To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Scientism, Symbolic Thought, and Percy
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:59:33 -0700 (PDT)
Foote does read them eventually, but I loved that Percy keeps saying that when the essays are brought up, he knows he loses Foote.
--- On Mon, 6/18/12, Ken Armstrong <kennenathens AT frontier.com> wrote:
From: Ken Armstrong <kennenathens AT frontier.com> Subject: Re: [percy-l] Scientism, Symbolic Thought, and Percy To: Percy-L AT lists.ibiblio.org Date: Monday, June 18, 2012, 4:49 PM
I'm
guessing he doesn't find them technically difficult, just
difficult to accept in their premises and structure..
Ken A
On 6/18/2012 3:27 PM, janet cantor wrote:
I am finishing my
reading of the letters between Foote and Percy and
laughing at the many times Percy tells Foote that he
understands how Foote finds the essays difficult. Foote
also loves Proust and Percy resists. I think I have more
in common with Shelby Foote than with Percy, after all.
One day I will try the essays, but not yet.
Janet
I have read Lost in the Cosmos, Message
in a Bottle, and Signposts. Loved all three of
them and I agree that Percy's insights speak
pointedly to the wasteland that
Post-structuralism has created and definitely
speaks to the matter of science's inability to
speak to genuine human experience. The fact
that the masses engage in this "scientism" is
disheartening; the fact that biology,
semiotics, anthropology, and the rest continue
to be disingenuous all the while duping
multitudes of intellectuals is worse.
Nice to see some action on the Percy list. I'd
just add that the essays
are not highly technical and many speak
directly to the issues of "the
culture wars" today. I read Message in the
Bottle first, but more from
Signposts struck a chord for me, maybe because
I was already a convert
in regard to symbolic thought. Fateful Rift:
San Andreas Fault in the
Modern Mind in Signposts couldn't be more
germane to today's debates
centered around "scientism."
Ken A
On 6/18/2012 1:45 AM, janet cantor wrote:
> Oops, I'm so self absorbed I didn't
realize I just repeated a lot from
> my earlier post. Sorry about that.
> And thanks John E. Riley for your
response.
>
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