# The DaVinci Code--help me distinguish facts from fiction
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 11, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395 "2003-08-11T15:15:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/1 "2003-08-11T15:15:44Z")
NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!
I have just started reading The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. It makes references to Opus Dei, coporal mortification, and a bunch of other stuff. I am trying to figure out what’s fact, what’s fiction based on fact, and what’s pure fiction. I easily discovered that the Opus Dei organization is real.
What else is real?
Also, has Opus Dei or the Vatican or any other rep of the Catholic church issued any response or comments whatsoever on this book?
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### Author:  [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/2 "2003-08-11T16:02:33Z")
Opus Dei is real, and quite scary. Not scary in the sense of being a dark conspiracy, but scary in the sense of going against Christian thought in that they favour the rich and are not inclusive. It’s bizarre that its founder was canonised, even though many mainstream Catholics abhor the organisation.
In any event, pretty much everything about Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail in the book is false. We don’t know much at all about Mary Magdalene, and nothing at all about the grail.
The book is fiction, but because of the irresponsible assertion by the author that everything within is real, the public is being duped. ☹
UnuMondo
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### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/3 "2003-08-12T01:05:20Z")
I haven’t read the book so I can’t comment on it, but **UnoMondo** is wrong about one aspect of it. Cecil had this to say about the grail. It was made up.
Is this another book in the vein of the Bible Code? If so, yuck.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/4 "2003-08-12T01:35:28Z")
What I want to know about is the part about the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem. About the Shekhinah in there and the activity of Her priestesses there. What Dan Brown said about it was amazing, and I would like to check on his source of information. I don’t think he just concocted that bit about the Shekhinah; he must have read it somewhere. I would like to know where I can research that topic further.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/5 "2003-08-12T01:57:20Z")
It’s hard to answer this without giving away any spoilers. Check out [Dan Brown’s own website](http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/reviews.html) for some helpful links and background. Also, he based a large part of DA VINCI CODE on a controversial book entitled [Holy Blood, Holy Grail](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0440136482/qid=1060653430/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-9598868-6143034?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) , to tell you more about which would reveal some plot twists.
Several links would give away parts of the book, but these shouldn’t. The [official site of the Louvre](http://www.louvre.fr/louvrea.htm) includes floorplans and photos of some of the art treasures mentioned in the book. Meanwhile, I don’t think this will give away anything since it’s mentioned in the dust jacket- when you come to the part about The Last Supper [this](http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/504271_john.html) is a great page because it has enlargements of the images mentioned.
Overall, I didn’t care much for the book as I thought it was too contrived and not well written. If you’re hungry for something in a similar vein when you’re finished, pick up Umberto Eco’s [Foucault’s Pendulum](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345368754/qid=1060653502/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-9598868-6143034) .
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### Author:  [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/6 "2003-08-12T02:09:17Z")
I’ve read **Foucault’s Pendulum**. I thought it was good, but not as good as **The Name of the Rose**.
You explained a lot right there.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2003, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-davinci-code-help-me-distinguish-facts-from-fiction/194395/7 "2003-08-12T03:01:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Langdon’s Jewish students always looked flabbergasted when he first told them that the early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. _In the Temple, no less._ Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple housed not only God but also His powerful female equal, Shekinah. Men seeking spiritual wholeness came to the Temple to visit priestesses—or _hierodules_—with whom they made love and experienced the divine through physical union.
—Dan Brown, _The Da Vinci Code_, p. 309.
“Admittedly, the concept of sex as a pathway to God was mind-boggling at first.”