Thx for the hint, Giselle! I think I will postpone the question until I have read a few more chapters...

stahrwe wrote:Heretics, really? You're listening to Heretics?

Next thing you know you will be on to Orthodoxy.

oh i'm on to it alright

Glad to hear it.

Chapter One
The Two Poets of Saffron Park
Chapter Summary
Observations and questions.

The story itself begins a suburb of London referred to as Saffron Park in the book but actually Bedford Park. Chesterton refers to it as a pretentious artistic colony which had never produced any art. On an evening noted for its remarkable sunset, poet Gabriel Syme appears in Saffron Park and challenges the reigning anarchist, Lucian Gregory.

Syme calls himself a poet of order, but Gregory responds that such a poet cannot exist – poetry and art, by their very nature are anarchy. Syme challenges this ideas – he says that anyone can miss the mark, but only a true magician can hit it. Therefore, a true artist must be an orderly person. He subsequently accuses Gregory of not being, in reality a serious anarchist.

Syme parts from Gregory followed by his sister Rosamond. She is concerned for her brother but Syme explains that a true anarchist must be anonymous and that her brother is too proud to do so and therefore would never actually bomb anything. Relieved that her brother is not in any real danger the two talk for hours. After she leaves Gregory, who has been waiting out the conversation again confronts Syme. He tells him that he has irritated him more than any other man by claiming that he is not serious. He says that he can prove that he is a serious anarchist but first demands a pledge of absolute secrecy. Syme agrees and Gregory says that he will take Syme to a meeting of his anarchist club that very night.

From the outset Chesterton is playing with us.

What kind of anarchist would politely wait for an extended conversation to be completed if said anarchist had an important point to make or defend?

What kind of anarchist would even care what someone thought of him?

What kind of anarchists have club meetings?
We will see more about this as the story progresses. It turns out to be a very organized anarchist group.

Just started reading the book and am enjoying it! The two poets seem in chapter 1 to be constructed as deliberate opposites, yet joined by a shared area of interest, in a surreal setting. The most recent GKC I read, The Ball and the Cross, started out with a similar pair, with that book taking them on a voyage toward mutual respect and cognizance of each other's essential beliefs. In other words, they came together and almost fused into one. I wonder if this pair will do likewise.

welcome aboard notacandylandfan.

Aomame wrote:Did anybody else feel the same way? Or did my imagination run riot??

i read the whole thing as a kind of allegory.

I agree with Symes, "there are many kinds of sincerity and insincerity". We all often say things that sound sincere but have just become pleasantries (such as the thank yous we scatter around) or, if we're duplicitous, are out right lies. Symes seems to have a good handle on what constitutes polite conversation in groups like the one he has just entered.