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Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy
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- From: "Plemmons, Gregory" <gregory.plemmons AT vumc.org>
- To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11
- Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2020 03:21:02 +0000
Patrick Connelly, a Percy scholar, spoke on Percy and race at one of the former Walker Percy Weekends. He commonly referenced a quote from Percy (I wish I knew the original source) about the eternal “problem of human frailty trapped in historical
circumstance”. That quote has stuck with me. It has echoes of Pompeii, especially as we seem to be entering a whole new era of cancel culture. The extreme left’s iconoclasm frightens me almost as much as that of the Knotheads. I wish people could devote more
energy inward toward themselves and the current state of things. While dissecting the past will always have some merit, what are we ourselves going to be judged on, fifty years from now? Even five years from this pandemic? Percy was imperfect as the best of
us, but he and his family also slept in their attic for two weeks after a bomb threat from the local Klan in 1969, after defending the removal of the Confederate flag from the principal’s office of the local high school.
Zadie Smith took a stab recently attempting to answer the question of the purpose of fiction. “Does it seem at all surprising in 2019...that we should have this hypersensitivity?... Whereas many more material issues—economic inequality, criminal
justice reform, immigration—prove frighteningly intractable, language becomes the convenient battlefield.”
Apologies for the long-winded rant. I read the New Yorker article. It taught me nothing new. Flannery was trapped as anyone. Her poor physical health is often overlooked. Lupus is a horrible disease and there were little options for treatment
or even simple relief in her time. Again, “historical circumstance”. I like to think if her disease hadn’t claimed her at 39, her views might have evolved, too. I guess we’ll never know.
Gregory Plemmons, MD
On Aug 5, 2020, at 7:17 PM, Charles Cowherd <charlescowherd AT hotmail.com> wrote:
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[percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11,
Charles Cowherd, 08/05/2020
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Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11,
janetcantor37 AT yahoo.com, 08/05/2020
- Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11, kevin keough, 08/06/2020
- Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11, Plemmons, Gregory, 08/06/2020
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11, Ernest Hutton, 08/06/2020
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Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 162, Issue 11,
janetcantor37 AT yahoo.com, 08/05/2020
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