Dear Folks,
I think Percy talks a bit about the notion of having a world and the distinction between an event occuring "in" the world vs talking "about" or symbolizing such an event. Granted symbolizing occurs in part as an event "in" the world but symbolizing is also a way of stepping back from the world and talking "about" events that are merely "in" (and not one step back so to speak) from the world. The question is: How does this seeming ability to partially transcend the world arise and what are its theological, philosophical and psychological implications.
Fundamental to this discussion is of course the distinction between the nature of an event which is merely "in" the world vs an event such as symbolizing which is "about" events in the world. That these are in principle two fundamentally different kinds of events is (it seems to me) one of the first and main points Percy attempts to get across and is a theme he repeatedly returns to in both his essays and novels.
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