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Re: [percy-l] Walker Percy and Certification: "Somewhere vs. Anywhere"

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  • From: lowry.charles AT gmail.com
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Walker Percy and Certification: "Somewhere vs. Anywhere"
  • Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2022 19:17:39 -0400
For forty-four of my seventy-two years I have lived in Brooklyn.  Half the time Brooklynites want to be sure that you know that Brooklyn is part of the greatest city in the world; half the time Brooklynites want to be sure that you know that Brooklyn is not the same thing as Manhattan.

Brooklyn’s situation may be unique.  To the extent that it is next to Manhattan, it is not a place, but it is large enough and diverse enough and interesting enough that it could be a place.  We have quiet, stable residential neighborhoods—I live in one.  We have crowded, almost jostling neighborhoods, the landing place of the next wave of immigrants.  We have what are considered dangerous neighborhoods where nevertheless 95% of the residents are perfectly law abiding.  We have the steely determination to pursue the dream, to build the prosperity, brick by brick, and we have the silliness of the hipster neighborhoods, with stores selling endless varieties of only one item, e.g., pickles or oatmeal.  Still, though, Pete Hamill called his memoir Downtown, to make sure we all understood that every Brooklyn kid ultimately wants to cross the bridge.

Is there a category for “I don’t know if we want to be a place or not”?

Chuck Lowry
Brooklyn, New York

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On Mar 19, 2022, at 6:37 PM, Karl M. Terrell <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com> wrote:



I live fairly near you, Doug, in Brevard (actually, about a half-dozen miles outside Brevard).

Previously I lived in Atlanta, for 40 years, which is not-a-place seeking everlastingly to become one.  Its wealthy scene-setters, when deciding to repair to the mountains, invariably choose Highlands/Cashiers because, you know . . . it’s a place.

I chose Brevard for the music community and for the beauty of the mountains and this wonderful climate. But also because — in the spirit of the good doctor — it’s not a place.

Karl

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On Mar 19, 2022, at 5:16 PM, Doug Brown <wply1223 AT gmail.com> wrote:


Hi Karl - I'm not able to quote precisely (and I'm not willing to do research on a beautiful Saturday afternoon here where I live), but I seem to remember that Percy said somewhere that he liked living in Covington because it was a no-place right next to a place-place. Like, he enjoyed the anonymity of Covington but also appreciated New Orleans being right there - he just didn't want to be overwhelmed by living in NEW! ORLEANS!

That's roughly how I felt when I lived in a small town outside of Charleston, SC. I now live in Asheville, NC, which I love for being a place-place, but not an overwhelming one. And as I type that, I see that I should clarify that I live across the river in West Asheville. So I suppose it's kind of the same again.

I'd be interested to know if people in this Percy Community share any of Percy's experience in this regard. How do y'all feel about the placeness of where you live?

Doug Brown

On Sat, Mar 19, 2022 at 9:37 AM Karl M. Terrell <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com> wrote:

When asked by locals what he did for a living, he would initially reply “writer,” which led to some rather awkward conversations. He then changed his reply to “nothing,” and reported (paraphrasing) that they “seemed to accept that pretty well.”

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On Mar 19, 2022, at 9:09 AM, lowry.charles AT gmail.com wrote:

 He also said that he loved living in Covington because, though he had written a novel that won the National Book Award, he was less famous in Covington than the local Budweiser distributor.  I suppose, a fortiori, that would apply as well to the local Abita distributor.

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On Mar 19, 2022, at 8:27 AM, Karl M. Terrell <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com> wrote:



I’ve always enjoyed, against the background 
of this quote from MG, Percy’s statement in an interview somewhere that he enjoyed living in a nondescript small town because it was “not a place.”

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On Mar 19, 2022, at 2:32 AM, Henry P. Mills III <wppdirector AT gmail.com> wrote:



Somewhere vs. Anywhere, a Percy quote for the community to enjoy:


"Panic in the Streets with Richard Widmark is playing on Tchoupitoulas Street….There is a scene which shows the very neighborhood of the theater. Kate gives me a look—it is understood that we do not speak during the movie. 

Afterwards in the street, she looks around the neighborhood. 'Yes, it is certified now.' 

She refers to a phenomenon of moviegoing which I have called certification. Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him. More than likely he will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere."

—Walker Percy, The Moviegoer


 

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