Ch. 3 - The Man Who Was Thursday

[Pheidippides]

I have finished this novel so I will be cautious as to what I say here, but while reading a huge question came up for me. The word anarchy is used often so I ask, what does the word anarchy mean in the context of this novel? I also wonder if it could mean different things to different people?

Excellent question!

Anarchist schools of thought

I read the following article years ago, always stuck with me as it is the best written piece on anarchy.

Notes on Anarchy; Noam Chomsky

[stahrwe]

I have finished this novel so I will be cautious as to what I say here, but while reading a huge question came up for me. The word anarchy is used often so I ask, what does the word anarchy mean in the context of this novel? I also wonder if it could mean different things to different people?

Excellent question!

Anarchist schools of thought

I read the following article years ago, always stuck with me as it is the best written piece on anarchy.

Notes on Anarchy; Noam Chomsky

The answer to the question posed by Suzanne would result in a potential spoiler this early in the discussion. Please see my response in the Chapter 15 post.

Thank you to Suzanne and Pheidippides.

[lindad_amato]

I think in this chapter we see Chesterton raise his satirical voice quite loudly, for example, lampooning the Council of Anarchists as they elect Syme, a Scotland Yard policeman, to the eminent position of 'Thursday' based on his oratorical ability and his complete destruction of Gregory's credibility as a candidate, using, of course, Gregory's own words as cannon fodder. The absence of any sort of background check on Syme, given only Gregory has even met the man, doesn't say much about their organizational skills. We do find out that Syme is first a poet and second a policeman and that he is a policeman partly because he is a poet. This puts Syme, the policeman, in a certain and rather unusual light.

Perhaps the groups lack of good organization and procedures to elect someone points out that anarchy is doomed to fail due to that lack of order? Syme, who is organized, seems to win the day.