percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy
List archive
Re: [percy-l] Part five of the slow read of The Last Gentleman Chapter 5 to 5.6
- From: Percy-L Listserv Manager <percy.listserv.manager AT gmail.com>
- To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: Re: [percy-l] Part five of the slow read of The Last Gentleman Chapter 5 to 5.6
- Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2025 19:49:27 -0400
Nice post, Janet!
It'll be great to see what responses come back here on the listserv in the coming days, where your questions have now been distributed to everyone.
Cheers,
Henry Mills
On Fri, Jul 11, 2025 at 2:15 AM honeyjbc1 <honeyjbc AT gmail.com> wrote:
We left our hero having fallen and been knocked out. As this portion opens we find him having moved himself to the trailer.There are remnants of some clash - debris, broken glass. Confederacy supporters?Barrett finds notes by Jamie to Val which he is reading.He realizes he has been robbed.***For this section I have mostly questions. And I expect the last part of the book will bring answers. But that is for next week. Here are my questions and comments for part five of the slow read.So:1. Did anyone else wonder how Our protagonist so easily got himself from place to place? He did not get lost. And there was no GPS to guide him. Somehow he was just where he was supposed to be, this aimless, go with the flow, do-not-make- decisions person. Did this make sense to you?2. Percy assumes always that his readers know certain words or expressions. There was no internet in the 60's when this book was published.There may have been encyclopedias and libraries. But I sure was glad I had my phone in hand and could look up words often.Dapple, paltriness, killdeer, WWL in New Orleans, which turned out to be a radio station, cockleburs, satsumas, towhead (not blond), muzhiks, coveys, pari passu, meniscus of snow, fragrant pinon up and down arroyos, chthonic, Catherine wheel, pileated woodpeckers, ich warte. Now you may know some of them, but did you know all of them? I sure didn't.3. Did anyone wonder how this almost brain dead person suddenly knew people's names and identities with ease? Knew where he was?We meet his father in a memory, a lawyer, threatened somehow, perhaps because he helps those who are supposed to be shunned. We learn of his sudden horrible death. Could this be the cause of our hero's amnesia? If so, why is it suddenly cured because he is back where he began and why can he so easily recognize everyone he hasn't seen for a long time?4. He has many incidents of deja vu. Familiar smells, wrecks of rocking chairs - was he here before? An academy where he visits is a place he knew about. He knew who taught what. Here was more sudden knowledge that does not match the oblivious, amnesiac we have come to know. What did you make of all this?5. He meets Val at the Academy and they have a chat. We get Val's story because Barrett is trying to ask her questions. This is a funny episode because Barrett is trying to say appropriate things and they keep backfiring on him. He doesn't seem to like Val. What did you think?6. I loved "The courteous engineer, the last man on earth to inflict a snub..." as a description of our protagonist.7. Barrett finds Sutter's notes. He is criticizing Val. Sutter we can see is not a stupid man. But what did you think of his assessment of Val and her choices?8. He meets more locals and remembers them and asks himself why he ever left.He finds out there was trouble last night and people were hiding from it. It was probably the same trouble that led to his hitting his head.He meets Breeze, the negro who runs a restaurant, and he knows him, and he again runs into Forney Aiken, the pseudo negro, who was the driver who picked him up when he hitched a ride when he was trying to connect with Kitty.Did you have trouble following the story here? Did you think, as I did, that it was awfully coincidental - these meetings anew?9. He meets actors who were in trouble. Forney asks if the engineer could use his influence on the sheriff to intercede and keep these people out of trouble. The sheriff is on his way to arrest them. On a whim he offers them his camper. Did you think that was rational? Even if he wanted to help, what sense did that make? What if they vamoosed with it? Then where would he be?10. I loved that Uncle Fannin never called his servant Merriam twice by the same name - Merum, Mayrom, Meerom, Mayrim. But his respectful negro servant answered the same always, "Yassuh."11. Sutter's case histories are alternately brilliant and about lewd sex. What do you make of Sutter and his ideas?12. Of course when the law found Barrett's trailer with a group of mixed negroes and whites, they assumed that it was stolen. He was generous to let them have the trailer for their escape and didn't want them prosecuted. But he did want them let go and gone by the time he picked up his trailer. What did you make of that?13. Barrett reads more of Sutter's notes which give background to Sutter's marriage and Rita's friendship with Kitty. Sutter is becoming more of a mystery. Or maybe less of one. What do you think?14.I loved near the end of section five - "Just between you and I", said Kitty. And without thinking Barrett says, "Just between you and me."15. Sutter's notes now include some observations about Barrett. These I do not understand. Can someone please give me a synopsis of what Sutter is saying here including an explanation of the word immanence?16. Percy often talks of how we behave on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon. Here is Sutter ending his comments with "...In fact my problem is how to live from one ordinary minute to the next on a Wednesday afternoon." Is Sutter speaking for Percy all along?17. in Chapter Five, part six there is "the locus of pure possibility". "What a man can be the next minute bears no relationship to what he is or was the minute before." This very thought came early in the book in the first few pages.18. Sutter picks Barrett up and tells him to visit Jamie in the hospital, that he is very sick.***Now I want to have some fun. With Percy there are no accidents. Notice he didn't call him Bill Barrett. He is called Will.I kept playing with that. Will he or won't he? Does he have free will? Is he willing his actions or absolutely not doing that?I believe it is no accident that he is called Will and if I tried I could probably find more jokes using his name. Can you find some?Let's hear from some of you. I look forward to getting some insights.Janet Cantor----------------------------------
USING PERCY-L
* Read Percy-L Charter and Policies: https://ibiblio.org/wpercy/listserv/charter-policies.html
* Manage Your Membership: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/info/percy-l
* Submit a Post to Percy-L: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org (Members only)
* Contact the Listserv Manager: percy.listserv.manager AT gmail.com
LISTSERV ARCHIVES
* View Percy-L Discussion Archives: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/
THE WALKER PERCY PROJECT
* Visit The Walker Percy Project website: https://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
-
[percy-l] Part five of the slow read of The Last Gentleman Chapter 5 to 5.6,
honeyjbc1, 07/11/2025
- Re: [percy-l] Part five of the slow read of The Last Gentleman Chapter 5 to 5.6, Percy-L Listserv Manager, 07/11/2025
-
Re: [percy-l] Part five of the slow read of The Last Gentleman Chapter 5 to 5.6,
Leonard, 07/11/2025
- Re: [percy-l] Part five of the slow read of The Last Gentleman Chapter 5 to 5.6, honeyjbc1, 07/11/2025
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.