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

[Lauren Stacy Berdy <lauren.stacy.berdy AT gmail.com>]

a few thoughts to add to Nancy Forest-Flier

" it is not the tongue but our very life that sings the new song" 

Wills life was being brought into being. Not by conformity or personality he was making himself an instrument. Body and mind are not the man but only instruments. If you will he was in the spirit............a "will" directly solely by the good of the work to be done.

as for Allison..............she has a know-er inside of her.( we all do) nothing can be known or done except with accordance with a knower.........Allison is an artist in the sense of what it meant in the middle ages. ( the modern mania for attribution is the _expression_ of a Renaissance conceit)

instead the operation becomes a rite. She is a doer and all that is required of the instrument is obedience and efficiency. All her operations becomes a rite.

A loyalty to the good of the work to be done.

.She is then free to act and isn't trying to express herself.  (It was once the highest purpose in life to achieve a freedom from one self. it is now our WILL to secure the greatest possible measure of freedom for oneself................no matter what........)

thank you

 

Lauren Stacy Berdy
(614) 314-4162 cell
(754) 816-7508
Lauren.Stacy.Berdy AT gmail.com
LaurenBrdy AT aol.com

LaurenStacyBerdy.com

On 7/22/2016 1:50 PM, Nancy Forest-Flier wrote:

CAOefR6s-9u3WsH-_ubJSD+B1Q8EkBGwFWGyyBo9vE9+cA60uxg AT mail.gmail.com" type="cite">

Into the third chapter of The Second Coming, and I’ve made an interesting discovery I’d like to share. Part 1 of chapter 3 is Will’s recollection of the Thomasville hunting incident when Will was a twelve-year-old boy. After the shots are fired, and Will finds himself alone and slightly injured, trying to figure out what exactly happened and where his father is, he says to himself, “Then, without knowing how he knew, he knew that he was free to act in his own good time. (How did he know such a thing?)” And on the next page, after Will finds his injured father, he says. “Why is it, he wondered, that I have all the time in the world to figure out what to do and the freedom to do it and that what is more I will do it? ... This is a problem and problems are for solving. All you need to do anything is time to do it, being let alone long enough to do it and a center to do it from. He had found his center.” 

The key word here is “freedom.” In the previous chapter, when Allison is reading the note she wrote to herself before escaping from the asylum, she reads, “There is one thing you must not forget, or if you have forgotten, be reminded of it here and now. It is the discovery I made last week (you made? we made?). Do you remember? ... What was my (you, our) discovery? That I could act. I was free to act.” 

“Free to act” is something both Allison and Will have somehow discovered separately, and both of them understand it as a very important discovery. “How did he know such a thing?” How do we know we are free to act? Where does this knowledge come from? 

And, as I continue reading, am I going to find out?

Nancy

* * * * * * * * * *
Forest-Flier Editorial Services
Kanisstraat 5
1811 GJ Alkmaar
The Netherlands
tel: +31 (0)72 5154180
e-mail: forestflier AT gmail.com
web site: www.forestflier.com
* * * * * * * * * *

* Percy-L Discussion Archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/

* Manage Your Membership: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l

* Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org

* Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy

---

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. www.avast.com