So I Guess I Can Post Here Now.

Though if I'm doing this incorrectly, please don't tell me or anything, because that would just be embarrassing.

So, the blog hath been renamed. What, you might ask, does this mean? Assuming, of course, that you are inclined to be inquisitive about the nomenology of blogs. Luckily I am here to pretend to know what I am talking about. This is not sarcasm; for in a situation in which the origins of a thing are largely unconscious and therefore unknowable, an explanation invented after the fact, for similarly unconscious reasons and indeed the same unconscious reasons in all likelihood, is the surest way of getting the true explanation. For it is an explanation not of why something happened, but of what it meant when it did happen.

The name "The Flying-Ins" arose from two sources; an observation and a misunderstanding. It should be pointed out now, before further misunderstandings arise to give further names to as-yet-undreamed-of blogs, that the thing observed was not the thing misunderstood. The thing misunderstood was the title of Chesterton's early novel The Flying Inn. I assumed that this was about someone or something who entered some structure very suddenly from the air, metaphorically if not literally. I maintain that such a concept would have been eminently chestertonian, but this is, alas, not what The Flying Inn is about. Of course, I then proceded to misunderstand and expect the book to contain an Inn which was actually self-supported on the air, but that is irrelevant to the topic at hand.

The observation was on what might be called the present generation of chestertonians. If you attended the conference, you most likely know what I mean, and may feel free to skip the majority of this post. I observed that we all differ in behavior not only from our peers, but from our elder chestertonians. We tend to be loud. We tend to dress oddly, and often anachronistically. We tend to behave with an excess of personailty; whatever we act like, we act like even more than we do ourselves. We enjoy things; wine, beer, cheese, singing, joking, comic books, serious tomes, video games, christmas lights, space westerns, waterfalls, regency dancing--I heard each of the above recommended to me sincerely and enthusiastically. And we are multiplying. Every year I attend the conference, the ratio of young to old is more heavily weighted on my side of the scales.

Likely the best explanation is simply that we have grown up with Chesterton and chestertonian parents. The philosophy of surprise was made a central component of our personalities from the time they first developed. This is not to say we do not have our faults. But we have something that very few of our elders could ever have had: the opportunity to take Chesterton's approach to existence the way Chesterton approaches existence. Our elders had to discover Chesterton. We are the first to have the privilege of rediscovering him.

It was simplicity itself to remember the mishearing, which has always seemed to me charming, and connect it with the group who, I presume, would favor it as their preferred mode of entry in any circumstance. I know I would.

You have seen the Greatest Generation. You have endured the Me Decade. It is, of course, futile to say whether any thing may be the "next" thing, but it is not futile to hope. Therefore, I beg to recommend to your hopes another generation. The Flying-Ins.

We'll be seeing you.

Check this out

An absolutely perfect post on ChesterCon here. Hat-tip- My mom

Hey New Members

Could you all introduce yourselves, either in the comment box or in a separate post? Thanks!

Today's News Update

Okey-doke, so you may have noticed, this blog has a new name. We are now The Flying-Ins, as we are so to speak "flying in" to revolutionize society. (Hat-tip: Rob MacArthur)

We also have two new members and SEVEN pending (agreed to join haven't accepted the email invitation yet)!!!!!

So, in case you can't tell, I am VERY happy, and more ChesterCon news shall hopefully follow soon.

Opera, persecution, and geometry

The jumbled thoughts of GilbertGirl and Ria after a busy day at Chestercon:

Meeting new Chestertonian teenagers, listening to entertaining and enlightening talks, delving deep into Chesterton's stunningly simple masterpiece Orthodoxy, and best of all, eating Stilton cheese while conversing with internet acquaintances are a few of the intellectual pleasures we've been enjoying these last two days.


The whole thing got off to a splendid start with Dale Ahlquist's "In defense of everything else," an introduction to Chesterton's introduction.

David Zach gave us a spirited, rousing talk (trying to keep us awake late Thursday night) all about Chesterton as a futurist, based off the chapter "The Eternal Revolution". Begginning by defining futurist, he showed how Chesterton thought about and invested in the future, emphasizing children and incorporating a slight thread of The Ethics of Elfland.

Tom Martin woke us up Friday morning with his electrically captivating "the maniac: Especially, Nietzsche". Supremely satisfying arguments concerning reason, faith, heresy, and other juicy subjects were displayed in a scholarly and Chestertonian style.

Unfortunately, we were absent for a great deal of Sean Dailey's talk regarding The Suicide of Thought. ): So despite the fact 'tis GilbertGirl's favorite chapter, and one of my favorites, we have nothing to report.

The clock stuck twelve long ago, and the princesses are late for bed, so we'll continue our summary tomorrow with Jennifer Overkamp's Fairy Tale talk.

P.s. If you're wondering about the three nouns comprising the subject, although they have not yet entered the narrative, they are what our heads are full of:)

What ho, Chesterteens!

A gleeful salutation from Mapaz, Ria, and myself, reporting from ChesterCon 2008 (also Abbreviated Algy - story pending)! Plunged in a vortex of Nietzcshe's nuttiness, stilton cheese, animate robots, and the stature of elves, we have no more time to spend at present disclosing the delights of the conference, as there are still so many to absorb, but will deliver a detiled update this evening. Until then, comrades!

"Thou art Translated" Part III

"Prima luce amounts to a "when hell freezes over conclusion sumptuousness*", possessing one self of outside pertaining to the flop subsists a nevermore expiring vexation."
-Gus, Algernon, Maud** and your humble servant

(can also be read as)

"Daybreak is a never-ending glory, getting out of bed is a never-ending nuisance."

-GKC

(Parts I and II can be found here and here)


*Maud said it should have been "gorgeousness".
**Algernon's sister

Father Brown's First Name

Upon reading the introduction by R. T. Bond, which comes before my cherished Father Brown omnibus I came across an interesting fact: Chesterton mentions Father's Brown's first name in two different places, and they are different each time!

1. Our beloved priest detective is referred to as "the reverend J. Brown". This may give a connection to Father John O'Connor, who inspired G.K. Chesterton to write of an outwardly insignificant man whose real character did not match his external appearance.

2. Flambeau once calls Father Brown "Paul". "Paul" originally meant "little" which would seem to point to Father Brown's wonderful humility.

C.S. Lewis on Chesterton

It was here that I first read a volume of Chesterton's essays. I had never heard of him and had no idea of what he stood for; nor can I quite understand why he made such an immediate conquest of me. It might have been expected that my pessimism, my atheism, and my hatred of sentiment would have made him to me the least congenial of all authors. It would almost seem that Providence, or some "second cause" of a very obscure kind, quite over-rules our previous tastes when It decides to bring two minds together. Liking an author may be as involuntary and improbable as falling in love. I was by now a sufficiently experienced reader to distinguish liking from agreement. I did not need to accept what Chesterton said in order to enjoy it. His humour was of the kind I like best - not "jokes" imbedded in the page like currants in a cake, still less (what I cannot endure), a general tone of flippancy and jocularity, but the humour which is not in any way separable from the argument but is rather (as Aristotle would say) the "bloom" on dialectic itself. The sword glitters not because the swordsman set out to make it glitter but because he is fighting for his life and therefore moving it very quickly. For the critics who think Chesterton frivolous or "paradoxical" I have to work hard to feel even pity; sympathy is out of the question. Moreover, strange as it may seem, I liked him for his goodness.

---from Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

Rediscovery

I can't believe how close I am to graduating from high school. One week from today I'll be finished. I'll be moving on to a new stage of my education. After four years, it's kind of hard to believe.

When I got up one fall day and found that I was a freshman, I didn't know what to expect. And I must confess, I was more than a little scared. I knew that high school was going to be a bit more rigorous than my education had previously been. I was going to delve deeper into science, into history, into theology, into philosophy. I was a little nervous about the challenges that would be presented, but I was scared stiff of losing the wonder.

I guess as Chesterton fans, we all have this passion for wonder. Like Chesterton, we see that the world is suffering not from 'lack of wonders, but from lack of wonder.' And I was afraid that digging into these subjects, turning them over, and analyzing them would make me lose my sense of wonder.

I've gone from being a timid little freshman to a smug senior, and I see how wrong I was. My education took away none of the excitement, none of the enthusiasm, none of the wonder. It increased it.

Just as Innocent Smith in Manalive courts and marries his wife again and again so he can rediscover his joy in her, his love for her; just as he robs his house so he can rediscover that his possessions are his; and just as he travels around the world to rediscover the immense beauty of going home again... I too rediscovered.

I was afraid that a study of science and natural history would take away the mystery and wonder of walking through the woods in a foggy evening, of seeing the soft raindrops hanging crystal-like from the tips of the tree branches, of hearing the soft and faintly ominous winds stir far above me, and glide down to shake the soft spring flowers from their trees.

I was wrong. My studies forced me to rediscover that beauty. It made it impossible for the beauty to ever become stale, because I was looking at it all with new eyes. Science didn't reduce the woods to a lot of technicalities, but turned it into something more wonderful than I had previously thought. There was something new in my mind, and it made me view the woods in a new and astonishing way.

And theology did not take away the simple awe and love of God. Reading through Aquinas did not diminish Him, did not turn Him into a complicated thing that requires precise definitions and is to be viewed from a slightly befuddled distance. Rather, realizing how necessary precise definitions are when talking about Him made me realize how truly awesome He is.

I rediscovered God during those four years, as well. If anything, my wonder has increased.

And the real joy is that there is so much more. College is somewhere in the near future, and though perhaps I'll be a bit of a timid freshman, adjusting to a new environment and place, not sure if I'm up to the challenge of such rigorous study... I know I won't be afraid of learning. Rather, I'm anxious for it.

I want to rediscover everything again and again, the way Innocent Smith did. And the more I rediscover everything, the more I rediscover God.

"Behold," He says, "I make all things new."

" Thou art translated!"

" Indeed, put the terrestrial sphere on a clothsline," flung off the fiddle-faced Farrier, suffering his duke to take a header situatied upon the tea-wagon within the bounderies of a laid-off despondency.



Don't worry! It's not as bad as you think. When some friends were over a couple days ago we translated a paragraph form Manalive using a Thesaurus. It's a game I may have invented!



Here is the origional:

"`Oh, hang the common world!' said the sullen Smith, letting his fist fall on the table in an idle despair.

Chesterton Wallpaper/Desktop Background

I was fooling around with GIMP today and made this:

Click on the image to enlarge it so you can save it and use, if you wish.

PostScript: It's really huge when you click on it but it'll shrink to fit your screen.

An Introduction

A brief summary of myself... I'm eighteen years old; on the verge of graduating from high school; an only girl, but by no means an only child, as I have six brothers; a lover of beautiful things, and one who at least attempts to share some beauty through the music of violin, piano, classical guitar, and voice; an avid reader, one who enjoys practically every genre; a bit on the old-fashioned side but hopefully in the best sense; and a firm Catholic.

And now for the subject of Chesterton...

I don't know when and where I first met Chesterton. I do know that it was mostly through my father's influence. Growing up we had Chesterton coffee mugs, Chesterton mousepads, and all sorts of Chestertonion things lying about the house. We occasionally had little Chesterton stories read aloud by the fireplace, and Chesterton was always being quoted. I guess Chesterton was simply always there!

And ChesterTeens? I've been a long-time reader of the ChesterTeens, and I always had an interest in joining the group. These past couple of years I've been somewhat like a pendulum, swinging back and forth, reaching one decision and falling away from it just as quickly. "Yes!" I would cry. "Yes, I shall join the ChesterTeens! What fun it would be!" And then, "No, no, alas! I haven't the time. I simply can't do it."

Well, a couple weeks ago I had the immense pleasure of meeting Ria in person, and at last I was convinced to make up my mind once and for all, and join your company. It was purely coincidental that we spent a portion of that day watching a pendulum in the science hall swing back and forth. It would be very dramatic and literary to type out: "And there, in the stillness of that science hall, watching the pendulum swing to and fro, I realized that the back and forth progression of my own mind had ceased, and I had resolved once and for all to join the ChesterTeens." Dramatic indeed, but unfortunately not true. It was mere coincidence. While I can come up with symbolism in stories, and make it dramatic as anyone would please, I always seem to miss out on the opportunities to be dramatic in my own life!

Ria, thanks so much for inviting me to join you all here! I'm really looking forward to being a part of the group, and shall do all in my power to come up with a post worth reading every once in awhile.

Father Brown Friday: The Sins of Prince Saradine

In the absence of the President I have been commissioned to supply your Father Brown Friday.

Heh…

Anyway, here it is.

1.
“Like a true philosopher he had no aim in his holiday; but, like a true philosopher he had an excuse.”

Why would it be especially like a true philosopher to have no aim in ones holiday?

Why would it be like one to have an excuse?

2.
Is there any significance in the green ink? Has it any thing to do, for instance, with the “green carnation”?

3.
Point of interest:
Flambeau, a Frenchmen, says “by Jove” and “by George”; two very English phrases. This is also done by another Chestertonian Frenchmen, Colonel Ducroix, in The Man Who Was Thursday.

4.
Another point of interest:
It’s interesting how the way people think about fairies has changed over time. It’s also interesting how the idea varies depending on story telling medium. For instance, in fairy tales the fairies are strictly divided into good fairies and bad fairies and no matter which they are, are very regal and human. In folk tales, however, the fairies are wild and wicked and uncivilized, much different from the bad fairy tale fairies who, though wicked, are nevertheless refined. To illustrate, the bad fairy from the fairy tale will turn you into a mouse and chain you on a table and inch from a crumb of meatloaf, but a folk tale fairy will abduct you or your child.


And now, I hand it to you.

Chesterpests!

Dramatis Personae

Ria as "Bearing"

GilbertGirl as ''Over Bearing"

Algernon as "Past Bearing"