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

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  • From: Charles Lowry <lowry.charles AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 185, Issue 2
  • Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2023 13:58:09 -0400

Dear Henry, dear Justin, dear Rhonda and Percyesque folks,

I am always delighted to see new work on Percy, and I congratulate you, Justin, on what is surely, from the information available, a very useful contribution.  Nor am I surprised to see an acknowledgment of Rhonda’s contribution: our list would be a poorer place without her.

I have always found Percy’s philosophical works (or such ones as I have tried) to be pretty stiff going.  On the other hand, I have never found novels that involve me more, move me more, cause me to reflect more, than Percy’s.  I therefore ask, simply, “What is the link?”  

I am a sincere Percy reader but no Percy scholar.  I shall be grateful if astute list members can point me to work that examines this link.  I’m sure there are studies that can get me thinking about the question of whether Percy was one author or two authors; I just do not know where to look.

There is, though, a more fundamental question: does it matter?  Can Percy the philosopher exist without Percy the novelist?  Can Percy the novelist exist without Percy the philosopher?  Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus, says that a person's mind can be trained to follow one of two paths through life, either the path of evidence or the path of lyricism.  Is it as simple as that?  Does Percy the philosopher follow the path of evidence and Percy the novelist the path of lyricism?  Is someone who cherishes the novels shorting himself by not mastering and appreciating the philosophical works?  In a similar vein, does someone who has mastered the philosophical works of Percy short himself if, having read the novels of Percy, he is not moved by them, does not reflect on them?  In an interview, the perspicacious scholar Jessica Hooten Wilson talked about the literary canon and specifically that the canon is only valuable because of the way we live the lessons of the content of the canon, the wisdom of the canon.  The novels of Percy demand a response; do the philosophical works of Percy demand a response?  In short, what do students of Percy the novelist and Percy the philosopher have to say to one another?

One can confidently pose such a question because of the breadth of learning and generosity of list members.

Finally, in much the same way that Cato the Elder ended every speech in the Senate by noting that, in addition to anything else, Carthage must be destroyed, I seem to end every note to this list by offering thanks and praise to Henry for his expert and wide-ranging management of this list: bravo, Henry.

Chuck Lowry
Brooklyn, New York


Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 21, 2023, at 11:32 AM, RHONDA MCDONNELL <rhonda_mcdonnell AT msn.com> wrote:

 Kudos to you, Justin!! I’m so excited to read your work. I don’t usually pay library prices but for a Percy book it will be worth it! I hope some others on the list can find a way to access it as well. 
 
It would be fabulous if you could join us at the South Atlantic MLA conference either this year or next. You could join a Percy panel and give us a 20 minute version of Lost in the Cosmos through the lens of your research. What do you think?

Best to you,

Rhonda 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 21, 2023, at 10:28 AM, Justin Bonanno <bonannju AT gmail.com> wrote:


Thank you, Henry! I'd like to acknowledge Leslie Marsh and Rhonda McDonnell for their help in bringing the manuscript to fruition. A special thanks, also, goes to those responsible for bringing Symbol & Existence into print. This book helped immensely in my attempt to better understand Percy's semiotics.

In essence, the book is about meaning, symbols, and existence. I work through the intellectual roots of Percy's thought in Maritain, Heidegger, Susanne Langer, etc. The book can serve as both an intro to Percy's semiotic thought and an explication of the importance of his work for our current historical moment. It could make for a good text in a graduate seminar on semiotics, hermeneutics, and/or philosophy of communication. It could also serve as a useful guide if you'd like to understand what Percy is up to in Lost in the Cosmos. 

I wish the book wasn't so prohibitively expensive. But alas, I had little (no) control over the price. C'est la vie. If you have a library budget, perhaps you'd consider requesting that it get added to your library collection. The semester has just begun here, so things are about to get rather hectic. However, if I find some time in the next few months, perhaps I will post a talk or video reflecting upon the book's contents.

God bless, 
Justin

On Sun, Aug 20, 2023 at 12:00 PM <percy-l-request AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:
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Today's Topics:

   1. NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT - "Walker Percy and the Crisis of
      Meaning: Communication in the Ruins, " Justin N. Bonanno, 2023
      (Henry P. Mills III)


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

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 13:09:21 -0400
From: "Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
        <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [percy-l] NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT - "Walker Percy and the
        Crisis of Meaning: Communication in the Ruins, " Justin N. Bonanno,
        2023
Message-ID:
        <CAPHQa6T0vZJFGh+AhFv3jG3s6+oRZDGCuG0k0tSx4CjZTcUNTA AT mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Congratulations to listserv member Justin N. Bonanno on the release of his
new study, "Walker Percy and the Crisis of Meaning: Communication in the
Ruins? (Springer International Publishing, 2023). Here following is
information for members to enjoy, including how to access at no cost the
first 23 pages of the book's introduction.


Congratulations, Justin! We're all esteemed to have you as a part of the
Percy-L community. Members are invited to offer their remarks and
encouraged to forward the announcement on to others.

Best regards, Henry Mills


--

Publisher?s Overview:

In this book, Justin N. Bonanno builds off of the recent philosophical work
on Walker Percy?s writings. While it is valuable to appreciate Percy as a
novelist, Bonanno approaches Percy from the perspective of Continental
philosophy and the rhetorical tradition. Unpacking the works of several key
authors that influenced Percy (e.g. Sartre and Heidegger), Bonanno offers a
fresh philosophical account of Percy's ideas concerning the relationship
between symbols and existence. In particular, he focuses on how Percy?s
ideas emerge from the thought of Ernst Cassirer, Susanne Langer, Jacques
Maritain, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heidegger, Viktor
Shklovsky, S?ren Kierkegaard, and St. Thomas Aquinas.


Book Introduction:

For the first 23 pages of the book?s introduction, including its table of
contents, go to Google Books

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Walker_Percy_and_the_Crisis_of_Meaning/SbnQEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0



--

Henry P. Mills III

Director & Editor, The Walker Percy Project

www.ibiblio.org/wpercy

wppdirector AT gmail.com
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End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 185, Issue 2
***************************************


--
Justin Bonanno, PhD



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