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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fast Learner" data-source="post: 2376731" data-attributes="member: 649">My first thiought upon reading the title of the thread was "I'm sorry." While the ideas were fun (though much better explored in fiction by Umberto Eco in Foucault's Pendulum), I couldn't stand Dan Brown's writing, the super-simplistic characterization, and the endless, ham-handed deus ex machina events. I was very disappointed.As to why it's popular: it's a fast read (very easy reading that pulls you through), and it regurgitates some interesting theories about da Vinci, Jesus's hidden story, the Grail, etc., stuff that is probably completely new to most readers. I'll certainly admit that it was a fun read, for about the first half, anyway.As to the history, there is a lot of very muddy history surrounding these ideas. There are plenty of real world historians (and theologians) who certainly insist that a great deal of that stuff is true, and much more than Brown includes. There are many more historians (and theologians) who say it's not true, but it's not total fringe stuff: I'd say it's on the border between accepted unprovable alternate history and tin foil hat material, at least from my reading.</blockquote>