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

[Harry Whelchel <hhw3h AT virginia.edu>]

My name is Harry Whelchel and I am a 4th year at the University of Virginia majoring in Religious Studies and Economics. I am currently taking a class in our Religious Studies department taught by Prof. Bill Wilson and Prof. Vigen Guroian on the subject of Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor. So far we have read The Loss of the Creature, Metaphor as Mistake, The Message in the Bottle, and Lancelot by Percy. We have read essays from O'Connor's Mystery and Manners as well as her first novel Wise Blood. 

I am interested in Percy to learn more about his works of fiction, philosophy, and the conversation surrounding him. Recently I wrote a paper on Lancelot detailing how the process itself of sharing his story with Percival allows Lancelot to apprehend narrative's power to convey sovereign experience. I then argued this apprehension changes the world view Lancelot had developed and leads Lancelot to be open to the possibility of God's existence (yet Percy leaves the reader uncertain as to whether Lancelot will accept or reject God's existence).

The exercise of writing on Lancelot, a difficult work that I am sure I still do not fully grasp, led me to search for more academic resources on Percy. So I decided to join this listserv.

Best,

Harry Whelchel