Re: Book in progress


Subject: Re: Book in progress
From: Farrell O'gorman (fogorman@EMAIL.UNC.EDU)
Date: Tue Jun 29 1999 - 15:27:36 EDT


     Sounds wonderful. I was thinking of Percy as I finished "A Man in Full"--
there are in many ways worlds of difference between him and Wolfe, of
course, but some interesting similarities as well--Wolfe's ear for
contemporary American dialects being just one.
     And I don't know but am curious about Wolfe's religious convictions. He's
clearly interested in religion--and its disappearance from our culture-- here,
not only at the end but in his depiction of Conrad, Croker, and even Peepgass
throughout. It struck me that his depiction of Croker's "conversion" to
Stoicism--which is at one point BRIEFLY described as "having influenced
the early Christians"--might be in part due to a Percyesque sense that the
traditional language of Christianity has been so devalued that it is to be
avoided at all costs, and that the novelist who wants to point to the
possibility of faith must use guile and cunning...
     In other words: if Conrad and Croker had "discovered" and been converted to
Christianity--become good Southern evangelicals, say--the book would have
immediately been written off and would have been profoundly dull ("We've all
heard this one before. Is this the best Wolfe can do? What's gotten into him?
He's always been a kind of conservative, but is he joining up with Jerry
Falwell?"). As it is, the book may or may not work--but the conversion to
Stoicism sure is INTERESTING.
     And Conrad is almost like the future "saint" that Percy sometimes talked
about, who would come from not Alabama or Ireland but a totally secular
post-Christian culture--in this case, he is the child of self-induglent
hippie parents in California. Brought up with no religious or even ethical
tradition, he stumbles onto Epictetus--whom he's never even heard of--in
prison and becomes a true believer. Remember in -Love in the Ruins- when a
hippy couple in the swamp finds an old Confederate Bible and "read it as
if it had never been read before" or some such?
     Might Wolfe be using Stoicism to point obliquely to Christianity?
     Or am I giving him too much credit? If nothing else, he's putting an
interesting spin on Aunt Emily's old ethos ...

--Farrell O'Gorman

-- Begin original message --

> From: Alphonse Vinh <Yinshih@AOL.COM>
> Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 19:18:48 EDT
> Subject: Book in progress
> To: Multiple recipients of list PERCY-L <PERCY-L@its1.ocs.lsu.edu>
> Reply-To: Walker Percy Literary and Philosophic Topics <PERCY-L@its1.ocs.lsu.edu>
>
> Dear fellow Percyites:
>
> I've just started work on my next book which is entitled, "The Wintry Kingdom
> of Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Mind of the South".
>
> I have two chapters in the book which is exclusively focused on Walker and
> William Alexander Percy. In my book I trace the Stoic Tradition in the
> Southern Mind from William Byrd II to its current state vis-a-vis Tom Wolfe's
> "A Singular Man".
>
> I welcome all advice and recommended readings for my endeavour. One of the
> people I'd like to be in touch with is Bert Wyatt-Brown. Does anyone know how
> to reach him over the summer? I know Bert is logged off from Percy-L until
> school resumes.
>
> //Alphonse Vinh
>

-- End original message --



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