On Fri, 1 Jul 2005, Doug Henwood wrote:
> I've been avoiding citing Christopher Hitchens outrages, but this one is
> pretty far around the bend.
>
> <http://slate.com/id/2121212/>.
>
> The premise of this column seems to be that the Downing Street Memo is
> sorta like The Da Vinci Code
>
<snip>
>
> Wasn't that "junior note-taker" the head of MI6?
Yep. As laid out in the article by Fred Kaplan, which Hitchens cites admiringly so far as it agrees with him, and ignores entirely in the parts that contradict him:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2120886/
Hitchens' whole article is like that. He quotes one thing after another selectively, taking out what supports him, and ignoring what doesn't. It's the height of hackery and unseriousness. It's the way 7th graders write papers.
And while we're on the subject, he's completely wrong about the _Da Vinci Code_ too. It's one of the most intelligent books in current wide circulation -- it's got better art history and history than a month of PBS specials -- and it's one of the best thrillers ever written. It is to thrillers as _Daughter of Time_ -- one of Hitchens' faves -- is to mysteries, or _The Sorrow and the Pity_ is to documentaries: a sui generis mixing in of real history that makes the Aha moment into an engine that really drives the narrative.
Lastly, just while we're on the subject, The Da Vinci Code is so politically correct you could plotz. It's essentially a radical feminist conspiracy theory. You think I'm joking but I'm not. The whole point of the book is that the bible and Church were all set up as a vast patriarchal conspiracy to oppress women.
As for its own plot turning on a conspiracy theory, almost all thrillers have done that since the form was invented at the turn of the last century. Otherwise you can't get them started. You need an answer to the question "How come you don't just go to the cops?"
It's funny how people rend their garments at what the large readership (much exaggerated) of the _Left Behind_ series signifies, and completely fail to notice that the fictional thriller that represents our worldview is blowing it out of the water.
Michael