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

["Karl M. Terrell" <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com>]

Very interesting.  Thank you.  It is sobering that Slomo, to the extent he 
participates in the narrative of his celebrity, loses some of his Self and 
self-awareness.  But so it goes.  This is the world we live in.  This is why 
Warhol's phrase -- 'In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes' -- 
captured everyone's imagination in 1968, as we found ourselves racing mid-way 
up the ramp into the modern-media world we know.

I think Slomo gives a pretty fair description, though, of what he's up to in 
the film.  I would note, first, that he doesn't condemn everything from the 
life he had before.  He says nothing negative about his former profession, 
and in fact says he enjoyed, early on, a progress which was 90% spiritual and 
10% financial.  Not bad.   

But then time passed, those numbers were reversing, and he found himself in 
despair.  He found himself having been cut loose - but, from what?  Upon 
first embarking into Slomo-world, he most likely wasn't able to say - The 
dude just likes to rollerblade.  But, I'm willing to bet he knew he was "onto 
something," as WP put it: "The search is what anyone would undertake if he 
were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life.  To become aware of the 
search is to be onto something.  Not to be onto something is to be in 
despair."

I too felt my 'inner Nurse Ellen,' while watching and thinking about the 
film.  But, I think there's more to Slomo, more to what makes him 
interesting, beyond the narrative of what he left behind in the middle class 
context. 

We can't all be Slomo, at least not all of us all at once in the present, and 
even Slomo couldn't be Slomo all the time.  At the basic level of day-to-day 
life, we the ordinary people, as we head past the age of "eleven and a half" 
-- the age of consciousness to which Slomo says he aspires -- have to begin 
the life process of providing for ourselves.  If we choose a family (a good 
choice, for most), we have to provide for others.  

Perhaps a tragedy separates you from this life process of having to provide, 
and sends you on the search.  Or, perhaps you're simply wealthy, or perhaps 
you truly care not for material possessions in excess of the basic needs, and 
thus -- either way -- you have the means to set aside the urgent need to 
provide, and at least have the opportunity to examine the fact of being stuck 
in your everydayness, and maybe even the insight to do something about it.  
Whatever may have been the case, in Dr. Kitchins' life, is interesting to 
think about, but is only (to me) of passing interest.  

What is truly interesting to me, is this: Regardless of what may have been 
his catalyst, we're witness to the story of an actual life (albeit, based 
only on the little we can actually know) of someone who appears genuinely 
engaged in the search which Percy wrote about.  Percian fiction come to life, 
if you will.  From Slomo's few comments, we can hear that he had become 
(Percy's words) "sunk in the everydayness of his own life."  As Slomo puts 
it, he was on the track of "working himself into oblivion," was "shoveling 
shit," and had become "what Americans call an asshole."   He identifies the 
enemy, so to speak, as the "rational world," which had driven him into this 
state.  He was lashed by the whip, and thought he could ease the pain by 
writing checks to pay for the BMW, the Ferrari, the mansion, etc.  

What is interesting is the large way -- the refreshingly radical, and quite 
dramatic way -- in which Slomo has embarked upon the search, and that he does 
appear to have recaptured the spiritual consciousness of an "eleven and a 
half year old boy."  He claims, genuinely I believe, to now "experience 
myself like a tip of a great iceberg of consciousness."  I would be skeptical 
of most who would say such a thing (I wouldn't believe my own self, if those 
words were to tumble from my mouth), and yet in his case it appears genuine.  
It seems safe to say that he remains a thoughtful person, and has achieved a 
sense of  ease within this world -- a flying happiness -- which very few in 
this "deranged age" will ever know.

"You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of 
great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of 
who he is or what he is doing" -- WP.   

Slomo, it appears, has at least some faint idea.

Karl


-----Original Message-----
From: Percy-L [mailto:percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of 
Plemmons, Gregory
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2014 2:22 PM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] [External] Re: Slomo Etc

Slomo is an interesting parallel, yet I'm not sure I put him on the ledge 
next to Dr. More, at least in the manner in which he's depicted. In a way, 
Slomo's story is only interesting to us in the upper-middle-class context of 
what he's seemingly left behind: a successful career and education, his 
native South, and the decision to pursue what he wants--a decision, it 
appears, that still required some sort of external catalyst, or event. As I 
take it from the video, he developed a neuropsychiatric condition which 
leaves him with the ability to recognize other people's faces, or 
prosopagnosia, which was brilliantly described by Oliver Sacks in The Man Who 
Mistook His Wife For A Hat (I can only dream of the conversations those two 
might have had). It's Slomo's choice, that seems most interesting. One 
wonders if there hadn't been an event (or a disease) how much longer Slomo 
would have continued to "shovel shit" and "remain an asshole." He's lauded as 
a celebrity because somehow a  n external event outside his control has 
somehow managed to unsheath and demystify his gleaming purpose, and he 
transcends what the rest of us long for--to do what we want. But what we 
want, as pointed out earlier, distracts us from what we are.  

For me, at least, one of Percy's essential struggles, and questions, has been 
one of mindfulness: how do we access the Gift? There's a quote attributed to 
Chekhov, "Any idiot can face a crisis, it's the day-to-day living that wears 
you out"--that's always summed up for me what Percy is trying to access. 

Binx, and More are propelled to go on their Search after some tragic event, 
and it's a natural human reaction--purpose gives meaning to tragedy. Slomo 
has found his meaning in rollerblading, on the sun-drenched Zen coast of 
California. More, at least from what he tells us so far, does want to help 
humanity with his lapsometer. It may be far-fetched, or theoretical, the work 
of a madman, but it seems there's intention. As I watched the Slomo video, I 
could steadily hear my internal Nurse Ellen, prodding him to snap out of it 
and get back to work. Slomo loses some of his self-awareness the moment he 
becomes part of the larger narrative constructed by the film-maker (what 
would Percy think about selfies?)--to quote Percy, the thing is no longer the 
thing. I guess More loses some of the Self, as well, simply by telling us his 
story, in the constructed narrative of LiTR. I guess that's why I still 
enjoying reading much more than film. 

Thanks to everyone for all the interesting discussion and ideas so far! I've 
really been enjoying this campsite...


Gregory Plemmons







________________________________________
From: Percy-L [percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of Wade Riddick 
[wriddick AT usa.net]
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2014 12:11 AM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: [External] Re: [percy-l] Slomo Etc

"Do what you want" => fulfill your desire (the Mallification of the American 
South; the reduction of worshippers to consumers - or, perhaps, their 
transformation into worshippers of Mammon)

>"And he came to himself". THUS: "Do what you are".

=> What you are is not what you want.  What you want distracts you from what 
you are.

This is Kierkegaard's rotation and repetition at work.

We are all prodigal, in this sense, because we don't know what loss is.  We 
don't even understand what the gift is.  I'm thinking here of the lessons of 
Epictetus on loss and jealousy in the Prodigal Son.  Jealousy seems a rather 
useless emotion in a world destined for nothing but loss.

Can we not quote the entirety of other comments?  It rather rapidly fills up 
our inboxes.


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