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branko · 07-19-2006, 04:19 PM

I started volunteering for Project Gutenberg in around 2003, if I am not mistaken. May have been late 2002. Just before I attended GimpCon in August 2003, I had bought a Palm Zire, that I still use to read e-books with. The basic idea was to read the classics; I don't think I have ever bought an e-book.

My recommendation:

Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton

I recommend against same.

Father Brown is a detective series in the same vein as Max Carrados, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and of course the grand-daddy of them all, Dupin. He is a consulting detective, or, as the police in these sort of books inevitably conclude, a nuisance and a busybody.

OK, but most of these characters star in the classics too--there is even a Hercule Poirot book that is in the public domain in the US in the form of Christie's first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles; so why pick Father Brown?

A lot of the classics have ideas in them, and plots, and narratives that haven't been surpassed until today. Yet when I download the shallowest sci-fi booklet from Baen, the author's ability to use language to evoke emotion and to present ideas is better than almost anything written before 1923. The ideas may be non-existant, but they are presented better than those of the classics. The authors of the classics on the other hand seemed to have felt an unquenchable need for exposé.

With the exception of Father Brown. Which just feels fresh. (And Multatuli, but he's Dutch, so I won't bother you with him.)

I must also recommend against Father Brown. These books are filled with extreme bigotry. Chesterton was an English Catholic who wrote whodunnits. The answer to that question is always simple: if there are two white English suspects and one of them is Catholic, the other guy did it. If there are several suspects of which one is a black muslim, not only did the black muslim do it, but Satan himself had made sure that he hatched the egg that produced him. OK, so now I am exaggerating, but that is what it sometimes feels like Chesterton is trying to say.

But there is more. I could argue that Chesterton was able to convey meaning better than his contemperaries because his writing style was of today; it wasn't. But he managed to convey meaning through almost iconographic descriptions.

The closest modern author I know who could do that was comics artist Hergé. He managed to push so many of my subconscious buttons with his iconographic art (the fact that folks like Warhol, Liechtenstein and Spielberg quoted him as an influence seems to indicate that I am not alone in this), that sometimes I conjure up new Tintin stories in my dreams.

Chesterton manages to push similar buttons, when he describes locations for instance. I can see them before me, dream like.

Speaking of dreams, a novel in which he fair keeps a lid on the bigotry and manages to dilute the dream-like quality over an entire novel is The Man Who Was Thursday. Even ccel.org carries it, but that's probably because it is a deeply religious novel. Not that you will necessarily notice; like the Lord of the Rings, and like the Narnia novels it is an allegory ... and a dream.

The surface story is accidentally modern, in that it is about the terrorists of days gone by, anarchists.

If you can stomach the vile racism that sometimes oozes from its protagonists, I recommend you read the Father Brown series. If you cannot, The Man Who Was Thursday is still very much worth your attention.

07-19-2006, 04:19 PM	#7
branko Connoisseur Posts: 93 Karma: 549 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Amsterdam Device: Palm Zire	I started volunteering for Project Gutenberg in around 2003, if I am not mistaken. May have been late 2002. Just before I attended GimpCon in August 2003, I had bought a Palm Zire, that I still use to read e-books with. The basic idea was to read the classics; I don't think I have ever bought an e-book. My recommendation: Father Brown, by G.K. Chesterton I recommend against same. Father Brown is a detective series in the same vein as Max Carrados, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and of course the grand-daddy of them all, Dupin. He is a consulting detective, or, as the police in these sort of books inevitably conclude, a nuisance and a busybody. OK, but most of these characters star in the classics too--there is even a Hercule Poirot book that is in the public domain in the US in the form of Christie's first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles; so why pick Father Brown? A lot of the classics have ideas in them, and plots, and narratives that haven't been surpassed until today. Yet when I download the shallowest sci-fi booklet from Baen, the author's ability to use language to evoke emotion and to present ideas is better than almost anything written before 1923. The ideas may be non-existant, but they are presented better than those of the classics. The authors of the classics on the other hand seemed to have felt an unquenchable need for exposé. With the exception of Father Brown. Which just feels fresh. (And Multatuli, but he's Dutch, so I won't bother you with him.) I must also recommend against Father Brown. These books are filled with extreme bigotry. Chesterton was an English Catholic who wrote whodunnits. The answer to that question is always simple: if there are two white English suspects and one of them is Catholic, the other guy did it. If there are several suspects of which one is a black muslim, not only did the black muslim do it, but Satan himself had made sure that he hatched the egg that produced him. OK, so now I am exaggerating, but that is what it sometimes feels like Chesterton is trying to say. But there is more. I could argue that Chesterton was able to convey meaning better than his contemperaries because his writing style was of today; it wasn't. But he managed to convey meaning through almost iconographic descriptions. The closest modern author I know who could do that was comics artist Hergé. He managed to push so many of my subconscious buttons with his iconographic art (the fact that folks like Warhol, Liechtenstein and Spielberg quoted him as an influence seems to indicate that I am not alone in this), that sometimes I conjure up new Tintin stories in my dreams. Chesterton manages to push similar buttons, when he describes locations for instance. I can see them before me, dream like. Speaking of dreams, a novel in which he fair keeps a lid on the bigotry and manages to dilute the dream-like quality over an entire novel is The Man Who Was Thursday. Even ccel.org carries it, but that's probably because it is a deeply religious novel. Not that you will necessarily notice; like the Lord of the Rings, and like the Narnia novels it is an allegory ... and a dream. The surface story is accidentally modern, in that it is about the terrorists of days gone by, anarchists. If you can stomach the vile racism that sometimes oozes from its protagonists, I recommend you read the Father Brown series. If you cannot, The Man Who Was Thursday is still very much worth your attention. Last edited by branko; 07-19-2006 at 06:29 PM.