Name: The Man Who Was Thursday
ISBN: 9781655008924

The Man Who Was Thursday

Can you trust yourself when you don't know who you are? In a park in London, secret policeman Gabriel Syme strikes up a conversation with an anarchist. Sworn to do his duty, Syme uses his new acquaintance to go undercover in Europe's Central Anarchist Council and infiltrate their deadly mission, even managing to have himself voted to the position of 'Thursday'. When Syme discovers another undercover policeman on the Council, however, he starts to question his role in their operations. And as a desperate chase across Europe begins, his confusion grows, as well as his confidence in his ability to outwit his enemies. But he has still to face the greatest terror that the Council has: a man named Sunday, whose true nature is worse than Syme could ever have imagined...

What Hacker News says

michaelsbradleyFeb 2025

Tastes differ, certainly.

Have you read any of Chesterton’s novels, e.g. The Man Who Was Thursday?

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FooBarBizBazzNov 2024

This "the West and Christianity" thing may reinforce dichotomies that we do not need (East vs West), while glossing over essential distinctions (Christianity vs its Abrahamic roots).

Yes, much is good about Christianity, and yes, it caught on in the West -- but it originated in the Near East, and Ethiopians and Keralites had it first (and still do). Moreover, prior to the Islamic conquests, it was widespread in the countries that we now think of as Muslim. So, while it is central to the culture of Europe, it is also a bit of an adopted alien -- and it is not unique to Europe.

Second, many Protestant readings of Christianity embrace the Old Testament, while underemphasizing the break from Old Testament practices and thought that it represented. You would think that Protestant culture would be more immune to this, because it emphasizes literacy and directly reading the book. But somehow that has led to an uncritical understanding of the Old Testament, instead of to a more Gnostic repudiation. Paul is best in this regard.

Because it is precisely Christianity's reformist elements that made it good. Its universalism. Its New Covenant.

Anyway.

I do appreciate your CK Chesterton references. Some of those are also among my favorites. I very much enjoyed The Man Who was Thursday, one of his works of fiction, a sort of novel -- which, I will only say, subverts expectations, and turns out to be more than a bit philosophical!

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hprotagonistNov 2023

"The Man Who Was Thursday" still works, i found -- which is kind of a surprise!

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ggmMay 2023

Brian O'Nolan was a gift to the world. I periodically re-read Miles, for the sheer joy of the (mostly) english of the catechism of cliché. Guidance to the proust-hater to collect snow in winter in a jar, so when a Proust fanatic comes to the door declaiming "ou sant les neiges d'hier" you can fling the jar at him saying "here" and slam the door shut..

Book mangling services to the discerning non-book reader, to prove your literary chops with pencil notes inside.. then competitive book mangling, cheaper jobs done by running the lawnmower over the books..

He wrote some very odd stuff outside of the odd stuff we all know. I found a book in UQ library on the "not being borrowed, pulp" list and borrowed it: it included a story by O'Nolan about using Sago to end the worlds hunger, and a heroin addict joiner who seals himself up in a room behind the panelling he is installing.

His parody of Joyce caused some offence. I think he found that a good indication he was on-target.

Writing about De Selby and dark sucker theory, totally in the footnotes, which at times become larger than the page of main text..

If you enjoy the third policeman, then "The man who was Thursday" by GK Chesterton might also amuse, although its not as good in my view. Or, "the exploits of Englebrecht the surrealist boxer" by Maurice Richardson, or perhaps "Fuzz against Junk" and "The Hero Maker" by Akbar Del Piombo.

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veridiesMay 2023

You're describing The Man Who Was Thursday. Great novel!

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pmoriartyMay 2023

You might enjoy G. K. Chesterton's 1908 novel The Man Who Was Thursday.[1]

Spoiler from the Wikipedia plot synopsis:

"In his efforts to thwart the council, Syme eventually discovers that five of the other six members are also undercover detectives; each was employed just as mysteriously and assigned to defeat the Council. They soon find out they were fighting each other and not real anarchists..."

In 1977, Philip K Dick took this up a notch in A Scanner Darkly[2], in which the drug-addled protagonist is unknowingly spying and informing on himself.

[1] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Was_Thursday

[2] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanner_darkly

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