GKC and McGilchrist
I ain’t got a shred of hard proof, but I’d wager that G.K. Chesterton’s noggin was rigged with a hulking, boisterous right hemisphere that steamrolled the left like a runaway freight train.
That jovial giant’s right hemisphere didn’t just outmuscle its analytical counterpart. It hog-tied and stuffed it in a burlap sack, leaving it barely able to do its job of sorting and sifting daily life’s chaos. Biographical anecdotes of his life are littered with hilarious examples of his scarce ability to function in the everyday world.1
Chesterton’s right-hemispheric genius, I believe, gave him a hawk’s-eye view of the modern world’s left-hemispheric lunacy. He saw it clearly: civilization was jumping the tracks, driven by a rogue left hemisphere gone drunk on its own logic.
McGilchrist’s scientific conclusions and GKC’s common sense ones have more parallels than Manhattan’s street grid.
My favorite: McGilchrist’s The Matter with Things, “What Schizophrenia and Autism Can Tell Us,” and Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, “The Maniac.” Both chapters take a hard look at the mentally ill and reach the same conclusion:
“The madman’s explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory.” GKC, Orthodoxy
McGilchrist nods fervently:
“The most deluded patients with schizophrenia tend to be those whose thinking is more logical.”
If you’re fool enough to wrestle with Chesterton’s ideas, brace yourself. The man tipped the scales at over 300 pounds and so did his prose: dense, rollicking, and liable to crush the unwary.
But it’s worth the sweat.
If nothing else, it’ll make your left hemisphere sweat, so expect it to try to distract you when you find yourself fumbling along one of GKC’s (many) prose detours.
Footnote
Sample from his early life:
Elementary schoolmates would often play jokes on him, but in a good-humored way (everyone except the Satanic always liked GKC).
One day during recess, they stuffed his coat pockets with snow and he didn't notice. When they came back inside, the snow started to melt, causing water to puddle around GKC's desk. A schoolmate raised his hand and said to the teacher:
Please, Sir, I think the laboratory sink must be leaking again. The water is coming through and falling all over Chesterton.
The teacher sent Chesterton to the custodian's office to report the problem. Chesterton, with water streaming from his pockets, went upstairs to the janitor, gave the message, and returned without discovering what had happened.
Substack Link
Eric Scheske
