Re: Moviegoer and despair


Subject: Re: Moviegoer and despair
From: Rhonda McDonnell (rhonda_mcdonnell@HOTMAIL.COM)
Date: Wed Nov 17 1999 - 22:51:16 EST


Jim--Not only does the Augustine reference shed some light on the despair
topic, but might also have something to do with W.P.'s take on the
Kierkegaard's stages. In an interview, Percy said something to the effect
that he agrees with S.K. regarding the aesthetic and the ethical stages, but
when it comes to the Religious stage, Kierkegaard got it all wrong. What
follows then is, if I remember rightly, Percy's assertion that the Religious
stage must, in part, be communal (to use your language). Augustine's
influence might be coming into play there. So, in the last scene of The
Moviegoer, when Binx tells the children Lonnie will rise on the last day and
be as they are and the children shout hurray (a la Dostoyevsky), Binx's
ascension to the religious stage happens there because, in part, of his
relationship with the children. Not surprisingly, he seems free of despair
and malaise as well.

Rhonda McDonnell
Arizona State University

>From: Jim Woods <TrlBlzrOne@AOL.COM>
>Reply-To: Walker Percy Literary and Philosophic Topics
><PERCY-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>
>To: Multiple recipients of list PERCY-L <PERCY-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>
>Subject: Re: Moviegoer and despair
>Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 07:23:39 EST
>
>Re: the thread on despair I offer some ruminations...
>
>For an eye opener I commend reading Augustine's Confessions, particularly
>his
>discussion of his conversion. Key to that were his contacts through his
>mother with the Christian community...both in the form of prayer and in the
>form of catechesis. In other words, the move from gnostic despair to faith
>on Augustine's part involved not simply a personal change of view, but
>movement toward a community and finally, participation in a community in
>which despair is seen for what it is:angelism/aestheticism as a prop for
>pride. Despair can be a waystation on the journey toward faith or it can
>become the final 'blind spot' of pride.
>
>A contrast with Augustine, and a fine presentation of the
>angelism/aestheticism is Rouseau's Confessions. His writing epitomizes
>what
>Kierkegarrd meant by 'despair not being aware that it is despair--e.g. the
>'final blind' spot of pride. Rouseau, if he were alive would be on ALL the
>talk shows...
>
>Relative to the discussion of this thread here, there is a fine essay (a
>commencement address, actually) by Marion Montgomery in the October Issue
>of
>First Things which can be found
>at:http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9910/opinion/montgomery.html The
>essay's title is Angelism and the Provincial Self. This might interest
>some
>on the board.
>
>And, in closing, a Blessed and happy Thanksgiving to all!
>
>jim
>

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