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A review by beaconatnight
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton
4.0
"This is getting wilder and wilder."
The Man Who Was Thursday opens with an argument between two poets. An anarchistic writer argues that the value of poetry derives from subversion and unpredictability. His interlocutor fiercely disagrees. To his mind the timetable for the London Underground represents a wonderful piece of art. To substantiate his claim he asserts that anarchistic art is all but chaos without the creative quality necessary to form beauty.
The novel itself might very well intend to demonstrate that originality and hard work can enter into creating pandemonium. The Nightmare that our hero Gabriel Syme experiences follows some bizarre logic that engenders absurdity in ever new and exciting forms. Throughout the plot the trajectory follows a discernible arc of suspense were things are only getting more and more daft as we find revealed what is really going on.
Frankly, for me the mode of storytelling was very difficult to get into. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I don't think the dark tongue-in-cheek comedy was what I was hoping for. The atmosphere the novel creates deprives its events of a certain gravitas perhaps necessary to take it fully seriously. Absurdity for absurdity's sake is usually to art-sy for my liking. Yet, even though this is the equally pretentious opposite extreme, the story reveals a strange kind of intellectual depth and symbolism that I wasn't expecting, either.
Well, and as soon as I realized what I was reading the world of insanity was just fun to explore. Actually, to some extent I would say that the protagonist behaves like a normal person in a world that has gone mad. For some reason that reminded me of The Prisoner, the British TV show from the 1960s. Not the least because of the espionage and conspiratorial undertones. So it's not just about the humor. There is the ominous tone and the presence of Sunday that almost literally overshadows everything.
You see the big reveal from miles ahead. In fact, I'm sure the novel wants you to see it coming. The later chapters take the reader fully seriously in that the repeated reveals are not their focal point. There is something special to all encounters with the would-be anarchists, like the Supreme Council of the Anarchists that is elected by strict democratic principles, the young actor who plays a more convincing old professor than the old professor he mimics, or in general the group of men who believe themselves to be police officers but who were in fact recruited by the elusive anarchist leader himself.
The book is full of similar contradictory and crazy witticisms. As I've said, not the kind of art I would regularly go for. Yet, I think The Man Who Was Thursday will stay with me for how rigorously it explores the effects of inconsistency and intangibility. I only wished it had left me with a firmer grasp of the religious import that dominates its magnificent climax.
Rating: 4/5
The Man Who Was Thursday opens with an argument between two poets. An anarchistic writer argues that the value of poetry derives from subversion and unpredictability. His interlocutor fiercely disagrees. To his mind the timetable for the London Underground represents a wonderful piece of art. To substantiate his claim he asserts that anarchistic art is all but chaos without the creative quality necessary to form beauty.
The novel itself might very well intend to demonstrate that originality and hard work can enter into creating pandemonium. The Nightmare that our hero Gabriel Syme experiences follows some bizarre logic that engenders absurdity in ever new and exciting forms. Throughout the plot the trajectory follows a discernible arc of suspense were things are only getting more and more daft as we find revealed what is really going on.
Frankly, for me the mode of storytelling was very difficult to get into. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I don't think the dark tongue-in-cheek comedy was what I was hoping for. The atmosphere the novel creates deprives its events of a certain gravitas perhaps necessary to take it fully seriously. Absurdity for absurdity's sake is usually to art-sy for my liking. Yet, even though this is the equally pretentious opposite extreme, the story reveals a strange kind of intellectual depth and symbolism that I wasn't expecting, either.
Well, and as soon as I realized what I was reading the world of insanity was just fun to explore. Actually, to some extent I would say that the protagonist behaves like a normal person in a world that has gone mad. For some reason that reminded me of The Prisoner, the British TV show from the 1960s. Not the least because of the espionage and conspiratorial undertones. So it's not just about the humor. There is the ominous tone and the presence of Sunday that almost literally overshadows everything.
You see the big reveal from miles ahead. In fact, I'm sure the novel wants you to see it coming. The later chapters take the reader fully seriously in that the repeated reveals are not their focal point. There is something special to all encounters with the would-be anarchists, like the Supreme Council of the Anarchists that is elected by strict democratic principles, the young actor who plays a more convincing old professor than the old professor he mimics, or in general the group of men who believe themselves to be police officers but who were in fact recruited by the elusive anarchist leader himself.
The book is full of similar contradictory and crazy witticisms. As I've said, not the kind of art I would regularly go for. Yet, I think The Man Who Was Thursday will stay with me for how rigorously it explores the effects of inconsistency and intangibility. I only wished it had left me with a firmer grasp of the religious import that dominates its magnificent climax.
Rating: 4/5