Dear all,
Also only knowing Percy through his writings and texts of interviews, I have always understood him to say (especially in his interviews) that while he was both Catholic and Southern, he detested being labeled as a Catholic novelist or a Southern novelist or, even worse, a Southern Catholic novelist. I got the impression that he hoped his writing transcended such labels even if they were influeced that way.
Further, I want to throw another monkey wrench into the works since this whole thing got started on "offensive" passages in Thanatos Syndrome. Unfortunately, when I recommended Percy to a couple of friends, it is the first of his they read (my least favorite). One told me that it bordered on "kiddie porn". Obviously, this statement was made tongue in cheek, but still. I also remember Percy to have stated in interviews that he refused to include sexually explicit content in order to sell books like other novelists clearly do. While I was not offended by any of the passages, I found it odd that he chose sexual abuse of children to illustrate abnormal behavior caused by Na24.
My only guess for why lies in what Richard Wright once said. After writing several popular short stories about slavery, he realized white bankers daughters could read them, cry, and never see what he wanted them to see so he created Bigger Thomas, a hero who could not be looked on with much sympathy. Is it that Percy wanted to show how grotesque the results of the Na24 experiement could become? Was for those of us who are affected by the Holocaust but too young to really be affected? Can anyone shed some light on this choice?
David Dreith
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