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

[Troy Smith <troy.w.smith AT gmail.com>]

Hi,

This is Troy Smith of Baltimore, MD. I am a Master's of Library Science student at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, and in the past year I have become enthralled by the works of Søren Kierkegaard. It was through him that I recently rediscovered Walker Percy. (I have only read The Moviegoer, a book which, after reading Kierkegaard, seems all the more vital to me in hindsight.) Ever since I graduated from Swarthmore College in 2005, I have kicked around the idea of going to graduate school for a degree in English literature, but always balked because I could not commit to writing a thesis or (maybe even) a dissertation on one particular author or book. It was the classic existential paradox of being "condemned to be free." Anyway, that changed for me when, after reading many other authors, I finally read Kierkegaard and decided that I would commit myself to studying him. I do not, however, have even a bachelor's in philosophy, so it would probably take quite a lot of additional coursework in order to study S.K. at the graduate level. What I do have is a bachelor's in English literature and a serious passion for the discipline, so, when I learned of the several Southern authors influenced by S.K. (Percy, Faulkner, O'Connor), I decided that I would write a thesis on one, some, or all of them and their connections to Kierkegaard. So that's my long-winded explanation for why I'll be observing. This spring I'll be applying for library jobs and M.A. programs at universities with strong programs in Southern literature and professors who write about Percy, Faulkner, and O'Connor, especially vis-à-vis S.K. In the meantime, I'll be reading Percy and lurking around here. I hope you won't mind!

Best wishes,

Troy Smith