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

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  • From: "Karl M. Terrell" <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 176, Issue 3
  • Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2022 19:54:15 +0000


Hi Mike. Thank you for your questions, but just so you know up front: I am not a scholar of Percy, like quite a few on this list; I’m just a layman lover of his prose and insights. 

It has, also, been many years since I last read Thanatos …. and so I shall lay low in answering your question about his intentions when writing that particular story. 

Your first question is interesting to me: Was Percy enamored of scientism? I had to look that word up, to be certain on the import of your question. Webster gives two definitions:

1.  methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to the natural scientist

2.  an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities)

Percy studied medicine, and was therefore schooled in science. I think it’s more than safe to say, however, that he didn’t place an “exaggerated trust” in science. His thinking was quite to the contrary, as reflected in this well-known quote from Lost in the Cosmos:

“You live in a deranged age - more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.”

In saying this, however, Percy was not expressing a distrust of science

He was focused more on the fact that a person can still fail — despite the undeniable advances of scientific knowledge — to see himself (or herself), or to see or understand his (or her) place in the “cosmos.”  And perhaps he thought the scientific advances are the cause of some of this dislocation — I’ll leave that question to the scholars here.

In any event, I don’t think Percy would, for example, join the ranks of today’s science deniers on the right. I think, moreover, that he would be quite disturbed by the difficulty so many have today — due to polarization, and folks living in information silos — with understanding just basic facts (such as the fact that the 2020 election was not stolen).

Anyway … my thoughts.

Karl Terrell

On Nov 5, 2022, at 4:45 PM, Michael Larson <larsonovic AT gmail.com> wrote:


Karl, two questions: 1) Do you think Percy was enamored of scientism? 2) What do you think he was after in Thanatos?   

Mike Larson

On Sat, Nov 5, 2022 at 1:07 PM <percy-l-request AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:
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Today's Topics:

   1. Re:  Adaptation of Walker Percy Novel ?The Second Coming? -
      Aaron Magnani (Producer) (Karl M. Terrell)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022 18:00:15 +0000
From: "Karl M. Terrell" <kterrell AT stokeswagner.com>
To: "janetcantor37 AT yahoo.com" <janetcantor37 AT yahoo.com>, "Percy-L:
        Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion"
        <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [percy-l]  Adaptation of Walker Percy Novel ?The Second
        Coming? - Aaron Magnani (Producer)
Message-ID: <39157957-C2B6-4313-8605-333FF77E7A63 AT stokeswagner.com" target="_blank">39157957-C2B6-4313-8605-333FF77E7A63 AT stokeswagner.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"


I would hope, though, that any moviemaker of Thanatos would not cheaply politicize it as a critique of liberalism (either in the broad classic sense or under the ?liberal? label in American politics), or as an endorsement of the current right-wing?s fetishistic misunderstanding of expertise based on real science.

Percy was after something altogether different.

Karl Terrell

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 5, 2022, at 11:16 AM, janetcantor37--- via Percy-L <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:

?
I would like to see any good adaptation of any Percy novel.

I think the easiest for adaptation would be The Thanatos Syndrome.

It is wild enough to illustrate today's choices about how our authorities handled Covid and vaccinations, and about how the ruling class imposes its ideas of what is going on in the planet and casually ruins our lives and our economy as they go about it. Look how the novel matches how do gooders who think they know what is best for everyone else often forget that others' personal freedom and happiness must not be ignored while they are "helping" the world.

There is also that plot about Nazis in the novel that comes from Percy's own pivotal experience of seeing some Nazi Youth when he was a young boy and being viscerally changed by that and never forgetting that scary feeling. There is so much talk about Nazis these days, even that subplot is relevant.

A side comment: Percy hated the Nazis and used that subplot in an attempt to give the reader the same terror he understood about tyranny and how it can become normalcy so easily. He was balancing that against the "good intentions" of those who were wrongheadedly giving the happy juice to everyone to bring peace and calm into the world. Yet someone in my book group, a very intelligent woman read that and hated the book because she didn't like the way Percy was minimizing and mocking the Holocaust. She missed Percy's point completely.

Another woman there made the pithiest comment on the novel. "Just because we are able to do something does not always mean we should do it."

I think The Thanatos Syndrome could be a perfect novel to adapt today.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if movie makers could at last see that these novels were prescient and could entertain us yet give us all food for thought.

I wonder if any adaptation of The Second Coming could be successful. It isa strange story, but if it could be pulled off, it could be magical.

Janet Cantor

On Saturday, November 5, 2022, 10:38:07 AM EDT, Henry P. Mills III <wppdirector AT gmail.com> wrote:


Dear Percy-L:

Members may be interested in this news of a future Percy novel film. Is the Second Coming more adaptive to the big screen than the Moviegoer?

I wonder what novel members of the community think would be best suited for a feature-length film? It?d be interesting to hear the community?s responses.  Is Second Coming the most likely one?

Best wishes,
Henry Mills


----
Aaron Magnani Developing Film Adaptation Of Walker Percy Novel ?The Second Coming?; Peter Arneson Set As Screenwriter

Aaron Magnani has optioned screen rights to Walker Percy?s New York Times bestseller The Second Coming, with plans to develop the novel for film. He?s currently in search of a director for the adaptation and will produce via under his Aaron Magnani Productions banner. Peter Arneson adapted the script and will executive produce.

The story centers on a wealthy, suicidal widower who searches for proof of God but finds much more when he meets a young woman fugitive from a mental hospital. Influenced by the real-life suicides of Percy?s father and grandfather and suspected suicide of his mother, the plot combines comedy, tragedy and romance, with themes of alienation and redemption.

?This story is very relatable to the world we have been living in,? said Magnani. ?And the adaptation is as much a director?s piece as an actor?s piece and incredible character study.?


Continue reading at ?
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__deadline.com_2022_03_aaron-2Dmagnani-2Ddeveloping-2Dwalker-2Dpercy-2Dnovel-2Dthe-2Dsecond-2Dcoming-2Dfor-2Dfilm-2D1234981570_&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=MPqL-JqzKEP1_tqQMCtzQEIJ8sNv19st3TM2Q1X2TCU&m=NfRmwuJFpTwU96M_kHBZIprVT28QDbtyAHvd2i3UwYM&s=1qadhJskth97vBvr70Mu1f4spzt4xLyxk7iBkXhd4cA&e=>https://deadline.com/2022/03/aaron-magnani-developing-walker-percy-novel-the-second-coming-for-film-1234981570/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__deadline.com_2022_03_aaron-2Dmagnani-2Ddeveloping-2Dwalker-2Dpercy-2Dnovel-2Dthe-2Dsecond-2Dcoming-2Dfor-2Dfilm-2D1234981570_&d=DwQFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=MPqL-JqzKEP1_tqQMCtzQEIJ8sNv19st3TM2Q1X2TCU&m=NfRmwuJFpTwU96M_kHBZIprVT28QDbtyAHvd2i3UwYM&s=1qadhJskth97vBvr70Mu1f4spzt4xLyxk7iBkXhd4cA&e=>



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