“Exploring life through fiction, together.”

[Advanced warning: I’ll be taking December off. The last newsletter for this year will be 18th Nov, then I’ll restart on 6th January.]

We’ve not burned anyone in a while.

Seems strange to have to say that, right? And yet, it’s true. It might have passed out of living memory in most of our societies. But only just. We burn people, but it’s been a while.

Imagine an Average Person. If each day in their life represented a year of human existence until now, they’d be born over 25000 years ago. Civilization only started in the last 16 years. The Roman Empire fell just over 4 years ago. They’d publicly burn someone to death in the USA only 106 days ago, and 10,000 people would turn out to watch.*

Fiction Bite - This should be sad

I could cry but I’m so exhausted

My tear ducts cannot function.

Maybe it’s a blessing, hidden

Rather than a disjunction.

Quote of the Week

"For as long as there were public executions, there were crowds to see them. In London in the early 19th century, there might have been 5,000 to watch a standard hanging, but crowds of up to 100,000 came to see a famous felon killed. The numbers hardly changed over the years. An estimated 20,000 watched Rainey Bethea hang in 1936, in what turned out to be the last public execution in the U.S." — Frances Larson, Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found:

Book of the month

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri J.M. Nouwen

I first read this years ago, and it deeply impacted me. So much so, it still shapes my decisions. I decided it was worth rereading, and it was as good, if not better, than I remembered. Nouwen uses Rembrant’s painting, his life experience, and the bible to walk us through how we embody the younger and older sons. Then he asks us to leave those behind and embody the father.

It’s poignant, uplifting, short (130 pages), and has lost none of its impact on me.

Final Words

Tomorrow is Bonfire Night here in the UK. A celebration against the oncoming winter cold, where we huddle round roaring fires, eating toffee apples.

Traditionally, most bonfires would also sport a Guy, a stuffed man assembled out of odds and ends. We burn an effigy. Just in case we’d forget the punishment for treason.

What would it look like in the modern day? Can you imagine the tweet “Group accused of treason to be publicly executed outside Westminster Hall!”? Seems impossible right? But it’s only a few months backwards in our Average Person's timeline.

If it was on, would you go? Would you watch it online? And if you didn’t watch the first time, how many more public executions would it take before you got curious?

Would you be willing to hit reply? It’d make my day to hear from you.

Hat Tip to Dan Carlin for his thought provoking look at public executions.

With Love,

Josiah



If you enjoy these emails, would you share them with a friend? They can subscribe here.

* Dates I used for my calculations

73 years - Average lifespan

6000 years since civilization began

476 - Fall of the Western Roman Empire

1916 - Lynching of Jesse Washington

1606 - Gunpowder Plot and Executions