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

[RHONDA MCDONNELL <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com>]

Greg,

The essay "The Modern Malaise" (in Signposts in a Strange Land) is actually 
the text of an address Percy gave at a Chekhov festival.  I didn't know that 
off the top of my head, by the way. Instead, I did a quick search of his 
non-fiction in my kindle editions.  If you can get access to that, it will 
answer your question (sort of anyway).

I don't know that Percy felt guilt over not practicing medicine. I think he 
saw himself as being onto a cure for what troubles modern humanity.  He had 
his chances to be involved as a consultant in psychiatric clinical studies, 
but he only took that opportunity once. It's mentioned briefly in the 
biographies. On the other hand, his TB wouldn't have allowed him to practice 
medicine, most likely.  He did a lot of resting and relapsed a couple of 
times.  So maybe it sort of fell into the "road not taken" category. Half of 
his protagonists are doctors (or on the way to it) but the other half are 
lawyers.  I'm not sure if that's significant or not.

Any time an author chooses first person narration, some amount of 
unreliability enters the equation. I recently was involved in a debate 
regarding how reliable Jack Burden of All the King's Men is.  Tom, I think, 
is more unreliable than Jack, by a good measure.

I was struck again by Tom's vision of the "maculate Christ." I had remembered 
that sequence of events as having actually happened--Leroy and Victor helping 
him walk after finding him drunk in a ditch. Instead it's a flight of fancy 
for Tom.  Wishful thinking on his part that stands in sharp contrast to the 
brilliantly described racial dynamics that are actually occurring (thanks for 
pointing that out, Karl). Tom's musing is also revelatory regarding his 
messiah complex.  He's out to heal the world, but he may be as sick as 
everyone else--maybe even sicker.

Rhonda