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percy-l - Re: [percy-l] LITR Slow Read- July 4th

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

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  • From: RHONDA MCDONNELL <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] LITR Slow Read- July 4th
  • Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2014 23:00:18 -0500

Greg,

The essay "The Modern Malaise" (in Signposts in a Strange Land) is actually
the text of an address Percy gave at a Chekhov festival. I didn't know that
off the top of my head, by the way. Instead, I did a quick search of his
non-fiction in my kindle editions. If you can get access to that, it will
answer your question (sort of anyway).

I don't know that Percy felt guilt over not practicing medicine. I think he
saw himself as being onto a cure for what troubles modern humanity. He had
his chances to be involved as a consultant in psychiatric clinical studies,
but he only took that opportunity once. It's mentioned briefly in the
biographies. On the other hand, his TB wouldn't have allowed him to practice
medicine, most likely. He did a lot of resting and relapsed a couple of
times. So maybe it sort of fell into the "road not taken" category. Half of
his protagonists are doctors (or on the way to it) but the other half are
lawyers. I'm not sure if that's significant or not.

Any time an author chooses first person narration, some amount of
unreliability enters the equation. I recently was involved in a debate
regarding how reliable Jack Burden of All the King's Men is. Tom, I think,
is more unreliable than Jack, by a good measure.

I was struck again by Tom's vision of the "maculate Christ." I had remembered
that sequence of events as having actually happened--Leroy and Victor helping
him walk after finding him drunk in a ditch. Instead it's a flight of fancy
for Tom. Wishful thinking on his part that stands in sharp contrast to the
brilliantly described racial dynamics that are actually occurring (thanks for
pointing that out, Karl). Tom's musing is also revelatory regarding his
messiah complex. He's out to heal the world, but he may be as sick as
everyone else--maybe even sicker.

Rhonda



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