Welcome to the concluding episode of this weekend's Tale for Our Time - one of the greatest short stories ever written. As Part Two of Jack London's To Build a Fire approaches its memorable climax, the cold of the Yukon seeps into every part of the man's body, and into every word of our tale:
After a time he was aware of the first faraway signals of sensation in his beaten fingers. The faint tingling grew stronger till it evolved into a stinging ache that was excruciating, but which the man hailed with satisfaction. He stripped the mitten from his right hand and fetched forth the birch-bark. The exposed fingers were quickly going numb again. Next he brought out his bunch of sulphur matches. But the tremendous cold had already driven the life out of his fingers. In his effort to separate one match from the others, the whole bunch fell in the snow. He tried to pick it out of the snow, but failed. The dead fingers could neither touch nor clutch. He was very careful. He drove the thought of his freezing feet, and nose, and cheeks, out of his mind, devoting his whole soul to the matches. He watched, using the sense of vision in place of that of touch, and when he saw his fingers on each side the bunch, he closed them -- that is, he willed to close them, for the wires were down, and the fingers did not obey. He pulled the mitten on the right hand, and beat it fiercely against his knee. Then, with both mittened hands, he scooped the bunch of matches, along with much snow, into his lap...
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read the conclusion of To Build a Fire simply by clicking here and logging-in. Part One can be found here. Steyn Club member Robert Bridges was reminded by last night's intro of similar real-life chills:
I passed Fred Meyers in Fairbanks years ago when going to work. Had to stop... still very dark but the temperature sign was too good to miss. Others did the same. I have used it as the intro slide on med lectures. It's on Facebook by others. Hard to explain what it feels like but can easily know what happens when the fire never gets started. -62F.
There are so many ways that US (North Americans) and Canadian (North Americans) don't see eye to eye, but the Yukon and Alaska are wedded by geography.
For Andrew Jones, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club from Queensland, our tale was useful mostly as a reminder of a far superior one:
This is literally almost the most impactful short story I have ever experienced.
'The Monster' (by AE Van Vogt) is, however, way ahead in first place.
Would you be so kind Steyn?
Likewise, Oklahoma Steyn Clubber Laura McIntyre:
Jack London is an old favorite of mine. How about 'Cruise of the Snark' next?
And one more from Bradford Stephen Kyle:
The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin is equally chilling and matchless so-to-speak.
We shall take them all into consideration. We always get questions about the music I've picked out for each story. But last time round Steyn Club First Day Founding Member Michelle Dulak got to it first:
Mark, if I may ask, what's the music? Not your opening Elgar, but the bit that comes after. I'm living here in a house containing many thousands of classical CDs, but that snippet eludes me. OK, it's full orchestra, with choir (you can hear it coming in just at the end), and I imagine I could place it within a couple of decades, but ... really, what is it? Enquiring minds want to know!
Well, Michelle, it's from Søvnen, composed by Carl Nielsen and first performed in Copenhagen in 1905 - or the midway point between Jack London's first attempt at this story in 1902 and the final version published in 1908. "Søvnen" is Danish for "sleep", and I think it just perfect for this tale in every way.
We'll be back next weekend with a brand new full-length audio adventure. Meanwhile, if you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking the perfect present for a fellow fan of classic fiction, don't forget our Steyn Club Gift Membership.
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