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

["Henry P. Mills" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>]

Dear Percy-L:

As when we pursued a very fruitful Slow Reading Group discussion of "Love in the Ruins," this post is a query to see if any community members are interested in choosing another Percy novel for an open listserv discussion this summer of the centennial year of Percy's birth.

By my calendar, there is still plenty of time before mid-August arrives and a new academic year starts (8 weeks, in fact), so now is a great opportunity to become reacquainted with a favorite (or new) Percy novel, individually and collectively.

Here is information about the process for our new members and for all to reacquaint ourselves to the process, followed by one possible suggestion for a novel.

HOW TO OPEN A BOOK DISCUSSION
1) Through a group process, members suggest a novel through the listserv for all to consider until a consensus is reached.
2) The book is then divided up into reasonable (usually weekly) reading lengths.
3) Members then self-volunteer ahead of time (though some may jump in later) as discussion leaders to post questions, comments, or quotes to start off discussion about that week's reading.

Once begun, any list member may participate or simply "tune-in" as inclined or respond to comments made during the open discussion.  With "Love in the Ruins" we certainly had some interesting perspectives offered on which we all did not always agree! 

A POSSIBLE NOVEL
I might suggest "The Moviegoer" since that is the novel where Percy began for most of us. In addition, The Walker Percy Project now features an interactive multiple choice quiz on the novel at:
<http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/quizzes/index.html>.  Give it a try, and if you can't successfully answer all the questions, maybe that is indeed a sign that it is time for a re-reading of MG.  Other quizzes (in PDF print form) found on that webpage include ones for "The Last Gentleman" and "Lancelot."

SUGGESTIONS ARE INVITED AT THIS TIME
All are free to post any ideas they have at this time.  It is not necessary for all to read the same edition of the book.

Any takers?

Best wishes,
Henry Mills
--
Percy-L Administrator