Orwell on Chesterton

stilskin · 11 Jan 2005, 11:16 · from 2005-January.txt.gz

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From: acronus at yahoo.com (stilskin)
Date: Tue Jan 11 11:16:35 2005
Subject: (urth) Orwell on Chesterton
In-Reply-To: <E1CoRNE-00098r-3G at oceanus.uk.clara.net>
Message-ID: <20050111191612.83372.qmail at web20021.mail.yahoo.com>

--- Andy Robertson <andywrobertson at clara.co.uk> wrote:

> I must point out that the insults were Orwell's.  He
> is right in one thing - 
> after an early efflorescence Chesterton decayed into
> (mostly) a stale 
> polemicist who produced only the occasional good
> thing.  But it does not 
> follow that his apologetics was simply bad (it
> wasn't) or that he decayed 
> because he became a Catholic. 

I don't think Orwell crossed any kind of critical line
in what he wrote about Chesterton here; he seems to
attack him more on political than religious grounds
anyway.  But it was clearly posted in the group as an
insult to certain members, though I can't claim to
understand why.  I mean, the religious views of most
active members on this list are well known, as are
Gene Wolfe's.  Is the poster implying that Wolfe's
novels have become increasingly stale and polemical as
his religious and/or political beliefs have found a
more overt expression in his writing?

=====
http://www.sff.net/people/stilskin

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