[Tenchiro]

Today I have read the 2nd news article about people flocking to places like the Louvre and asking questions about the book to museum curators like it isn't a piece of fiction!?!?

'Da Vinci Code' Readers Flock to Milan's Last Supper
Wed Sep 8,10:29 AM ET
By Christian Plumb

MILAN, Italy (Reuters) - The guide ushering tourists into the former monks' dining hall that houses Leonardo da Vinci's faded masterpiece "The Last Supper" tried in vain to interest her audience in art history, technique and aesthetics.

She knew that sooner or later the questions -- about the Holy Grail's presence or absence from the work, or the real sex of the disciple to the right of Christ -- would come.

"Of course, you know there is now 'The Da Vinci Code'," Danish-born interpreter Hanne Munk told the guide at the end of her 15-minute viewing of the 30-foot-long painting, famed for its psychological realism and innovative use of perspective.

The guide, Lidia Sanvito, nodded wearily. The 34-year-old has heard of little else since U.S. author Dan Brown's runaway bestseller was published in March 2003, first from American readers, then starting late last year, from Italians and others as foreign translations hit bookstores worldwide.

"They torture me," she said of the curious visitors. "I wasn't surprised about the Americans. But it really did shock me that Italians, with their strong Catholic traditions, would also ask these questions."

MORE...

 

[TreeSaw]

LOL...I personally liked the book but don't have any plans of going to Le Louvre to test out it's accuracy

 

[MikeD]

It's a good thing that 'Foucault's Pendulum' is too hard of a book for most people to read.

I heard that there are still visitors to the setting of 'The Bridges of Madison County' asking questions about the fictional characters and places.

 

[ghettorigged]

If they want to read fiction and be able to meet the characters, they should try "In the Garden of Good & Evil" .... then go to Savannah, go to Clary's and wait around long enough... Jerry Spence will probably show up (or catch him at the laundromat as I did on several occasions) as well as other oddities.

 

[Damn True]

I heard the author being interviewed the other day. I'm not sure he is doing a good job of portraying it as fictional. I think he may have seen an opportunity in this thing beyond that of a good yarn.

 

[math2014]

Gates of Fire baby ....yay

 

[jacksonpt]

It's actually kind of ironic... in this day and age, where people are more or less expected to go to college for at least a Batchelor's, very few people can actually think for themselves (isn't college supposed to teach critical thinking?). Hence the masses believing everything they read.

And FWIW... I enjoyed the book (I'm actually reading one of his other books now), but I liked it for the historical references... the origin of symbols and such. I'm glad it's generating some interest in art, too bad it's for the wrong reasons.

 

[MikeD]

Gates of Fire baby ....yay

Ha! That's the Marine Corp's favorite book of the past few years (yaaaaay historical revisionism!), and I know for a fact it was largely responisble for one of my old sergeant's recent honeymoon to Greece. Not that he thinks the characters were real or anything, but he did get at least somewhat into real Greek, even beyond Thermopylae, history through it.

MD

 

[math2014]

Ha! That's the Marine Corp's favorite book of the past few years (yaaaaay historical revisionism!), and I know for a fact it was largely responisble for one of my old sergeant's recent honeymoon to Greece. Not that he thinks the characters were real or anything, but he did get at least somewhat into real Greek, even beyond Thermopylae, history through it.

MD

Having read several reputable books on Thermopylae, i can assure you that most characters in the Gates of Fire are real and acted similarly as in the book.

For example, Dienekis, Dektonas, Poleinikos, Alexander, Leonidas etc....

 

[MikeD]

Really? Wow. I knew Leonidas and the major historical characters were (obviously) real, but Dienekis and Poleinikos and characters on that level I imagined were composites/archetypes that Pressfield had invented to give his story shape. Guess I just took that for granted.

MD

 

[math2014]

Nope, Dienekis was an elite captain on the 300 group, and Poleinikos was the boldest hoplite of the era, 3ple former olympic champion (on the real olympics).

If you need any ancient Greece/Hoplite info , its like a second hobby to me.

En oionos aristos esti, amynesthai peri patris : Excellent sign it is, to defend your country.

 

[MikeD]

Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori? (Sorry, I don't do Greek so well, I suppose, so it's Horace quotes for me...and actually, I like yours better. More optimistic, kinda like Patton's "make the other sonofabitch die for his country...")

By the way, I'm finding Tides of War to be an interesting and topical read as of late re: democracy and politics.

 

[math2014]

Hehe true.
Have you read the book mike?

 

[narlus]

Leonidas? he makes some kickass chocolates.

 

[MikeD]

Hehe true.
Have you read the book mike?

Yep. Few years ago. Thought it was fun to read, but also thought it was slightly heavy-handed in its effort to show how 'warriors through the ages have remained the same,' especially through the dialouge and terminology. I felt like I was reading a stereotypical Vietnam War book, but with hoplons and spears instead of flak jackets and M16s. Plus, Pressfield 'sanitized' certain elements of Spartan culture, as far as I know.

Military-wise, I had to question the 'raid' at the end of the book...would classical-era Spartan hoplites have done something like this? It seems, paradoxically, to be either a Homeric-era type thing or a modern thing, but not something that trained field hoplites would have done...almost beneath their dignity to fight like that, instead of in ranks. You're the expert...you tell me!

MD

 

[math2014]

You are talking about the raid on the Persian camp after the battle of Platees. If that is so, according to what i remember, the "raid" was done since everyone was emotional about revenge for Leonidas body which was treaded horrendously by the Persians. However the Greeks decided not to treat Mardonios body with disgrace, since they believed that disgracing dead enemy's bodies is a thing of the Barbarians only.

As for tactics, it is true, the phalanx was the primary attack and battle formation, but on extreme situations (bad or good) 1-1 combat and random fight picking did occur, only if the battle was lost or won already.