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

[Thomas Gollier <tgollier AT gmail.com>]

Mike and David,

Mike, you seem to have zeroed in on the crux of this when you write: "if we accept Percy's Catholicism." 

For coming to Percy via his interest in Peirce's' semiotic and French existentialism, his Catholicism has

been an ongoing fly in the ointment for me.  Although I realize this is his calling card with many of his readers,

it just doesn't seem to fit philosophically, at least until I read 'Lancelot' and embroiled myself in this discussion.

Perhaps I can clarify what I mean by back to a phrase, "belief in an objective moral order," that you used in

your first message opening this topic.

A moral order, it seems to me, is an inherently subjective phenomenon.  It can be shared intersubjectively,

take on various objective trappings, and be even shared by so many over such long periods of time that there

is some justification for referring to it legally as an "institution" or semantically as "objective."  And, in fact,
Catholicism has historically sought to increase its intersubjective mass by aggressively proselytizing itself

around the world.  But in an essentially important way, a moral order remains subjective phenomenon

regardless of the extent of its intersubjective acceptance.  A moral order can only gain intersubjectivity by

being accepted and internalized by individual subjects as their own.

A moral order that a person has inherited or internalized from others, with whatever personal quirks they

may have added to it, doesn't become an "objective reality" until they implement it in their own interactions

with others. And, this seems to be what Lancelot has resolved to do at the end of the novel. He is going

to personally implement his moral order, such as it is, in his own interactions with others. He hopes, even

assumes, many others agree with him, but if they don't that won't change anything about what he intends

to do.  His resolution to make his moral order the basis of his objective interactions with others is what is

needed to get released and to find absolution.

And David, I have to admit I was startled when, after going through I don't know how many pages of

Lancelot's "confession," I read you writing: "It seems to me the "transformation" is that of Fr. John (Percival).

But after mulling it over, Percival does seem to get to a similar resolution and absolution in the course of

the novel.  For he resolves to put his own more traditional Catholic moral order into action on a local level. 

I'm just kind of getting an inkling of what a powerful figure the local priest could be.  Someone knowing

everyone and their histories in the village that you could go to when you were lost.  You could lay out what

was wrong, maybe where we went wrong, how and why we got where you are, and the priest could give

you absolution, a restart back on the right path.  By "going native" Percival would be making his moral order

existentially objective as well.

And then there was Anna?  She was communicating again and was being released too.

In fact, Percy has got me thinking at all kinds of confessions — not just those to priests and psychiatrists,

but also those made to parole boards, alcoholics anonymous, and such as that.  They all demand contrition

and they all provide absolution, but they all seem to have very different standards as to what produces or

qualifies for that absolution.  They certainly seem to play a bigger role in our lives than I thought before

reading this novel.

Thanks,
Tom

On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 10:09 AM Michael Larson <larsonovic AT gmail.com> wrote:

Tom,

I think the postulation that Lancelot and Percival are both in the afterlife is viable (and as I mentioned, intriguing), but it is less hopeful for Lancelot, at least if we accept Percy's Catholicism. People have different ideas about heaven, it's true, but that does not preclude it from being a real place that exists quite apart from people's anticipatory perceptions of it.

You propose that heaven (or hell) is simply a person left unpretentiously with himself. What makes it one or the other--heaven or hell--is then presumably how one feels about one's real self, after all pretensions have been stripped away. This is, of course, an entirely subjective notion--one person's heaven might be another's hell (which is maybe what you were getting at with "pick your poison"), and neither heaven nor hell could be communal, nor would either represent any particular posture toward the divine, as the perimeter of each state is confined to the individual in question.

But Lancelot is describing something objective (a created world) and communal (how society ought to be) and with a certain posture toward God (in Lance's case, anger followed by disillusionment). It might be a description of how he would make heaven on earth if he were in charge. But he is also aware that Percival does not align with him, that Percival has attached himself to something that transcends himself and his own ideas. And Lance is open-minded enough to acknowledge the possibility that Percival may even be right. i.e. "It's my way or it's your way, but it's not their way." And Percival agrees, "Yes."

So where does that leave them? In Catholic teaching, purgatory is a refining fire set aside for those who die in a state of grace (no unrepentant mortal sin), a final purification before the beatific vision. But if Lance is dead, he has not died in a state of grace. "... no confession forthcoming, Father, as you well know ... I feel nothing now except a certain coldness" (253). If he is dead, Lance's state is fixed, according to Catholic teaching, and the thing Percival has to tell him, the thing that gives his gaze upon Lance such sadness (254) is that Lance's release from prison is a release into hell. The prison itself, the long recounting of his crime, has been his particular examination, upon death. And now the judgment of his chosen state lies before him. Yes, a new beginning of sorts but not a happy one.

In this interpretation, though, I think there is no reason to assume that Percival died with Lance in the explosion. The strange silence of Percival over the course of the novel makes the encounter between the two men feel more like there is a kind of barrier, as between the living and the dead. We might even theorize that Lance's witnessing of Percival's prayer in the cemetery (254) is actually taking place at his own (Lance's own) grave, that Percival's prayer for the dead is for Lance. On the side of life, Percival cannot know the state of Lance's soul, so in charity, he prays. But at the final meeting of the novel, he does seem to know Lance's fate, and further maybe even to have been given the task of telling Lance.

On the other hand, if neither man has died and Lance has truly been telling his story from a prison/hospital in the temporal realm, then we can speculate that the post-novel words of Percival may indeed begin to bring Lance toward sorrow and repentance, followed by redemption. At novel's end, he feels nothing but coldness. Perhaps that is the very nadir he had to reach in order to find life.

Mike

 

Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:04:28 +0000
From: "Beck, David A" <dabeck AT iupui.edu>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
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I'm not sure we can go as far as saying Lance found redemption. I didn't see any evidence of that. He makes his confession but doesn't seem to bothered by what he has done. He didn't receive absolution, because he wasn't repentant.

 

It seems to me the "transformation" is that of Fr. John (Percival). At first, he is troubled, abstracted, and seems to be having doubts. After hearing Lance's ravings, he realizes that he has to make a choice. Then he returns wearing his clerical "outfit" and seems to have found renewal in his faith. I read somewhere (did Percy say it?) that Fr. John is the real protagonist.

 

If I'm wrong, I've led many a college student astray over the years. :-)

 

Just my two cents.

-David

David Beck
Senior Lecturer
English Department
Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis
425 University Boulevard, CA 343-E
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-278-2550