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

["Karey Perkins" <karey1 AT charter.net>]

Now that I think of it, there were two really great books out in this century comparing Percy to other authors:

 

Paul Elie’s “The Life You Save May be Your Own:  An American Pilgrimage” discusses Percy, O’Connor, Merton, and Dorothy Day.

 

Lamar Nisley’s “Impossible to Say:  Representing Religious Mystery in Fiction by Malamud, Percy, Ozick and O’Connor”

 

Both good.

 

Karey

 

From: percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Charles Lowry
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 1:29 PM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] lancelot

 

I am neither professional nor expert, but here are a couple thoughts.

 

The first writer that comes to mind for me as similar to Percy is Richard Ford.  It is interesting that the first two novels in his trilogy both show remarkable indebetness to The Moviegoer.  In the first, The Sportswriter, the similarities are verbal and situational.  In the second, Independence Day, the similarity is thematic, that alienation is addressed through the search.

 

Regarding the O'Connor-Percy question, I am reading now a book by John D. Sykes Jr.: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and the Aesthetic of Revelation.  He makes the point that Percy and O'Connor are both writing in the post-Faulkner, post-Lost Great Cause era of Southern literature, and to replace that ideal, they turn to a literature of community and religion, but turn to it in different ways.  O'Connor aims toward a build-up, toward a "climactic image" intended to effect contemplation, not conversation.  Percy preferred the way of search and dialogue, internal and external, to engage his readers.

Thoughts from a very snowy Brooklyn.

 

Chuck Lowry

 

On Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 1:08 PM, Graham Culbertson <gw.culbertson AT gmail.com> wrote:

Rizwana,  I've found John Barth's first two novels (The Floating Opera and The End of the Road) to have a great many similarities to Percy's novels.  An essay that links them negatively, which I haven't actually had a chance to read, is:

Bradbury, John M. "Absurd Insurrection: The Barth-Percy Affair." South Atlantic Quarterly 68 (Summer 1969): 319-29

Graham Culbertson

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