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[percy-l] The Last Gentleman Discussion / Chapter 4.6 - Chapter 4.15
- From: Leonard <leonardh6363 AT gmail.com>
- To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman Discussion / Chapter 4.6 - Chapter 4.15
- Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2025 17:23:17 -0400
This post covers this week's reading of Chapter 4.6 - Chapter 4.15.
Percy Fans…
Happy Fourth…hope you’re enjoying your holiday as much as Dr. More did.
I confess, as others have said, this is a tough novel to unravel. I’ve been enjoying how Percy’s books sort of dovetail into one another, with similarities to “The Moviegoer” we’ve noted and with forecasting “Love in the Ruins.” The current section comes after Will meets Sister Val, reminding me of Binx’s Catholicism and ending with a race riot, prefiguring Dr. More’s adventure.
1) Looking back at the Val meeting, she tells Will about Jamie, “I don’t him to die without knowing why he came here, what he is doing here, and why he is leaving” (p. 201). In that Percy is a devout Catholic, is Percy indicating the reader might take a statement by a nun as the crux of the novel? In other words, is Val onto the ultimate source of Will’s troubles?
2) Next, Will meets Sutter. I love his violent reaction to Leigh Hunt’s poem. What about “Abou Ben Adhem” gets to him? (If you don’t have the poem, skip this question. Anyhow, I have to believe Sutter has a little Mark Twain in him: blaming Hunt for doing “the West in,” is similar to Twain’s not-so-tongue-in-cheek accusation that Sir Walter Scott was the main cause of the Civil War. Meanwhile, Hunt was Keats’s mentor…check out the sonnet contest he challenged his protégé with for an illustration of how great Keats was.)
3) Besides a latter-day Twain, is it possible Sutter reflects some darker attitudes Percy himself may harbor. I’m not saying Percy is a pornographer, but is there truth in any of Sutter’s ideas (that you can follow)?
4) Will constantly requests Sutter to explain what is wrong with the sentient engineer…the deja vues, the amnesia…does Sutter think it’s a sexual problem or does he have something else he’s not revealing about Will’s condition?
5) Then there’s Jamie, who changes his mind about his next destination on every page. Aside from his health, what is ultimately troubling him? He rejects Val’s religious explanation. Is Rita trying to say it’s “political” when she asserts “it is this infinitely dreary amalgam of Fundamentalism and racism” (p. 224)? When Jamie responds, “No, no, no,” is that Percy’s way of rejecting political (or even social) solutions for the ills of mankind?
6) Kitty undergoes quite a transmission when she becomes attracted to her desire to become a cliched sorority sister. Why does that happen to her? Is there any hope that she and Will can have a successful relationship? Why does Will stick with her?
7) Do you think the tone of “The Last Gentleman” darkens the further Will progresses? Some have accounted for that by the historical environment of the time Percy was writing. It’s interesting to note that Jay Tolson’s biography says Percy was so affected by John Kennedy’s assassination that he spun off multiple pages about it, and lost a year writing. He ended up pulling it out of the final work.
8) The overall form of “The Last Gentleman” is a diversion from the structures of Percy’s other books. Does a sprawling travel novel like “Huckleberry Finn” (that appears in many ways as an influence) work as well for Percy’s more interior examinations of characters, or is it more of a distraction?
9) Finally, are Will’s memories, which crop up unexpectedly, especially about his father, are the sort of thing that Kierkegaard warns about in the opening epigram?
Of course, I have plenty of other questions, but enough is enough! I think much will be resolved by the end of the book.
Thank you all,
Leonard
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[percy-l] The Last Gentleman Discussion / Chapter 4.6 - Chapter 4.15,
Leonard, 07/04/2025
- Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman Discussion / Chapter 4.6 - Chapter 4.15, honeyjbc1, 07/04/2025
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