Karey,
Ok, I get what you're trying to say about Percy's meaning. I
just have to bristle when I read something that can be used as an
encouragement to the parties that are going to go off running
with this tragedy and set loose the violence machine. I'm afraid
that the vigilance you mention will be all too lacking, and where
it's not will be swamped by a popular sentiment of revenge and
retribution. I have to disagree with Lincoln. You can indeed
fool too many of the people too much of the time. And sadly the
churches will not be much help.
Al
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karey Perkins" <karey@CHARTER.NET>
To: <PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 10:23 PM
Subject: Re: Better than Monday morning?
> I don't think Percy meant that we really had to have a moral
purpose to
> experience this phenomenon...we just have to FEEL like we have
one. For
> example, I had a professor once who studied human happiness,
and one of the
> things he found is, we just have to feel we've accomplished our
goals (and
> that they mattered) to be happy, we don't really have had to
accomplish
> them, nor do they really have to matter, to experience
happiness. So when
> Mr. Magoo puts a feather duster in the oven and turns it on,
thinking he's
> cooking a chicken, then walks out of the house as it explodes
behind him
> (unbeknownst to him), he's still pretty pleased with himself.
>
> This feeling of transcendence of the trivial in tragedy, of
having a
> meaning and import and dramatic beauty to life that normally
escapes us, is
> often real, though, I think, in that we're thinking of life and
death. I
> think one of the reasons the phenomenon of "war is better than
a Monday
> morning" happens is because it pulls us out of this-worldly
insignificance
> and pettiness. Another reason is the unity and community that
escapes us
> most of the time. What joy! Even as I write this, a fireman
in NY is
> talking on TV about the fact that he and his colleagues, and
the police,
> will work for the next five days straight if they have to...to
help the
> victims.
>
> Even if we are united, have a community, that is "wrong" in its
intentions
> and purpose (such as a cult, or perhaps you can say one of
these terrorists
> groups), we still partake of the joys of community and purpose.
That's why
> we must be vigilant that our purpose is RIGHT. And that we are
there for the
> purpose, and not for the feeling.
>
> But PERCY was right when he noticed this phenomenon happens.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Walker Percy Literary and Philosophic Topics
> [mailto:PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu]On Behalf Of
charles_almond_pearson
> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 8:55 PM
> To: PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu
> Subject: Re: Better than Monday morning?
>
>
> Karey writes:
> "...we are united as a nation [and we now have] common and
> morally correct and life-affirming mission and purpose that we
> don't have and can't find in every day life..."
>
> Where have we been and where has our sense of moral purpose
been
> in recent days, months, years since the Gulf War during which
an
> average of 5000 people in Iraq have died as a result of the US
> backed UN sanctions (Hartford Courant
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Karey Perkins" <karey@CHARTER.NET>
> To: <PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 7:54 PM
> Subject: Re: Better than Monday morning?
>
>
> > Percy wrote a LOT about our response (as humans) to
> tragedy...and he (and
> > his thoughts on this) came to my mind specifically and
> immediately in the
> > wake of today's tragedies. He brings up that we feel "good"
> when tragedies
> > happen. Bad of course, but also, he says, don't we feel just
a
> little bit
> > "good"? We feel sad, we feel bad, but we feel "good" that we
> feel sad and
> > bad. That suddenly, in the midst of tragedy, in the midst
of
> > life-threatening events, our neuroses miraculously disappear
> (just as in
> > physical illness), life makes sense and has meaning, and
then,
> when things
> > return to normal, our existential malaise returns.
> >
> > In the midst of this sorrow and tragedy, we are united as a
> nation,
> > "committed" as a normally and usually disparate group (but
not
> now!),
> > towards the same end (whatever that might be...concern for
> victims and loved
> > ones, outrage at the wrong, desire for revenge...), and
> suddenly our
> > fragmented lives, (fragmented from ourselves and each other)
> and mundane
> > myopic self-absorbed everyday concerns are dwarfed by a
common
> and morally
> > correct and life-affirming mission and purpose that we don't
> have and can't
> > find in every day life. It's a price that is too heavy for
any
> of us to
> > choose too happen; yet when it does happen, this side effect,
> this "symptom"
> > to use a medical language Percy might have been comfortable
> with, occurs.
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Walker Percy Literary and Philosophic Topics
> > [mailto:PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu]On Behalf Of
> charles_almond_pearson
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 5:11 PM
> > To: PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu
> > Subject: Re: Better than Monday morning?
> >
> >
> > Exception: if you're a mother shooing flies away from your
> dying
> > baby in the streets someplace in Iraq, where on average 5000
> > people have been dying from UN sanctions since the end of the
> > Gulf War, according to a series that ran in the Hartford
> Courant
> > last October.
> >
> > Don't mean to belittle your observation, Mark, but I felt the
> US
> > supported UN atrocity needs at least as much mention as
> today's.
> >
> > Al Pearson
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tarallo, Mark" <Mark.Tarallo@BRIDGE.COM>
> > To: <PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu>
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2001 5:49 PM
> > Subject: Better than Monday morning?
> >
> >
> > > Hello All,
> > >
> > > I certainly do not want to trivialize today's tragedy and
> > deaths, and I
> > > sincerely hope that none of you
> > > have loved ones that were hurt, but I must say that, as a
> > journalist based
> > > in Washington who
> > > had a busy day "working" the story (a disgusting phrase, I
> > know), I must
> > > confide that
> > > running through my head throughout the workday was the
Percy
> > concept,
> > > War is better tham Monday morning.
> > >
> > > This came to mind especially in trying to self-assess the
> > spirit in which I
> > > discussed today's events
> > > with concerned friends and family members.
> > >
> > > It makes one wonder.
> > >
> > > --Mark
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: David Alan Beck [SMTP:dabeck@IUPUI.EDU]
> > > > Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 11:17 PM
> > > > To: PERCY-L@listserv.lsu.edu
> > > > Subject: Re: Novelists now, in the spirit of Percy
> > > >
> > > > John,
> > > > I agree that DeLillo fits somewhere in the spectrum.
> Speaking
> > of DD,
> > > > has anyone had a chance to read the article in this
month's
> > Atlantic?
> > > > There is an article that, for the most part, is arguing
> that
> > the
> > > > contemporary authors who are so revered by critics and
> > academics, are
> > > > wearing the emperor's new clothes. He focuses on DeLillo,
> > Cormac McCarthy,
> > > > and Paul Auster. I haven't had time to read the entire
> > article but did
> > > > glance over it. I'll have to admit that, for me, blasting
> > away at DeLillo,
> > > > one of my favorite living writers, makes me regard him
with
> > suspicion.
> > > > Though he does have a point about the stilted dialogue in
> the
> > works of
> > > > these writers, a sin that no one can accuse Percy of.
Yet,
> in
> > DeLillo, I
> > > > always viewed the "flat" dialogue as part of the theme
and
> > overall effect
> > > > of his works.
> > > >
> > > > Regardless, I look forward to reading the article (partly
> due
> > to a
> > > > co-worker who bought the argument and challenged me to
> > respond).
> > > >
> > > > David Beck
> > > >
> > > > "The only true joy on earth is to escape from the
> > > > prison of our false self, and enter by love into union
> > > > with the Life Who dwells and sings within the essence of
> > > > every creature and in the core of our own souls."
> > > >
> > > > -Thomas Merton
> > >
> >
>
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