Avowals and Denials

[marycatelli]

Avowals and Denials - A Book of Essays by G.K. Chesterton

A selection of essays written by Chesterton in 1934.  More or less topical.

It helps, for instance, to know that Japan was already invading China at this point.  That the Loch Ness monster was much talked about at the time does not actually bear on his essay and his observation that it was, after all, said to be basically a big snake and so there was nothing "mystical" about it.  Other topics include the sentimental cynicism of his day, so exquisitely sensitive as to be unable to endure the mention of anything deemed sentimental, or how Prohibition was fossilized Puritanism in a very precise sense -- like a fossil fish, it was just the shape, none of the original -- and how young people are deceived by not having seen much history and so taking old things as new, and not realizing how things change back.

Comments

[jbellinger]

http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/Avowals_and_Denials.html

[marycatelli]

Yup!

[persephone_kore]

and how young people are deceived by not having seen much history and so taking old things as new, and not realizing how things change back.

Ouch.

I did not like history much as a subject, and I've gained more of an appreciation for it as valuable but... it's still hard to embrace, and the challenge of learning this is probably part of it. I was reading Sayers on the time between the World Wars, the other day, and kept ending up in tears.

[marycatelli]

Such perspectives can get -- interesting.