Regina, I could say that I like this post six ways from Sunday, but today is Sunday. One reason for delaying a while to read it is knowing in advance that it would set me trekking off into byways.
Where to begin? Best perhaps to clear the decks with a complaint - one that certainly reflects more on me than on Chesterton. I can only take him in small doses. When I try to read Chesterton straight on, the density of his apercus turns into a blur, and I lose interest. Here, for example, you give us one snappy - and utterly true quotation - at a time, and I delighted in each. But run them all together, and I lose the thread. Also, when run together, they begin to seem too pat.
Nonetheless, that said, Chesterton's knack for giving us deep truths in nutshells is amazing. Belloc, a contemporary of his I think, has a like knack, but generally in an easier narrative flow. Easier for me anyway.
Your overview here is just about perfect - complete, focused, succinct. Especially I liked: "marital purity and childlikeness in an age slipping into darkness." The book you mentioned co-authoring, The Chestertons and the Golden Key, is new to me, and fits right in there. I've put it in a TAN Books cart to order PDQ. I haven't known much at all about C's life story, and nothing about his wife, and thoroughly enjoyed the fit and fitness of what you told.
I'm sure you remember "The men of the East may spell the stars/ and times and triumphs mark,/ But the men signed of the cross of Christ/ go gaily in the dark." A sudden glimpse of Chesterton at the outset of Shadow of the Bear, lighting up motifs of heritage and schooling and warfare. After my second pass through Shadow, I tracked the quote down, and read the entire Ballad of the White Horse. It seemed and seems to me a thread through much of your work. Actually, when I think about it, it seems consonant still with what you're up to in these Recovery Journals..
Much later, when I began to read Michael D. O'Brien, I encountered the same white horse - the Uffington hill figure of a white horse dating from Alfred's astonishing defeat of the Danes - set as a neo-pagan lure in Anne Delaney's childhood at the beginning of O'Brien's "Strangers and Sojourners." It struck me - surprised me! - as a similar, subtle announcement of underrunning spiritual struggles.
Chesterton again, telling us what kind of story we are in. A bell sounding early in the work of each of my two favorite novelists. Go figure.
Regina, I could say that I like this post six ways from Sunday, but today is Sunday. One reason for delaying a while to read it is knowing in advance that it would set me trekking off into byways.
Where to begin? Best perhaps to clear the decks with a complaint - one that certainly reflects more on me than on Chesterton. I can only take him in small doses. When I try to read Chesterton straight on, the density of his apercus turns into a blur, and I lose interest. Here, for example, you give us one snappy - and utterly true quotation - at a time, and I delighted in each. But run them all together, and I lose the thread. Also, when run together, they begin to seem too pat.
Nonetheless, that said, Chesterton's knack for giving us deep truths in nutshells is amazing. Belloc, a contemporary of his I think, has a like knack, but generally in an easier narrative flow. Easier for me anyway.
Your overview here is just about perfect - complete, focused, succinct. Especially I liked: "marital purity and childlikeness in an age slipping into darkness." The book you mentioned co-authoring, The Chestertons and the Golden Key, is new to me, and fits right in there. I've put it in a TAN Books cart to order PDQ. I haven't known much at all about C's life story, and nothing about his wife, and thoroughly enjoyed the fit and fitness of what you told.
I'm sure you remember "The men of the East may spell the stars/ and times and triumphs mark,/ But the men signed of the cross of Christ/ go gaily in the dark." A sudden glimpse of Chesterton at the outset of Shadow of the Bear, lighting up motifs of heritage and schooling and warfare. After my second pass through Shadow, I tracked the quote down, and read the entire Ballad of the White Horse. It seemed and seems to me a thread through much of your work. Actually, when I think about it, it seems consonant still with what you're up to in these Recovery Journals..
Much later, when I began to read Michael D. O'Brien, I encountered the same white horse - the Uffington hill figure of a white horse dating from Alfred's astonishing defeat of the Danes - set as a neo-pagan lure in Anne Delaney's childhood at the beginning of O'Brien's "Strangers and Sojourners." It struck me - surprised me! - as a similar, subtle announcement of underrunning spiritual struggles.
Chesterton again, telling us what kind of story we are in. A bell sounding early in the work of each of my two favorite novelists. Go figure.