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

[<Robert_Pauley AT oxy.com>]

Title: Message

From Slate online: David Hajdu's Dec. 15 New Republic cover story on the "inauthenticity of Bruce Springsteen" homes in on the inauthenticity of Robert Coles, the author of a recent book on the New Jersey bard. Hajdu insinuates that the book's testimonials—from "the prototypical sort of everyday people that one does not meet every day"—are too good to be true, and that Coles may have fabricated quotes from avowed Springsteen fan Walker Percy.

 

 From New Republic:

From article: Many of the people Coles quotes in this book--and in his other books, come to think of it--talk in folksy bromides that gain veracity when imagined in the voice of Jimmy Stewart. Personally, I have never met anyone who thinks or speaks this way.

 

Similarly, Percy, as Coles quotes him, goes on at startling length about the Boss. It is well known that Percy once wrote a letter to Springsteen. The novelist's nephew Will Percy had shown his uncle an article noting Springsteen's Catholicism in America, the Jesuit weekly, and the elder Percy sent Springsteen a note expressing his admiration and inquiring about Bruce's "spiritual journey." (Springsteen did not attend to the letter until Percy had died, but then wrote to his widow.) Coles gives us pages of commentary related to Springsteen and his milieu from Percy, among them: "This guy is his own boss--he's earned the title [the Boss] every inch of the way: he sings of us while singing to us, and what you hear (the one you're hearing) is a plain, ordinary guy soaring way above himself and everyone around him through his voice, and through the songs he's written.... It sure would be great if some of us, who talk to ourselves, hearing a singer talking to himself, then to us, with his own words that he uses to make music--if some of us heard each other doing our talking with our talking buddy, I call him." Therein is the ("great") idea for Bruce Springsteen's America.  

The fact that William Carlos Williams and Walker Percy had such extensive conversations with Robert Coles on the subjects of the New Jersey pop singers Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen, and that those discussions yielded insights so parallel and neatly suited to Coles's own take on Springsteen is incredible--utterly incredible. I was not there to overhear them, of course, and it is impossible to check with Williams and Percy, or with the late Erikson and Shawn, whom Coles's other deceased sources quotes in his book's opening sections. But I did ask Will Percy about the comments on Springsteen that Coles attributes to his uncle, and he called them "outrageous." Walker Percy "definitely didn't talk like that," according to his nephew.  

It seems pertinent to note that Coles and Springsteen are friends, and that the Boss did "the Doc" (his nickname for Coles) a sizable favor early this year, although Coles mentions neither fact in his book. In February, Springsteen gave a solo concert in Somerville, Massachusetts to benefit DoubleTake magazine, which Coles founded and ran. ("It is completely accurate to say that Bruce Springsteen saved this magazine," the publisher, Hugo Barreca, announced prematurely; the journal subsequently suspended publication).

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dave Duty
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 3:27 PM
To: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Lonergan and Percy?

Any source of what Coles actually said?  Historically Dr. Coles is the most honorable of thinkers/writers I know alive today. 

Most of us are aware of the unanswered letter Dr. Percy sent to the Boss.  And that the nephew interviwed the Boss in depth about WP.

I know for a fact that I personally mentioned my affection for Bruce to WP -- and he said he had heard of him via his grandson(s).  In the same conversation I said that I thought Sting MIGHT have read and appreciated WP's work - this was a pure surmise on my part and have not since read or heard anything from Sting to this effect.  WP also said he had heard of Sting from the same source but was not sure if he had ever heard him -- at least that he was aware of.

For what it is worth.

Robert_Pauley AT oxy.com wrote:

I'm curious if anyone has comment on recent flap regarding Bob Coles quoting (misquoting?) Percy on Bruce Springsteen. Coles claims Percy was a gushing fan of Springsteen's, as Coles is, and his quotes are taken from memory. So he can't back them up. But quotes are being challenged by New Republic magazine and by Percy's nephew, who says they don't sound a thing like Walker. I agree. Quotes sound phony.   

 

-----Original Message-----
From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Nikkibar AT aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2004 1:44 PM
To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Lonergan and Percy?

Dear Rhonda,

 

I don't ever recall Walker mentioning someone named Lonergan in the book meetings. He would from time to time drop a word ot two about other reading he was up to if he found it interesting, but this sparks no blip of recognition on my screen. Marcus Smith might perhaps be a better informant?

 

Nikki

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