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

[Dave Duty <daveduty AT austin.rr.com>]

I'll way in with my 2 cents.

I too had the wonderful chance to spend half a day with WP and Bunt in their little, light cottage.  During our conversation, he mentioned a book that he was working on which he referred to as "Thirdness" -- and I believe it has been reported in several places that this was an alternative working title for Contra Gentiles.

WP had read my research/disseration which employed a number of his non-fiction/language based notions and pretty much liked what he saw.  Feeling I "got" his work, he said he wanted to send me a few chapters to review.  Unfortunately, this never came to pass as, I assume, his health failed him so thereafter.  We did talk about the content a little, but details elude me at this time.  But I do recall that it had to do with starting nothing less than a theory of man.  Pretty ambitious stuff -- but I thought then and now that WP's science will one day be understood to be as great, if not more important, than his art.

I may be repeating myself from posting past, but I must add that Walker Percy was absolutely all that I could have hoped for.  All too often meeting one's living hero is a let down.  Not so here.  WP was warm, funny, elusive, caring, and real.  He really loved to laugh and seemed to get a kick out of my quirky sense of humor.

One day I'll post my day with Walker -- which Bunt dubbed the "The Day of the Phantom from the River" .....but that's another story for another time.

Jonathan Potter wrote:

I had a brief conversation with Walker Percy in November of 1989.  When I
asked him what he was working on, he said it was a journal he had kept
during lent and that he was going to borrow the title from Aquinas' "Summa
Contra Gentiles."  He added wryly that his publisher was opposed to the
title because  people wd be confused and think it was about the Nicaraguan
contras.

I also visited the Chapel Hill archives in 2000 and didn't see it referenced
in the inventory.  It seems to me the Samway biography mentions it.  Since
Samway edited Signposts in Strange Land, I wd suspect he also has (or had)
access to the Contra Gentiles ms as well.

Jonathan Potter
Spokane, WA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RHONDA MCDONNELL" <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com>
To: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 5:46 PM
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Contra Gentiles?


  

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Karey, but I don't have much to add.
While I think Dr. Ketner is right--the sum of the parts = contra gentiles,
it also seems that he was working on it actively. If I remember correctly,
reference to the project appears both in  correspondence to Ketner and in
his correspondence with Shelby Foote.   But that doesn't mean that he had
anything down on paper.  I'm hoping to get to the Chapel Hill archives and
see what may be revealed, if anything.  What little I've picked up from
reading the correspondence seems to indicate that he was planning on a
Christian apologetic for the post-Christian world.   In other words, a
    

LOST
  

IN THE COSMOS type of project (remember his working title for that one was
NOVUM ORGANON, if I remember correctly).  Not to beat that dead mule, but
that's the primary reason I see him as reaching beyond the post-Modern
vision toward some future that has yet to be glimpsed.  But we'll see if
    

my
  

research bears that out.

Sorry Mike, not too much enlightenment from these quarters.

Rhonda


    

From: "Karey L. Perkins" <karey AT charter.net>
Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Contra Gentiles?
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 17:25:20 -0400

I think Rhonda would be a great person to ask about that -- she seems to
have gone far in her research in that area --

KP


----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Frentz
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 10:24 PM
Subject: [percy-l] Contra Gentiles?


Does anybody happen to know how far Percy got on his Contra Gentiles,
which, if I remember correctly was a defense of the Church somehow
      

aligned
  

with Peirce's principles, based on the model of Aquinas?  Any record of
      

it
  

after his death?  Does the manuscript exist in his papers, perhaps?  Just
curious if anyone in this august group knows anything about it.

(actually, the SUDDEN SILENCE has been killing me on this list..  Hoping
the big one (sobig etc..) didn't do us in.  Figured this was better than
      

a
  

"TEST" message  :-)

Mike

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An archive of all list discussion is available at
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Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
      

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Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy

    

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Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy