Angels and Demons first 100 pages!

Notice I didn't put a range of chapters. It is not because I do not own the book yet. No sir. Definitely not.

o__O

I figure since this is break, people should have TONS of time to read, so the first 100 pages sounds good to me! Not that you weren't going to read that far anyways.

Another blog post after my trip to Bord-- nevermind.

Brianna

The Movie

Hi everyone!

I know we're supposed to be reading Angels and Demons and blogging about that, but I'd like to first discuss the Da Vinci Code movie. We didn't really have time after watching it to discuss. I think, through our constant commentary during the movie, we all agreed that it was NOT as good as the book. Personally, I loved the book, and absolutely hated the movie... but nevertheless, we should talk about it.
So...

1. Do you think the actors portrayed each of their characters appropriately? (I know the actress who played Sophie was annoying, but even so, did she do a good job?)

2. The movie obviously deviated from the book at certain times. Which changes affected your interpretation positively, and which affected it negatively?

3. Why do you believe certain changes were made? Do the changes help or hurt an audience that hadn't read the book? If you hadn't had read the book, would you see the movie in a more positive light?

4. Were the visuals of the movie similar to what you interpreted as you read the book?

Happy New Year! See you in 2011! :)
-Ally Wang

Angels and Demons

Hey Everyone!! I hope you guys are having fun over break. However, we still haven't decided on which book to read next. I believe we have talked about this before the break, but just to make sure. Does everyone want to read Angels and Demons next?

Fache?

Just throwing this out there...

Did ANYONE see that coming with Fache? I totally thought he was faking it when he said he wanted to help. Really. I thought he was the Teacher or something.

THE END

Well, this is the end... -sigh-... And I know Ben already made a post, but I figured that since there are plenty of online discussion questions intelligent questions that I made up all by myself, that I would post them on here so that we can have a wide variety of questions that could lead to interesting discussions. So here they are!


1. As a symbologist, Robert Langdon has a wealth of academic knowledge that helps him view the world in a unique way. Now that you've read The Da Vinci Code, are there any aspects of life/history/faith that you are seeing in a different light?

2. Langdon and Teabing disagree as to whether the Sangreal documents should be released to the world. If you were the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, would you release the documents? If so, what do you think their effect would be?

3. What observations does this novel make about our past? How do these ideas relate to our future?

4. Other than his fear of being framed for murder, what motivates Langdon to follow this perilous quest? Do his motivations change?

5. The novel's "quest" involves numerous puzzles and codes. Did you enjoy trying to solve these puzzles along with the characters? Did you solve any of the puzzles before the characters did?

6. If you could spend a day in any of the places described in this novel, where would it be, and why? The Louvre? Westminster Abbey? Rosslyn Chapel? The Temple Church? Somewhere else?

7. Historian Leigh Teabing claims the founding fathers of Christianity hijacked the good name of Jesus for political reasons. Do you agree? Does the historical evidence support Teabing's claim?

8. Has this book changed your ideas about faith, religion, or history in any way?

9. Would you rather live in a world without religion...or a world without science?

10. Saunière placed a lot of confidence in Langdon. Was this confidence well-placed? What other options might Saunière have had? Did Saunière make the right decision separating Sophie from the rest of her family?

11. Do you imagine Langdon should forgive Teabing for his misguided actions? On the other hand, do you think Teabing should forgive Langdon for refusing to release the Sangreal documents?

12. Does the world have a right to know all aspects of its history, or can an argument be made for keeping certain information secret?

13. What is interesting about the way this story is told? How are the episodes of the novel arranged and linked? In your discussion, you might want to identify where the turning points in the action are where those moments are after which everything is different. Did you anticipate them?

14. What is the novel's theme? What central message or idea links all the other components of the novel together?

15. For most people, the word "God" feels holy, while the word "Goddess" feels mythical. What are your thoughts on this? Do you imagine those perceptions will ever change?

16. Will you look at the artwork of Da Vinci any differently now that you know more about his "secret life?"

17. Does The Da Vinci Code opens doors to discussion about religion, as Dan Brown has said, or does it close them?

18. Is the depiction of women in this novel a tribute to their intelligence, or does it subtly uphold the patriarchal structures it purports to rail against?

19. In what ways is The Da Vinci Code similar to other popular novels in the thriller genre? In what ways does it depart from them?

20. How does The Da Vinci Code juxtapose ancient and modern worlds?

21. How do Langdon’s flashbacks to his teaching work in the States contribute to the narrative?

Please enjoy these questions!! And I hope everyone enjoyed The Da Vinci Code! :)

-Brianna

Chapters 59-85

Hello to ya'll!

I'd like to start out with sharing a few of my comments. If that is alright with you. And if it's not, well then, next time I bring in cupcakes, you shall not be getting any. So there :P

First of all, I'm sorry to say, but Sophie has dropped down to second after Teabing. Because Teabing is AWESOME!!! Come on, he has a British accent, lies without blinking, and has crutches which he uses as weapons! He is like an epic British super hero!! Minus the whole, not having superpowers...

And I'd also like to share with you my top ten character list, because you have to have one in order to take a book seriously.

1. Leigh Teabing
2. Sophie Neveu
3. Robert Langdon
And this is where I get stuck...
4. Jacques Sauniere
5. Da Vinci
6. Collet
7. Silas (I feel bad for him, cause he's brain washed)
8. Elizabeth
9. The armored bank truck
10. Aringarosa

Fache and Remy did not make the list, because Fache is a jerk, and Remy is the jerk of all jerks because he's a two-faced son of a Benedict Arnold.

And I wish I had a private jet... and a Newport mansion...

To the Questions!!

1. Do you think Fache is the teacher? This definitely can be argued both ways.

2. Who else would not talk to their grandfather for 10 years after seeing what she saw??? SOOOOOOOO CREEPY

3. Is there something more than friendship in the future for Langdon and Sophie? And this can be backed up with evidence from the novel.

4. Should the documents about Mary Magdalene and such, when found, be told to the world, or kept safe?

5. Does Silas have the right to be doing what he is doing?

6. Does Vernet know how important the box is? Is he just trying to protect Sauniere's belongings or is he also part of the Opus Dei?

7. Is Langdon naive? Teabing calls Langdon an optimist at times, and almost downgrades his intelligence, and Teabing does have a point.

8. Do you feel bad for Aringrosa?

9. Will Fauckman play more of a role in the end of the book?

10. Is Aringrosa a good man at heart? Is Silas? Or are they both just jerks??

Sorry I didn't write anything sooner, and I know I let Ben, Nicole, and Ally become authors, so hopefully they can take over my job :) And, as always, ask your own questions!!

-Brianna

New Section to Read?

Hey Guys!

Thought it was cool I can post now and you guys probably can too! :) What chapter are we reading to now, since tomorrow is "class" even though we aren't there?

-Nicole

E-mails.

If you want to be able to make amazing and witty blog posts like the incredible, wonderful, and very humble person that is writing this blog, you can post your e-mail address in the comments and I can make you an author! How wonderful does that sound? And if it doesn't appeal to you, well then your missing out on the opportunity to write amazing questions and make your own comments with no limitation on room! Please save me...

-Brianna

Chapters 36-58 (Or 36-47)

Well I don't know about you guys, but I would find it very easy to read 100 pages of this book in a 4-day time span, so Chapters 36-58 sounds good to me. But if you'd rather take it slower, up to 47 is 50 pages (at least in my book) so you can decide :) and I can write questions later if its helpful, but because its almost 10:30 and Ben practically begged me to make a blog post tonight, I'm going to opt out of the questions and just make comments like the rest of you.

Good Night!
Brianna

Chapters 22-35

*looks back and forth between pictures*... I don't see the resemblance... And the Mona Lisa totally does not look masculine! Well maybe besides her nose. I guess her nose is similar to Da Vinci's, because they both droop down. Her left side looks slightly bigger though, I guess. But why doesn't she have eyebrows? Da Vinci definitely has big bushy eyebrows! Maybe because the Mona Lisa would look weird with busy eyebrows...

I have an idea: Next time we finish the rest of the book! Why read 50 pages when all of us want to finish the book anyways? I'm kidding, but you know you want to! :)

And there are a few things I'd like to say as my intellectual part of this. As Kalie said before, there is something wrong with Langdon when he has flashbacks with conversation, like when he was talking about PHI to his students. Something seemed sit-com-ish, almost unrealistic, and this happens again when Langdon is thinking about his talk about the Mona Lisa to the prison people. Sure, the prison people swear and act way more realistic than the college kids that say "No way!" and "This is amazing!" to Langdon talking about PHI being everywhere. Sure, I thought it was cool, but really? I'm not going to get excited about a math proportion. And back to the prison people (I keep spelling prison like "prision" and I have no idea why), I don't think a convict would gasp at an anagram. Or speak in complete sentences with correct punctuation. Or "heartily laugh." Maybe chuckle, or chortle, or howl, roar, snicker, guffaw (my personal favorite), etc. but not heartily laugh. I'm pretty sure they use that when describing audiences in plays after a character said something  funny enough that everyone in the audience laughs, not one of those jokes where one or two intellectuals that understand subtle innuendo laugh silently to themselves, and the one obnoxious person that laughs when a character says more than two words.

But I keep getting off topic.

I just wanted to say that I think Langdon has problems with interacting with other people. It seems like he only remembers what he said in his lectures, and fills in the blanks for what everyone else said with television-like scripts. He is too wrapped up with figuring out what happened long ago that he doesn't pay attention to the present. At this time I'd like to point out Vittoria too. She was apparently a big part of his life a year ago, and then suddenly they don't talk anymore? What happened to their "playful promise that every six months they would meet again at a different romantic spot around the globe?" They haven't talked since? Why am I talking in questions? Langdon spent his last year completely engulfed in his work. Poor Vittoria. I bet she's been waiting for him for 6 months at Niagara Falls and now can't wait to push him off the edge in a barrel if he ever shows up. All this to say that Langdon has a distorted sense of reality and needs to focus more on the present than the past.

Now to questions!

1. Would you like to refute/support my somewhat-intellectual-but-mostly-off-topic ranting?

2. I'm going to throw the Silas question out there again. I mean, come on, he is a great Catholic, and then beats a nun to death with a candle stand? Do you think he has really changed?

3. Is Fache's obsession with catching Langdon a little over the top? Does Fache have a secret that he is hiding?

4. Does science have a part in religion? And vice versa? Look at Aringosa's attitude.

5. Do you think Sophie's family members were part of P.S. with Sauniere?

6. To go along with question 4, Sophie is convinced that her grandfather was not religious, right? Well then why would the keystone make Aringosa the most powerful man in Christendom?

7. Why is the room that holds the Mona Lisa called "Le Salle des Etats?" Translated that means the room of the states. Is the United States somehow related to this?

8. Who thinks that Langdon and Sophie would have amazingly smart genius babies?

9. "So dark the con of man." What is your take on this? Is man naturally good or evil? Does the church do more harm than good?

10. What was Madonna of the Rocks really depicting?

The questions on the other blog post are up for grabs too, of course!

And that's all I have left to say! And I apologize in advance for any spelling and grammatical mistakes. And my poor attempts at humor, though if anything makes you slightly chuckle or even smile I'm counting that as a point for me! Okay Bye!

-Brianna

Chapters 10-21

Hello once again!

I thought it would be a good idea if I found discussion questions for The Da Vinci Code but apparently you can only discuss the book after you've read the whole thing so that didn't work.

So I decided to make up a few questions on my own!

1. Has Silas really changed, or does he only think that he's changed?

2. What does Silas's name hint about his character?

3. What is your guess as to why Sauniere wanted to meet Langdon?

4. What do you think Sophie saw her grandfather doing that made her never open any of his letters or call him?

5. Collet says that "Fache needs this arrest desperately," which is why he is so intent on arresting Langdon. Do you think this is the reason, or is there another reason that Fache is keeping hidden?

6. WHAT IS THE KEYSTONE??????

7. Who is more in danger: Sophie or Langdon? Sauniere called Sophie to say that she was in grave danger, but she has less idea of what is going on than Langdon does. Langdon is being hunted by the police, and once Opus Dei finds out there is no keystone, they might go after Langdon. Thoughts?

8. Where else can you find PHI in your everyday life?

9. Did aonyne fgirue out the pzulze bferoe Lgndoan did?

10. Is there more to Sister Sandrine than meets the eye?

I hope these questions make it easier for people to write their comments, and hopefully people wont be overlapping in what they're saying because there are plenty of questions to go around :)

~Brianna

Chapters 1-9

Hello! I'm taking BYao's advice and writing an overall blog that people can post on, though I guess everyone's already done their posting for this section... But whatevs :) And I wanted to put up an actual picture of the Vitruvian man, but I figured that would be too inappropriate, so I used this one instead. :)

And before I go into my intelligent part of this section, I'd like to say a few things:

1. You guys are all so freaking smart and I'm afraid to say anything intelligent. Plus you've already said everything so...

2. Fellow classmates, I hope your enjoying this book. If you analyze it too much you're going to start hating this book. Just saying.

3. Da Vinci was gay? Since when?

4. THIS BOOK IS SO ANNOYING.

Yes, it is very interesting and the cliffhangers at the end of every chapter helped me read an extra few chapters (don't tell anyone). And it is enjoyable, but I have a few complaints. One: Dan Brown is like a modern J. R. R. Tolkein or Charles Dickens. Sure, Brown is a lot more fun to read, but it took 4 chapters and a Prologue before we finally figure out the position of Sauntiere! ahpoiasdnfokxjoviqjweaskd. Two: Did anyone else figure out he was in the position of the Vitruvian man before Langdon did? I sure did. I figured it out because the book is called the Da Vinci Code , so obviously it would be the Vitruvian man, but still. Okay that's the end of my ranting. Thank you.

The Intelligent Portion of This Blog:

Sophie's my favorite character so far! (Okay, so maybe not so intelligent.) I looked up her last name in French to see if it showed her personality, like Fache, but Neveu means nephew. And Langdon doesn't mean anything. Neither does Sauntiere. And Louvre apparently means The Louvre. And the driver that got Langdon to the Louvre apparently has no name. Fail.

Let me try again.

The ACTUAL Intelligent Portion of This Blog:

So maybe Neveu means nephew. But it's very close to nouveau, which means new. Which means awesome. But she is also a NEW member of the Department of Cryptology who likes to do things her own NEW way that all the old cryptologists hate. But apparently no one can keep their eyes off of her.  But she is epic because does her own thing and ignores Fache, and risks her job in order to help Langdon. And we find out that Fache is extremely sexist because apparently women like Neveu cannot do the work of men.

I'm pretty sure if Fache had to choose between helping Silas or Langdon, he would definitely pick Silas. For one thing he is an extremely pious Catholic that loves the Pope and wants to keep the good name of the Catholic Church. He even said he wanted the pedophile priests "hanged twice! Once for their crimes against children. And once for shaming the good name of the Catholic Church" (Brown 48). And then it goes on to say that Fache seemed more mad about the shaming of the Catholic Church than the poor children. Obviously someone does not have his priorities straight.

But then the unanswered question comes up: is he in support of the Opus Dei? They are Catholics, though extreme, and he has some of the same beliefs as them, like woman are extremely inferior to men. But I do not think he would be one to whip himself and have a pointy thigh-let (a braclet for your thigh) on all the time. I would imagine these are a little too much for him. But then again, "The Bull" is an extreme kind of guy. And what's worse, Langdon seems pretty much an atheist. The Bull would totally help Silas. Which might happen once Silas finds out that Sautiere lied to him.

Oh! And one more point to be made. What Langdon said about Catholicism taking pagan symbols and transforming them is entirely true. The Catholic Church also took pagan holidays and transformed them into Christian ones, like Easter and Christmas. Now I'm not saying that these holidays ARE pagan. The background is most definitely Christian. These holidays are just on days that used to be pagan holidays, and overtook them. Oh, and Easter eggs are from the ancient druids who carried around eggs, and Venus (Roman goddess) was hatched from an egg too. But Easter Eggs do not have anything to do with the real Easter. And I shall stop talking about relgion.

And I'm sure Vittoria (which is Italian for Victoria) will appear later in the book. And Neveu and Vittoria are going to fight an epic battle over Langdon. Just sayin'.

And I'm writing my post earlier next time so that all the good things aren't already said. Again, just sayin'.

Well I hope this post was good! And hopefully counts as a somewhat informative post. o__O

Brianna

We're Online!

The task of setting up a blog was slightly annoying, but it's finished! And to write actual blogs and post comments should be more enjoyable than writing essays :)