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

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

Thanks for sharing Foote’s poetic phrasing in your quote below, Lauren. 

Foote's choice of words almost seems to have a Classical resonance to it as if Icarus and his flight toward the Sun were his inspiration, and in turn that the Lost Cause was indeed just that, a fatal, irresistible call to fight given the South's ideals of itself by the mid-19th century.

Recalling Doug's recent comments on Percy’s novels as representing a potential American Odyssey, that too calls to mind Percy’s word choice in LG as reference to Classical literature: was not Sutter’s Travel-Aire named “Ulysses" (“Ulysses" being the Latin translation of Homer’s protagonist “Odysseus," from which the word “odyssey" is derived)? 

Will certainly is a wanderer, like Odysseus/Ulysses, both physically and psychologically, as he seeks his mettle as a more integrated and authentic character through his journeys -- both by returning to confront his dark past involving his father’s suicide in Mississippi and his later travels into the land of “pure possibility” that is New Mexico. Of course, both these themes in LG have literal parallels in Percy’s own personal history.

I would think a critical book/dissertation/essay exploring Classical themes and allusions in Percy’s novels would be a valuable contribution to our insights into his writing. I’d be curious to know of any other Classical allusions in Percy’s fiction the list might identify...

Onward to the land of pure possibility!

Henry

On Nov 19, 2021, at 9:38 AM, Lauren Berdy <lauren.sta

cy.berdy AT gmail.com> wrote:

Good Morning

A memorable mention of Mr. Foote and his
Work is made by
The author Clive James in his amazing
“Cultural Amnesia”
Foote is mentioned along side of
Other great long histories.
It’s found in the Edward Gibbons
Chapter.
With the quote

“ to resist was fatal and it was
Impossible to fly”

What could be written after that ?

Thank you
Lauren Stacy Berdy