Tom,I think the postulation that Lancelot and Percival are both in the afterlife is viable (and as I mentioned, intriguing), but it is less hopeful for Lancelot, at least if we accept Percy's Catholicism. People have different ideas about heaven, it's true, but that does not preclude it from being a real place that exists quite apart from people's anticipatory perceptions of it.You propose that heaven (or hell) is simply a person left unpretentiously with himself. What makes it one or the other--heaven or hell--is then presumably how one feels about one's real self, after all pretensions have been stripped away. This is, of course, an entirely subjective notion--one person's heaven might be another's hell (which is maybe what you were getting at with "pick your poison"), and neither heaven nor hell could be communal, nor would either represent any particular posture toward the divine, as the perimeter of each state is confined to the individual in question.But Lancelot is describing something objective (a created world) and communal (how society ought to be) and with a certain posture toward God (in Lance's case, anger followed by disillusionment). It might be a description of how he would make heaven on earth if he were in charge. But he is also aware that Percival does not align with him, that Percival has attached himself to something that transcends himself and his own ideas. And Lance is open-minded enough to acknowledge the possibility that Percival may even be right. i.e. "It's my way or it's your way, but it's not their way." And Percival agrees, "Yes."So where does that leave them? In Catholic teaching, purgatory is a refining fire set aside for those who die in a state of grace (no unrepentant mortal sin), a final purification before the beatific vision. But if Lance is dead, he has not died in a state of grace. "... no confession forthcoming, Father, as you well know ... I feel nothing now except a certain coldness" (253). If he is dead, Lance's state is fixed, according to Catholic teaching, and the thing Percival has to tell him, the thing that gives his gaze upon Lance such sadness (254) is that Lance's release from prison is a release into hell. The prison itself, the long recounting of his crime, has been his particular examination, upon death. And now the judgment of his chosen state lies before him. Yes, a new beginning of sorts but not a happy one.In this interpretation, though, I think there is no reason to assume that Percival died with Lance in the explosion. The strange silence of Percival over the course of the novel makes the encounter between the two men feel more like there is a kind of barrier, as between the living and the dead. We might even theorize that Lance's witnessing of Percival's prayer in the cemetery (254) is actually taking place at his own (Lance's own) grave, that Percival's prayer for the dead is for Lance. On the side of life, Percival cannot know the state of Lance's soul, so in charity, he prays. But at the final meeting of the novel, he does seem to know Lance's fate, and further maybe even to have been given the task of telling Lance.On the other hand, if neither man has died and Lance has truly been telling his story from a prison/hospital in the temporal realm, then we can speculate that the post-novel words of Percival may indeed begin to bring Lance toward sorrow and repentance, followed by redemption. At novel's end, he feels nothing but coldness. Perhaps that is the very nadir he had to reach in order to find life.Mike
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:04:28 +0000
From: "Beck, David A" <dabeck AT iupui.edu>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] [External] Re: Percy-L Digest, Vol 161, Issue
6
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I'm not sure we can go as far as saying Lance found redemption. I didn't see any evidence of that. He makes his confession but doesn't seem to bothered by what he has done. He didn't receive absolution, because he wasn't repentant.
It seems to me the "transformation" is that of Fr. John (Percival). At first, he is troubled, abstracted, and seems to be having doubts. After hearing Lance's ravings, he realizes that he has to make a choice. Then he returns wearing his clerical "outfit" and seems to have found renewal in his faith. I read somewhere (did Percy say it?) that Fr. John is the real protagonist.
If I'm wrong, I've led many a college student astray over the years. :-)
Just my two cents.
-David
David Beck
Senior Lecturer
English Department
Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis
425 University Boulevard, CA 343-E
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-278-2550
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