Chapter VII The Conduct of Professor De Worms and Chapter VIII The Professor Explains

Chapter VII The Conduct of Professor De Worms

In which Gabriel Syme, leaving the anarchists' meeting, is pursued with inexplicable vigor and persistence by the crippled, elderly Professor De Worms.

Chapter VIII The Professor Explains

In which we find out who the professor is, or, rather, who he is not.

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First, relevant to the book discussion, we still need to decide on what is our next book. If you haven't yet, please check out the previous post and offer your input.

Second, not relevant to the book discussion. This blog is not about me personally, so I don't usually mention my own life, but I'm anxious about something coming up, and could use some support & prayers.

I like to go running. The last few months of last year, I was running something like 20-30 miles a week . . . up until late November, when something went wrong with my knee. I'm wearing a knee brace regularly now, and most days, it's hurting by the end of the day anyway. I went to see a doctor and he said it looked like simple inflammation and prescribed an anti-inflammatory. Well, that didn't fix it. Called the doc again, and they scheduled an X-ray and MRI for this Monday morning.

Maybe it's almost nothing. Maybe it will require surgery to fix. Maybe it can't be fixed and I can't really ever resume running, which would be quite painful for me. So if you can pray for me, I'd appreciate it.

Heck, for that matter, my wife has a minor surgery this week too. It's routine, but prayers for a quick recovery would also be appreciated.

Like I said, this blog isn't really about me, and I don't intend to let my personal life intrude, but this is weighing on my mind.

Options for our next book

So I mentioned this on Saturday. If we are to continue this, we should pick a new book fairly soon. I arbitrarily decided a while ago that we should alternate between fiction and non-fiction. As I said, I'm open to suggestions. Let's see what comes up.

My own suggestions for our next book:
The Two-Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi

Nope, I'm not kidding at all. Apparently, 16 years ago, Warren actually had something useful to say and wasn't whining about wah-men all the time. Having lived with this up close for the past eight years, I'm curious what she says. If it helps, Tucker Carlson appears to think well of this book.

The Irrational Atheist

Vox Day systematically destroys the new atheists piece by bloody piece. I read this a few years back and have been wanting to re-read it recently. Also, in case you're unaware, online atheists are a pack of whiny, oversensitive pricks, almost as bad as transsexuals.

Suggestions from others (I'll leave it to the commenter who suggested it to make the argument):
The Great Heresies by Hillaire Belloc

The first one we did by Belloc was good. I don't object on principle.

Suicide of a the West by James Burnham

We're all liberals here. No, I'm not really joking. We kind of are. If we choose this one, be sure you don't pick up Goldberg's by mistake. I really wouldn't want to give that guy any more money.

Corporate Cancer by Vox Day

I'd be fine with this one. His books I've read so far have been well-argued.

So, what do you guys think? Which would you be in or out for? Any other suggestions? Any arguments for or against any of these?

Chapter V The Feast of Fear and Chapter VI The Exposure

Chapter V The Feast of Fear

In which the philosophical detective, Gabriel Syme, meets the high council of anarchists who plot to destroy civilization. In particular, he is almost struck senseless by the great and terrible Sunday.

Chapter VI The Exposure

In which Sunday reveals that the council has been infiltrated and the spy is exposed.

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Again, we will continue with chapters VII and VIII next Saturday. Since we're doing 2 chapters at a time, it will soon be time to choose another book. I plan to make that part of a midweek post. If you have any suggestions, feel free to mention them here.

I know Wiffiely has suggested Corporate Cancer by Vox Day. I have a couple of other possibilities in mind as well.

EDIT: The astute WanderingWonderer has pointed out that it might be good to lay out some parameters for the next book. So when I picked this one, I thought it might be interesting to alternate between fiction and non-fiction. Since we're currently doing a fictional work by G.K. Chesterton, I think a non-fiction book would be good next. Nationalist is good, but not a necessity. As I said, I have one suggestion which I think will take people aback at first, but we'll see.

Another bright moment of the Crusades

So Syme has been enlisted in "The Last Crusade". Now, as I've said before, Chesterton's poetry is shamefully unknown. One of his best, which I memorized about 3 years ago, and still can recite mostly from memory, is a story of the Crusades, specifically, the Battle of Lepanto. I present my own recitation of Chesterton's Lepanto.

Now, while this is a stunning poetic recounting of the events, it is also nice to have a bit more sober historical analysis as well. For that, I present a video by Real Crusades History.

For that matter, if you've had the displeasure of dealing with aggressive atheists who insist on nonsense like "religion poisons everything," I present Lt. Col. Tom Kratman's essay on the subject Where Was Secular Humanism at Lepanto?

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We'll continue with chapters V and VI on Saturday. See you then, and I look forward to continued discussion of chapters III and IV.

Chapters III and IV The Man Who Was Thursday and The Tale of a Detective

Chapter III The Man Who Was Thursday

In which a charismatic blond newcomer uses fiery rhetoric and mocking belittlement of his opponent to unexpectedly win an election which had been considered a foregone conclusion.

Wait a minute. This sounds familiar.

Chapter IV The Tale of a Detective

In which we learn of the Gabriel Syme's background, the existence of a philosophical detective branch, and Syme's recruitment thereto.

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Next week, we will continue with chapters V and VI. I look forward to your comments on these chapters.

Chapter II The Secret of Gabriel Syme

Chapter II The Secret of Gabriel Syme

In which our hero, Gabriel Syme, accepts a dinner invitation, eats lobster, and meets an entire roomful of Joseph Chamberlains. He also, incidentally, reveals an important fact about his own profession to his friendly rival Lucian Gregory.

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Starting next Saturday, we will be covering two chapters a week, so in preparation for next week, please read chapters III and IV.

G.K. Chesterton - Heavy metal lyricist

I don't know whether Chesterton is better known today as an essayist or a novelist. I am quite sure he is not well known today as a poet, which is sad because his poetry is gorgeous. But I am most sure of all that it is little known that G.K. Chesterton wrote lyrics for heavy metal band Iron Maiden. I present the song:

 

For those unaware, that first verse is taken from Chesterton's Hymn:

For any who are interested, myself and some friends discussing Chesterton's "Hymn".

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I think for the rest of the book, we'll do two chapters a week, but since I had not previously said so, this Saturday, we'll continue with just chapter II. From the next week on, we'll cover two at a time. See you then.