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  • From: "Dye, Steve" <sldye AT bluegrass.org>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot
  • Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:47:08 -0400

Yeah, it probably says more about my inability to "get" Thanatos than
any "criticism" of Percy. Having read your comments, now it may be time
for me to re-read it. It seemed like Percy knew that may be his last
book and he tried to cram everything into it. I will take another look
at it.

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 Ken Armstrong
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 8:26 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of
Lancelot

To each his own, I guess. Thanatos was by far my favorite Percy book.
Searingly funny and over the hump of the somewhat personal, romantic
tics
of earlier books.

Ken Armstrong

At 02:31 PM 8/25/2006, you wrote:
>Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
>Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
> boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C6C874.9F90D64E"
>
>Thanks for the comment. I also thought Thanatos Syndromw was a rare
case
>of Percy running "amok" and becoming uncharacteristically "hyperactive"
-
>WAY over the top. It made my head spin. It is the one Percy book I
never
>re-read.
>
>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
srcoyote AT aol.com
>Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:21 PM
>To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of
Lancelot
>
>Steven:
>
>I work in a similar field (services to people with cognitive
>disabilities), and live in Cincinnati. That is the only thing
different I
>would have written in a paragraph about LITR. . . oh, except that I
first
>read it in 1993 (stumbling on to it in a bookstore in Pensacola, FL).
My
>sister who works in mental health and who is not as keen on Percy as
>readers of this list, names LITR as the one book she actually
>liked. There are very few books that make me laugh out loud, and LITR
is
>one of them.
>
>And
>
>Rich:
>
>I think you'd find Thanatos Syndrome much darker (perhaps not as dark
as
>Lancelot) than LITR even though it features the same character.
>
>David
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sldye AT bluegrass.org
>To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
>Sent: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 2:04 PM
>Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of
Lancelot
>I re-read LITR every 5 years or so, too. It is one of my favorite
novels
>and I find it just as humorous - and relevant - in 2006 as I did upon
>first serendipitous reading (stumbled onto it in a book store in New
>Orleans) in 1983. I also laugh out loud a lot while reading it. As for
>being relevant, I thought of LITR in the dark days after 9/11 and I
also
>thought about it when Katrina hit New Orleans. I work in the mental
>health field, so ol' Dr. Tom More is a kindred soul to me for many
>reasons.
>
>Steven L. Dye, MA
>Director
>Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc.
>1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338
>Lexington, KY 40511
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:
><mailto:percy-l-bounces%40lists.ibiblio.org>percy-l-bounces@lists..ibib
lio.org
>[mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich
>Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:59 PM
>To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
>Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of
Lancelot
>
>I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed
>to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered
>it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about.
>Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic:
> "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June
>we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a
>withered finger--"but two."
> "Two?"
> "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough."
>
>After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this
>swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in
>blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed
(I
>believe).
>
>Rich Gray
>
>--
>An archive of all list discussion is available at
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ipermail/percy-l/
>
>Visit the Walker Percy Project at
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>--
>An archive of all list discussion is available at
><https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/>http://lists.ibiblio.org/p
ipermail/percy-l/
>
>Visit the Walker Percy Project at
><http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy>http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
>
>----------
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>
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