I heard that a reviewer pointed out that that book had only one date, and it was wrong. But this might have been in reference to Belloc.



A guy like that just doesn't have time to stop and do footnotes or make a bibliography - his mind is simply moving too quickly. I've heard it said (by contemporaries who want to classify every kind of genius as being some sort of syndrome) that Chesterton likely had Asperger's (mild form of autism). He was like Mozart, who just transcribed his music straight from his head to the manuscript paper with hardly a change or an erasure. They say his manuscripts are immaculate, whereas Beethoven's are blotted with many scratchings-out and revisions and marks of angry frustration. For Beethoven composition was grueling work accompanied by much self-doubt. For Mozart it was a lark.

met the shark.

It was a long winter.

GKC

From what little I know of Asperger's, I doubt it. One thing Chesterton was quite good at was interacting in social situations, for example. And his range of inteersts was not restricted (he did like toy theaters, though). OTOH, he was clumsy.

As to whether he wrote effortlessly, I can't recall. He certainly could write anywhere (and speak or write, literally, on any topic). I remember the waiter who observed him writing a piece in the cafe; that Chesterton would sit and laugh, then write, then laugh at what he had written. I suppose it does suggest the sort of facility that Mozart showed.

GKC

I thought the same.



He'd certainly be on the top of the guest list of any party I might have thrown, were i an aristocrat in early 20th century London.



What a marvelous picture. You can certainly hear him reveling in his own talent and discoveries - not in a self-laudatory sense, but in the sense that a fine composer enjoys his own music - because he realizes that it's not entirely (or even mostly) his own.

As usual, you got it.


GKC

Amazingly enough, I happen to have a video of Beethoven composing! Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Ugqh471IE

That's great, Doom. Thanks.

I am now reading the German Ideology from Marx, having just read his Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844.

I have to say that the latter were quite enjoyable, and really present Marx in a very different light than I was used to thinking of him (he comes out against communal marriage, praises marriage as the most natural relation, and rather than positing class warfare as a principle, he looks to the alienation of the worker from his labour...something I agree with which is scary, though I deny his connecting it necessarily to private property)

I'm reading, "Anger Kills".

He's one of my favorite saints, sounds like a great little book! Am looking for one on a saint to read next.

I'm also reading "Imitation of Christ"(have been on and off), and a booklet on suffering by the Little Flower.

Are you saying that Marx wasn't a Marxist?

No. He became a communist because he connects the alienation of labour to private property per se. Class warfare, moreover, arises out of this in an industrial setting.

Later on, in the German Ideology, while still stating that marriage is the first relation of man and therefore the most natural, he has progressed to the point of seeing that relation evolve into the tribe, town, state and ultimately man universally, so that he holds that communism per se means the abolition of the family, not as something unnatural, but as something superceded.

My surprise was to find the basis in something which even Adam Smith decries, the dehumanizing of man through labour.

I see. Thanks for the gloss. Chesterton and Belloc (the Distributionists) said that Marxism was the natural reaction to Capitalism - the opposite evil. Of course they were still looking at things from the early 20th century, when the evils of 19th century Capitalism (Dickens) had become so readily apparent, and were heavily inspired and influenced by Rerum Novarum. Now it would seem we've established a sort of equilibrium by counter-acting extreme Capitalism with the diluted poison-as-antedote of Socialism in controlled doses. But have we? I'm not so sure.

No, we haven't. We have in the sense of material needs in America (but keep in mind many of our goods are made in other countries...in China 7 day work weeks, 14 hours a day, with $30 a month are not uncommon)

Adam Smith said it rightly, I think, when profits are soaring the economy does badly...because it usually means low wages. Hence China is having a boom profit-wise.

I think what Adam Smith brought up about the division of labour making man as stupid as a creature can be is not wholly erased either. If anything we have moved from capitalism as Smith saw it to consumerism. I guess if you wanted to be Hegelian you could see division of labour as dumbing down man and then preparing him for slavish consumerism.

I just started reading Come Be My Light by Mother Teresa.

Sara

Bumping this back on top.

Recently read:

Why I became a Priest. It is a book with small essays from Priests why they became Priests. Some of the essays where very good. Perhaps a book for those quite early in discernment, or just interested in what a Priest does.

Hostage to the Devil - Malachi Martin a very exciting book. It had some explicit sexual "scenes" that I didn't exactly like though.

Currently reading

Of the imitation of Christ - Thomas À Kempis A very good book, and I understand why this is such a classic. However I don't feel I have given it the time it deserves, because each small chapter needs to be digested thoroughly

How to be happy, how to by holy - Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P A book about prayer-life. Written in a very good and simple language. Makes me consider the praying I do more thoroughly

I am reading a book on St. Teresa of Avila - God Alone Suffices by Jean-Jacques Antier. The first Carmel my grandmother and I went to was named after her, at Coimbra, Portugal.

That's where Sister Lucy, who saw Our Lady of Fatima, lived.

A history of the unification of Italy (Pius IX, Leo XIII), the latest Gene Wolfe fantasy, and a history of British sea-power. When I pick up my book on Ronald Knox's apologetics today, I expect it will knock the sea-power book to the second row.

GKC

'On Englishing the Bible' by Ronald Knox