Manalive
September 24th 2007 02:38
GK Chesterton (the man that I have written so much about) has a great gift. He can use paradox in such a way that it makes sense.
Innocent Smith is a man caught in the perfect paradox. He is married and yet always chasing a woman. He is peaceful yet shoots at his closest friends. He is honest, and yet breaks into his own house and covets his own goods.
If that alone doesn't sell you on the book, there isn't much more I could add. Except the following.
Chesterton wrote at a time like we have now. The world was moving and changing, becoming smaller and men and women felt that so much of it was old, so much of it was no longer new or interesting. And yet, how much more interesting is the world everyday?
Innocent Smith's journey is the kind of journey every man should take, at least once in his life. His only great envy, is for the things that he has already. It is this envy, which is by no means to be mistaken for satisfaction for he is not satisfied, which powers him, and grants him the greatest of freedoms.
The ability to enjoy life.
JZ
Innocent Smith is a man caught in the perfect paradox. He is married and yet always chasing a woman. He is peaceful yet shoots at his closest friends. He is honest, and yet breaks into his own house and covets his own goods.
If that alone doesn't sell you on the book, there isn't much more I could add. Except the following.
Chesterton wrote at a time like we have now. The world was moving and changing, becoming smaller and men and women felt that so much of it was old, so much of it was no longer new or interesting. And yet, how much more interesting is the world everyday?
Innocent Smith's journey is the kind of journey every man should take, at least once in his life. His only great envy, is for the things that he has already. It is this envy, which is by no means to be mistaken for satisfaction for he is not satisfied, which powers him, and grants him the greatest of freedoms.
The ability to enjoy life.
JZ
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Comment by Always Eighteen
Always Eighteen
I'll have to look into that. Right now I'm reading "Vernon God Little," as recommended in a writer's workshop I went to.
Thanks for the link to the site. It's a really interesting article.
Comment by DuskDevi
Rugby World Cup 2007
Wow. That is paradoxical indeed.
This;
The ability to enjoy life.
...is a paradigm. Or should be.
I'm most certainly intrigued JZ...
Comment by JoshZ
Glad you liked it. That site usually has something interesting to read. Gives me something to do at work when there is no work to be done.
Chesterton's works still inspire alot of other english authors. Pratchett and Gaiman are two of them.
See you soon I hope.
JZ
Comment by JoshZ
One of the good things about the book is that it is a reasonably short and easy read. The paradoxic way that Chesterton writes is that while he may waffle on quite a bit, he does tend to say quite alot with only a few words.
Glad to see you here,
JZ