I haven't read the book…

…though, as a Freemason with an interest in the esoteric side of the craft I'm familiar with the general notion behind the story of The DaVinci Code. I've read Leigh and Baigent and any number of less familiar pseudo-histories that cover the ground Dan Brown presents as fiction, so I've been pretty smug in my feeling that there's was nothing in Brown's tale I needed to know sooner than the inevitable film would end up in my Netflix cue. Nothing in my reading of various reviews of the book and film had really altered that feeling.

Had, that is, until I read Juan Cole's thoughts on the film. Professor Cole argues that...

The film is popular because it isn't about Catholicism or France or some odd conspiracy theory centered on Mary Magdalene. It is popular because it is about the dilemmas of secular modernity.

…in a post that's worth your attention. Really. Go see. Frankly, I'm kinda cheap, and pretty busy, and I'll probably still wait to see it until Netflix has it, but thanks to Juan Cole, I'll be watching it with new eyes.