Monsignor Knox on GKC

The other day I found an interesting bit of commentary on GKC:

Mr. Chesterton ... is like Johnson's friend who tried to be a philosopher, but cheerfulness would keep on coming in. The net effect of his works is serious, as it is meant to be, but his fairy-like imagination is for ever defeating its own object in matters of detail. But indeed, Mr. Chesterton is beyond our present scope; for he is rash enough to combine humour not merely with satire but with serious writing; and that, it is well known, is a thing which the public will not stand.
[Ronald A. Knox: "Introduction: on Humour and Satire" in Essays in Satire]

This book (which I purchased at that literary treasure-house called Loome!) also has that choice essay wherein Msgr. Knox applies the well-known methods of "Bible Scholarship" to the Sherlock Holmes canon: considering such apparent conflicts as Mrs. Watson calling him "James" when he stated his name was "John H. Watson" - the explanation for which Knox finds in "Backnecke's theory of the Deutero-Watson"...

Oh, it's funny. I may have to post more of it later. Meanwhile I will be busy laughing.

An aside: every time I hear about deutero-somebody (like in a homily on Semitic verbs) I see those characters from "Newhart" saying "I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and my other brother Darryl..."