The Man Who Was Thursday - Chap. 7 & 8

NEXT DEADLINE: One week from Monday - two more chapters.

Discussion Points

1) Chapter 7 of Thursday seems a little drawn out at first read. But something occurred to me during this section that I had temporarily forgotten in my analysis of the work: this story is supposedly an allegory. Now, that's not to say that every system will have a one-to-one meaning; but, nonetheless, the "symbolism" of this chapter is intriguing if you're looking for allegorical interpretation. Syme is being pursued through a thickening snowstorm which obscures his sight by a German Nihilist named "de Worms" and finally comes to confront his feared pursuer under the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. Hrmmm...

I would also like to note that I made several literary associations while reading this chapter. I was reminded almost immediately of a passage in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy from the second book, Perelandra. In the book, Doctor Ransom (the protagonist) is pursued by a demon-inhabited man whose physical description and lame gait bear a striking resemblance to Professor de Worms. This passage in Lewis is itself rather similar to Tolkien's description of Gandalf's battle with the Balrog (fire-demon) of Morgoth in Kazaad-dum in The Lord of the Rings. Both these works come after Thursday. The scene also reminds one of an earlier piece of literature, however: "The Hound of Heaven" - a poem by Francis Thompson. Thompson, incidentally, died the year Thursday was published. Chesterton was certainly aware of him, and, if my memory serves, was an admirer of his. It would be interesting to research as to what month in 1907 Thompson died, and what month Chesterton finished writing this book...

Anyway: general comments on this chapter, and its potential symbolism, would be appreciated.

2) A purely literary note about Chapter 7: it struck me at first that Chesterton wrote "dialectically" for the character Gogol. The tactic seemed a little out of place given Chesterton's style. Gogol's being a spy helped to make sense of why this point was accented - pun intended. Thoughts?

3) Chapter 8 is my favorite so far. I laughed aloud through "the imposter's" entire description of how he came to be the famous German Nihilist. Re-reading still provides me with plenty chuckles - particularly as a philosophy student.

4) This chapter is full of Chestertonian tangents - little philosophical points subtly (or not so subtly) inserted into his narrative. I will draw attention to two particularly. But please do try to find more and point them out for the rest of us. The first is rather blatant, the second more suave.

Through all this ordeal [Syme's] root horror had been isolation, and there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy.

Brilliant. And so completely Chesterton. I love the gratuitous swipe at empiricism, too.

I understood that he had proved that the destructive principle in the universe was God; hence he insisted on the need for a furious and incessant energy, rending all things in pieces. Energy, he said, was the All. He was lame, shortsighted, and partially paralytic.

This one is a little harder to catch. I ran swiftly by it my first read. But there is a great irony here: a feeble, almost motionless nihilist inisting on the need for a furious and incessant energy. Which reminds me that I need to blog again about Stephen Hawking... but that will be later.

Happy reading!