#87: The Cru Write McCarthy: The Shroud of Turin

We've had so many guests-- and of such a high caliber, it must be said-- that it's taken us this long to get to our first author episode of season 3! We take a look at Cormac McCarthy's style before shamelessly pillaging it for our stories. If you've never read McCarthy, buckle up. His work is depressing and glorious (unless you ask Spud, who... did not enjoy the experience of reading him. More on that within!). Stories this evening begin around the 19:20 mark and feature a detective, puzzled by shrouds; a prophet seeking sanctuary; a story about violence; and a tale of an abbey.  From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:  Turin Shroud, The. The shroud of twill linen kept in Turin Cathedral and claimed to be the one in which the body of Christ was wrapped after the crucifixion. The pope agreed to RADIOCARBON DATING in 1987, and in 1988 the archbishop of Turin appointed the Oxford Research Laboratory for Archaeology, the Department of Physics of Arizona University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich to date the shroud, pieces of which -101 were gi were given to these institutes in April 1988. The results were announced on 13 October and the cloth was dated between 1260 and 1390. There is no firm historical evidence that it was known before the 14th century. Although not accepted by all, the general conclusion is that the shroud is a medieval fake. Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!  Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do. Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.