Welborn and Da Vinci

From the National Catholic Register's coverage of Amy Welborn's "Theology on Tap" lecture in Rome about the Da Vinci Code:

Welborn said she would rather be writing her own novels “than talking about this silly, silly book,” and that people's “unending ignorance” has made her an “unwilling and depressed speaker” on the subject. But gauging from the audience's response at the Scholar's Lounge, the evening was anything but depressing. And at other larger venues, Welborn has attracted up to 800 people for her Da Vinci debunking talks.

Link.

This strikes home. If you read Amy's blog, you know she has literary aspirations in the vein of Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor. She's also a mother with young children. Yet she spends valuable time and energy dealing with a fraud like Dan Brown, who refuses--even now that he has made his tens of millions--to admit that the book is just a piece of fiction.

Granted, Amy didn't have to undertake the job, but she's well-qualified and obviously feels a responsibility to do so. She's not getting rich off her efforts. She's just losing valuable, valuable time--a thing writers crave more than anything--dealing with a smarmy individual who has made millions by selling lies. When Amy says it's "depressing," she means it, and she's not talking about being depressed because of the adverse effects the book is having on others (though that might be part of it). She's depressed because she's being personally afflicted by this Da Vinci demon and the minions who don't know a shred of medieval history but are convinced this book has to be true. "It's just so, you know, detailed, and it has lots of pictures. It hasta be true." Amy spends time swatting at the idiocy as her literary clock ticks away.