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  • From: Percy-L Listserv Manager <percy.listserv.manager AT gmail.com>
  • To: Percy-L Submission <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] Walker Percy Talks About the Ending of The Moviegoer
  • Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 10:30:53 -0400

I am forwarding the below comments by Leonard Hughes on through to the list.

Henry Mills

Percy-L Listserv Manager



--------- Forwarded message ---------
From: hughesl6363 AT aol.com <hughesl6363 AT aol.com>
Date: Sat, Aug 17, 2024 at 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Walker Percy Talks About the Ending of The Moviegoer

Chuck and my new friends in the Project,

Chuck, thank you for sending that wonderful artifact.

I was amazed and excited when I luckily ran across it as reprinted in 2012 in the New Orleans Review. The reprint included a preface that explained it was written when Mr. Smith and my old acquaintance Lewis Lawson were asked to work on a planned Norton Critical Edition of the Moviegoer. I wonder why such a much-needed project was never revived.

I was so happy to have found the letter a few years ago when revising a paper on the novel, partly because it provided support to my concern that attention to Percy's art had taken a back seat to his philosophy. I loved hearing him say, as speaking from the Beyond, "There is no surer prescription for disaster in any novel than to put it to ideological use, whether it be philosophical, Christian or Marxist." Almost heretical in the halls of Percy academia! 

What a great letter.

--Thank you and Mr. Smith for sharing it,
Leonard 

On Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 09:36:10 AM EDT, lowry.charles AT gmail.com <lowry.charles AT gmail.com> wrote:



> Mes amis,
>
> I think you will all find this very interesting.  About two weeks ago list member and long-time Percy friend Marcus Smith sent me a file which he tried to post to the list but which was rejected as too large.  After some technical adjustments, it is presented here.
>
> Sincere thanks to Marcus for sharing this material, and to Henry for maintaining this wonderful venue.
>
> I note that these comments from Walker Percy were written less than a year before his death, May 10, 1990.



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