At first blush this Borges story may not appear SFFaudio related, it certainly isn’t Science Fiction or Fantasy, it isn’t set in the future, doesn’t have any magic or legendary creatures – but I’m firmly in the camp that it is still relevant to us – we cover horror too you know. But still, this isn’t the “boogeyman-under-the-bed-with-a-sweetmeats-fetish” horror – it’s moral horror, the “oh the humanity” horror – the kind of horror that fills both Kurtz and Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. Listen up folks because The Gospel According To Mark (first published in The New Yorker on October 23, 1971) is read by travel writer extraordinare Paul Theroux! And be sure to listen for Theroux’s ruminations, with The New Yorker’s fiction editor Deborah Treisman, on Borges and the tale itself – it’s found at the end of the story…
The Gospel According To Mark
By Jorge Luis Borges; Read by Paul Theroux
1 |MP3| Approx. 22 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Fiction (a New yorker Podcast)
Podcast: October 15th 2007
Espinosa, a medical student, discovers that traditional religious ideals overcome the morality of human beings.
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Posted by Jesse Willis
Good story! I’d be in the other camp about its fit in SFFaudio except for two things. 1 It’s quite good, well read, and interesting. 2. The webmaster is always 100% correct about what’s appropriate for his/her site. So good pick (especially for reason #1)
Yeah. Hell, I know it isn’t super-obvious as a typical horror story, but I’ve got to stick by my guns when it comes to it being a “moral horror” story – otherwise it isn’t appropriate for SFFaudio.com. The Gospel According To Mark has the same vitality that pervades so much of Science Fiction and Fantasy.