Da Vinci, codes and all that

摘要

In spite of its wooden dialogue, sketchily drawn characters and a plot that fails to fulfil its considerable promise, "The Da Vinci Code" has been a sensational bestseller. Dan Brown's mix of murder and maths, Leonardo and the Holy Grail is "occult lite"; it lacks the feeling for maths and medieval mystery conveyed in "Foucault's Pendulum", Umberto Eco's fictional trail through the occult, published 16 years ago. Yet "The Da Vinci Code" is well on the way to achieving cult status. For one thing, it is beginning to spawn non-fictional supporting material. Simon Cox's "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" purports to be the "guide to the facts behind the fiction". Arranged as an alphabetical aid to people, places and groups mentioned in Mr Brown's novel, it repeats things said in the novel with scarcely any additional illumination, and without the benefit of Mr Brown's plot which is, at least until the end, fairly taut.