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  • From: Allen Pridgen <apridgen AT pinehurst.net>
  • To: Percy-L AT happyhouse.metalab.unc.edu:Literary and Philosophical Discussion <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."
  • Date: Thu, 06 Mar 2003 09:30:37 -0500

See the last pages of O'Connor's Introduction to A Memoir of Mary Ann on "tenderness" and the "fumers of the gas chamber." This essay (the final one in Mystery and Manners) is a truly profound statement about human suffering and charity.
I invite you to look at my commentary on this matter in  my book, Walker Percy's Sacramental Landscapes (Susquehanna UP, 2000).

Allen Pridgen


Karey L. Perkins wrote:
Message
When, what context or work, did O'Connor use it?
 
KP
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 8:26 PM
Subject: RE: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."

It was Percy quoting O'Connor.
 
R. Pauley
-----Original Message-----
From: Karey L. Perkins [mailto:karey AT charter.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 5:35 AM
To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."

I wasn't sure if it was Percy who had originally said this, or Percy quoting Flannery O'Connor or someone else.  I recently came across it in "Signposts in a Strange Land" in the epilogue "An Interview with Zoltan Abadi-Nagy" -- last line (p. 396, Picador). 
 
Am I correct in assuming this is a "Percy original" and this is the first time the phrase had been said?  Or is he referring to another use of the phrase?
 
By the way, I just finished Tolson's biography of Percy ("Pilgrim in the Ruins") and I thought it was fantastic. 
 
Karey
 


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