Programming note: Tomorrow, Thursday, the evening repeat of Steyn's Song of the Week airs on Serenade Radio at 9pm BST - that's 4pm North American Eastern. You can listen from almost anywhere on the planet by clicking the button at top right here.
The Mark Steyn Club is well into its eighth year, and I thank all those members champing at the bit to sign up for another season. We have a wide range of unique programming, so today, following this afternoon's Clubland Q&A, here we go with Episode Twenty-Seven of our current Tale for Our Time - Robert Hugh Benson's highly prescient novel Lord of the World. Annie, a Texas member of the Steyn Club, writes of last night's installment:
I really enjoyed this episode, and appreciate your dramatic interpretation of the text. Even though I have read this book before, I had forgotten all the heretical inversion taking place with Felsenburg's speech to the masses, which is quite remarkable. From a mirror understanding of Our Lady of Sorrows to co-opting words from the liturgy of the mass (I attend an Ordinariate church), Benson's book can seem so outlandish. But then I remember the last 5 years, which I don't think would have happened if we had not become so completely secular in society.
Indeed, Annie. Benson predicted very well the use of familiar forms of ersatz-worship as a substitute for religion. You can see it at Congregational and Anglican churches and many others.
Meanwhile, has anything of the Catholic Church survived the Anglo-German volor raid on Rome? In tonight's episode we discover the answer:
The little room where the new Pope sat reading was a model of simplicity. Its walls were whitewashed, its roof unpolished rafters, and its floor beaten mud. A square table stood in the centre, with a chair beside it; a cold brazier laid for lighting, stood in the wide hearth; a bookshelf against the wall held a dozen volumes. There were three doors, one leading to the private oratory, one to the ante-room, and the third to the little paved court. The south windows were shuttered, but through the ill-fitting hinges streamed knife-blades of fiery light from the hot Eastern day outside.
"The hot Eastern day outside"? So where is the new Rome? Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Twenty-Seven of Lord of the World simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
We're now halfway through our eighth season of Tales for Our Time and have built up quite an archive. So, if you've a chum who's a fan of classic fiction in audio form, don't forget the perfect birthday present: a Mark Steyn Club gift membership.
Please join me tomorrow for Episode Twenty-Eight of Lord of the World.
