I wrote too soon, Steyn is a veritable slugger...

Regarding The Da Vinci Code, or even the newly translated "Gospel of Judas", I could say quite a bit. But, as the man said, brevity is the soul of wit:
1) TDVC is a bad piece of literature;
2)TDVC is nasty propoganda posing as literature;
3)TDVC is nasty propoganda posing as literature which has been made into a poor movie.
4) The "Gospel of Judas" is simply one more document from post-second century which illustrates precisely what the early Christian Church was up against vis-a-vis the Gnostic system of beliefs or dogmas. As Steyn's quote of a Universtiy of Aberdeen professor succintly notes: "the alleged Gospel of Judas 'contains a number of religious themes which are completely alien to the first-century world of Jesus and Judas, but which did become popular later, in the second century AD. An analogy would be finding a speech claiming to be written by Queen Victoria, in which she talked about The Lord Of The Rings and her CD collection.' "

There are many resources available to an average internet user which should/could debunk all of the "mystique" surrounding TDVC. But Steyn's article (http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20060515_126652_126652 ) briefly and devastatingly cuts short any attempt to find anything novel or valuable in either TDVC or the newly translated "Gospel of Judas".

And, as usual, Steyn is hilarious and admirable in terms of his writing skills and style, as well as his imagination. He is surely one of the greatest living writers currently being published in English-speaking journals and newspapers.