/lit/ - Literature

No I hate books.

>hurr durr buddha is sleepy

Fuck Chesterton.

>>3824372
That's actually a flattering picture of him. If you look at others he's like a mixture between Boss Hogg and a Dickensian industrialist.

>>3824372
I used to be, but then I grew up. He writes "brilliantly" but he was more or less a numskull who had a knack for paradoxes. He didn't understand any philosophy and his conservatism is only more vapid for being informed by so many profound sources. It's because of men like Chesterton that we can even consider someone like "Mill" or "Carlyle" as a profound thinker in the national context. Dickens more or less dwarfs all of them as a philosopher and a thinker and a social commentator. And Dickens was simply a crude realist.

Behold the knight defender of Christendom.

>>3824372
Wrote some entertaining fiction but his obsession with Catholicism is ass-backwards.

>>3824617
>>3824626
>>3826916

I do not think it's an honored attitude to dismiss the work of a man in the face of some of his personal opinions.

Chesterton wrote on various subjects, and on many of them offered extremely lively, witty and intelligent comments. Read an author who has opinions contrary to your own is simple: read what will be useful and interesting to you and discard the parts that annoy you.

I'm nothing religious, and if I were I would surely not be Catholic, but probably protestant(it seems to me that countries of Protestant culture are richer and have a more cultured people, as well as many more cultural contributions to the world science and art: for example – England-Germany X Portugal-Spain), but nevertheless I like Chesterton.

Last week I bought a book of Chesterton on Shakespeare, and I cannot wait to receive it.

>>3827583
I agree with everything you're saying except
>Protestant Germany
>cultured

Huge fan of Chesterton. Not a Catholic, but I love his work - his writing style, the atmosphere in his stories, his way of looking at the world in his essays.

>>3824617
I don't agree, and the second half of your post makes me suspect you might not really have any idea what you're talking about. The first part is a matter of taste and there's some truth to your criticisms, I won't deny that.

>>3827616
>look up protestantism in Europe
>it's all the best countries

>>3827728
also: 40 out of 42 us presidents has been protestant in one shape or form cept JFK and Obama.

Protestants also lost population majority in US 2012 due to atheism.

>>3824372
Chesterton.

I actually don't mind him. I find his wit very sharp, but he was really heavy on the Christian stuff.

I have a few of his collected volumes and find them enjoyable.

>>3827583
Lad, Germany is equally, if not more-so a Catholic country...at least in my particular part of Germany.

>>3827616
We are highly cultured, thank you kindly.
You can thank us for great leaps and bounds in science,maths,literature,art,warfare,technology and teaching.

>>3827734
Protestantism is really a step towards atheism in a lot of cases. The protestant countries in Europe tend to be much more secular as well.

>>3827728
>not being one of 14000 protestant landsknechts defeating france
>not forcing your leader to lead you to the holy city filled with sin
>not sacking rome and purging it
>not killing all the papal cardinals
>not raping all the women
>not carving luthers name into priceless renaissance paintings
>In the year of our lord 1527
>Being thhis pleb catholic
>ishiggydiggy
>mfw

>>3827748
>mfw papists can't into prosperity so they present their kitsch and femininity as cultural superiority

>>3827728

You're defending or criticizing Protestantism?

>>3828061
I'm merely observing that European countries with a lot of protestants are the best places to live.

Tillich is better

I find that, while his Catholic/religious stance is heavy-handed at times, overall it lends a lot of powerful symbolism and weight behind his fiction. The Ball and the Cross is a good example of this - 95% good story about an atheist and a Catholic, society, repression, and conflict, then 5% shitty religious resolution.

Also, he's got his moments of purple prose and said bookisms.

>>3828153

OK. That's what I thought u were saying.

I agree with you.

>>3827744
>Protestantism is really a step towards atheism in a lot of cases
Why do I even come here anymore

>>3828448
It is. You can more freedom of doctrine when cut off from the centralised Church. Orthodoxy starts to go, changes are made easier etc. In Europe, the faith lingers much more in catholic countries. The protestant countries are much more inclined towards secularisation.

>>3828532
If anything, I think it's the opposite. Protestantism to me is a separation from ritual and an embrace of God alone, which is the total opposite of atheism.

From an empirical atheistic psychological view, removing ritual will remove one of the most important facets of God's power, thus making one more inclined to atheism.

>>3824372
A great writer whose works often rise above period pieces.

>>3824617
>he was more or less a numskull
I did, indeed, LOL

Chesterton probably was one of the smartest theologists ever.
Also he would have crushed russel if he wanted to.

>>3827728
What about Austria m8
And don't forget that the rich parts of Germany are catholic

>>3828681
yeah, if chesterton or belloc were given the chance to debate russell, the latter's reputation would have definitely been tarnished.

OP, I'm a huge fan of chesterton and his friend hilaire belloc. chesterton and some of the other english converts-- newman, knox, waugh, gerard manley hopkins-- played a role in bringing me back to the church.

nothing like ppl on 4chan ragging on one of the most brilliant minds ever. hilarious

>>3827728
Austria isn't protestant and it is easily the second best country in Europe and much better than the other Germany.

omg did someone in this thread say germany is not cultured. you people are downright fucking retarded.

also OP, check out Josef Pieper, a brilliant German Catholic writer. one of the greatest minds of the 20th century that very few of these folks on 4chan know about. that goes for the rest of you: check out "only the lover sings, on art and contemplation" for a brief survey of his work. just read leisure the basis of culture today for the 2nd time.

>>3828688
I like visiting Austria but I wouldn't want to live there. It seems a bit on the border of the sort of cutting edge perfectly arranged orderliness that makes those other countries so worthwhile. I've always thought that the core of this Gründlichkeit lies in Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway and sort of radiates outwards from there. It's an abstract kind of feel. If I were to 'respawn' I'd like it to be in those countries. Being born anywhere else seems like a bad deal in comparison. Not that those other coutries are shit of course, but these five feel like the ones where one gets the best shot at life in general.