Originally posted by beethoven:
Dan Brown knew that he was going to offend billions of people with his books,
so in essence: no I do not think that authors should steer clear of controversy just because it may offend. And nor do I think that it is their duty to do everything they can in order to avoid offence
But I do think it is their Duty to ensure that any Religious facts (including opinions in light of the facts...) that they write about are accurate from the point of the Religion in question...
...
DAN BROWN FAILED HIS DUTY TO HIS READERS BECAUSE he portrayed the movement of Opus Dei as some sort of secretive sect who did all sorts of unknown deeds behind closed doors....
In reality these people who join Opus Dei are hard working, self-sacrificing people who give every ounce of their being into HELPING OTHERS.... spoken through personal experience, even though I am not a member, I have a lot of close friends who are...
THE ACTIONS of Brown have precipitated in increased fear of a movement of people who are only there because they want to HELP others....
so long as authors are open and honest when they portray any figure of authority as involved in some sort of conspiracy theory their works would undoubtedly become a valuable to the community for their literary worth... but if they act in the way Brown did and use the controversy behind the lies as a method of free publicity (Brown made an fortune from the interviews and other media coverage that dealt with his works, saved millions on publicity adverts and made millions from the sales of the books bought by people who were interested in "finding out what the controversy is all about ....and why people are talking")
