Re: Percy and the Categorical Imperative, etc.


Subject: Re: Percy and the Categorical Imperative, etc.
From: Dave Duty (daveduty@FLASH.NET)
Date: Fri Jun 25 1999 - 10:13:36 EDT


Been on the sidelines for way to long -- in Message in the Bottle WP wrote, in
effect, "In the movement of art -- no one is alienated." I quoted this to a
recently re-surfaced movie director after I saw his movie. This director is a
true WP student/fan. He got it. Anyone care to discuss the various things WP
might have meant.

Dave Duty in Austin

Rip Pauley wrote:

> But then what does one do at 3:00 on the following afternoon? How does one
> handle the inevitable "re-entry" from this happy transcendence? Sutter
> retired to his hotel room and shot himself. There is something about
> "kingdom of ends" and "self-governing rational wills" which I suggest,
> risking presumption, might have troubled Dr. Percy.
>
> Regarding your earlier question, Tolson's observation was not his most
> brilliant. If Percy's concern had been a secular solution he might have
> written self-help books instead of novels that so frequently skewered
> self-help books. Percy's faith was cryptic but constant, I think -- the sort
> that embraces darkness, doubt and the harsh paradox of angel and beast. "Man
> was born to trouble as the sparks fly up" and perhaps the best he can hope
> for is for the car to stop and the door to open, as it did for the last
> gentleman. At last, a true conversation! The salvation of language, simple
> but exulting.
>
> I think we often over-intellectualize Percy. The intention is good: to
> understand him better. But I think the best way to understand Percy is to
> read him -- as the best way for the alienated man on the train to understand
> his alienation is to read about an alienated man on a train.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Marshall Smith [SMTP:Cocasteady@AOL.COM]
> > Sent: Thursday, June 24, 1999 8:26 PM
> > To: Multiple recipients of list PERCY-L
> > Subject: Re: Percy and the Categorical Imperative, etc.
> >
> > You get everyone to act only on that maxim which may be willed universal
> > and
> > VOILA!, you've got yourself a secular solution to the problem of
> > existence,
> > a Kingdom of Ends, a big happy collection of self-governing rational wills
> > harkening to transcendental law. It's the most.



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