Latest Clerihew Submissions

I submitted the following Clerihews to Gilbert. They are on top of a batch I sent in June. Will any of them make it to print? I don't know. The next issue will feature clerihews from the Chesterton Conference, so maybe in the issue after that I might see one of them published.

Calixto Garcia
was writing a love note to a pretty senorita
when Andrew Rowan burst into his life
with a message Garcia feared might be from his jealous wife.

Erasmus
rode into London on a double-decker bus.
He was looking for a novelty store
to buy a foolish gift for Thomas More.

Giacomo Puccini
was enjoying some fettuccini.
But he stopped mid-bite when a Japanese butterfly
caught his eye.

Heroic Colonel Patrick O'Rorke
and his wife had dreams about a visit from the stork.
Alas, at Gettysburg he was undone,
and his widow later became a nun.

Brigadier General Strong Vincent
tended to stand out whatever he did and wherever he went.
At Gettysburg he bid the world goodbye
when he stood out on a boulder and got shot in the thigh.

This last one is an old one, but since he's been in the news lately, I included it. If nothing else, it might give the Minnesota folks at Gilbert a chuckle.

Governor Tim Walz
was enjoying some spaghetti and meatballs,
but then got a sick feeling in his belly
when an ad for tampons came on the telly.

Localism is Environmental

 "The only words that ever satisfied me as describing nature are the terms used in fairy books, charm, spell, enchantment; they express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery." - G. K. Chesterton

The Season of Creation began September 1 and will run through October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Ecology. 

A local parish celebrated the new Mass for Creation on September 1. The priest preached a homily about environmental concerns, and in the process made some comments that immediately made me think of Chesterton and localism.

Father decried large corporations, saying that they were concerned with profits, not with the effects their uni-crop/cash crop policies harm the environment. As part of that policy, they dose the land with chemical fertilizers that produce large crops in the short term but that damage the soil in the long run. He also said what is better is small, locally owned farms and business, as they encourage awareness of what is happening and care for the land, for the environment, and for their neighbors.

Very Chestertonian. 

As Chesterton emphasized, small, local ownership, and concern for what is near and local is the way to go. We become more aware of what lies around us. As he noted, "One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak."

And, of course, Chesterton had respect for the natural world, seeing it as a source of wonder, and as a manifestation of the spiritual.

“Nature is not natural. Nature is supernatural.”

I went up to the priest after Mass and asked if he was familiar with Chesterton and distributism/localism. He knew who Chesterton was, but did not seem to know a great deal about him. And it was clear he did not know anything about Chesterton's promotion of distributism.

Ah well, he at least he was thinking like Chesterton.

Overlooked Dystopian Novels

I recently saw a list of best dystopian novels, with dystopian fiction defined as "a genre that explores imagined societies where life is deeply flawed, oppressive, or dehumanizing, often as a critique of current social, political, or technological trends."

The list included many familiar titles, such as 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous 

Huxley, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. There are also some more contemporary titles such as The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I searched a few other lists and found such works as The Giver by Lois Lowry, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, and Divergent by Veronica Roth mentioned. There were other lists that cited some novels I'd heard of, but with which I was not familiar.

I noted some works that I would include on my list of favorite dystopian novels tended to be left off most of the "best" lists.

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis was mentioned on only one list. Ditto for A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. Lord of the World by Father Robert Hugh Benson was left off the lists. And my favorite novel by Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill, was left off as well. If I was compiling a list, I'd even include some of the novels of Michael D. O'Brien, such as Eclipse of the Sun and Plague Journal. 

I wonder if these works get overlooked because therer are Christian elements in them?

I've read many dystopian books, but certainly not all. So, my list of 10 favorites (not necessarily "the best"), in no particular order, is subject to change:

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller

Lord of the World by Father Robert Hugh Benson

The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton

Eclipse of the Sun by Michael D. O'Brien

1984 by George Orwell

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

C. S. Lewis and "The Everlasting Man"

"As for books, the very best popular defense of the full Christian position I know is G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man." - C. S. Lewis

Last night my wife and I watched Shadowlands - the excellent Anthony Hopkins/Debra Winger version. The movie depicts the relationship of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman (taking some theatrical liberties) from their meeting to just after her death. Winger was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal. 

In the movie, Lewis notes that they had both been atheists, but had found faith. In Lewis' case, Chesterton played a role. It was reading The Everlasting Man that helped him discover Christianity - along with his friendship with J. R. Tolkien. 

In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, Lewis talked about reading Chesterton.

"I had never heard of him and had no idea of what he stood for; nor can I quite understand why he made such an immediate conquest of me. It might have been expected that my pessimism, my atheism, and my hatred of sentiment would have made him to me the least congenial of all authors. It would almost seem that Providence, or some 'second cause' of a very obscure kind, quite overrules our previous tastes when it decides to bring to minds together. Liking an author may be as involuntary and improbable as falling in love."

That first encounter was with The Everlasting Man in 1925 while still an atheist.

“Then I read Chesterton’s Everlasting Man and for the first time saw the whole Christian outline of history set out in a form that seemed to me to make sense . . . I already thought Chesterton the most sensible man alive; apart from his Christianity; Now, I veritably believe, I thought that Christianity itself was very sensible; apart from its Christianity.” 

He recommended the book to others, as he did in the quote at the top of this entry. In 1963, six months before he died, he observed in God in the Dock, “The contemporary book that has helped me the most is Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man.” 

Chesterton and Dostoyevsky

 “The one thing this Russian loves is Liberty. The one place where he finds it is in … no, not Christianity… Christ. Compared with that, he cares nothing for anything.” - G. K. Chesterton

I recently finished reading Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Possessed (also called The Devils). It was one of my reading goals for this year. It also means I have now read all of Dostoyevsky's four great novels, the other three being The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, and Crime and Punishment. (I've also read Notes from the Underground.)

As I read it, I couldn't help thinking about the current socialist upsurge in the Democratic Party in the United States. His satire of the radicals/socialists in Russia could easily be applied to our progressives today.

I knew that Chesterton, like me, appreciated Dostoyevsky. He once wrote that Dostoyevsky "was one of the two or three greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. And he cared for nothing but Christ who had made him free. It is worth thinking about.”

I found a lecture that even dealt with Chesterton and Dostoyevsky. 

https://youtu.be/2v2pEyoU8ps?si=pUfomTC4KZ4ymR0Y

Nobel Committee Considered Tolkien Unworthy

 

In 1961, the Nobel Prize committee rejected J. R. R. Tolkien for the Literature Prize, deeming his work as unworthy.

The prize jury said his works had "not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality".

Tolkien had been nominated for the prize by C. S. Lewis. The nomination had come after The Lord of the Rings trilogy had been published - The Return of the King, the last volume, came out in 1955. The committee said LOTR was “not comparable to works of the highest literary quality.”

He was nominated again in 1967 and 1969 after LOTR had developed a wider following - but he was rejected again.

Apparently, they did not like fantasy.

Ironically, by the end of the 20th Century and early in the 21st Century The Lord of the Rings topped many polls as the most significant or greatest book of the 20th Century.

 

Six Catholic Authors

 

Some friends made the list!

6 great Christian authors (and how to start reading them) - Catholic Courier