The Week in Meep: Don Quixote, Books, and Jack Chick

Just some snippets after my parents helped me clean

Whew, my back hurts. I’m old(ish).

My parents came to visit, and a couple of dumpsters’ worth of junk were thrown out, a bunch of stuff was donated to various places, and I’ve been cleaning up my collections of books and DVDs.

Let’s see what I have below…

Be the Catholic Jack Chick Thinks You Are

I recently read The Nightmare World of Jack Chick, an out-of-print book by Jimmy Akin from Catholic Answers.

by u/AdmiralAkbar1 on r/CatholicMemes

I enjoyed collecting Jack Chick comics while attending North Carolina State University. There was a group of people, especially Rev. Birdsong, who showed up at the Brickyard to yell at us heathens for our wicked ways, and they handed out Chick tracts for free.

My favorite? Death Cookie.

You can get the tracts reprinted in lots of 10,000, with your own special message on the back. I’m sure there are still people handing out Chick tracts, though Jack Chick died in 2016 and Gary Birdsong died in February of this year.

The Chick Tracts enterprises are continued by David W. Daniels, who operates the Chick Tracts website and YouTube channel, where he posted a two-part series on Jack Chick called “You Don’t Know Jack”. Here is Part 1:

There are 17 parts to this. (No, I’m not going to watch these. Just linking in case you’re interested.)

Obviously, as a Catholic, I disagree with the content of Chick Tracts. One of the reasons I liked collecting them was that they were so hilariously far from the mark, but I knew that some people believed the crap that was in them. It helps to know what other people think.

Chick was not the originator of many/most of the stories that he promulgated. Some of it is pretty standard old Protestant lies about Catholicism. But some of it is just plain nuts.

The above r/CatholicMemes item is goofing on a panel from the Chick Tract called My Name in the Vatican? in response to Pope Leo XIV visiting Vatican Radio’s shortwave radio center recently. From Vatican News on 19 Jun 2025:

This morning, Pope Leo XIV traveled out of Rome's city center to Vatican Radio's shortwave Radio Center in Santa Maria di Galeria. During his visit, the Pope emphasized that during his missionary work in Latin America and Africa, it was invaluable to receive shortwave broadcasts from Vatican Radio as it reaches places where few other stations can. He also reaffirmed the missionary importance of communication. Before leaving, he blessed everyone present and expressed his gratitude for the faithful work carried out at the station—even on a holiday like today, the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Pope Leo contemplates some old radio technology, no Protestant names involved

For the most part, I do not think about Chick Tracts at all.

When people showed up for a Catholic memorial service for my father in North Carolina, over 30 years ago, I know many had never seen a Catholic service before. They had probably seen Chick tracts.

And while they did see we had statues of saints (true), many of the other claims were quite off the mark. We read from the Bible, sang many of the same hymns as they did (if you want hymns in English, the Wesleys are a good source!), and the prayers had only a few differences from what they had in their own services (the Lord’s Prayer can differ a bit in translation.)

So yes, sometimes we Catholics joke: be the Catholics Jack Chick thinks you are. (or thought you are… ) The Chick Tracts assume a level of organization and competence far beyond that which actually exists within the Church.

Don Quixote, the Knight of the Rueful Countenance

I finished reading The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, which was far more delightful than I expected. That is definitely going into my re-read pile.

There’s not much to the plot, being more of a shaggy dog story, and centered around the two main characters of Don Quixote and his “squire”, Sancho Panza, as they wander around Spain and the various adventures they have, and stories they listen to.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Honoré Daumier, 19th century, French

While the Don is supposed to be the superior and Sancho the inferior, Quixote can barely control his squire, and almost nobody can get him to shut up.

Sancho reminds me of Sam Weller in Pickwick Papers (by Dickens) and a bit less of Leporello in Don Giovanni (as Leporello is definitely inferior to Giovanni, and not that friendly, ultimately).

Don Quixote Attacking the Windmill, John Doyle (artist), Alfred Ducôte (lithographer), Thomas McLean (publisher), 1835

Quixote is given the award of the first modern novel, even for its defects in plot. Once you get into it, one can see why: it’s meta-fictional in many ways, and comments on aspects of literature and fiction.

Some of my favorite bits were Quixote making remarks on other authors’ writing false versions of him (the novel was published over several years, in parts, and other people tried ripping off the author Cervantes) as well as Quixote talking about falsity coming through translations, and giving examples from Italian.

Quixote was an international bestseller in its time, published when Shakespeare was wrapping up his career. There is a lost play called The History of Cardenio that was co-written with Fletcher, based on one of the interpolated stories in Quixote.

I recommend Don Quixote, but as with many classics, know what you’re getting into: it’s a long book, and it’s more about following the two main characters and the various societal issues they run into. It’s not really about a plot. It’s very episodic, and Cervantes caroms between different characters, often separating Quixote and Sancho, so that he can have a variety of actions continue.

The ending… well, I won’t give it away. I was satisfied, but I know many won’t be.

Plate 30: Don Quixote consults the enchanted head at Don Antonio Moreno's house (Don Quichotte consulte la teste enchantée chez Don Antonio Mereno), Jakob van Schley, Dutch, 1745

I love wallowing in long books.

Speaking of books…

Cleaning up my libraries

One of the things I did while my parents were here was culling my libraries — one entire room is a library, but I also have shelves downstairs, too, for books and DVDs.

Start:

Finish:

Yay.

Those are the small shelves, DVDs only.

I did manage to get one bookshelf done, top:

and bottom:

I found some strange books in there:

That’s this Stanley Draper.

I think Stu had picked up that book, not me, at one of the used bookstores on Hillsborough St. next to NCSU.

Enjoy!