The Da Vinci Code

Despite the historical inaccuracies that made this book so controversial with many people despising, contradicting, arguing against, and criticizing it including the Catholic Church and various Catholic organizations for presenting fabricated history and anti-Catholic narratives as fact, I must admit that I have a certain fondness for historical conspiracy theories... I watched and read The Da Vinci Code when I was around eleven years old. I remember being so utterly in awe yet terrified. The act of corporal mortification is (very, I must say) dramatically portrayed through the character of Silas the albino monk who inflicts pain upon himself as a form of religious penance. I was stunned by it even before I could fully understand what I was witnessing. Back then clearly I was still so far from having any real understanding of Catholicism yet I simply could not stop thinking about it. It is not exactly a very good film I admit fot the truth sake, but it would be fair to say that it left quite a stain on my memory and head. And there is also this particular object I caught a glimpse of in the film that has remained one of my favourite things ever since: the Cryptex. It is a portable, cylindrical combination vault featuring a series of concentric, rotating lettered dials that when the correct password is aligned, its internal tumblers release allowing the cylinder to slide open. Though actually, what fascinates me even more is its destructive mechanism concealed within it. There inside the hollow cylinder rests a fragile glass vial of vinegar wrapped around a papyrus strip or scroll. Should anyone attempt to force it open, the vial breaks then the vinegar dissolves the message inside rendering it irretrievable. And in the story, this Cryptex thing serves as the keystone protecting a map to a place requiring the two protagonists to solve a series of intricate word puzzles to decipher its combination. I still could not stop thinking about it, even to this day. Imagine an object and it is precisely designed to protect a secret by threatening to destroy it. I am simply so in love with the thing that I might eventually get myself one in the future, should destiny ever decide to bring us together. Amen. I feel heavily invested to the further, expanded metaphor this object could offer.