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

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

I don't know about anyone else on the list, but Rhonda's posts did some funky 
formatting on my computer, such that I could not read them in email. Once I 
copied and pasted into a Word document, though, I saw that she had some great 
things to say. I think it is correct that Lance speaks for Will Percy and the 
loss of southern stoicism. But he also speaks for Walker. In fact, the 
changes in the Church are not unlike the changes in the social order. The 
changes in both are, in many ways, the kindred products of modernity. Lance 
affords Percy an opportunity to speak (yes, in an amped-up fashion) for both 
Will and Walker, each bemoaning the loss of something he perceives to be of 
the utmost importance.

It seems to me that Lance, as a fictional character, might have been the only 
way that Percy could express such anxiety. He certainly wasn't about to go 
public straight-up with a disillusioned characterization of the Church. So he 
did it in fiction, and Lancelot isn't the only place, though it is perhaps 
the edgiest. As Rhonda says, Percy did not despair ultimately: he hoped; but 
that hope was in spite of a world gone mad and a church gone soft--not 
BECAUSE of either one of them.

As far as the jihadists go, yes, they are believers. And yes, there are 
Catholic believers and Protestant believers, and many other kinds of 
believers, but it is only the trait of belief that binds each to each. It is 
not the content of their belief. They do not believe in the same things. Of 
course there is overlap, but there are mutually exclusive differences as 
well. Unless religious relativism is true, they simply cannot all be correct. 
So in being willing at the end of the novel to listen to Fr. John, Lance 
teaches us a lesson ONLY if Fr. John's version of the truth is the Truth. 
Clearly this is what Percy is intimating. If the Catholic truth that Fr. John 
represents is replacable by any (fill in the blank) serious-minded religious 
figure, then Percy is handing us nothing but relativism. Which he isn't.

As Rhonda says, Percy does indeed speak through Fr. John. That's the beauty 
of fiction: authorial voice may enter any number of characters at strategic 
moments, even those (the priest and Lance) who represent ambivalent and 
dichotomous grapplings with the same reality (the Church).


Regarding Rhonda's other post--a "bad peace" might be one that is based on 
egalitarianism, indifference, apathy, rather than on truth, true charity, and 
an acclimation to the real reality (i.e. God's).

Regards,
Michael Larson



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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Lancelot the Jihadist (RHONDA MCDONNELL)
   2. Re: Lancelot, jihadists, and the terror of false peace
      (RHONDA MCDONNELL)


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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:30:24 -0700
From: "RHONDA MCDONNELL" <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Lancelot the Jihadist
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Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:44:01 -0700
From: "RHONDA MCDONNELL" <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Lancelot, jihadists, and the terror of false
        peace
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