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

["Michael Larson" <Mlarson AT SOUTHEASTMN.EDU>]

An interesting observation, Rich Gray, about Lancelot Lamar. He is perhaps, 
at least prior to ending up in a mental prison, a jihadist of sorts: he does 
blow up the "infidels" with no regard for his own safety. But there is no 
expectation of eternal reward when he engages in this act. That is to say, he 
does not do it for religious reasons but rather for the failure of religion, 
and in particular, the Catholic religion.

The section you quote from the novel is an anguished Percy himself speaking 
through Lance. For the first time in the 1900-year history of the Church, it 
had tried officially and universally, through the Second Vatican Council, to 
make friends with the world. By the time Percy wrote Lancelot (in the 1970s), 
he could already perceive (the canary in the coal mine) the disastrous 
results of this duplicity. Clearly, it grieved him, for he had staked 
everything on the Church's impermeability, its otherworldliness, and he saw 
that evaporating (at least in the popular church) before his very eyes.

If Lancelot's idealogy divides the sheep and the goats, it does nothing more 
than orthodox Christianity has always done (a theme in the Gospels, The 
Apocalypse, The City of God, etc.). Lancelot's error is not in his divisive 
instinct (the sword, which Christ claimed to bring, does indeed divide), but 
in his vigilante justice. Since he has given up on God, he assumes for 
himself the role of dispensing justice as he sees fit. 

At the end of our world, justice (as well as mercy) truly will be served. In 
the world of Belle Isle, it is even possible that Lancelot became an actual 
instrument of true justice. But even if that were the case, it would merely 
be the workings of God's providence and by no means an intrinsic validation 
of Lancelot's objectively evil act.

Best regards,
Michael Larson

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Believers... (Gray, Rich)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:52:24 -0500
From: "Gray, Rich" <RGray AT montreat.edu>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
        <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
        <CAC5B33076E9264A9E79A4F6145C23FA05267DEF AT e2kmail.montreat.edu>
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I am not persuaded that any non-Arab understands jihadists.  Maybe no
Arabs understand them either.  But Arabs will probably be first to
figure them out.

 

Percy's Lancelot Lamar is a terrorist, mentally unbalanced, disappointed
in life, and holding to a rationalized ideology that permits him to
divide the whole culture into sheep and goats, with himself as god.
Like jihadists, his killing has little or no correction on the social
misbehavior he deplores.  Like jihadists, Lance expected to die in his
executing explosion of his home, Belle Isle.  Ranting is Lance's lingo:

 

"I cannot tolerate this age.  And I will not.  I might have tolerated
you and your Catholic Church, and even joined it, if you had remained
true to yourself.  Now you're part of the age.  You've the same fleas as
the dogs you've lain down with.  I would have felt at home at
Mont-Saint-Michel [loads of irony here], the Mount of the Archangel [?]
with the flaming sword, or with Richard Coeur de Lion at Acre [more
irony].  They believed in a god who said he came not to bring peace but
the sword.  Make love not war?  I'll take war rather than what this age
calls love." (pp. 157-8)

 

Rich Gray

 

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only
because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C.S. Lewis

  _____  

From: RHONDA MCDONNELL [mailto:rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 11:37 PM
To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...

 

So what do you all think Percy might make of the jihadists? I've been
wondering that lately, in light of his thoughts regarding Nazi Germany
and the "tenderness leads to terror" concept that he and Flannery
O'Connor shared. We can't accuse the jihadists of falling prey to
scientific humanism, that's for sure. But what to make of their sort of
belief? It seems to me to be as abstracted as any -ism out there, but
I'm looking from the outside. Anyone with insight?

--Rhonda 

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"
  
                                    e.e. cummings

        
  _____  


        From: <Robert_Pauley AT oxy.com>
        Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
        To: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
        Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...
        Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:25:39 -0800

        Rhonda: I was drawn in to a running conversation about God with
a group of men. The sort of conversation which, to quite Percy, "give me
a neckache." This passage came to me, vaguely, but with a memory of
pungent satisfaction. (Percy's ruminations on faith are always on the
edges of my consciousness, I guess). I remembered how Percy managed to
displease everybody and yet get at the old dilemma of faith in a fresh
way. I, too, wanted to displease and provoke. I also thought it was a
good opportunity to introduce Percy to a bunch of young people. 

        regards, R

         

        
  _____  


        From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of RHONDA MCDONNELL
        Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 4:09 PM
        To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
        Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...

        Just for curiousity's sake, what are you using the passage for?

        --Rhonda 
        
        "I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
        than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"
          
                                            e.e. cummings

                
  _____  


                From: <Robert_Pauley AT oxy.com>
                Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical
Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
                To: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
                Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...
                Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:55:08 -0800

                Found it referred to in an essay by Kent Gramm. From The
Second Coming. Of course it is much longer than this. Thank you.

                 

                Excerpts:

                There are only two classes of people, the believers and
the unbelievers. The only difficulty is deciding which is the more
feckless.

                ... As unacceptable as believers are, unbelievers are
even worse.

                ... The present day unbeliever is crazy because he finds
himself born into a world of endless wonders, having no notion how he
got here, a world in which he eats, sleeps ... works, grows old, gets
sick, and dies, and... Not once in his entire life does it cross his
mind to say to himself that his situation is preposterous...

                ... The more intelligent he is, the crazier he is... He
is as insane as a French intellectual.

                 

                
  _____  


                From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
RobtSchaefer AT aol.com
                Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 3:33 PM
                To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
                Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...

                "To people! To unbelievers and to so-called believers."
...

                 

                Fr. Smith is talking to Tom More about how words have
been deprived of their meaning.  

                 

                The Thanatos Syndrome, Section II, part 6 (or chapter 6)

                 

                R. Schaefer

                Mobile

                 

                 

                 

                 

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