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

["Seth C. Holler" <scholler AT gmail.com>]

Alex: Try consulting the two collections of interviews (Conversations and More Conversations) to see what Percy said about Ellen's role in both novels. He's surprisingly dismissive -- but that may be a function of his response to feminist criticism of his novels, and his pride (justifiable in my opinion) in the character of Allie in The Second Coming. In the interviews you'll also see that he didn't exactly plan the sequels. I haven't read any of the biographies yet, but I'm sure they'd help you think about Percy and doubt.

One more point: Thanatos is such a depressing book. Dr More's religion certainly changes, too, no less than Ellen's.

--
Seth C. Holler, Ph.D. candidate
Graduate Associate in Teaching
English Dept.
The University of Arizona

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Alex Bell <alexbell25 AT tamu.edu> wrote:

Seth: thanks, i seem to have gotten so bogged down in their similarities that i failed to realize that distinction. How then do you interpret Ellen's religious change in Thanatos Syndrome?