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percy-l - Re: [percy-l] LITR

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Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion on Walker Percy

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  • From: <Robert_Pauley AT oxy.com>
  • To: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] LITR
  • Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 10:23:07 -0700

A couple of priests played pivotal roles in The Second Coming.  I don’t recall his name, but the parish priest always trying to encourage Will Barrett to join his church’s men’s group outings and otherwise come “into the fold” was one, and represented the kind the extreme earnestness which Percy, or at least Barrett, found simultaneously cloying and yet not unimportant to a community.  The second was an older, former renegade missionary who jolts Will into his final, redemptive awareness that “a gift may be a sign of a giver.  I found this Percy novel to be his most accomplished and accessible: a solidly grounded meditation on suburban malaise and self-delusion, an effective and prescient social satire (Will's daughter's "new-age" enthusiasms are hilarious), and a touching love story.  Not easy to pull off.  It tracked a character straight through from the impulse to suicide to a saving awareness without ever resorting to the kind of dopey flourishes of so many other social satires of the time – and afterward.  Basically, Will Barrett loses his mind without ever losing his head.  I also appreciated the fact that it followed up on Will Barrett after leaving him off in a Santa Fe wasteland so many years before.  

 

Peace.



From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dye, Steve
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 7:35 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] LITR

You are asking a very loaded question – it will be interesting to see the responses you get!

 

Steven L. Dye, MA

Director

Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc.

1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338

Lexington, KY 40511

 

-----Original Message-----
From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 10:31 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] LITR

 

 

 


From: Dye, Steve [mailto:sldye AT bluegrass.org]
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 9:43 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion

 

Have any of you considered the role of priests in Percy’s novels?  Is there any common thread?

 

In The Moviegoer is there a priest?  The role grows into a main character in The Thanatos Syndrome, Father Reynaldo Smith.  There must be a purpose for these priests.  

 

As a Protestant Christian, I would like to know if Catholic Percy readers see any of these priests as realistic.

 

Rich Gray




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