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percy-l - Re: [percy-l] Tom Moore as a thief

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

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  • From: Wade Riddick <wriddick AT usa.net>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Tom Moore as a thief
  • Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 10:30:38 -0600

> Can't agree with you about medical marijuana and would only add that
>the distinction is unnecessary, because as Marshall McLuhan rightly
>pointed out, the difference between the potheads and the drinkers is a
>cultural, not moral, orientation, understanding that culture rests in
>great part on the senses. That one or the other sense/culture is
>rational and the other not is totally a prejudice of the hyper-literate.
>I say this as a happy and quite moderate beer drinker addicted latterly
>to non-fiction & who could not attain to bourbon or pot.....my
>incapacity for the finger-measured drink probably cause for suspicion...

I wasn't attempting to draw a distinction between alcohol or pot as far as
literary devices go. I think for Percy's work they both represent an
attempt to negate rationality - to take away the pain of being a man,
albeit by amnesia (intoxication) rather than being a beast (Nazism?
ideology? rational irrationality?).

Temporary amnesia comes from intoxication. That's the willing (or, in the
case of Dunkin Donuts, not so willing/informed) ingestion of intoxicants -
alcohol, pot, meth, pixie sticks (the first grade equivalent of the former
items), cigarettes, french fries or pretzels at the bar. Take your pick.
They're all there to boost dopamine, whether indirectly with sugar or
directly like with the visual pop operatic _Transformers_ movies whose plot
dangles before us as enticingly as a ball of twine in front of a kitten and
unravels just as quickly. (What's that old criticism about substituting
movement for growth?)

This temporarily suspends the pain, although some "lucky" individuals do
succeed in achieving permanent brain damage. It seems to be what the uncle
is up to in _The Last Gentleman_, substituting Rum for Romanism, so to
speak.

The Nazis are in a deeper hole. They seem to have adopted a fundamentally
rational, self-justifying form of madness in an attempt to achieve a more
permanent/"final" solution. I suppose saying "thief" is another way of
repackaging the rotation/repitition distraction.






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