The Defendant (Winter, 2016)

The DEFENDANT Newsletter of the Australian Chesterton Society Vol. 23 No. 3 Winter 2016 Issue No. 90 ‘I have found that humanity is not The Unexpected incidentally engaged, but eternally and Chestertonians systematically engaged, by Karl Schmude in throwing gold into the Chesterton had a singular gift for inspiring gutter and diamonds into and not simply influencing his readers. Mahatma Gandhi the sea. ; therefore I Most, one would assume, were people who have imagined that the instinctively shared his perspectives and main business of man, values, but there were also those who would however humble, is have to be regarded as surprisingly affected defence. I have conceived by his writings. that a defendant is chiefly Two such figures were Mahatma Gandhi required when worldlings and Michael Collins. Both played a crucial Michael Collins despise the world – that part in the independence movements of a counsel for the defence their respective countries, India and Ireland, Gandhi was deeply impressed by an article would not have been out and both acknowledged the inspirational on Indian nationalism that Chesterton of place in the terrible day impact of Chesterton at decisive moments wrote for the Illustrated London News in in their lives. 1909. when the sun was darkened over Calvary and Man was rejected of men.’ Come to Campion - for the 2016 Conference The next conference of the Australian Chesterton Society will take place at Campion College on G.K. Chesterton, ‘Introduction’, Saturday, October 29, and a flyer is inserted with this issue of The Defendant. The Defendant (1901) The Unexpected One of the papers will focus on Chesterton and Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), the American Chestertonians Catholic writer of novels and short stories. A long-time student of both authors, Gary Furnell, Pages 1-2 will compare them, exploring several themes, including their different depictions of the spiritual significance of violence – as he outlines in this summary. Documenting Chesterton’s Writings: An Interview With His Bibliographer Violence was not incidental to O’Connor but Pages 3-4 central to her purpose of getting humanity’s attention to the great issues of life and death. Chesterton at But for Chesterton, violence was more incidental Campion College and the action of grace was largely cerebral, as in Page 5 many of the Father Brown stories where a dead The Most Famous body is discovered and the story then revolves Chesterton Quote – But Was around Father Brown’s observations and thought- it Chesterton’s? processes. It’s a more rationally-based elucidation Page 6 of some aspect of grace rather than a traumatic Walking in the Path Flannery O’Connor and intuitive stab of grace. of Belloc Page 7 In O’Connor’s fiction, violent bodily trauma alerts the person’s dull spirit to its own lostness. Christopher Hitchens, Latin In Chesterton’s fiction, a crisis of conscience or reason alerts the person to the need of grace Literature, and Peter Craven or truth. Page 8 The DEFENDANT 1 WINTER 2016 ‘The principal weakness of Indian Nationalism,’ argued Collins was especially struck by an utterance of the anarchist Chesterton, ‘seems to be that it is not very Indian and not very in Thursday – that ‘if you didn’t seem to be hiding nobody national.’ In his judgment, the movement was too much of hunted you out.’ The idea of concealing oneself by not a reaction against British imperialism, leading to an adoption concealing oneself led Collins to move openly around Dublin of British models, and not sufficiently imbued with the ideals while engaging in covert struggle against British authorities. and traditions of Indian culture. On the centenary of Thursday in 2008, the American journalist There is, Chesterton wrote, ‘a national distinction between a Allen Barra noted in the Wall Street Journal that the novel was people asking for its own ancient life and a people asking for largely ignored when it first appeared, but that, in time, it things that have been wholly invented by somebody else.’ attracted an enormous cult following. Gandhi was reportedly thunderstruck by the article. He It appealed to people whom one might have expected were translated it into his native Gujarati language and, as recounted not natural admirers of Chesterton. One was George Orwell by P.N. Furbank in G.K. Chesterton: A Centenary Appraisal who, while notably anti-Catholic, praised The Napoleon of (1974), was spurred to write the book Hind Swaraj [Indian Notting Hill, a work that Chesterton wrote in 1904 but which Home Rule], in which he first outlined a specifically ‘Indian’ was set in the year 1984. solution to the problems facing his country. A second was Franz Kafka, the German-Czech novelist of As Furbank suggested: alienation and existential gloom, who famously said that Chesterton was ‘so happy that one might almost believe he had ‘Thus you might argue, not quite absurdly, that India owed its found God.’ independence, or at least the manner in which it came, to an (http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123032986340736063) article thrown off by Chesterton in half-an-hour in a Fleet Street pub.’ How remarkable that any writer could claim a fan club that includes an Indian pacifist of Hindu background, an Irish Chesterton and Irish Independence Catholic revolutionary, an English writer of agnostic leanings, and a German-Czech novelist of Jewish tradition - as well Michael Collins was similarly inspired by Chesterton. He read as many others, including even Christian apologists such as the novels, The Napoleon of Notting Hill and The Man Who Was C.S. Lewis! Thursday, and his youthful imagination was captivated by Chesterton’s vision of local loyalties, which activated Collins’ sense of Irish national identity. For the information on Gandhi, I am indebted to an informative At the 1921 peace talks between Ireland and Britain, Collins blog of the American Chesterton Society in 2009, contributed by told a British official that he had learned much from The Nancy C. Brown. Man Who Was Thursday; and, hearing of this, the Prime (http://americanchestertonsociety.blogspot.com.au/2009/01/ Minister Lloyd George gave copies of Chesterton’s book to gandhi-reference.html). his Cabinet colleagues to provide insight into the mind of the The blog contains many additional details of interest on the Irish nationalist leader. Chesterton-Gandhi connection. Executive of the Australian Society Membership Chesterton Society The annual membership fee of the Australian PRESIDENT and EDITOR of ‘The Defendant’ Chesterton Society is $25.00. Mr Karl Schmude, 177 Erskine Street, Armidale NSW 2350 Subscriptions may be sent to the Secretary/Treasurer, Phone: 0407 721 458 Email: [email protected] Mr Ray Finnegan, at the address opposite, or by electronic transfer – SECRETARY / TREASURER: Mr Ray Finnegan, 13 Fossey Street, Holder ACT 2611 BSB: 062-908 (CBA Woden ACT) Phone: (02) 6288 5137 Email: [email protected] Account No.: 10417201 Account Name: Australian Chesterton Society ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Mr Symeon Thompson Please include your name as depositor in the details box. Email: [email protected] The DEFENDANT 2 WINTER 2016 Documenting Chesterton’s Writings: An Interview With His Bibliographer Assembling a Chesterton bibliography is a formidable task. Geir Hasnes, a Norwegian research scientist and freelance writer, has been undertaking such a work for many years, and is now close to having it published. In a special interview with The Defendant, Geir Hasnes discussed his long-standing interest in Chesterton and the bibliography he has been preparing, pointing out that it is not simply a listing of his writings, but also a documentation of his life and a testimony to his growing popularity throughout the world. Defendant: Could you tell us how you came to discover G.K. favourite with many literary persons. He was much more Chesterton? What writings of his did you first encounter? popular in Denmark and Sweden. GH: In my first year at university in the city of Trondheim Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man have been republished in Norway, I met with a friend who shared my passions for recently and some Father Brown collections exist, but those literature and music. It was he who came upon Chesterton’s who read Chesterton do it mostly in English. name everywhere, mentioned in passing in so many different topics; and one summer, after he had read C. S. Lewis’ praise Back in the university days and after, we told our friends about for GKC, he came up to Trondheim for a new term after having Chesterton and many of them became eager fans, and when looked for Chesterton books in every secondhand store in the Collected Works started to appear, we were among quite Oslo and not found any. a number who subscribed to it. So we used to meet and talk to each other about the books we read, in a way like ‘Have you tried the library’, I asked immediately, not being the Inklings who inspired us did. aware of the multitude of other ways of finding books, and off we went to the public library and found half a shelf. Of course, my friend’s enthusiasm made me try GKC, but I “The universe opens up for wasn’t immediately hooked by Father Brown, finding the stories a bit grotesque. But then I read Orthodoxy in a good one who reads Chesterton” Norwegian translation and was mesmerized. I also loved the essay collections from the start - and better Defendant: What do you think are the reasons for the than the fiction, actually, which was a bit hard to read for my widespread interest in Chesterton in our time? rudimentary English knowledge.The Everlasting Man was also available in Norwegian, in a translation by Sigrid Undset, GH: It is hard to sum up Chesterton.

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