By way of The Point, a dramatic re-creation of written debates between G. K. Chesterton, “The Apostle of Common Sense,” and Robert Blatchford, atheist determinist and socialist. Chesterton’s ability to get to the heart of a question is clearly on display here. His quick and generous wit is too, though I think somewhat contradicted by the actor’s mode of portrayal: his mannerisms are more pompous than I think fits the writer.
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Chesterton has a gift for pointing out the obvious fallacies which most of us overlook. Once we have had them pointed out they will remain glaringly obvious unless we make a willful effort to ignore them. I don’t think I have ever seen a refutation of Chesterton’s arguments, but his natural tendency to whimsy and witticism allowed his critics to pretend he wasn’t serious so they didn’t need to address his arguments as ‘serious’ arguments… convenient don’t you think?
I looked for a transcript of this online and couldn’t find it.
Does anyone know if there’s one available anywhere?
I couldn’t find a transcript but here is a link to the “Blatchford Controversies”
http://www.archive.org/details/TheBlatchfordControversiesByG.K.Chesterton
and here is a link to Chesterton’s works on the Web.
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/index.html
“heretics” has a chapter on Blatchford
Here on googlebooks is the “Blatchford Controversies” beginning on page 373
http://books.google.com/books?id=7wzmjPSZ084C&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=chesterton+blatchford+debate&source=bl&ots=rUwuNuZ3jD&sig=pO3RGm4NYAW5Z4BcC2dnMuHt56s&hl=en&ei=ABKwSsDACY6ysgOuoIDICw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=chesterton%20blatchford%20debate&f=false
A short essay about Chesterton’s style
http://www.staustinreview.com/uploads/issues/July_August_2009_Coutts.pdf