Hedonism and asceticism

Two of my favorite literary figures, GK Chesterton and GB Shaw, were, in many ways, opposites. Shaw was an atheist and a pragmatist; Chesterton a Catholic and a romantic. They staged several public debates, during one of which (legend goes) Shaw said, "If I were as fat as you, Mr. Chesterton, I'd hang myself."

"If I ever decide to hang myself," Chesterton responded, "I'll use you for the rope."

In any event, Chesterton wrote an interesting book about Shaw (he disagreed with Shaw, but admired him). It's available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19535...-h/19535-h.htm

Here's the end of the book (Shaw being the one whose spear was "never broken").

Quote:

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I know it is all very strange. From the height of eight hundred years ago, or of eight hundred years hence, our age must look incredibly odd. We call the twelfth century ascetic. We call our own time hedonist and full of praise and pleasure. But in the ascetic age the love of life was evident and enormous, so that it had to be restrained. In an hedonist age pleasure has always sunk low, so that it has to be encouraged. How high the sea of human happiness rose in the Middle Ages, we now only know by the colossal walls that they built to keep it in bounds. How low human happiness sank in the twentieth century our children will only know by these extraordinary modern books, which tell people that it is a duty to be cheerful and that life is not so bad after all. Humanity never produces optimists till it has ceased to produce[Pg 249] happy men. It is strange to be obliged to impose a holiday like a fast, and to drive men to a banquet with spears. But this shall be written of our time: that when the spirit who denies besieged the last citadel, blaspheming life itself, there were some, there was one especially, whose voice was heard and whose spear was never broken.

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I'm not sure if I agree, but the principle seems sound. Also, I love the line about driving men to the banquet with spears.

I was reminded of this book when I mentioned Shaw's play "Arms and the Man" in another thread. The play descries the romanticizing of war. If war weren't romantic, wouldn't it be even more horrible (although, perhaps, less common)?