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Chesterton has experienced quite a revival over the past couple of decades. The is even a Chesterton Society devoted to honoring his legacy. Given his impact on
by jawns 5y ago
Chesterton has experienced quite a revival over the past couple of decades. The is even a Chesterton Society devoted to honoring his legacy. Given his impact on the early 20th century, the bigger surprise is not the revival but the fact that he became so quickly forgotten in the first place.
I enjoy both his fiction and nonfiction. He introduced me to distributism, an economic system that I have become a strong advocate for. He had a lot to say about Catholicism that I have found very insightful.
Yet I have always known that he had his flaws. He was a blowhard, and he admitted as much. The charges of anti-Semitism need to be acknowledged. The writer Dawn Eden, who credits Chesterton in part with her conversion from Judaism to Catholicism, has recently been tweeting about how she has continued to wrestle with this aspect of Chesterton.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- billfruit 5y agoHow does he compare to Stevenson, Bennett, Gissing, Lawrence and James.
- pwdisswordfish8 5y ago> The charges of anti-Semitism need to be acknowledged. Does it? He's dead. What's with the ever-present compulsion to linger, especially by social media medalists bent on writing volumes? What is there even to say? "Anti-Semitism is bad, folks." "Okay." I kind of assume that most historical figures were a piece of shit in some way. (Fun fact: even in cases where the assumption doesn't hold up, the effect is null; there is no downside to starting from this assumption and letting yourself be wrong.) Doesn't everyone else? Or has everyone been living their lives this whole time thinking any differently, so these kinds of things come as a shock, rather than being the expectation?
- Banana699 5y agoIt's part of the "Everything Is Political" trend, as in "how dare you have any conversation that doesn't involve my favorite grievience X" where X usually ranges over a certain well-known set of problems of the general forms ism and phobic, among other things. You can't straightforwardly enjoy a TV show, a game, a football match, a philosophical or literary work, or literally any other piece of somebody's mind or soul now if that person is Problematic^TM. At best you can get away with a "I know it sounds crazy but me reading this author doesn't necessarily mean I agree with every logical proposition that ever left their mouth so plz don't shoot" ritual, at worst... well there is no worst, everyday is a new low.
- pfdietz 5y agoHe was famously against eugenics long before that was the accepted position.