Friday, March 10, 2006
DA VINCI CODE BORROWED FROM UMBERTO ECO WHO MAY HAVE BORROWED FROM ROBERT ANTON WILSON ?
Wikipedia seems to think so:
Foucault's Pendulum has lately been called a thinking person's The Da Vinci Code, which it predated by over a decade. A parchment which inspires the Plan and its multiple possible interpretations (mundane or otherwise) play a role similar to that of the parchments in the Rennes-le-Château conspiracy theories, made famous by the Code as well as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and other similar books. The name of the book derives from an actual pendulum designed by the French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the earth.
The Wikipedia article also suggests another source:
The plot and structure closely follows that of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, published 13 years earlier; it is unclear if Eco was aware of the earlier work before he conceived the idea.
THE ILLUMINATUS! TRILOGY was written by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, both of whom were on the editorial staff of "Playboy" at the same time, and one of whom was married to DePaul University faculty member Patricia Monaghan. It is said to be Wilson's (Pope "Bob" of the Church of the SubGenius's) most important book.
I've gotten through the first 150 pages of this 800-page work. It makes many references to Discordians--their beliefs and their symbols. The black mass which takes place in the book, complete with a detailed description of the sexual ritual performed by "Padre Pederesti," presumably a Catholic priest, and his second who performs the sexual act since the Padre can only function with a boy, plus an evocation of Lucifer who is persuaded to appear in a non-threatening form and does finally choose to appear as Billy Graham, is creepy. The Padre makes it clear that the host being used for the rite has been duly consecrated.
The Discordian love of confusion is reflected in the structure the authors have chosen for this novel. It is disjointed. Scene shifts occur in the middle of a passage with no break to alert the reader that a change is taking place. Comments are made by speakers who are not clearly identified. Conversations are broken into at mid-point leaving the reader wondering what the conversation is about. Yes, this is a Discordian novel. It contains the elements of a conspiracy theory that keep the reader turning the pages despite the confusion. The Bavarian Illuminati holds a prominent place in the storyline.
In reading it, I keep wondering if this is an example of hiding something in plain sight, or if it is an example of Discordian myth-making.
