Kaiser is a Renaissance Academy Instructor at Florida Gulf Coast University. She presented the last Renaissance Academy lecture for the Marco Winter Season on March 18 at the Marco Island Yacht Club.

"You are the largest crowd so far for any Florida Gulf University Renaissance program," said program co-coordinator Dr. Fay Biles as she introduced the speaker. Biles asked how many in the audience had read the book. Hands went up all over the room.

Kaiser began by sharing that Dan Brown's book title The Da Vinci Code was not the proper way to refer to Leonardo Da Vinci. She said Da Vinci was a town in Italy. It is proper to refer to the famous artist only as Leonardo Da Vinci or just Leonardo.

Starting with the lighter side of her talk, she asked the crowd if they knew The Da Vinci Code was being made into a movie produced by Ron Howard. A lively discussion ensued about the actors selected to play the roles of the main characters.

Kaiser shared that Tom Hanks was cast as Dr. Robert Langdon, Audry Tautou cast as agent Sophie Neveu and Jean Reno is playing Capt. Bezu Fache in the movie.

The filming is scheduled to begin shooting in May 2005. According to trivia that Kaiser read on the Internet, the France Culture Ministry has granted permission for producer Ron Howard to film inside the Louvre in Paris, where the first scene in the book starts and the last scene in the book ends.

Many books have spun off The Da Vinci Code, speculating on what is truth and what is fiction.

"Some are biased, some are unbiased," said Kaiser.

The books written by Dan Brown before The Da Vinci Code did not do that well before but are now selling. Brown has announced he will continue to write books featuring the central character in The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon.

Dan Brown had knowledge of many clandestine clubs of Ivy League universities, Masonic Lodges, fraternities and secrecy as he grew up in New England.

In one interview, he shared that he spent a whole year studying to write the The Da Vinci Code. Throughout his life, he had a fascination with secret societies. As a boy he was surrounded with books, ciphers and codes. His father was a mathematician, and often on holidays, he gave his children mathematical codes to find their presents.

Brown's writing habit consists of getting up at 4 a.m. to write, but taking a break every hour to do some type of exercise. Brown thinks that routine keeps his blood and ideas flowing. Rumor has it that he also believes hanging upside down by gravity boots helps him solve plot challenges.

Kaiser talked about the circular plot of the book as it began at the Louvre in Paris and the story ended at the Louvre.

"To enjoy fiction, to enjoy a work of art, to enjoy a composition of music, we need to be able to transport ourselves into the world that the artist or creator wants us to see and to feel. We need a willing suspension of disbelief," Kaiser said.

While reading a good fiction book Kaiser said, one should experience it and not judge the book.

"Leave aside your reality and take the reality of the creator of the work," said Kaiser.

She believes The Da Vinci Code is well-done as a work of fiction.

"And it is fiction and not history," she said. "The theme of the book is so shocking, we are forced into seeking out the truth and recognizing the fiction."

One theme in the book is that the Catholic Church conspired through the centuries to keep hidden a marital relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and that a child was born through that same union, establishing a royal bloodline.

"Mary Magdalene was not a goddess, neither was she a prostitute," Kaiser said. "She was a very important person in the early church. According to the scriptures, Mary Magdalene was at the cross when Jesus was crucified, and she was the first person Christ spoke to at the empty tomb."

As a Catholic herself, Kaiser said history books revealed that for 200 years, the early church met in homes and women administered the Holy Eucharist.

Dan Brown would like his readers to believe that it was Mary Magdalene sitting closest to Jesus at Leonardo's The Last Supper painting and not John the Beloved.

"The artist would not have left anybody out, and there are not 13 apostles in the painting," Kaiser said.

In her final analysis, Kaiser remarked that she hoped everyone who reads the book will close the book with the feeling that they had a good read and that the readers do not feel scandalized or propelled into battle.

"Now what is wrong with spiritual discussion and debate? That's how people grow," Kaiser said.