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

[Mike Frentz <mfrentz AT bbn.com>]

At 05:16 PM 8/12/2003 -0400, Phil wrote:
> I think Percy
> would be totally against gay marriage. But that's why I'm glad I don't
> walk around wearing a "WWPD?" wrist band. I think he was
> definitely a product of his time and place, and his later novels
> particularly illustrate his out-of-place feeling in the 1970's. And
> didn't it seem like he became more conservative and doctrinaire as he
> grew older? It's been a while since I've read Percy, but I remember The
> Thanatos Syndrome being a lot more "preachy" than his early
> novels...
>  

Dear Phil & list, 

Another area of semantics that I have problems with these days are the
words "conservative" and "liberal", which at this
point have decayed to just labels (or epithets) rather than qualifying as
descriptors anymore.  This use seems especially abused when it comes
to Catholic understanding (and most especially in the sound bite
environment of mass media). There is really no such thing as a
conservative or a liberal Catholic --  fervent and lukewarm are the
more apt qualifiers in this area.  The Church is extremely
"liberal" in certain areas (e.g. workers rights, rights of the
poor, death penalty) and very "conservative" in others (e.g.
right to life, homosexuality as a disorder).  I think it is clear
that Percy became more Catholic as he matured, I wouldn't necessarily say
more "conservative", whatever that word means both now and then
(JFK also sounds Republican if you play back his inaugural speech
today).

I heard an interesting show the other night (The World Over, EWTN) that
was discussing a book on Anti-Catholicism (The New Anti-Catholicism: The
Last Acceptable Prejudice, written by a Protestant professor, Philip
Jenkins, I think at Vanderbilt..).  He made the very astute point
that thirty or forty years ago, anti-Catholicism came almost exclusively
from the "right", whereas today, anti-Catholicism is almost
entirely from the "left".  It hasn't been the Church that
changed significantly in its teachings over that time, but rather the
perspectives of the respective political camps.


Mike

 

----- Original Message -----

From: James Piat

To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion

Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 5:09 PM

Subject: Re: [percy-l] gay marriage

Dear Steve, Folks-

 

I don't think the meaning of words is fixed or assigned to them by some sort of word police, the Church or any other single or supreme arbiter of politically correct semantics. I think the meaning of words evolves based upon common use reflecting societies' ever changing understanding of reality.  I think Percy's essay on Metaphor as Mistake suggests at least some sympathy for this view  -- or at least some sympathy for the view that there is some play or freedom between a symbol and its referent.  But as to the matter of homosexual marriages  -- I'm all for 'em myself and would like to believe that Percy would have practiced his customary charity and humility in judging the behavior of others,  though how he would have come down on the morality of the issue I've no guess. 

 

Jim Piat

I'm merely defending the word, which apparently hasn't any serious public champions. The lexicon already has too many casualties....they have been hijacked and/or run through.

 

Steve Parlin

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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