From wpercy1 at mail.ibiblio.org Fri Nov 29 19:49:12 2002 From: wpercy1 at mail.ibiblio.org (Henry P. Mills) Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2002 18:49:12 -0600 Subject: [percy-l] New Percy-L Submission Address/Features Message-ID: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To all Percy-L members: CHANGE IN LIST SUBMISSION ADDRESS The friendly folk at ibiblio.org have migrated the Percy-L listserv to a new address. All future submissions to the listserv should be directed to: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Posts sent to the old address, percy-l at franklin.metalab.unc.edu, will no longer be distributed. The change to a new server should be entirely transparent except for the following information that you should review. USER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT By going to the following address, you can access and edit options related to your account, including subscribing/unsubscribing, changing passwords, putting your account on temporary hold, and others. Having access to these features is an improvement over our former listserv. http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l Once there, simply scroll to the bottom of the page, enter your email address, and click the "Edit Options" button to proceed to the options page. PASSWORDS Immediately following this email, each member of Percy-L will receive an individualized email containing a unique password for their account. Use this password to change your personal options settings at the above web page. Your email address is your account ID. A password is necessary to make any changes to your account, including unsubscribing. This follow-up email will also contain instructions on how to use email commands to alter your personal settings, but most users will find the web page interface more user-friendly. Please note that, other than being familiar with the information in this email, you need not take any further action to continue your service. Simply be certain to keep both this and the follow-up email with your password on hand for future use. DISCUSSION GUIDELINES To complete this announcement, you will find in your mailbox a revised copy of the Percy-L Guidelines. Please make certain you are familiar with the guidelines and save for future reference. Please note that Percy-L is a private list. No one may access the entire member subscription list, and no one may change anyone's user account settings without a password. These measures safeguard your control over your participation in the list. ARCHIVES Lastly, archives of past discussion will remain available at the following address: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail As always, post your discussion with attention in mind that your comments will be available to others on an ongoing basis. QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, COMMENTS? Send email directly to: wpercy1 at ibiblio.org Thank you, Henry P. Mills Director and Editor The Walker Percy Project http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please Save This Document For Future Use ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From wpercy1 at mail.ibiblio.org Sat Nov 30 12:23:30 2002 From: wpercy1 at mail.ibiblio.org (Henry P. Mills) Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 11:23:30 -0600 Subject: [percy-l] Percy-L Guidelines, Revised Message-ID: ******************************************************************** PLEASE SAVE THIS WELCOME MESSAGE ******************************************************************** PERCY-L GUIDELINES This document provides an overview of the Percy-L listserv discussion policies followed by a list of the basic user commands for operating your account. Please save this document for future reference. A. GENERAL POLICIES The Percy-L forum is open to the discussion of all topics pertaining to the work and thought of the American novelist and philosopher Walker Percy. Students, general readers, and scholars are all welcome, as well as simply the curious. There is no standing agenda for the list except the promotion of commentary of the sort that one would expect from people with a special interest in Percy. As such, the list will remain unmoderated unless some future reason requires it. A diverse range of critical perspectives is therefore welcomed, if not encouraged, as long as the manner and method of expression are responsible and respectful of the parties they are addressed to. B. INTRODUCING YOURSELF Please consider introducing yourself to the other mailing list users even if you plan to participate only as an observer. The more we all know what our various interests are, the more likely it is that someone will address them in some way. With any good fortune, as list discussion and participation grow, Percy-L will develop into a vital community resource, from both its ongoing inquiry into Percy's work and the record of discussion that follows in the list's permanent archives. The more we invest ourselves in the list, and in developing connections with one another, the more fully we will all benefit from it through the communal undertaking it is. C. INTRODUCING TOPICS You should feel free to introduce a new topic for discussion or to respond to any existing "thread" or line of thought already in process at any time, as you see fit. This medium of communication takes multiple "threads" of discourse to be a given: anyone can enter into the discussion at any time, just as those already involved in it can pay as much or as little attention to whatever is of interest to them. Needless to say, both patience and tolerance are encouraged in all matters related to the mailing list, for electronic discussion of this sort is fraught with the potential for misunderstanding, even as it provides for new channels of discussion. If no one responds to your posts, you should not assume that it is because of a lack of interest, or that your post is perceived as unimportant. Frequently, the interested reader just doesn't have time to respond, and few of us have time to answer more than a small percentage of the ones that are of interest to us in any case. Therefore, pose your questions and comments well by your own standards, and remind yourself that, even if there is no direct response, what you have said or asked will be read by a large body of people. And who is to say in what way ripples may occur? If response is important to you, then wait a month or so and try your query again. D. REPLYING TO TOPICS In replying to posted topics, you should provide a beginning line in your message indicating who you are replying to and about what (brevity is encouraged when it comes to quoting). For the same reason, you should also have a closing signature line or block in all of your messages that identifies who you are. How much information you wish to provide about yourself is up to you, but the participants need enough information about your identity to keep track of the conversational flow. E. A NOTE ON THE NATURE OF GROUP DISCUSSIONS During group discussions, it is not infrequent that participants may individually address others through the list, but such an occurrence does not necessarily mean that the discussion has become "personal" in the sense that it would best be conducted off-list. To put it in other words, what is personal and what is _private_ are two separate matters. Rather, the question at hand is whether the discussion concerns topics of broader relevance to the purposes of the mailing list as a whole. It is therefore more than acceptable for any number of individuals in public electronic-based discussions of this sort to pursue special interests as long as there is nothing exclusive of others in it, either explicitly or in tone. However, if you have any problems about topics being posted or in connection with the receipt or posting of your own messages, please contact the list administrator at wpercy1 at ibiblio.org. F. SPECIAL DISCUSSION CONSIDERATIONS In order to keep discussion focused on Percy subjects, please observe the following discussion guidelines: 1) Avoid introducing political topics, unless they directly bear on or are explicitly related to Percy and his thought. This rule does not exclude current events from discussion, but merely underscores that this is a listserv dedicated to Percy topics. 2) Please do not forward outside announcements through the list unless a case can be made for a direct connection to Percy and the interests of those who have joined the list. If in doubt, contact the list administrator. G. SPECIAL TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS In order to keep list operations efficient, please observe the following technical guidelines: 1) Please send all messages through the listserv as plain text messages rather than HTML-encoded. Not everyone's email client supports HTML-encoded messages. In turn, any HTML formatting will be lost during the message archiving routine. Check the preference settings on your specific email client to determine in what format your messages are being sent. (If you have the option of adding bold, italics, or font size to your email text, you are using HTML-encoded email.) This same rule regarding HTML-encoded emails also applies to external HTML documents you place in your email messages. Do not paste these as HTML, but rather as text. 2) Do not send images through the listserv. If you wish for members to see a particular image, place it on a web site and then direct the members of the list to it by including the URL in your message body. Since many members use a dial-up connection, this tactic provides individual users with the option of viewing the image, and hence will limit frustration with download times associated with the list. The same holds true for any other media items such as sound, video, or animation files. 3) Lastly, please do not forward any large attachments through the list. This rule also limits member frustration with long download times. If you have a particular document to share that relates to Percy, please make certain that its size is no more than 100kb. Also, be mindful of sending the document in a format that will be readily accessible by all, for instance, Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF. Alternatively, and perhaps the best option given virus concerns (many members will be wary of opening a file attachment), you can cut-and-paste the contents of your document directly into the body of the email. Since this method presents the document in a text-only format, the size of the document will be considerably smaller, and there is no risk of transmitting/receiving a virus in a text-only email. H. POSTING TIPS: CURRENT & FUTURE READERS 1) Please quote messages you are replying to sparingly, using your cut, paste, and delete functions. A "reader-friendly" message has a better chance of being responded to. 2) Avoid short, personal comments along the lines of "I agree," etc., that do not significantly advance Percy content discussion. These would best be submitted solely to the person they are intended for rather than to the listserv address (i.e., the entire membership). Please be heedful of the time of the list members--many belong to multiple mailing lists--by only submitting posts that in some shape or form better the interests of the entire community. 3) Always fill in the "subject" box of your email to help readers identify your topic of discussion. 4) Remember that if you use the "reply" command to a message you have received through the list, your message will be distributed publicly to all members of the list. In contrast, if you want to have private correspondence with someone who has sent a message through the list, you must create a _new_ e-mail and address it specifically to him or her lest the entire list read your message. 5) To help individual members of the Percy-L community follow the context of your comments, be attentive to your use of quoting and quote identification methods. For example, consider beginning responses as follows: At 06:18 PM 9/17/96, Binx Bolling wrote: >I am on a search! Then add your own comments about the text in question (i.e., Binx's search). In turn, if you add other quotes to your message from multiple posts, repeat the process so it is clear where the material comes from. As before, the better crafted and referenced your message, the more likely it will generate thoughtful response from the community. =========================================================== A. USER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT The following links and information will be useful to you in managing your listserv account. All changes to your account require your specified password. If you do not know your password, you may request that it be mailed to you via the web page address below in the User Adminstration section. Note: This is a hidden list. The member roster is available only to the list administrator. B. QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR CONCERNS? Please direct questions, comments, or other concerns about the Percy-L Guidelines or about list operations to the list administrator at wpercy1 at ibiblio.org. C. USER LINKS & OPTIONS Subscribe via the listserv web page at: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l To post to this list, send your email to: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org All messages are archived at the following address: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/mail-archives.html From dabeck at iupui.edu Sat Nov 30 22:10:01 2002 From: dabeck at iupui.edu (David Alan Beck) Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 22:10:01 -0500 (EST) Subject: [percy-l] postmodernism (fwd) Message-ID: I've tried sending this posting for two months and it always came back. So, now that we have a new address, I'll try again. Please read below. David Beck ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Has anyone heard of the book Postmodernism Rightly Understood by Peter A. Lawler? A fellow faculty member pointed it out to me. I haven't read or bought it, but apparently Lawler sees Percy (and Lasch) as answers to the emptiness and soulessness of Foucault, Derrida, etc. Here is the link to Amazon: Amazon.com: buying info: Postmodernism Rightly Understood I'd like to hear from someone who is familiar with the book, but our listserv seems to become less lively by the day--it's almost like being on a Trappist listserv :) David Beck "Eternity is in the present. Eternity is in the palm of the hand. Eternity is a seed of fire, whose sudden roots break barriers that keep my heart from being an abyss." - Thomas Merton