[percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."

Karey L. Perkins karey at charter.net
Thu Mar 6 09:52:17 EST 2003


Thanks very much for the reference.  I thought that one or both had said it,
but didn't know the original context nor who said it first -- I'd actually
never read the quote itself until last week.

I do have your book, Allen.  Haven't started it yet but I will soon and I
believe it will help me a lot, given the topics covered.  Also have the
O'Connor Mystery & Manners book which I had previously guessed might be
relevant, but didn't know the quote was in there.

I am composing the bibliography for the dissertation now, and am trying to
figure out which are the essential secondary Percy texts -- I have so far,
in no particular order, Lawson & Kramer's "Conversations" (both), Lawson's
"Following Percy"s (both), Gary Ciuba's "WP: Book of Revelations," Crowley &
Crowley's "Critical Essays," Martin Luschei "The Sovereign Wayfarer,"
Quinlan "The Last Catholic Novelist," Elliot & Lantos "The Last Physician,"
Broughton "The Art of Percy,"  Rudnicki "Percyscapes," William Rodney Allen
"A Southern Wayfarer," Robert Lauder "Walker Percy: Prophetic,
Existentialist, Catholic Storyteller," Poteat "WP and the Old Modern Age,"
and of course, Pridgeon "WP's Sacramental Landscapes."

This is in addition to the biographies and Ketner's "A Thief of Peirce" and
of course the various other philosophers that influenced Percy (Marcel,
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Aquinas, Peirce's primary essays) and then the ones
that relate specifically to my topic.

Are there any other basic secondary Percy texts?  Have I missed an important
one??

Thanks again...

Karey


----- Original Message -----
From: Allen Pridgen
To: Percy-L at happyhouse.metalab.unc.edu:Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."


See the last pages of O'Connor's Introduction to A Memoir of Mary Ann on
"tenderness" and the "fumers of the gas chamber." This essay (the final one
in Mystery and Manners) is a truly profound statement about human suffering
and charity.
I invite you to look at my commentary on this matter in  my book, Walker
Percy's Sacramental Landscapes (Susquehanna UP, 2000).

Allen Pridgen


Karey L. Perkins wrote:

  When, what context or work, did O'Connor use it?

  KP


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Robert_Pauley at oxy.com
  To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
  Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 8:26 PM
  Subject: RE: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."


  It was Percy quoting O'Connor.

  R. Pauley
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Karey L. Perkins [mailto:karey at charter.net]
    Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 5:35 AM
    To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
    Subject: [percy-l] "...to the gas chamber..."


    I wasn't sure if it was Percy who had originally said this, or Percy
quoting Flannery O'Connor or someone else.  I recently came across it in
"Signposts in a Strange Land" in the epilogue "An Interview with Zoltan
Abadi-Nagy" -- last line (p. 396, Picador).

    Am I correct in assuming this is a "Percy original" and this is the
first time the phrase had been said?  Or is he referring to another use of
the phrase?

    By the way, I just finished Tolson's biography of Percy ("Pilgrim in the
Ruins") and I thought it was fantastic.

    Karey



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