Dr. Weevil: The Weblog Dr. Weevil: The Weblog

Powered by WordPress

Tuesday: June 14, 2011

D. M. G. K. Chesterton and J. L. Borges

Filed under: — site admin @ 10:07 PM GMT-0500

Two more author anniversaries today, and again authors best known for their short stories. It is the 75th anniversary of the death of G. K. Chesterton, and the 25th anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges. Here’s a bit from Chesterton’s ‘lost’ Father Brown story (collected here), “Father Brown and the Donnington Affair” (1914):

“Human troubles are mostly of two kinds. There is an accidental kind, that you can’t see because they are so close you fall over as you do over a hassock. And there is the other kind of evil, the real kind. And that a man will go to seek however far off it is – down, down, into the lost abyss.”

Sunday: June 12, 2011

D. M. M. R. James

Filed under: — site admin @ 9:56 PM GMT-0500

Today is the 75th anniversary of the death of M. R. James, author of Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and three other collections. There is a very readable webtext here. Here is a pedantic bit from “Count Magnus”:

“Like many solitary men, I have a habit of talking to myself aloud; and, unlike some of the Greek and Latin particles, I do not expect an answer.”

The subject’s habit of talking to himself aloud turns out to be very bad for his health.