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Frances Blogg was dedicated to G. K. Chesterton. So is this blog - and so you can expect anything "from pork to pyrotechnics" which "illustrates the truth of the only true philosophy..." [GKC, The Thing]Dr. Thursdayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04666301445831509481noreply@blogger.comBlogger641125
Updated: 4 min 17 sec ago
Now Available: The Creatures That Live in the Walls
Yes, the second part called The Creatures That Live in the Walls of the second section called The Three Relics of the great Saga De Bellis Stellarum is now available! See here for more, or go here to buy it. In the near future you may expect to see the release of the third installment of The Three Relics.
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
Rising like the Son...
Between reading Ricciotti on the life of Christ and (for Paschaltide) a text on the famous exploration of the Vatican necropolis - oh GOLLY what a treasure-mine of plots for stories... ahem - and GKC on the Everlasting Man, which is of course his own special title of our Lord - well. And there's work to be done, so just something very short for today - which is the next line after what I posted two days ago, and gives the whole triumphant theme of this GRAND octave:
According to other accounts God was not exactly dead after all; there trailed through the bewildered imagination some sort of fantastic procession of the
funeral of God, at which the sun turned black, but which ended with the dead omnipotence breaking out of the tomb and rising again like the sun.
[GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:296]But there's one other, perhaps even more mysterious, and one which deserves some very careful pondering, since it links our festival to Creation, which (speaking as a Scientist) is a VERY good idea, and one which we ought to do regularly:On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realised the new wonder; but even they hardly realised that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.
[ibid 345]
According to other accounts God was not exactly dead after all; there trailed through the bewildered imagination some sort of fantastic procession of the
funeral of God, at which the sun turned black, but which ended with the dead omnipotence breaking out of the tomb and rising again like the sun.
[GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:296]But there's one other, perhaps even more mysterious, and one which deserves some very careful pondering, since it links our festival to Creation, which (speaking as a Scientist) is a VERY good idea, and one which we ought to do regularly:On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realised the new wonder; but even they hardly realised that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.
[ibid 345]
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
The CRUX of the question
I am re-reading the amazing book called The Life of Christ by the priest-archaeologist Giuseppe Ricciotti, and was struck by this sequence:... was the rite [of the Eucharist] of Jewish or of foreign origin? The critics rummaged through late Judaism but with no satisfactory results. They used the comparative religion method and turned first to totemism and theophagy; then they more carefully studied the rites of Isis and Osiris, and the blood ritual in the cults of Sabatius and Dionysius, while the Eleusinian mysteries and the banquets of Mithra were investigated with still greater attention. Certainly a great deal of rare information was uncovered and many important observations made concerning pagan rites; but when it came to the real crux of the question, namely, their relationship to the Eucharistic rite of early Christianity, the critics mistook fireflies for lanterns and were ready to declare a mosquito the same as an eagle because both have wings and fly and feed on blood.
[Ricciotti, The Life of Christ § 547 p. 578, emphasis added]If I had the time I might give you some interesting coordinations between this and GKC's writing - or in the good priest's wonderful "verbal fireworks" of analogy... (not to mention speculating as to whether he ever read any GKC) but it is far more appropriate for me to quote the companion text from GKC's work on our Lord - a fragment which comes in the earlier half of the book, and is perhaps the most stunning and deep - dare I say Johannine? - texts of all his writing. I admit I have broken it in the middle, but you will hear the remainder in three days... Enough; read and contemplate, and be silent:One incident occurred once or twice again and began to arouse irritation out of proportion to its insignificance. It was not exactly what these provincials said; though of course it sounded queer enough. They seemed to be saying that God was dead and that they themselves had seen him die. This might be one of the many manias produced by the despair of the age; only they did not seem particularly despairing. They seemed quite unnaturally joyful about it, and gave the reason that the death of God had allowed them to eat him and drink his blood.
[GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:295-6]
[Ricciotti, The Life of Christ § 547 p. 578, emphasis added]If I had the time I might give you some interesting coordinations between this and GKC's writing - or in the good priest's wonderful "verbal fireworks" of analogy... (not to mention speculating as to whether he ever read any GKC) but it is far more appropriate for me to quote the companion text from GKC's work on our Lord - a fragment which comes in the earlier half of the book, and is perhaps the most stunning and deep - dare I say Johannine? - texts of all his writing. I admit I have broken it in the middle, but you will hear the remainder in three days... Enough; read and contemplate, and be silent:One incident occurred once or twice again and began to arouse irritation out of proportion to its insignificance. It was not exactly what these provincials said; though of course it sounded queer enough. They seemed to be saying that God was dead and that they themselves had seen him die. This might be one of the many manias produced by the despair of the age; only they did not seem particularly despairing. They seemed quite unnaturally joyful about it, and gave the reason that the death of God had allowed them to eat him and drink his blood.
[GKC The Everlasting Man CW2:295-6]
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
On being moved to tears
Just a brief note today, as it seems the hours and minutes run past faster and faster as the sun shifts back to the north. Thursday I was busy proving theorems - oh yes, one has to do that sometimes, even when they are not assigned as homework - and then there was bread-making... we're a full-featured system here, as you ought to expect.
But there were two instances in the past few days which illuminated that old phrase about being "moved to tears" and I want to tell you about them.
The first was on Friday, when a friend from what we Yankees call "the Sunny Southland" ( in this case, Kentucky) read a portion of a new story to me. It was a profound insight into an episode from the end of the "Late Unpleasantness", known to some as the War Between the States, or the American Civil War. It wasn't any one thing - not so much, perhaps, as the striking juxtaposition of a gentleman of the Old South reading to me of how a hero deported himself in that agonizing moment of surrender... It takes a special skill to call such scenery into being with words.
The second was today, at the end of Holy Mass, when there was something about the motion of the altar boys to fetch the crucifix and candles as they processed down the center aisle to the tune of "Lift High the Cross" - and I was thinking of the bit in "Grinch" about what one does when one is not able to find a reindeer... something about that (joined with the thing from Friday) was almost too profound to write about.
For what does one do when one does not have a crucifix?
One makes one, from whatever might be available.
And telling that story well - so akin to the idea of surrender - that is the sort of special skill which can move even a grown man to tears.
Did you misunderstand?
Did you forget I am a Chestertonian? Behold:
"The cross cannot be defeated," said MacIan, "for it is Defeat."
[GKC, The Ball and the Cross]O crucified Jesus, have mercy on the heroes, our fallen brothers, of both South and North - and on all the souls of the faithful departed.
But there were two instances in the past few days which illuminated that old phrase about being "moved to tears" and I want to tell you about them.
The first was on Friday, when a friend from what we Yankees call "the Sunny Southland" ( in this case, Kentucky) read a portion of a new story to me. It was a profound insight into an episode from the end of the "Late Unpleasantness", known to some as the War Between the States, or the American Civil War. It wasn't any one thing - not so much, perhaps, as the striking juxtaposition of a gentleman of the Old South reading to me of how a hero deported himself in that agonizing moment of surrender... It takes a special skill to call such scenery into being with words.
The second was today, at the end of Holy Mass, when there was something about the motion of the altar boys to fetch the crucifix and candles as they processed down the center aisle to the tune of "Lift High the Cross" - and I was thinking of the bit in "Grinch" about what one does when one is not able to find a reindeer... something about that (joined with the thing from Friday) was almost too profound to write about.
For what does one do when one does not have a crucifix?
One makes one, from whatever might be available.
And telling that story well - so akin to the idea of surrender - that is the sort of special skill which can move even a grown man to tears.
Did you misunderstand?
Did you forget I am a Chestertonian? Behold:
"The cross cannot be defeated," said MacIan, "for it is Defeat."
[GKC, The Ball and the Cross]O crucified Jesus, have mercy on the heroes, our fallen brothers, of both South and North - and on all the souls of the faithful departed.
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
The Feast Day of Subsidiarity
Yes! March 2 is the feast day of Subsidiarity...
For it was 12 years ago today that our system for local ad insertion for cable television went live - a system that played over 200,000,000 commercials in those 5.5 years from 3/2/2000 to 8/31/2005. And why should that matter to such a complex and abstract philosophical term as "Subsidiarity"? What could MPEG and file tranasport - and that BIG DISH - have to do with papal encyclicals and one of the fundamental ideas in Catholic Social Teachings - an idea which goes back through many great philosophers and scholars all the way to Moses and his father-in-law!
Well.. I wrote a book about it, and there you'll find out how the encyclicals called Rerum Novarum and Centesimus Annus helped me design the program called "PUMP" which did the file transport for our system. Yes; there are not many pieces of software out there which cite Popes and encyclicals, but the idea persists even if the software is no longer in use.
It was a great day - and we still commemorate it. And sooner or later I will tell you the amazing fact about our starting, and how fitting it was that we began on March 2. None of us knew it then; I only learned about it later.
I also take this opportunity to again express my thanks to Traffic, Field Services, Operations, and especially Diane and Joe and Joe... You know that I don't forget, and I will always be grateful even when all the headends have been long forgotten. Sooner or later we'll have another cake, too.
P.S. If you are wondering about that book, all I can tell you is that it's ready, but there are no publishing houses with sufficient Fortitude to deal with something that is simultaneously very serious Catholic and very serious Tech... and I may be forced to do as the famous old "Little Red Hen" and do it myself. I'm much nearer doing the same thing with The Wreck of the "Phosploion", so stay tuned - and keep praying!
For it was 12 years ago today that our system for local ad insertion for cable television went live - a system that played over 200,000,000 commercials in those 5.5 years from 3/2/2000 to 8/31/2005. And why should that matter to such a complex and abstract philosophical term as "Subsidiarity"? What could MPEG and file tranasport - and that BIG DISH - have to do with papal encyclicals and one of the fundamental ideas in Catholic Social Teachings - an idea which goes back through many great philosophers and scholars all the way to Moses and his father-in-law!
Well.. I wrote a book about it, and there you'll find out how the encyclicals called Rerum Novarum and Centesimus Annus helped me design the program called "PUMP" which did the file transport for our system. Yes; there are not many pieces of software out there which cite Popes and encyclicals, but the idea persists even if the software is no longer in use.
It was a great day - and we still commemorate it. And sooner or later I will tell you the amazing fact about our starting, and how fitting it was that we began on March 2. None of us knew it then; I only learned about it later.
I also take this opportunity to again express my thanks to Traffic, Field Services, Operations, and especially Diane and Joe and Joe... You know that I don't forget, and I will always be grateful even when all the headends have been long forgotten. Sooner or later we'll have another cake, too.
P.S. If you are wondering about that book, all I can tell you is that it's ready, but there are no publishing houses with sufficient Fortitude to deal with something that is simultaneously very serious Catholic and very serious Tech... and I may be forced to do as the famous old "Little Red Hen" and do it myself. I'm much nearer doing the same thing with The Wreck of the "Phosploion", so stay tuned - and keep praying!
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
Who needs drugs...
When your computer can come up with amazing things like this!!!!
Wow!
When I know more about this diagram, I will let you know.
Wow!
When I know more about this diagram, I will let you know.
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
For A.P.....
Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine. Et lux perpetua luceat ei.
Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen.
Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace. Amen.
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
Since you've been so patient...
I've been busy with a lot of things, and making some interesting progress - though it seems like there's very little actual output at least where the Saga is concerned. But then we're at a very intricate point, and I have some messy timing problems to solve. It's especially uncanny since I've heard people are talking about colonizing the moon - and I mean here in the Real World, not in my subcreated one! It's a bit unsettling, since I sure didn't expect to be a prophet. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil any surprises. Chesterton said there's a special place in Hell for people who do that: "To give away a secret when it should be kept is the worst of human crimes; and Dante was never more right than when he made the lowest circle in Hell the Circle of the Traitors. It is to destroy one human pleasure so that it can never be recovered..." [GKC ILN Nov 7 1908 CW28:210]
On the other hand, I have managed to get some great results in my little math puzzle, and I thought you might wish to hear about that. Let us always recall as Chesterton puts it:You cannot evade the issue of God; whether you talk about pigs or the binomial theory, you are still talking about Him.
[GKC Daily News Dec 12 1903 quoted in Maycock, The Man Who Was Chesterton]So, without further ado, let us explore some results on:
Finding the intersections of two hyperbolae
Consider the general hyperbola
Ax2 + 2Bxy + Cy2 + 2Dx + 2Ey + F = 0
The coefficient B can be eliminated by rotation through the angle a given by
if A=C
a is p/4
else
tan(2a) is 2B/(A–C)
That is, we make the following substitution:
x = x' cos a – y' sin a
y = x' sin a + y' cos a
resulting in
A'x' 2 + C'y' 2 + 2D'x' + 2E'y' + F' = 0
By letting s = sin a and c = cos a, these coefficients can be computed by:
A' = Ac2 + 2Bcs + Cs2
B' = 2cs(C–A)+2B(c2–s2)
C' = As2 – 2Bcs + Cc2
D' = Dc + Es
E' = Ec – Ds
F' = F
Note that the coefficient B' vanishes since 2cs = sin 2a, (c2–s2) = cos 2a, and tan 2a = 2B/(A–C).
Next, the coefficients D' and E' can be eliminated by translation by (Dx,Dy) where
Dx = – D'/A'
Dy = – E'/C'
which permits the following substitution:
x' = x'' + Dx
y' = y'' + Dy
The transformed equation of the original hyperbola thus reduces to:
A'x'' 2 + C'y'' 2 = N
where N = D' 2/A' + E' 2/C' – F'.
The above equation is called the "central equation" of the hyperbola since the center of the hyperbola is at the origin, and the foci are on one of the axes.
Next, we apply the same rotation and translation operation (a,(Dx,Dy)) to our second hyperbola, giving us a new equation in x'' and y'':
Px'' 2 + 2Qx''y'' + Ry'' 2 + 2Sx'' + 2Ty'' + U = 0
Note that the x''y'' term here does not vanish.
At this point we must verify to which of two cases the first hyperbola belongs. This "alignment" tells us whether this transformed "central" equation is oriented along the x or the y axis. If N/A' is less than zero, the foci are on the y-axis. This means a branch of the hyperbola can be considered as a function in the usual form y=f(x) and we can proceed straightforwardly. Otherwise, when N/A' is greater than zero, the foci are on the x-axis, and we interchange x and y (and all related coefficients) in what follows.
Solving the central equation of the first hyperbola for y'' we get:
y'' = ((N' – A'x'' 2)/C')1/2
Now, into that we substitute the above expression for y'' which gives a rather messy equation with a radical that can be reduced to the following quartic in x'':
Gx''4 + Hx''3 + Ix''2 + Jx'' + K = 0
where
G = CE2 + AQ2
H = 4ESC + 8AQT
I = 2EFC + 4(CS2 – NQ2 + AT2)
J = 4SFC – 8NQT
K = CF2 – 4NT2
and
E = P – AR/C
F = U + RN/C
The roots of the quartic are obtained by the usual method of solving the resolvent cubic. (See e.g. CRC Handbook of Mathematics 106.)
Up to four roots of the quartic will be found; these give the x values of the possible intersections, and the y value is found by substitution in the above equation for y''. The resulting coordinate is then transformed back to the original coordinate system, then checked to see whether they fall on the hyperbolae.
On the other hand, I have managed to get some great results in my little math puzzle, and I thought you might wish to hear about that. Let us always recall as Chesterton puts it:You cannot evade the issue of God; whether you talk about pigs or the binomial theory, you are still talking about Him.
[GKC Daily News Dec 12 1903 quoted in Maycock, The Man Who Was Chesterton]So, without further ado, let us explore some results on:
Finding the intersections of two hyperbolae
Consider the general hyperbola
Ax2 + 2Bxy + Cy2 + 2Dx + 2Ey + F = 0
The coefficient B can be eliminated by rotation through the angle a given by
if A=C
a is p/4
else
tan(2a) is 2B/(A–C)
That is, we make the following substitution:
x = x' cos a – y' sin a
y = x' sin a + y' cos a
resulting in
A'x' 2 + C'y' 2 + 2D'x' + 2E'y' + F' = 0
By letting s = sin a and c = cos a, these coefficients can be computed by:
A' = Ac2 + 2Bcs + Cs2
B' = 2cs(C–A)+2B(c2–s2)
C' = As2 – 2Bcs + Cc2
D' = Dc + Es
E' = Ec – Ds
F' = F
Note that the coefficient B' vanishes since 2cs = sin 2a, (c2–s2) = cos 2a, and tan 2a = 2B/(A–C).
Next, the coefficients D' and E' can be eliminated by translation by (Dx,Dy) where
Dx = – D'/A'
Dy = – E'/C'
which permits the following substitution:
x' = x'' + Dx
y' = y'' + Dy
The transformed equation of the original hyperbola thus reduces to:
A'x'' 2 + C'y'' 2 = N
where N = D' 2/A' + E' 2/C' – F'.
The above equation is called the "central equation" of the hyperbola since the center of the hyperbola is at the origin, and the foci are on one of the axes.
Next, we apply the same rotation and translation operation (a,(Dx,Dy)) to our second hyperbola, giving us a new equation in x'' and y'':
Px'' 2 + 2Qx''y'' + Ry'' 2 + 2Sx'' + 2Ty'' + U = 0
Note that the x''y'' term here does not vanish.
At this point we must verify to which of two cases the first hyperbola belongs. This "alignment" tells us whether this transformed "central" equation is oriented along the x or the y axis. If N/A' is less than zero, the foci are on the y-axis. This means a branch of the hyperbola can be considered as a function in the usual form y=f(x) and we can proceed straightforwardly. Otherwise, when N/A' is greater than zero, the foci are on the x-axis, and we interchange x and y (and all related coefficients) in what follows.
Solving the central equation of the first hyperbola for y'' we get:
y'' = ((N' – A'x'' 2)/C')1/2
Now, into that we substitute the above expression for y'' which gives a rather messy equation with a radical that can be reduced to the following quartic in x'':
Gx''4 + Hx''3 + Ix''2 + Jx'' + K = 0
where
G = CE2 + AQ2
H = 4ESC + 8AQT
I = 2EFC + 4(CS2 – NQ2 + AT2)
J = 4SFC – 8NQT
K = CF2 – 4NT2
and
E = P – AR/C
F = U + RN/C
The roots of the quartic are obtained by the usual method of solving the resolvent cubic. (See e.g. CRC Handbook of Mathematics 106.)
Up to four roots of the quartic will be found; these give the x values of the possible intersections, and the y value is found by substitution in the above equation for y''. The resulting coordinate is then transformed back to the original coordinate system, then checked to see whether they fall on the hyperbolae.
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs
A list of books (a beginning)
There's a lot going on, as usual, and of course I'm spending a lot of time in late December of 2016 so I can't pay a lot of attention to what most of you call the "present" - but hopefully that will be done soon.
I'm also getting to play with some very interesting mathematics, which involves the solution of intersecting hyperbolae. It's a delight since it seems to unite in one place all of computer science, mathematics, and literature - what DOES the Doctor mean by intersecting hyperbolae anyway? A sort of star-crossed exaggeration? Hee hee! More on that soon, maybe - it has some very cool diagrams, and the math is fun - so I hope I can give you the proper lit'ry effect too.
But there was another little project which loomed up in my thought, since someone (I forget where, maybe at Love-to-Learn) was trying to collect titles of books for young people to read. This is a good idea, and I think I ought to try to do that myself.
So, while I have a brief moment, I will give you some of the titles I would recommend for inclusion in any good library.
Hmm, hmm, a difficult topic... there are so many good books. Well, let's start with the obvious ones, and we can always come back. I will put them into order by title so there won't be any debate about silly things like rank. Not all orders are TOTAL orders, and there are relations which aren't orders at all... but we must not get technical about that here, Doctor. aHEM! All right.
Admiral of Ocean Sea by Morison
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Carroll
Around the World in 80 Days by Verne
Ben-Hur by Wallace
The Brave Little Toaster by Disch (and its sequel, The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars)
A Christmas Carol by Dickens
The Dawn of All by Benson
The Everlasting Man by Chesterton (the cover of my paperback copy says: "More thrilling than any novel"!)
Ex-Cub Fitzie by Boyton
Father Brown stories by Chesterton
From the Earth to the Moon by Verne (it has a sequel too)
The Haunted Bookstore by Morley (and its prequel, Parnassus on Wheels)
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Verne
Kim by Kipling (also The Jungle Books)
Life of Christ by Ricciotti (and his History of Israel, Acts of the Apostles, Life of St. Paul, The Age of Martyrs)
Little Women by Alcott (and sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys)
The Lord of the World by Benson
The Mad Scientists' Club by Brinley (also their New Adventures, The Big Kerplop! and The Big Chunk of Ice)
The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton
Manalive by Chesterton
The Miracle of the Bells by Janney
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by Chesterton
The Neverending Story by Ende
The Nine Tailors by Sayers (and the other Lord Peter stories)
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
The Phantom Tollbooth by Juster
Robinson Crusoe by Defoe
Secret Agents Four by Sobol
Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle
Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt
Swiss Family Robinson by Wyss
The Thirty-Nine Steps by Buchan
Treasure Island by Stevenson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Verne (and The Mysterious Island which is a sort of sequel)
Who Is Bugs Potter? by Korman (and many of his other works)
All right, whoa! That's almost 50, quite enough for a start. Yeah, there are a couple non-fiction titles in there, but they're excellent and ought not be neglected. You can also add the books of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Tom Swift series, and the dozen or so in the "Danny Dunn" series.
(There are also the Nero Wolfe mysteries, and those by John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie, and others of the great age of detective fiction, and others like the adventures of Alistair MacLean, though I hesitate to glob all those together; these require some discrimination - yet I should mention their names.)
Though some of these are a bit dated, they are all worth reading. (Yes, I have intentionally omitted Tolkien, but I have no time to elaborate on that today. The same with Wells.) Eventually I ought to do reviews, or at least add something to explain a little about their importance, but I can't do that today either. And maybe eventually I will provide a list of essential Reference Works.
Oh yes, one more item. If it was actually available, I would mention that huge thing the author calls the "Saga" - De Bellis Stellarum, but... oh, yeah, that's by me. Oh my. Maybe it will be done soon, and MAYBE some part of it will appear in some real, regular place where it can be bought! See, if I wasn't spending time writing this, I could be writing that. I'm not like Caesar or Aquinas or Chesterton who could write multiple productions at once. Wow, like textual counterpoint, or a verbal fugue, maybe? Intense! No, though I do come kinda close with my code generation, but (ahem) I'm not supposed to reveal such szekrets on a blogg. This will attract spies.
And if you would like to read some additional discussion about this topic, you can go here.
I'm also getting to play with some very interesting mathematics, which involves the solution of intersecting hyperbolae. It's a delight since it seems to unite in one place all of computer science, mathematics, and literature - what DOES the Doctor mean by intersecting hyperbolae anyway? A sort of star-crossed exaggeration? Hee hee! More on that soon, maybe - it has some very cool diagrams, and the math is fun - so I hope I can give you the proper lit'ry effect too.
But there was another little project which loomed up in my thought, since someone (I forget where, maybe at Love-to-Learn) was trying to collect titles of books for young people to read. This is a good idea, and I think I ought to try to do that myself.
So, while I have a brief moment, I will give you some of the titles I would recommend for inclusion in any good library.
Hmm, hmm, a difficult topic... there are so many good books. Well, let's start with the obvious ones, and we can always come back. I will put them into order by title so there won't be any debate about silly things like rank. Not all orders are TOTAL orders, and there are relations which aren't orders at all... but we must not get technical about that here, Doctor. aHEM! All right.
Admiral of Ocean Sea by Morison
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Carroll
Around the World in 80 Days by Verne
Ben-Hur by Wallace
The Brave Little Toaster by Disch (and its sequel, The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars)
A Christmas Carol by Dickens
The Dawn of All by Benson
The Everlasting Man by Chesterton (the cover of my paperback copy says: "More thrilling than any novel"!)
Ex-Cub Fitzie by Boyton
Father Brown stories by Chesterton
From the Earth to the Moon by Verne (it has a sequel too)
The Haunted Bookstore by Morley (and its prequel, Parnassus on Wheels)
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Verne
Kim by Kipling (also The Jungle Books)
Life of Christ by Ricciotti (and his History of Israel, Acts of the Apostles, Life of St. Paul, The Age of Martyrs)
Little Women by Alcott (and sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys)
The Lord of the World by Benson
The Mad Scientists' Club by Brinley (also their New Adventures, The Big Kerplop! and The Big Chunk of Ice)
The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton
Manalive by Chesterton
The Miracle of the Bells by Janney
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by Chesterton
The Neverending Story by Ende
The Nine Tailors by Sayers (and the other Lord Peter stories)
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
The Phantom Tollbooth by Juster
Robinson Crusoe by Defoe
Secret Agents Four by Sobol
Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle
Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt
Swiss Family Robinson by Wyss
The Thirty-Nine Steps by Buchan
Treasure Island by Stevenson
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Verne (and The Mysterious Island which is a sort of sequel)
Who Is Bugs Potter? by Korman (and many of his other works)
All right, whoa! That's almost 50, quite enough for a start. Yeah, there are a couple non-fiction titles in there, but they're excellent and ought not be neglected. You can also add the books of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Tom Swift series, and the dozen or so in the "Danny Dunn" series.
(There are also the Nero Wolfe mysteries, and those by John Dickson Carr and Agatha Christie, and others of the great age of detective fiction, and others like the adventures of Alistair MacLean, though I hesitate to glob all those together; these require some discrimination - yet I should mention their names.)
Though some of these are a bit dated, they are all worth reading. (Yes, I have intentionally omitted Tolkien, but I have no time to elaborate on that today. The same with Wells.) Eventually I ought to do reviews, or at least add something to explain a little about their importance, but I can't do that today either. And maybe eventually I will provide a list of essential Reference Works.
Oh yes, one more item. If it was actually available, I would mention that huge thing the author calls the "Saga" - De Bellis Stellarum, but... oh, yeah, that's by me. Oh my. Maybe it will be done soon, and MAYBE some part of it will appear in some real, regular place where it can be bought! See, if I wasn't spending time writing this, I could be writing that. I'm not like Caesar or Aquinas or Chesterton who could write multiple productions at once. Wow, like textual counterpoint, or a verbal fugue, maybe? Intense! No, though I do come kinda close with my code generation, but (ahem) I'm not supposed to reveal such szekrets on a blogg. This will attract spies.
And if you would like to read some additional discussion about this topic, you can go here.
Categories: Chestertonian Blogs