tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post116653932951181571..comments2023-07-31T10:39:53.182-05:00Comments on The Blog of the American Chesterton Society: Neck TiesNancy C. Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06169395014931291729noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-1166791349964862012006-12-22T06:42:00.000-06:002006-12-22T06:42:00.000-06:00RE the Sith: they may have meant anything but what...RE the Sith: they may have meant anything but what they said was hilarious! <BR/><BR/>Well, I hope that DNA tie was better than the billboard of a "double helix" for some college I saw last night. They're setting back molecular biology a century or so!<BR/><BR/>But regarding an attire matching one's subject: this actually happened when GKC was in America:<BR/><BR/>He was a lean brown man, having rather the look of a shabby tropical traveller, with a grey moustache and a lively and alert eye. But the most singular thing about him was that the front of his coat was covered with a multitude of shining metallic emblems made in the shape of stars and crescents. I was well accustomed by this time to Americans adorning the lapels of their coats with little symbols of various societies; it is a part of the American passion for the ritual of comradeship. There is nothing that an American likes so much as to have a secret society and to make no secret of it. But in this case, if I may put it so, the rash of symbolism seemed to have broken out all over the man, in a fashion that indicated that the fever was far advanced. Of this minor mystery, however, his first few sentences offered a provisional explanation. In answer to his question, touching my business in Oklahoma, I replied with restraint that I was lecturing. To which he replied without restraint, but with an expansive and radiant pride, 'I also am lecturing. I am lecturing on astronomy.'<BR/>[GKC WISIA CW21:172]Dr. Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04666301445831509481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-1166777818183054892006-12-22T02:56:00.000-06:002006-12-22T02:56:00.000-06:00What was meant, I think, by 'only the Sith deal in...What was meant, I think, by 'only the Sith deal in absolutes' is that the Sith are in essence a Jedi heresy, and they prefer, as GKC succinctly put it, 'their truth to <I>the</I> truth.' They're not willing to adapt their fundamental teaching to the complexity of the real world. Remember those Franciscans who almost made Francis a heresiarch?<BR/><BR/>Lucas actually made Star Wars to bring <I>back</I> the absolutes, in the sense of the eternal verities. In a way, it was a penance for an earlier script he wrote...Apocalypse Now.<BR/><BR/>And, Mrs. Brown, I, too, heartily approve of this Star Wars necktie; there was a lecture on television tonight on the Human Genome project, and the speaker had a tie with a DNA double-helix on it. One could easily wax Chestertonian about the sight of a thoroughly professorish little old man with his almost heraldic necktie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-1166591007129172762006-12-19T23:03:00.000-06:002006-12-19T23:03:00.000-06:00After seeing Star Wars III, I was on the side of t...After seeing Star Wars III, I was on the side of the Sith.Sean P. Daileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15601412713863673499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-1166569213909356622006-12-19T17:00:00.000-06:002006-12-19T17:00:00.000-06:00Why not GKC with a light saber?He'd make logical m...Why not GKC with a light saber?<BR/><BR/>He'd make logical mince-meat (perfect at this time of year!) from that "Only the Sith deal in absolutes!" <BR/><BR/>Oy. Where's Isaiah when you need him?<BR/><BR/>Hear, o ye distant galaxies, and submit, ye Sith and ye Jedi alike:<BR/><BR/>"Every argument begins with an infallible dogma, and that infallible dogma can only be disputed by falling back on some other infallible dogma; you can never prove first statement or it would not be your first."<BR/>[GKC <I>Daily News</I> June 22, 1907 quoted in Maycock, <I>The Man Who Was Orthodox</I>]<BR/><BR/>Or, to put it another way:<BR/><BR/>"There are two kinds of people in the world: the conscious dogmatists and the unconscious dogmatists. I have always found myself that the unconscious dogmatists were by far the most dogmatic."<BR/>[GKC <I>Generally Speaking</I> 22]<BR/><BR/>Note to Hollywood: Read some Chesterton. It might hurt going down at first, but it sure will help.Dr. Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04666301445831509481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-1166565915274351892006-12-19T16:05:00.000-06:002006-12-19T16:05:00.000-06:00Kurt's tie letter was the funniest letter we've go...Kurt's tie letter was the funniest letter we've gotten in a long time. <BR/><BR/>Note to <I>GM</I> readers: SEND US LETTERS! They will get printed, believe me. In my three-and-a-half years with the magazine, I have only rejected one letter, and that was because it contained an incredibly obscene reference to Bill Clinton.Sean P. Daileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15601412713863673499noreply@blogger.com