vinci code, Books you think are satire but are serious, A WTF publication[/tags]