I have returned safely from Paris. The trip was remarkably uneventful, which was a relief. I read two books along the way, "Angels & Demons" and "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. I waited as long as I could before reading them but, eventually, I felt compelled to know what crazy ideas this man was putting into everybody's head.
"The DaVinci Code" was just stupid; while "Angels & Demon's" was both offensive and stupid. It is understandable why people have read the books. No matter how stupid an action movie is, so long as something keeps happening every sixty seconds, you find you end up watching the entire thing. After all, we accept comic books on their own terms and both of these books offer up excellent examples of comic book logic. The "DaVinci Code" is relatively harmless, if not ridiculous. The central character is faced with one stupid and pointless 'puzzle' or 'riddle' to solve after another, all the while running from police and killers at every step and turn. Whatever, yawn, it tells its sorry little tale and is over soon enough. The ending, if you can call it that, clearly points out exactly how pointless everything that preceded it had been.
"Agnels and Demons", on the other hand, is quite something else. It is more stupider and more pointlesser than "The DiVinci" code, if that is at all possible. However, it moves into some scary territory when he has the characters in the book give long speeches about some imagined conflict between science and religion that no self respecting human being (other than Dan Brown) would ever make. His characters are motivated for reasons that make no logical sense and the plot, if you can call it that, reaches degrees of absurdity that make an average episode of "Smallville" look like a work of sober stone cold logic. At least "Smallville" is fun, this piece of trash is simply insulting.
I was especially annoyed when he drags the names of good men, like George Washington, and others who fought so hard for the cause of democracy and freedom, through the mud. He condemns them in the most foul terms, exercising his right of free speech they helped buy him, to do so. How unbelievably insulting and disrespectful.
What a great way to make a ton of money. Jump up and down upon the graves of good men who cannot defend themselves so you can make a load of cash. What a jerk.
Along the way his guilt by association techniques allow him to be an equal opportunity offender. If this man ever truly realized what benefits human civilization has felt from the works of these great men, often bound by fraternal ties, he would, hopefully, bow his head in shame. And, who knows, practice some of the lessons taught by these evil conspirators by donating some of the money he has earned through savaging their reputations to charity or towards higher education.
Anywhoo...if you can't tell..I was really offended by "Angels & Demons". As for "The DaVinci Code", whatever, is seems to cause no greater harm than any other Hollywood film that believes a plot only gets in the way of a good car chase. I can't fathom that anyone reading either of these books gives even one tiny bit of credence to his grave stomping conspiracy theories. The fool starts out in a most excellent fashion by stating on page one that the "Priory of Sion" are a 'proven fact', when the man who created the document he quotes has long since publicly admitted it was a hoax. Apparently, every one in the world knows of this hoax other than Brown himself. Why confuse fiction with facts when you can call your fiction facts and sell another million copies?
Sigh, I'm disappointed in myself that I gave this guy money by reading his crappy books. On the other hand, I'm glad I know what kind of crap he's putting 'out there' and have been able to form an opinion of it on my own.
Ok, enough of that.
On the way back from Paris I wore a shirt with the square and compass sewn into the pocket. I had two minor, but pleasant, encounters from that. First, an elderly lady was getting on the airplane and she made a point to tap me on the shoulder and ask me to help her with her luggage since she "saw I was a Freemason." The second was when I was getting off the airplane, after helping the nice lady with her luggage again, and a man came up the gangway and asked me if I was a Mason. I told him yes, and then he was eager to carry on a conversation on the topic as his father was a Mason his whole life, though he himself didn't know that much about it.
It seems Dan Brown hasn't completely destroyed our reputation yet....
I uploaded my pictures from Paris but, to be quite honest, they are relatively boring. None of them are all that exceptional. Here's the link that includes some photos of my brethren and the nice folks at the game company I visited.
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