![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the garden of the witch
Oct. 31st, 2020 12:42 amWhether it be because the Fall has really brought men nearer to less desirable neighbours in the spiritual world, or whether it is merely that the mood of men eager or greedy finds it easier to imagine evil, I believe that the black magic of witchcraft has been much more practical and much less poetical than the white magic of mythology. I fancy the garden of the witch has been kept much more carefully than the woodland of the nymph. I fancy the evil field has even been more fruitful than the good. To start with, some impulse, perhaps a sort of desperate impulse, drove men to the darker powers when dealing with practical problems. There was a sort of secret and perverse feeling that the darker powers would really do things; that they had no nonsense about them. And indeed that popular phase exactly expresses the point. The gods of mere mythology had a great deal of nonsense about them. They had a great deal of good nonsense about them; in the happy and hilarious sense in which we talk of the nonsense of Jabberwocky or the Land where Jumblies live. But the man consulting a demon felt as many a man has felt in consulting a detective, especially a private detective; that it was dirty work but the work would really be done. A man did not exactly go into the wood to meet a nymph; he rather went with the hope of meeting a nymph. It was an adventure rather than an assignation. But the devil really kept his appointments and even in one sense kept his promises; even if a man sometimes wished afterwards, like Macbeth, that he had broken them.
― G.K. Chesterton
― G.K. Chesterton
If a boy fires off a gun
Oct. 29th, 2019 10:32 pmIf a boy fires off a gun, whether at a fox, a landlord or a reigning sovereign, he will be rebuked according to the relative value of these objects. But if he fires off a gun for the first time it is very likely that he will not expect the recoil, or know what a heavy knock it can give him. He may go blazing away through life at these and similar objects in the landscape; but he will be less and less surprised by the recoil; that is, by the reaction. He may even dissuade his little sister of six from firing off one of the heavy rifles designed for the destruction of elephants; and will thus have the appearance of being himself a reactionary. Very much the same principle applies to firing off the big guns of revolution. It is not a man's ideals that change; it is not his Utopia that is altered; the cynic who says, "You will forget all that moonshine of idealism when you are older," says the exact opposite of the truth. The doubts that come with age are not about the ideal, but about the real. And one of the things that are undoubtedly real is reaction: that is, the practical probability of some reversal of direction, and of our partially succeeding in doing the opposite of what we mean to do. What experience does teach us is this: that there is something in the make-up and mechanism of mankind, whereby the result of action upon it is often unexpected, and almost always more complicated than we expect.
― G.K. Chesterton
― G.K. Chesterton
The Illustrated London News, 1920-1922
Jun. 19th, 2018 09:10 pmThe Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 32: The Illustrated London News, 1920-1922 by G.K. Chesterton
All sorts of essays. (Also an appendix with the ones written by Belloc while Chesterton was in America.)
Hits all sorts of topics. Poland. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. How the women of his day were reacting against the Victorian woman without noticing that she had been reacting against earlier women more like them. How America is a separate country. Einstein and abuse of the term "relativity." And more.
All sorts of essays. (Also an appendix with the ones written by Belloc while Chesterton was in America.)
Hits all sorts of topics. Poland. The Mystery of Edwin Drood. How the women of his day were reacting against the Victorian woman without noticing that she had been reacting against earlier women more like them. How America is a separate country. Einstein and abuse of the term "relativity." And more.
true colors
Jun. 15th, 2018 11:08 pmI suspect that it refers to that friend of our childhood, the prince of the old folk tale; the young man who travels for seven miles and comes to seven gates guarded by seven dragons, and passes through all sorts of perils, which are marked at once by moral heroism and mathematical symmetry. It is he who is to be exhibited in as a despot and oppressor; as a despot of elfland and an oppressor of seven-headed dragons. As he is rather a remote as well as a romantic figure, it may be a little difficult for historians to discover what were his true colours. His true colours, so far as I am concerned, are silver and gold and crimson, and all the colours of the rainbow.
G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
The Illustrated London News, 1917-1919
Jun. 5th, 2018 08:05 pmThe Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 31: The Illustrated London News, 1917-1919 by G.K. Chesterton
More war. Lots and lots of war. America's entry. Russia's removal -- which actually had him going about Bolshevists for a time. And finally, the peace. Which changed the war-related essays and in due course had them ease off into the variety of topics. Such as Prohibition, Napoleon, history -- and Bolshevists.
More war. Lots and lots of war. America's entry. Russia's removal -- which actually had him going about Bolshevists for a time. And finally, the peace. Which changed the war-related essays and in due course had them ease off into the variety of topics. Such as Prohibition, Napoleon, history -- and Bolshevists.
The Illustrated London News 1914-1916
Jun. 2nd, 2018 07:00 pmThe Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 30: The Illustrated London News 1914-1916 by G.K. Chesterton
This opens much like the prior ones. Essays about the usefulness of books for education, because unlike an excellent schoolmaster, a book can be reproduced, and talk from history, about a pope, and some other topics.
Then, of course, WWI. The transition to war is interesting because, of course, he didn't have to explain the current events. (You get that sort of jar in all sorts of collections of incidental writings, from complete ignorance to assuming knowledge; it's interesting.) And thereafter war is the topic of the essays. The effect of regulations on alcohol on soldiers (he tried to help them evade one by ordering the drinks they had tried to); conscription; a claimed massacre of Romanian soldiers by Germans -- claimed by the Germans who didn't' want to admit that most got away instead of being captured (though their captures of guns indicated they were lying); German atrocities, on which he certainly gives the British mood; insisting that Germany can not be permitted to keep what it conquered to make peace, and more.
This opens much like the prior ones. Essays about the usefulness of books for education, because unlike an excellent schoolmaster, a book can be reproduced, and talk from history, about a pope, and some other topics.
Then, of course, WWI. The transition to war is interesting because, of course, he didn't have to explain the current events. (You get that sort of jar in all sorts of collections of incidental writings, from complete ignorance to assuming knowledge; it's interesting.) And thereafter war is the topic of the essays. The effect of regulations on alcohol on soldiers (he tried to help them evade one by ordering the drinks they had tried to); conscription; a claimed massacre of Romanian soldiers by Germans -- claimed by the Germans who didn't' want to admit that most got away instead of being captured (though their captures of guns indicated they were lying); German atrocities, on which he certainly gives the British mood; insisting that Germany can not be permitted to keep what it conquered to make peace, and more.
The Illustrated London News, 1908-1910
May. 17th, 2018 09:59 pmThe Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 28: The Illustrated London News, 1908-1910 by G.K. Chesterton
More newspaper columns.
Ruminating on the report of a leprechaun taken to a workhouse; discussion of good stories ruined by great authors; various current events, such as a visit from Carrie Nation, and more.
In Chesterton's grand style.
More newspaper columns.
Ruminating on the report of a leprechaun taken to a workhouse; discussion of good stories ruined by great authors; various current events, such as a visit from Carrie Nation, and more.
In Chesterton's grand style.
The Illustrated London News, 1905-1907
May. 12th, 2018 10:11 pmThe Collected Works of G.K.Chesterton Volume 27: The Illustrated London News, 1905-1907 by G.K. Chesterton
A collection of newspaper columns. And like all such books, it has a certain interest in looking back at the issues of the day. For instance, teetotalers objecting a brewer as Lord Mayor. Defenses of various ceremonies and rituals retaining the full ceremony. Oxford and Cambridge as playgrounds for the rich. The dishonesty of the Yellow Press. Referring to the King of England. And more.
All in Chesterton's style.
A collection of newspaper columns. And like all such books, it has a certain interest in looking back at the issues of the day. For instance, teetotalers objecting a brewer as Lord Mayor. Defenses of various ceremonies and rituals retaining the full ceremony. Oxford and Cambridge as playgrounds for the rich. The dishonesty of the Yellow Press. Referring to the King of England. And more.
All in Chesterton's style.
As I Was Saying
Oct. 22nd, 2015 07:28 pmAs I Was Saying by G.K. Chesterton
A collection of his essays. Rather random at that. Advice about writing mysteries, or as they were termed, shockers. Discussion of wedding ceremonies. Metaphors. Silly language in newspapers.
Can be a surprise when an essay is easily dated by its topical references to politics -- this was published in the 1930s.
A collection of his essays. Rather random at that. Advice about writing mysteries, or as they were termed, shockers. Discussion of wedding ceremonies. Metaphors. Silly language in newspapers.
Can be a surprise when an essay is easily dated by its topical references to politics -- this was published in the 1930s.
essays by Chesterton
Mar. 23rd, 2015 10:54 pmRead two more of his selected essays. On somewhat random topics. . . .
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
from "The Shop of Ghosts"
Dec. 23rd, 2014 10:09 pmI went into the shop and tried to buy wooden soldiers. The man in the shop was very old and broken, with confused white hair covering his head and half his face, hair so startlingly white that it looked almost artificial. Yet though he was senile and even sick, there was nothing of suffering in his eyes; he looked rather as if he were gradually falling asleep in a not unkindly decay. He gave me the wooden soldiers, but when I put down the money he did not at first seem to see it; then he blinked at it feebly, and then he pushed it feebly away.
"No, no," he said vaguely. "I never have. I never have. We are rather old-fashioned here."
( Read more... )
"No, no," he said vaguely. "I never have. I never have. We are rather old-fashioned here."
( Read more... )
The Secret of a Train
Oct. 31st, 2014 07:14 amAs I crossed the country everything was ghostly and colourless. The fields that should have been green were as grey as the skies; the tree-tops that should have been green were as grey as the clouds and as cloudy.( Read more... )
All Is Grist
Oct. 8th, 2014 09:03 pmAll Is Grist: A Book of Essays by G.K. Chesterton
As the title promises, a collection of essays that Chesterton wrote on a whole lot of topics.
( Read more... )
As the title promises, a collection of essays that Chesterton wrote on a whole lot of topics.
( Read more... )
Tremendous Trifles
Jul. 29th, 2014 10:10 pmTremendous Trifles by G. K. Chesterton
A collection of essays in which Chesterton holds forth on all sorts of topics -- some actually trifling, some not -- in a vast, expansive manner. Not for people not in a mood for whimsy.
( Read more... )
A collection of essays in which Chesterton holds forth on all sorts of topics -- some actually trifling, some not -- in a vast, expansive manner. Not for people not in a mood for whimsy.
( Read more... )
The Defendant
Apr. 16th, 2014 09:42 pmThe Defendant by G.K. Chesterton
An amusing collection of essays, all of which are entitled "A Defence of something". Indeed the introduction is "In Defense of a New Edition."
( Read more... )
An amusing collection of essays, all of which are entitled "A Defence of something". Indeed the introduction is "In Defense of a New Edition."
( Read more... )
The Thing by G.K. Chesterton
( Read more... )
It will be naturally objected to the publication of these papers that they are ephemeral and that they are controversial. In other words, the normal critic will at once dismiss them as too frivolous and dislike them as too serious.
( Read more... )
Chesterton's Fence
Jan. 25th, 2014 05:26 pmI have heard the principle of Chesterton's Fence propounded in many places. Explaining to young lawyers why a confusing wording and an apparently superfluous clause should be taken seriously and not just junked. Discussing why certain aspects of the tax code are the way they are.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
All Things Considered
Jan. 25th, 2014 01:38 pmAll Things Considered by G. K. Chesterton
A collection of essays about odds-and-ends of the era. His first essay is on the empheral and how insignificant the essays all are -- and how their worst fault is that they are so serious, since he could not expend the effort to make them funny.
( Read more... )
A collection of essays about odds-and-ends of the era. His first essay is on the empheral and how insignificant the essays all are -- and how their worst fault is that they are so serious, since he could not expend the effort to make them funny.
( Read more... )
The Man Who Was Thursday
Jun. 23rd, 2013 06:20 pmThe Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton
Once upon a time, at an artistic colony in London, the usual poet, an anarchist named Gregory, was challenged by a newcomer who professed to be a poet of law, named Syme. During their debate, Syme said that Gregory's anarchism was insincere.
( Read more... )
Once upon a time, at an artistic colony in London, the usual poet, an anarchist named Gregory, was challenged by a newcomer who professed to be a poet of law, named Syme. During their debate, Syme said that Gregory's anarchism was insincere.
( Read more... )
