The Man Who Was Thursday: Difference between revisions

{{quote| "''First of all, what is it really all about? What is it you object to? You want to abolish Government?''"<br />

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"''And Right and Left," said Syme with a simple eagerness, "I hope you will abolish them too. They are much more troublesome to me.''" }}

 

 

The story concerns special detective [[Warrior Poet|Gabriel Syme]], a member of a secret police force dedicated to fighting the forces of Anarchy, who encounters a self-professed anarchist poet by the name of Lucian Gregory. After a spirited debate on the subject of [[Order Versus Chaos]], Gregory invites Syme to a secret meeting of the anarchist force to which he belongs. There, Syme manages to get himself elected as the new Thursday on the anarchists' supreme council, the Council of Days, [[Day of the Week Name|where each member is named for a different day of the week]], [[The Infiltration|in order to penetrate the anarchist organization and bring it down]]. The council is led by the terrifyingly cheerful and enigmatic figure of Sunday, and what follows is Syme's attempt to stay sane in the face of what seems to be true evil, and to answer the maddening question: "Who is Sunday?"

* [[Blue Blood]]: A recurring theme of the novel is that the working/lower class, even criminals, will never be swayed into philosophical anarchy, only the rich/upper class and intellectuals. {{spoiler|It appears to be subverted in a big way later in the novel, but is actually played straight.}}

* [[Bomb Throwing Anarchist]]: Deconstructed

{{quote| Being surrounded with every conceivable kind of revolt from infancy, Gabriel had to revolt into something, so he revolted into the only thing left -- sanity.}}

* [[Catapult Nightmare]]: Averted, and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the process.

* [[Day of the Week Name]]: Naturally. Though in a slight aversion, the weekday names are actually code names (with the possible exception of Sunday) for the seven leaders of an anarchist organization. {{spoiler|In another aversion, they turn out to be based on the days of the Creation week, slightly adjusted.}}

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Syme and Wednesday/ {{spoiler|Rickert}} especially, though all the characters have their moments.

* [[Dress-Coded for Your Convenience]]: At the climax of the story, each Council member is dressed in clothes featuring a motif based on what was created on his respective day in [[The Bible|Genesis]]: Monday has a single white stripe for the light created on the first day; Tuesday, blue parted robes; Wednesday, a tree/green motif; Thursday, the sun and moon; Friday, fish and birds, and Saturday, beasts and a man. {{spoiler|In addition, Sunday is in all white robes, and Gregory in all black.}}

** Sunday encourages the members of his organization to dress the part of the stereotypical morning-coated, top hat-wearing gentleman, an aversion of the stereotypical caricature of the [[Bomb Throwing Anarchist]]. However:

*** Subverted again {{spoiler|late in the novel, during the chapter "The Earth In Anarchy".}}

*** And ''again'' when it's revealed {{spoiler|that nobody was actually an anarchist, but were only trying to nab the people who they thought were anarchists - who also weren't anarchists.}}

* [[Evil Redhead]]: {{spoiler|Gregory}}. But ''not'' {{spoiler|[[Heroes Want Redheads|his equally redheaded sister, Rosamond]]}}.

{{quote| {{spoiler|"My red hair, like red flames, shall burn up the world ... "}}}}

* [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: {{spoiler|Subverted, as all the members save Sunday are policemen in disguise.}}

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: See also [[War On Straw]] and [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]; Gregory's [[Epic Fail]] attempts at undercover agent work.

* [[The Reveal]]: {{spoiler|Sunday [[Stealth Mentor|was both the leader of the Council of Days]] ''and'' [[The Faceless|the "man in the dark room".]] Also, [[Flock of Wolves|all the members of the Council of Days were undercover policemen like Syme.]]}}

* [[Reverse Mole]]: Syme {{spoiler|among others.}}

{{quote| "The history of the thing might amuse you," he said. "When first I became one of the New Anarchists I tried all kinds of respectable disguises. I dressed up as a bishop. I read up all about bishops in our anarchist pamphlets, in ''Superstition the Vampire'' and ''Priests of Prey''. I certainly understood from them that bishops are strange and terrible old men keeping a cruel secret from mankind. I was misinformed. When on my first appearing in episcopal gaiters in a drawing-room I cried out in a voice of thunder, 'Down! down! presumptuous human reason!' they found out in some way that I was not a bishop at all. I was nabbed at once. Then I made up as a millionaire; but I defended Capital with so much intelligence that a fool could see that I was quite poor. Then I tried being a major. Now I am a humanitarian myself, but I have, I hope, enough intellectual breadth to understand the position of those who, like Nietzsche, admire violence -- the proud, mad war of Nature and all that, you know. I threw myself into the major. I drew my sword and waved it constantly. I called out 'Blood!' abstractedly, like a man calling for wine. I often said, 'Let the weak perish; it is the Law.' Well, well, it seems majors don't do this. I was nabbed again."}}

* [[Warrior Poet]]: Syme is a poet, and, judging by his performance in his duel with the Marquis, something of a warrior.

* [[White Sheep]]

* [[Witch Hunt]]: A form of it is seen later in the novel when {{spoiler|the now-revealed-as-policemen Council members are pursued across the countryside by a mob of townspeople and men they thought were allies, led by the Secretary/Monday (who is also a policeman), who are under the mistaken impression that ''they'' are the anarchists. It gets cleared up by the end of the chapter, though.}}