Glad you liked the Slomo video. The
idea of "do what you want" may not be particularly elegant, but when
actually pursued by way of escaping what we call the rational world, in
order to live a life of meaning -- whatever that might mean to a
particular individual -- has value, I think.
Karl
Sent
from my iPhone
> On Jul 10, 2014, at 12:52 PM, "Charles
Cowherd" <
charlescowherd AT hotmail.com>
wrote:
>
> All,
> I loved the video of "Slomo",
gives a modern example of the spiritual
> crisis/ malaise at the
heart of Percy's work. I am thinking about the
> contrast between
his mantra "Do what you want" to the previously mentioned
>
quotation/ repetition in Percy's work from the story of the Prodigal
Son:
> "And he came to himself". THUS: "Do what you are". Just a
thought.
> Had less joy with the second chapter of LITR. I had
just read "The Second
> Coming" and some of the similarities
between the novels (as well as the
> others) become kind of
grating. But we will see.
> I am on tap for the 3rd chapter,
which I will deliver on the 13th, if I
> am reading the schedule
correctly. It's a much shorter chapter.
> All my best,
> Charles
>
>
> -----Original
Message-----
> From: Percy-L [mailto:
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On Behalf Of
>
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> To:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Love in the Ruins
'slow read' -- chapter 2 -- "July
> First" (Karl M. Terrell)
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2014 19:21:19 +0000
>
From: "Karl M. Terrell" <
kterrell AT stokeswagner.com>
>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
> <
percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>,
"Percy-L@" <"Literary
>
andPhilosophicalDiscussionpercy-l"@lists.ibiblio.org>
>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Love in the Ruins 'slow read' -- chapter 2 --
>
"July First"
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>
>
This is, I think, a satisfying explanation. It's also what Percy
followed
> in his own life, isn't it?
>
> After his
recovery from tuberculosis, he turned his back on medicine as a
>
career and, in your words, 'got off the stage and got quiet and grabbed a
>
wife and lived a life of quiet joys or whatever came his way' .... For
him,
> it was a life of study and writing, in Covington, La.,
which I understand he
> liked because it was "not a place." I've
read also, people in Covington
> would ask him what he did for a
living, and when he said, "I'm a writer," no
> one could accept
just that as an answer, and I'm guessing too many
questions
> were asked that he didn't really want to explain.
Eventually, he took to
> responding - "I don't do anything."
Most, he reported, were quite content
> with that answer.
>
>
I saw a great, short documentary (linked below) about a fellow who did
the
> same thing, in his own way .... Dr. John Kitchins - now
known as Slomo - a
> successful neurologist/psychiatrist in San
Diego, originally from N.C., who
> made a lot of money, lived in
what he called a mansion, an owner of
> expensive sports cars, an
exotic animal farm, etc., etc.
>
> He met, one day, a 90
year old man who appeared healthy and satisfied, and
> asked him
how he had achieved this. The reply: "Do what you want."
>
>
For the next 20 years, though, Dr. Kitchins continued to live
"miserably,"
> he said, in what he called "the rational world."
At the end of each
day,
> driving home in his 12-cylinder BMW, he would ask himself
how much he had
> advanced himself that day spiritually and how
much he had advanced himself
> financially. Increasingly, he was
advancing only on the latter front.
>
> Taking the lesson
from the old man to "do what you want," he gave up his
> practice
and his possessions - save for a small apartment - and today, Slomo
>
as he now calls himself, spends most of his waking hours roller-blading
on
> the boardwalk in San Diego, balancing with arms outstretched
and one leg in
> the air behind him, which he likens it to flying
(and provides something of
> a neurological explanation for
this). He spends his days flying ... which,
> in dreams, is
interpreted usually as signifying happiness.
>
> If you've
seen him there, or if you watch the video, your first thought will
>
be that he is crazy. He
seems, instead, to have made a satisfactory
> adjustment to the
comic and the religious (or spiritual, for Slomo speak of
> it in
the latter way, not in any kind of 'church' way).
>
>
http://nyti.ms/1mctVil>
> Karl
>
> From: Percy-L [mailto:
percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]
On Behalf Of Lauren
> Stacy Berdy
> Sent: Monday, July 07,
2014 12:31 PM
> To: Percy-L@
> Subject: Re: [percy-l] Love
in the Ruins 'slow read' -- chapter 2 -- "July
> First"
>
>
Hello,
>
>
> He explains an idea from reading K,
concerning the seemingly disconnected
> ideas of the comic and the
religious. Of LITR, he states: "In this novel, I
> was less
interested in a search, in progressing from
one category to the
> other, than I was in the exercise of the
comic and the religious."
>
>
> Explainer's are part
of the comedy, Dr. Percy knew this so well.
>
> We are all
being part of the broad comedy routine we call living.
>
>
The comedy comes into the sweep of his thought thru the door our our
own
> lives.
> here goes.........
>
> as I
understand from reading a selective reading ( very) of Kierkegaard and
>
a long pull of the good doctors diagnosis for all of us.
>
>
The comedy is ourselves..........we ( us) are both actors and our own
best
> audience. The doers and observers of our own actions and
decisions.We lack a
> standpoint to view ourselves. To be fully
revealed and fully known. We
> become the audience for our own
tragic existence. WE ARE UNABLE TO GET OFF
> THE STAGE.
>
DR. Percy is the ironist who is
bringing the play to our attention thru Dr.
> More. He is not
judging he is if you will the "producer"/Play write of this
> play
his "novel"
>
> so it is hilarious that we don't get off
the stage and get quiet and "grab a
> wife and live a life" of
quiet joys or whatever comes our way.
> Dr. More does just that at
the end.
> (The other (Ellen) will help him revel himself to
himself)
>
> Frankly, for me everything else in the book is
helping us to tell our
> story. Our human story.
>
>
I think the trick here is to see the humor of ourselves and to pony up a
bit
> by examining our own everyday lives as we move thru space
and time.("on this
> spinning cinder") After all he was a
excellent diagnostician wasn't he?
>
> Thank you very much
for this excellent dialogue.
>
> Lauren Stacy Berdy
>
> On 7/6/2014 11:36 PM, Karl M.
Terrell wrote:
>
> Hello everyone. I am picking up the
baton on the slow read, with these
> opening comments on chapter
2.
>
> Disclaimers: One, I am not an academic - just
someone who has for many years
> loved Percy's prose, his ideas
and observations on the human condition.
> Two, while I have read
close to everything he's written, most of my reading
> was done
quite a few years ago (I recently re-read The Moviegoer, though).
>
And three, it's been 20 or more years since I last read LITR .... and,
on
> this go-round, I haven't read past chapter 2 yet. I am
reading this 'as we
> go,' and almost as if reading it for the
first time.
>
> I welcome any insights my few observations
and questions might generate,
> from amateurs like me, and from
those who've really studied Percy.
>
> I like the comment
someone made recently, not to 'make a
campsite' of LITR,
> but to think of it as a trail. I thought
about that a few times while
> reading this chapter, as I found
myself trying to keep a handle on the main
> plot-line - turning
back a few pages every so often, looking for plot-line
> clues
maybe I might've missed - and just generally wondering where the story
>
is going.
>
> In the end, I guess, plot/story line was not
really Percy's forte; not what
> he was about. Agree?
Disagree? In any event, what carries me along is the
> wonderful
writing and his observations, the vivid characters, and the
>
descriptions of his world (real world Louisiana, set in an imagined
future).
>
> I also found myself wondering: how reliable is
our narrator? I noted, for
> example, at least two passages
where the characters More interacts with
> don't see the vines
(Ruby the bartender at p. 88 and
Max at p. 115 ["What
> was that about the vines?"] - Farrar,
Straus, 1991 printing). In other
> words, how much of what is
presented in the story, as told to us by More, is
> (so to speak)
actually happening? At one or two points I felt a tinge of
>
annoyance thinking about this, but by the end of the chapter I found
myself
> enjoying the tension created by this uncertainty - Is he
really being shot
> at by a sniper? Is a Bantu uprising, or
worse, really in the works? See,
> end of subchapter 12, the
conversation with Victor: "Now everything's got to
> go and
everybody loses." / I rise unsteadily. "Everybody?" / ... "Not you,
>
Doc. All you got to do is move in with your mama. She'll do for you."
>
> Speaking of Victor, the opening scene in subchapter 13 - where
Victor
> assists our addled hero through the door of the Little
Napoleon,
> encountering Leroy Ledbetter - is a brilliant
exposition of the subtleties
> of racial mores and customs in the
Jim Crow world.
>
> So, what's the larger goal or idea of
this novel, beyond the spinning of a
> yarn? I'm aware of the
Kierkegaard influence, so I googled that, and came
> across an
interview Percy gave in 1974 - "Walker Percy Talks about
>
Kierkegaard" (Journal of Religion). My knowledge of Kierkegaard is very
>
limited (covered in a few philosophy courses taken many years ago), and
so I
> bring this up only to invite comment from those more
knowledgeable in this
> connection. My limited understanding is
of K's role as the father of
> existentialism, and of his radical
emphasis on the individual, distinct from
> and in reaction to the
more systematic (right word?) approach to philosophy
> by Hegel.
The search for the true self
seems to be Percy's point of
> connection with K. Except, Percy
said the following in the interview about
> LITR:
>
>
He explains an idea from reading K, concerning the seemingly
disconnected
> ideas of the comic and the religious. Of LITR, he
states: "In this novel, I
> was less interested in a search, in
progressing from one category to the
> other, than I was in the
exercise of the comic and the religious."
>
> Not sure I
fully understand this concept, and would be interested in any
>
thoughts one might have. I get the comic end of things, but what is
Percy
> really referring to when he terms More as a Bad Catholic?
(Fourth
> disclaimer: I'm not a Catholic, and in fact count myself
as agnostic - I
> believe my interest in Percy nonetheless stems
from his emphasis on the
> search for meaning at the individual
level, rather than at the
>
church/man-made level ... and, I like the skewering of the Englishman
>
wife-Doris runs off with, who dabbles in Oriental mysticism. In the
>
interview on K, he talks in the same vein about the communal hippies of
the
> late 60s, early 70s).
>
> Thoughts?
>
>
Karl
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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