GK's Poetry in the NY Times

A bit of Chesterton's poetry was quoted in yesterday's New York Times (link). The article was about suicide and the quoted poem was, of course, Ballad of a Suicide.

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Chesterton in Russia

Take a minute to watch this video clip about a small Chesterton conference and debut of a new edition of his writings in Moscow.

H/T to Mark at Straight Flusche who sent me the link.

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"I gave Bobby a book about G.K. Chesterton..."

Big News brought to our attention by Sean Dailey @ The Blue Boar:

In 2004, [Bobby] Fischer was arrested and detained in Japan for allegedly attempting to travel on a revoked passport. The U.S. government insisted that his passport had been revoked. San Diego attorney Richard Vattuone, a Catholic, flew to Japan to act as counsel for Fischer. After his release, Fischer emigrated to Iceland.

Vattuone is intrigued by Fischer's final act. "When I met him in Japan, I gave Bobby a book about G.K. Chesterton, The Apostle of Common Sense. The book covered many matters of culture and religion. I know Bobby had read at least some of the book. Chesterton was a convert and the book contained an article about his conversion. We had also discussed religion."

-- from an article by Robert Kumpel

A haiku clerihew

Basho
on seeing a frog jump said, "Oh,
that should inspire a haiku
or two!"

Some Thoughts and observations.....

Ive got a couple different thoughts Im going to mix and match here. Im a bit erratic in my posting. I apologize. My time issues make me have to mash together some very different things when I do get the chance to come on here. Some outstanding things being said lately.

This is Despicible

and

This is bizzare

I do think that someone has to come up with some solid ideas for cultural assimilation of Middle East/Central Asian immigrants. I find this interesting as a Chestertonian. I think those of us in this circle do take the lessons of Lepanto seriously. On the other hand, I also think that it is the little "c" catholic ideas which we espouse which would form the basis of the mixed culture of the future. During my time in the Balkans and the Middle East, I observed something which Ive been mulling over for years. Despite the seeming contradictions of theology and history, the Islamic interpreters Ive worked with, and even Islamic villagers seemed most comfortable dealing with the more fervently Christian religious soldiers. I think there is a recognition of honor and purity in lifestyle that appeals across denominational lines. The Muslim men, in my opinion, saw that I would not be eyeballing their wife and daughters, and would treat him as a true paterfamilias. Obviously there are extremists and those who stir that pot, but ultimately I think that the common morality of robust faith is the key to cooperation.

Must end with a final rant.......Saw an excerpt and overview of USCCB document on Islam. I value it as an apologetic. Surely the Church must be propped up by the power of God if it is run by people like these guys...............

A bit unrelated....politics.

If Hillary Clinton becomes president and moves Bill back into the White House will a notification have to be sent to all the schools and daycares within a mile of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

I have very bad feelings about this election year. Democratic turnout is so high, and Hillary/Obama both have messianic appeal as "first of their kind" presidents. Contrast that enthusiasm and emotion with the begrudging, ho-hum support that McCain gets from the Republican side. A great many of McCain's primary supporters will cross over to vote Democratic. Im predicting a margin of victory equal to that found in nations where you sign your ballot with name, address, and coffin size.


Have a great day!!

Al-Kyro!

Birthday of Dickens

Today, Feb 7, is the birthday of Charles Dickens. Without G.K. Chesterton's advocacy of Dickens over 100 years ago very few people would be reading Charles Dickens today. A brief quotation:

Christianity said that any man could be a saint if he chose; democracy, that every man could be a citizen if he chose. The note of the last few decades in art and ethics has been that a man is stamped with an irrevocable psychology and is cramped for perpetuity in the prison of his skull. It was a world that expects everything and everybody. It was a world that encouraged anybody to be anything. And in England and literature its living expression was Dickens.

- G.K. Chesterton in Charles Dickens

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Recentl googler's have found their way to two articles from this blog's past, and have left short comments on these posts from 2006: Dawn Eden yesterday found Nick Milne's transcription of Homesick at Home, and "bls" found Lee Strong's post on G.K.C and Fairy Tales.

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Super Winston

Jonah Goldberg in today's LA Times:

As a conservative, I'm a big believer in the importance of tradition, which writer G.K. Chesterton dubbed "democracy for the dead." But tradition can only be as strong as it is in the people who pass it on. And so when I read that 23% of Britons think Winston Churchill is no more real than Spider-Man, it makes me shudder at the voluntary amnesia of society, the wholesale abdication of parental responsibility that represents.

Primary Purity and Innocence

Whatever else the worst doctrine of depravity may have been, it was a product of spiritual conviction; it had nothing to do with remote physical origins. Men thought mankind wicked because they felt wicked themselves. If a man feels wicked, I cannot see why he should suddenly feel good because somebody tells him that his ancestors once had tails. Man's primary purity and innocence may have dropped off with his tail, for all anybody knows. The only thing we all know about that primary purity and innocence is that we have not got it.

-- G.K. Chesterton in All Things Considered

(this is today's quote from Chesterton Day by Day)

Not reading a book

I have a confession to make.

I stopped reading a book.

I know many of us have done that - for a variety of reasons. (My best previous excuse was when I was reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and it got in the laundry bag and, well, ended up as pulp in the washer. I took that as a sign from God to stop reading stuff that might damage my soul!)

But in this case, it was a book I wanted to read, about a person I was interested in learning more about: Hilaire Belloc.

Last year, I bought an autographed copy of Joseph Pearce's Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc, at the Chesterton Conference in Rochester.

I couldn't finish it.

That's not a criticism of Pearce. I've read others of his books that I have enjoyed.

It was Belloc.

The more I read, the less I liked him, and the less I cared to read more about him. (Sort of like the people who discovered the more contact they had with Rudy Giuliani, the less they liked him. Thus his Florida flop.)

I was reminded of what happened with my planned biography of Bishop Sheen many years ago.

At the time I was a writer for the diocesan paper in Rochester, where he served as bishp from 1966-69. We have his archives, and I had access to many people who knew him.

I decided to write a multi-part series about his years in Rochester for the paper, and then to expand the series into a book.

I interveiwed, read, searched the archives, and wrote the series. I won an award for it.

But the more I dug into his life, the less I wanted to spend time with him. A biographer (can't remember who) once commented that to write a good biography you have to be willing to live with the subject for several years.

I could not imagine living with Bishop Sheen.

Nothing against him per se. And not a judgement of his morality or character: He may well be in heaven praying for my soul right now.

I just didn't like him as a person. There have been a lot of saints who would have been murder to live with. That doesn't mean they are not saints.

Anyway, that's how I began to feel about Belloc.

Guess I'll stick with Chesterton. I never get tired of hanging around with him.

Lesser-Known GKC

Those looking for less familiar essays by Chesterton should note that he contributed to The Venture, a highbrow literary annual edited by W. Somerset Maugham and Lawrence Houseman. The Venture was an expensive production, and only two issues appeared—the 1903 and 1904 editions, respectively. [Ted Morgan, Maugham, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980, pp. 93-94] Incidentally, Chesterton's 1903 contribution, "The Philosophy of Islands," was reprinted in The Spice of Life (1964).

Weekend thoughts........

This is very cool......OT History

An awesome interview of Fr. Schall, SJ
and is continued here.

I chose these two things with intention. Fr. Schall is very "progressive" in how he seamlessly blends classical philosophy, Aquinas, and a literary life with the problems and questions of today -- which are really the problems and questions of every day. Fr. Schall can almost make tears come to the eyes.......for the beauty of the truth and the sadness of the Jesuit order. If Fr. Schall is what the Jesuit order was meant to be, and indeed was for much of its history, it would have been amazing to see in its finest flowering.

Link this to the discovery of archaeological evidence of the ancient history of the Hebrews.

Amazing at times to think of the shoulders we stand on.

A Presidential Clerihew

President James Polk
would rarely crack a joke.
But friends say he was quick
with a limerick.

CSL

New C.S. Lewis blog, and it's a big hitter, sponsored by HarperOne.

Some weekend thoughts.....

Life is getting very, very political now. There is a temptation at times to fall into the trap of thinking that political thought is actual reasoning. I found this little quiz as a fun thing to keep balanced with.

You’re St. Justin Martyr! You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

I'm really not sure which of the Fathers would be most Chestertonlike personality wise. Belloc and St. Jerome could easily be pictured together. Chesterton would most likely match best with.....St Justin Martyr? My knowledge of the Fathers isnt quite what it should be. I know controversies, and the names associated with them, but little about personalities beyond the heavies (St. Augustine, St. Basil) There is a certain Eastern-ness to Chesterton which leads me to suspect that he might be most closely mirrored by one of the Greek or Alexandrian writers.

Interesting thought at least.

GKC and BBC

Sorry for my absence. I'm still not back up to full health, time-wise. In the meantime:

On December 7, 1936, the BBC, which had started in public television only five weeks before, broadcast a televised pantomime—directed and performed by Hilary D. C. Pepler, a Ditchling associate of Eric Gill. Originally the performance had been planned by Pepler and G.K. Chesterton as a benefit for the Distributist League and was produced at London's Little Theater on June 28, 1936, shortly after Chesterton's death. [Evans, America, December 26, 1987, pp. 501-02]

Huckabee cites Chesterton!

I know that Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been the subject of debate in Catholic circles and blogs - with supporters and detactors - but something he said should raise a smile among Chestertonians.

In his victory speech, Huckabee loosely quoted Chesterton: "A true soldier fights not because he hates those who are in front of him but because he loves those who are behind him."

(Actual GKC quote: "The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.")

Huckabee went on to say, "Running for office is not hating those who are in front of you but loving those who are behind you."

When was the last time a U.S. politician cited Chesterton?

A clerihew

Any foe of Andrew Jackson
who dared to make attacks on
Rachel, his wife,
was risking his life.

Family Legacy?

I made it into my thirties without knowing this........

Was at a family function and one of our geneologist buffs told me that we are related to one of the 2 men executed as warlocks at the Salem witch trials.

Not particularly surprising, really explains alot.

If I remember correctly, upon hearing of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, instituted by the Puritans to commemorate their leaving England, Chesterton wanted to institute a similar holiday in England, celebrating the fact that they left.

Merry Christmas - Book Things

Sorry to have missed my regular Friday.....holiday Chaos.

Local library just had overflow sale.........amazing deals

Hardcover 50cents
Softcover 25cents

They are just trying to offload. Ive picked up some amazing stuff over the years.

This year I picked up a hardcover edition of the complete poetical works of Milton, and some of his more important prose and political tracts. Also picked up a hardcover, gorgeously illustrated edition of Chaucer...in original middle English, but I can battle through it, I have contemporary editions of all the same material.

As far as GKCness.......Im making a resolution to read his small bio of Chaucer for New Years. I dont think it is very long regardless, just to get a feeling for his reactions.

And a QUESTION for the readership!!!

I got a $50 Barnes and Noble Gift Card for Christmas!!!

Im stumped what to do with it. Will take advice. Im leaning towards picking up a copy of Dore's Illustrations for Idylls of the King, but Ill take advice on what to do with the rest of it.

Thanks and God Bless.

A Christmas Carol

By G.K. Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary’s knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.