Happy birthday to Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh, born 100 years ago today. Waugh's Brideshead Revisited<\/i> is one of the most acclaimed religious novels of the 20th century, and a fine candidate for another round of \"Torment the Mustard Seed.\"<\/p>\n
For those of you new to the game, it's quite simple:<\/p>\n
1.<\/b> Call up your local evangelical book store (\"The Mustard Seed\" is a regional chain in these parts, in your area it may be called the \"Family Christian Book Center,\" or \"The Fisherman's Net\" or some such thing).<\/p>\n
2.<\/b> Ask them if they have a copy of Brideshead Revisited<\/i> in stock.<\/p>\n
3.<\/b> When they say No \u2014 and they will<\/i> say No \u2014 say, \"But I thought this was a Christian book store?\"<\/p>\n
Snarky, juvenile and a bit mean-spirited, yes, but you can't hope to change a subculture without making it aware that it is<\/i> a subculture. And anyway, in the case of Waugh, being a bit snarky and mean-spirited is probably appropriate. He was best when he was at his nastiest. The Loved One<\/i> is vastly more entertaining than Brideshead<\/i> \u2014 the former slicing where the latter sags.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Happy birthday to Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh, born 100 years ago today. Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is one of the most acclaimed religious novels of the 20th century, and a fine candidate for another round of “Torment the Mustard Seed.” For those of you new to the game, it’s quite simple: 1. Call up your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-tribalism"],"yoast_head":"\n