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

["Steve Petrica" <steve.petrica AT gmail.com>]

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 6:50 AM, Jim Forest <jhforest AT gmail.com> wrote:

An extract from Robert Eckert's posting:

>> In one interview, Percy, when asked a question concerning something about living at another time, said he would like to sit on a park bench in NYC in the year 2050 to see how we were doing. To see if we made it.
>> Will we?
>> Percy's questions concerning human destiny are still relevant.
>> Even more so in a post 9/11 age.
>> Bad people possess the capability to inflict inordinate damage upon you and everything you know.

I have a feeling that, if Walker Percy were still with us and could respond, he might point out that it's not only the bad people (Them)
but the good people (Us) who all too often inflict inordinate damage upon a great many people.

My guess is that his response would be along the same lines as something Thomas Merton (a writer Percy greatly admired) wrote
while the Vietnam War was gaining momentum.

Well, yes and no.  Percy -- like most any good novelist -- was at home with the idea of moral complexity and ambiguity.  But I don't think he'd buy into the notion of moral equivalence.  Whatever his admiration for Merton, Percy was no pacifist, nor did he (if I recall correctly) denounce the war in Vietnam.

Steve