Google has sponsored some crazy Da Vinci Code Quest.
Basically over 24 days, people solved a puzzle a day in order to win prizes. The first 10,000 participants to finish all 24 puzzles won a cryptex, which leads a further puzzle this weekend and untold fame and fortune for the winner. The fortune part at least is pretty clear, here’s the prize page.
Well today I found out a friend of a friend received his cryptex:
http://crazymonk.org/archives/2006_05_15/442
I’m much more interested in Da Vinci now. I want him to win the grand contest. Also it is another example of a cool and crazy cross-media promotion for what started as a book.
I actually like The Da Vinci Code. I thought Dan Brown was a crappy writer of dialogue and that the characters were stereotypes, however, it was a fun, fast-paced read. I learned a little about art and art history, I had to think a little about religion and about the authoritative voice in storytelling. I liked it. If you’re a snobby literary fiction reader, you too can like it. Think of the book as an academic thesis on art and religion written as a genre novel. In this particular case, over analyzing it does make it better.