When in Rome

My wife suggested we put a picture up in the lounge to remember our trip to Rome last year. This was my choice. Obviously not the usual tourist snap. I don't know who the cardinal is; we think they were from South America on a pilgrimage. Amongst the hustle and bustle of St Peter’s Square on a Sunday morning, these pilgrims arrived walking backwards. What makes people do this? Is it their 15 minutes of fame?

One thing that amazed me when we were inside St. Peter's was the poor organization. Here we were, at the head quarters of one of the largest and richest organizations in the world, people were attending the main mass on a Sunday. But old and crippled women were sitting on the cold hard stone floor in order to be at the mass because no adequate seating was provided. Isn’t St Peter’s designed to hold masses? Well, no. It seems tourists are more important.

Song of Stone by Iain Banks

Written in the second person from Able, nobleman, to his lover Morgan (maybe wife, but like a sister in childhood), Banks has succeeded in his unique approach to yet another confounding topic - that of loyalty.

Able and Morgan are overrun in a time of war, forced to return to their castle by a group, presumable representing the new occupation, led by "the Lieutenant", female leader of a disorderly band of soldiers.

Abe fights with his loyalties to so many things: these are the enemy, but he is unable to fight back; they slowly but systematically consume his wine and food and destroy the family art treasures, but he is powerless to stop them; the Lieutenant takes Morgan as her lover, but he cannot react for fear of what they will do to him. Inevitably, he is destroyed; as it happens as a result of a practical joke by the band of soldiers.

The total ambiguity of place or time (it could be anywhere in the western world over the last 70 years) adds power to the point. However much we may imagine that we would defend what is of value to us, the reality maybe somewhat different given the circumstance of war. The grandiose setting perhaps plays on that hackneyed phrase: "an Englishman's home is his castle" This novel questions the loyalty and strength of all of us.

http://www.spikemagazine.com/1298banks.php

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6422/rev0342.html

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/stone.htm

http://www.answers.com/topic/iain-banks