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

[Jim Forest <jhforest AT gmail.com>]

Thanks, Janet, for the googling you did. It’s interesting to see WP’s “Moviegoer” and Bulgakov’s “Master & Margarita” on the same books-to-be-read lists.

 

I note there is no mention of Bukgakov in either the Tolson or Samway biographies of WP, though lots of references to Dostoevsky (much more than to Tolstoy, which isn’t surprising).

 

What made me think of “Master and Margarita” while rereading “Love in the Ruins” is not only the huge role “the devil himself” plays in both books but the very similar -- how to put it? -- theologies of the devil. For example (on page 363 of the FSG edition) we hear Art Immelman, the devil, declare: “Doc, we operate on a cardinal principle, which we never violate. We never ‘do’ anything to anybody.’ We only help people do what they want to do…. Doc, we’re dedicated to the freedom of the individual to chose his own destiny and develop his potential.”

 

How similar are the implicit heavenly guidelines that govern and limit Bulgakov’s devil, Woland, and how apt that novel’s epigraph (from Faust): “I am part of that power which eternally desires evil and eternally works good.”

 

It would be fun doing a paper comparing WP’s Art Illelman and Bulgakov’s Woland.

 

Jim

 

PS Here is a list of pages that have key references to Art Immelman in the FSG edition of LITR: 165, 200, 208, 233, 252, 328, 336, 363, 364, 368-9, 376 and 389.

 

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On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 12:44 AM, janetcantor37 AT yahoo.com <janetcantor37 AT yahoo.com> wrote:

I put in Google - Walker Percy and Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and all I could find was that the two books often appear together on lists of favorite books. Here are two examples. Also in a list of books related to Faust, both are mentioned.

Janet Cantor

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dear fellow appreciators of Walker Percy,

 

I’ve just finished rereading “Love in the Ruins” -- my fourth or fifth reading since the book was published in 1971 -- and find it even funnier and more on target than I did during earlier readings.

 

On this reading I was struck by how Percy’s portrait of the devil resembles the devil in Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.” Is that a book Percy was familiar with? Did he ever write about or discuss Bulgakov?

 

Jim Forest

 

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All Is Grace: a biography of Dorothy Day:
http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2006/03/24/all-is-grace/

Saint George and the Dragon
http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2011/04/04/saint-george-and-the-dragon/

Jim's books: www.jimandnancyforest.com/books/
Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com

Photo collections: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/collections/
On Pilgrimage blog: http://jimandnancyonpilgrimage.blogspot.com/
A Tale of Two Kidneys blog: http://ataleof2kidneys.blogspot.com/
In Communion site: www.incommunion.org

Jim & Nancy Forest
Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands 

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