The Fourth Day of Creation
A review of “The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare” by G. K. Chesterton
Chesterton, Gilbert K. The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare. E-book, Project Gutenberg, 1999.
Disclaimer: I have never felt so incapacitated to review a book as when I attempted writing this review. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) is at the top of the list of authors I respect. Though I have read only one of his books to a considerable length—The Father Brown series—and engaged a few quotes from him before reading the book being reviewed in this despatch, I grant him the position he holds in my preference list. If not for anything else, his writing style and distinctiveness are endearing enough. He duly earns the title with which he is addressed: “Prince of Paradox”. Somehow, I feel I cannot give an objective and wholesome review of this very book but I decided to attempt, at least, to tell further about a writer I appreciate. If this review gets another fellow to want to read the book, I think I have achieved something with this piece. That said, allow me to indulge you in the review of The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton.
Originally published in 1908, The Man Who Was Thursday follows the story about the advent of anarchism on the earth, starting from Europe, spreading over the earth, and the counteraction by a few men who still cherish order in the world.
Gabriel Syme encountered Lucian Gregory, a self-professed anarchist who talks passionately about anarchism in Saffron Park. This meeting was the day Gregory, also a poet had his views on the nature of poetry as being anarchist dashed by Syme. In Gregory’s perspective the very nature of poetry, as with all arts, is chaotic—it is anarchism. He argued:
“An artist is identical to an anarchist. You might transpose the words anywhere. An anarchist is an artist. The man who throws a bomb is an artist because he prefers a great moment to everything. . . . An artist disregards all governments, abolishes all conventions”.
Syme, on the other hand, was of a contrary opinion. He argued thus:
“It is things going right that is poetical. Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, is the foundation of all poetry. Yes, the most poetical thing, more poetical than the flowers, more poetical than the stars—the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick”.
The argument between both men got heated. Though it paused later in the day, Gregory would not tolerate having his views trampled upon. In revolt, he took Syme into a very secret place to show how serious an anarchist he is. In this secret space were weapons of mass destruction which the Central Anarchist Council of Europe had stored up for an exhibition of the height of anarchism and its eventual dominance. It happened that on that same evening was the day, Thursday, a member of the council was to be replaced by voting. The occupant was dead.
The Central Anarchist Council is made up of seven men, each named after the seven days of the week. Sunday was the President of the council. Thursday was a very sensitive position on the council. Gregory was to be elected into the position of Thursday on the night he took Syme into that secret place, which also was the meeting place for the council. Syme revealed to Gregory that he was a police detective after they were both bound by promises to not reveal each other’s secrets—not Syme’s to the council and not Gregory’s to the police. Syme’s secret was revealed just about a minute or two before the rest of the council members came in for the meeting. Syme, perceived as a delegate from the higher anarchist council, would be elected Thursday, instead of Gregory who was disoriented before and through the meeting by the sad revelation of who Syme was.
One by one, Monday to Saturday, all sitting members of the council turned out to be members of the anti-anarchist police unit from Scotland Yard. The first to be uncovered was Tuesday (Gogol); by the President. All the others were uncovered by Syme (Thursday) and Professor deWorms (Friday). They did not know about themselves before each uncovering. All six members of the anarchist council were on the board to investigate the propagators of anarchism, who are considered the real enemies of the state and order and not the mere uneducated criminals in the city. They were all sent out by the same police chief. The puzzle now is: Who then was the real source of anarchism considering the title of the twelfth chapter of the book, “The Earth in Anarchy”?
Syme’s powerful intuition which saved him and whoever he teamed up with through the narrative could not help him solve the puzzle. Sunday was the President of the council before the eyes of the council. He was also the unidentified chief (always sitting in a dark room) who recruited the other six members into the anti-anarchist police force. And he was not the source of anarchism. They all figured out who the source was when they had a grand council meeting, all of them getting to know each other in their true identities. Being disguised was too much a burden for each of them to bear in the quest for sustaining order on the earth. Who then was the real source of anarchism?
At the grand council meeting, each member of the anarchist council was their true self and wore regalia which alluded to the days of creation. Their attire alluded to the features of creation on each of the seven days. It seemed Syme was the one whose nature simulated the functionalities of the elements created on the fourth day of creation: not just by his clothes but by his personality.
The Fourth Day of Creation according to Genesis 1:14-19:
The Fourth Day—Sun, Moon, and Stars. (14) Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky. These lights will separate the days from the nights. They will be used as signs to show when special meetings begin and to show the days and years. (15) They will be in the sky to shine light on the earth." And it happened. (16) So God made the two large lights. He made the larger light rule during the day and the smaller light rule during the night. He also made the stars. (17) God put these lights in the sky to shine on the earth. (18) He put them in the sky to rule over the day and the night. They separated the light from the darkness. And God saw that this was good. (19) There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the fourth day (ERV).
Can you attempt a guess at who the real anarchist was? Give you answers in the comment.
Fun Facts: I had to read this book twice; the second reading was aloud, covering the first five chapters and the last. This is not a book to rush. It is philosophical, allegorical, and contains lots of allusions.
For the remaining details of the story, consider the subtitle.
You can get a copy here: The Man Who Was Thursday
G.K.C is an interesting enigma; there's no gainsaying we are u treated to a thriller in these pages; the little peering I've made shows indeed the paradoxical character of his writing.
The highlight in this review for me is the fact that the central characters are named after the weekdays and there's an evocation of the Genesis creation story; coincidentally, it bears relation with the book I just dropped: Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon wherein a Negro secret society of seven guys named after the week days whose objective is racial protection by avenging on innocent white folks the ill-treatment meted on black folks as a way of ensuring balanced ratio.
I'm tempted to answer Thursday to the question above.
The review does betray the modesty that the disclaimer came with. Well-done.