Letters to the Editor
Chesterton Pam Jennings Jock Scot Toni SC011 Deification and Clarification T. Charles Edwards,
W. J. Burls-Hunt
That Subsidy John Irwin Against Churchmanship Tyrrell Burgess
CHESTERTON
SIR,—Why on earth does Mr. Amis have to forgive Mr. Hollis 'even, perhaps, for taking Chesterton seriously'? Lots of people take him seriously. 1 might say lots of people, not necessarily 'intellectuals,' only that this might seem to write Mr. Amis off as an 'intellectual,' which Heaven forbid. The whole point about any good writer, such as Chesterton or Mr. Amis, is surely that he can appeal at an intellectual (no quotes) and a popular level. I am sure Mr. Amis doesn't imagine for a moment that 80 per cent. of the people who have chuckled at Lucky Jim's beautiful, frantic, frustrated bus ride have even heard all the solemn, critical theories about the New School of the Fifties, etc. etc.
I am sure, in other words, that Mr. Amis does not belittle Chesterton just because he is popular. That leaves two possible attitudes to a man with the originality, the exuberance and the endless quotability of Chesterton; for or against. You can't just brush him off, in the same way as some people have just been try- ing to brush off Shaw. If Mr. Amis can't take Chesterton seriously, either he means that GKC himself didn't mean what he said, that he had his tongue in his cheek—which seems at variance with all the known facts of his life and personality—or that his ideas them- selves needn't be taken seriously. Well, they* arc by—Yours faithfully,
PAUL JENNINGS
Hill House, Rectory Hill, East Bergholt, Suffolk * Except, possibly, Distributism. And I'm not so sure even there.
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