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

[Allen Pridgen <apridgen AT pinehurst.net>]

Marcus is right on target. Percy says the journey is a matter of "fits and 
starts" toward some
fullness of being, consciousness, self, ..., not a steady progression toward 
ontological
completeness.  Waiting and watching is the most useful existential posture.

Allen

marcus AT loyno.edu wrote:

> This is an interesting and useful discussion and I don't want to rain on
> the parade.  But how often does Percy's fiction contain "someone finding
> himself"?  Aren't his protagonists more often caught up in stumbling from
> illusion to painful insight?  I think the K'aard connection and marcel's
> "intersubjectivity" are there as theoretical templates, but is this theory
> in any way verified in the fiction?  Aren't matters energized on the
> negative side, the specter of the nihilistic, and yet remain tentative on
> the positive side?  I think Percy was too honest to try to fake it.
>
> My wet Isidorian comment.
>
> Marcus
>
> >Bryon,
> >I think the Kierkegaard connection is a strong one, especially his ideas
> >of repetition and rotation (especially in MG); but, to me, what Percy
> >seems to draw on the most are K's three spheres of existence: the
> >aesthetic, ethical, and the religious). My argument was that he relied on
> >the aesthetic and the ethical of K., but he replaced, for the most part,
> >K's religious with Marcel's intersubjectivity.
> >
> >What I've been focusing on in my fiction class is that violence is seen as
> >a substitute for intersubjectivity (albeit a poor one). (For those list
> >veterans I apologize for the repetition.) I compare Lancelot with
> >Palahinuk's Fight Club. While I'm sick of teaching both books, I find that
> >my best response to Percy is through these similar but contrasting books.
> >FC, with its irony, irreverance, and quick, fast-paced scenes, along with
> >its nihilism, appeals to the MTV generation. While FC ends in a scary,
> >paranoid type of hopelessness, L. offers a light of hope to the reader.
> >Students seem to relate to both (though I'd love to teach MG again, a book
> >that most of them despised). Maybe I'll use Love in the Ruins next
> >semester.
> >
> >Enough ramblings. Feel free to agree, disagree, etc. We need to do some
> >collective CPR to get this list breathing again.
> >-David
> >
> >
> >On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Bryon McLaughlin wrote:
> >
> >> David Beck,
> >>
> >> Thank you for the response.  That makes a lot of sense.  I took a
> graduate course on Percy in seminary and had difficulty figuring out his
> ties to Kier. beyond a superficial level with regard to solutions to the
> dilemnas of existence.  Percy's appropriation of Marcel seem to me to be a
> better explanation of where Percy ended up.  Further, it just makes more
> psychological sense.  Autonomy and self-actualization is difficult to
> imagine, if not impossible, without "the other(s)."  Thanks for taking the
> time to respond.
> >>
> >> Bryon McLaughlin
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: David Alan Beck [mailto:dabeck AT iupui.edu]
> >> Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 5:42 PM
> >> To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
> >> Subject: [percy-l] Re: Reading list in order...
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> In that email, I was, once again, riding my hobby horse. My grad work
> was
> >> on Percy and how the synthesis of Kierkegaard and Marcel is needed to
> >> best understand Percy's fiction. Kierkegaard's "diagnosis" of modern
> >> society is correct, but his "remedy"--the lone "knight of faith"--isn't
> >> found in Percy. Percy uses Marcel's "intersubjectivity" as the remedy to
> >> the man's (woman's) modern condition. It is through "the other" that one
> >> finds himself. For example, Lancelot finds hope when he "sees" Fr. John.
> >> They "connect" eye-to-eye and achieve intersubjectivity. L. is just one
> >> example. In my opnion, none of Percy's fiction contains someone finding
> >> himself outside of interaction (communion--to use a more Christian term)
> >> with the other. (Of course, Buber and Levinas offer similar ideas, but
> >> Marcel's "version"--due probably to being Catholic and seeing the
> >> necessity of the sacred in and of the material world--is more
> >> incarnational and fits more closely with Percy's worldview (as portrayed
> >> in his fiction. I offer the qualifier because I never met him. Maybe
> >> Marcus or Nikki can chime in.).
> >>
> >> David Beck
> >>
> >> "One cannot help but awe when he contemplates
> >> the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the
> >> marvelous structure of reality. It is enough
> >> if one tries merely to comprehend a little of
> >> this mystery every day."
> >>                       - Albert Einstein
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> An archive of all list discussion is available at
> <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail>.
> >> Visit the Walker Percy Project at <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy>.
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> An archive of all list discussion is available at
> <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail>.
> >> Visit the Walker Percy Project at <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy>.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >David Beck
> >
> >"One cannot help but awe when he contemplates
> >the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the
> >marvelous structure of reality. It is enough
> >if one tries merely to comprehend a little of
> >this mystery every day."
> >                      - Albert Einstein
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >An archive of all list discussion is available at
> <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail>.
> >Visit the Walker Percy Project at <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy>.
> >
>
> --
> An archive of all list discussion is available at 
> <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail>.
> Visit the Walker Percy Project at <http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy>.