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

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  • From: "Michael Larson" <Mlarson AT SOUTHEASTMN.EDU>
  • To: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 44, Issue 1
  • Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 21:59:31 -0600

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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Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 44, Issue 1

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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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