From jdp at scn.org Sun Dec 4 14:48:37 2005 From: jdp at scn.org (Jonathan Potter) Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2005 11:48:37 -0800 Subject: [percy-l] Was Percy an Ecofeminist? Message-ID: <12305a9c0512041148y181372dcw479c4a10ab76d172@mail.gmail.com> http://korrektiv.blogspot.com/2005/12/was-walker-percy-ecofeminist.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jdp at scn.org Sun Dec 4 14:50:24 2005 From: jdp at scn.org (Jonathan Potter) Date: Sun, 4 Dec 2005 11:50:24 -0800 Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? Message-ID: <12305a9c0512041150j482904b7g19d5e08424545f6e@mail.gmail.com> http://korrektiv.blogspot.com/2005/12/would-kierkegaard-blog.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From MorrisJD at aol.com Mon Dec 5 10:23:39 2005 From: MorrisJD at aol.com (MorrisJD at aol.com) Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2005 10:23:39 EST Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? Message-ID: <27f.15065ed.30c5b57b@aol.com> 2 of 2 from same. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rgeckert at yahoo.com Thu Dec 8 11:01:06 2005 From: rgeckert at yahoo.com (Robert Eckert) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 08:01:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? In-Reply-To: <27f.15065ed.30c5b57b@aol.com> Message-ID: <20051208160106.37840.qmail@web32209.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Walker Percy certainly carried on an extensive correspondence and K wrote like mad--even to himself--K. used to carry on debates in his personal journals with the various psuedonyms he had created. It would be interesting to know just how many people wrote to Percy and got (seemingly same day) responses. Must be thousands. Robert Eckert Rochester, NY MorrisJD at aol.com wrote: 2 of 2 from same. -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rhul at gwm.sc.edu Thu Dec 8 11:55:12 2005 From: rhul at gwm.sc.edu (Lawrence Rhu) Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:55:12 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? Message-ID: I wonder exactly what "extensive correspondence" means here. I trust that it means he wrote lots of people and was indeed exceptionally responisve to those who wrote him, whether they were friends or readers who had no previous acquaintance with him. Percy was gracious and prompt to respond in this regard so far as I can tell. But as a writer of letters, Percy strikes me as rather preoccupied with other things -- his wonderful novels and essays. The correspondence with Shelby Foote certainly demonstrates this imbalance, though maybe his published correspondence about Peirce with K. Kendler is different. I don't know and must look to see about that. Does anbody know of any other correspondence of Percy that is really ample and committed to letter-writing itself as a resource for sustained reflection and dialogue? Larry Lawrence F. Rhu Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Tel: 803 777 0144 Fax: 803 777 9064 Email: rhul at sc.edu >>> rgeckert at yahoo.com 12/08/05 11:01 AM >>> Walker Percy certainly carried on an extensive correspondence and K wrote like mad--even to himself--K. used to carry on debates in his personal journals with the various psuedonyms he had created. It would be interesting to know just how many people wrote to Percy and got (seemingly same day) responses. Must be thousands. Robert Eckert Rochester, NY MorrisJD at aol.com wrote: 2 of 2 from same. -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping From rgeckert at yahoo.com Thu Dec 8 12:16:50 2005 From: rgeckert at yahoo.com (Robert Eckert) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:16:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20051208171650.70925.qmail@web32209.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I wonder what exactly "other things" means here. I trust Lawrwnce realizes that Percy corresponded with friends, readers, and ect... precisely to see what they thought of his wonderful essays and novels. Lawrence Rhu wrote: I wonder exactly what "extensive correspondence" means here. I trust that it means he wrote lots of people and was indeed exceptionally responisve to those who wrote him, whether they were friends or readers who had no previous acquaintance with him. Percy was gracious and prompt to respond in this regard so far as I can tell. But as a writer of letters, Percy strikes me as rather preoccupied with other things -- his wonderful novels and essays. The correspondence with Shelby Foote certainly demonstrates this imbalance, though maybe his published correspondence about Peirce with K. Kendler is different. I don't know and must look to see about that. Does anbody know of any other correspondence of Percy that is really ample and committed to letter-writing itself as a resource for sustained reflection and dialogue? Larry Lawrence F. Rhu Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Tel: 803 777 0144 Fax: 803 777 9064 Email: rhul at sc.edu >>> rgeckert at yahoo.com 12/08/05 11:01 AM >>> Walker Percy certainly carried on an extensive correspondence and K wrote like mad--even to himself--K. used to carry on debates in his personal journals with the various psuedonyms he had created. It would be interesting to know just how many people wrote to Percy and got (seemingly same day) responses. Must be thousands. Robert Eckert Rochester, NY MorrisJD at aol.com wrote: 2 of 2 from same. -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From RGray at montreat.edu Thu Dec 8 12:36:59 2005 From: RGray at montreat.edu (Gray, Rich) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 12:36:59 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? Message-ID: Percy responded quickly - maybe the same day - to my letter to him in the late 1980s. His handwriting was challenging to read. Perhaps he was too ill to write extensively or type. His letter was brief - about 200 words. His ideas were close to his interviews. A Percy reader once told me Percy was over-interviewed, with two books of interviews having been published. That may have cut into his reflecting much in letters. Rich Gray Montreat, North Carolina _____ From: Robert Eckert [mailto:rgeckert at yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 12:17 PM To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion Subject: Re: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? I wonder what exactly "other things" means here. I trust Lawrwnce realizes that Percy corresponded with friends, readers, and ect... precisely to see what they thought of his wonderful essays and novels. Lawrence Rhu wrote: I wonder exactly what "extensive correspondence" means here. I trust that it means he wrote lots of people and was indeed exceptionally responisve to those who wrote him, whether they were friends or readers who had no previous acquaintance with him. Percy was gracious and prompt to respond in this regard so far as I can tell. But as a writer of letters, Percy strikes me as rather preoccupied with other things -- his wonderful novels and essays. The correspondence with Shelby Foote certainly demonstrates this imbalance, though maybe his published correspondence about Peirce with K. Kendler is different. I don't know and must look to see about that. Does anbody know of any other correspondence of Percy that is really ample and committed to letter-writing itself as a resource for sustained reflection and dialogue? Larry Lawrence F. Rhu Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Tel: 803 777 0144 Fax: 803 777 9064 Email: rhul at sc.edu >>> rgeckert at yahoo.com 12/08/05 11:01 AM >>> Walker Percy certainly carried on an extensive correspondence and K wrote like mad--even to himself--K. used to carry on debates in his personal journals with the various psuedonyms he had created. It would be interesting to know just how many people wrote to Percy and got (seemingly same day) responses. Must be thousands. Robert Eckert Rochester, NY MorrisJD at aol.com wrote : 2 of 2 from same. -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy _____ Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ttbrader at mindspring.com Thu Dec 8 12:42:48 2005 From: ttbrader at mindspring.com (Teresa) Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:42:48 -0600 Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? In-Reply-To: <20051208160106.37840.qmail@web32209.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20051208160106.37840.qmail@web32209.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <43987098.8000705@mindspring.com> My aunt was one of these people. She sent him copies of 2 poems she wrote after "The Second Coming" came out -- one in honor of the novel. (The note he sent her back was hard to read in places.) I think he was too much of a gentleman not to acknowledge any correspondence himself. Teresa Robert Eckert wrote: > It would be interesting to know just how many people wrote to > Percy and got (seemingly same day) responses. Must be thousands. From ttbrader at mindspring.com Thu Dec 8 12:46:42 2005 From: ttbrader at mindspring.com (Teresa) Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:46:42 -0600 Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <43987182.3050406@mindspring.com> There are "Conversations with Walker Percy" (which I've read) and "More Conversations with Walker Percy" (which I am currently reading) -- both are collections of interviews. It seems he had a hard time saying 'no' to requests for interviews -- that probably came from the same part of him that had to acknowledge all of the letters he received. Teresa Gray, Rich wrote: > His ideas were close to his interviews. A Percy reader once told me > Percy was over-interviewed, with two books of interviews having been > published. That may have cut into his reflecting much in letters. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rhul at gwm.sc.edu Thu Dec 8 15:01:00 2005 From: rhul at gwm.sc.edu (Lawrence Rhu) Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 15:01:00 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] Would Kierkegaard Blog? Would Percy? Message-ID: "other things" meant "his wonderful novels and essays" Lawrence F. Rhu Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Tel: 803 777 0144 Fax: 803 777 9064 Email: rhul at sc.edu >>> rgeckert at yahoo.com 12/08/05 12:16 PM >>> I wonder what exactly "other things" means here. I trust Lawrwnce realizes that Percy corresponded with friends, readers, and ect... precisely to see what they thought of his wonderful essays and novels. Lawrence Rhu wrote: I wonder exactly what "extensive correspondence" means here. I trust that it means he wrote lots of people and was indeed exceptionally responisve to those who wrote him, whether they were friends or readers who had no previous acquaintance with him. Percy was gracious and prompt to respond in this regard so far as I can tell. But as a writer of letters, Percy strikes me as rather preoccupied with other things -- his wonderful novels and essays. The correspondence with Shelby Foote certainly demonstrates this imbalance, though maybe his published correspondence about Peirce with K. Kendler is different. I don't know and must look to see about that. Does anbody know of any other correspondence of Percy that is really ample and committed to letter-writing itself as a resource for sustained reflection and dialogue? Larry Lawrence F. Rhu Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Tel: 803 777 0144 Fax: 803 777 9064 Email: rhul at sc.edu >>> rgeckert at yahoo.com 12/08/05 11:01 AM >>> Walker Percy certainly carried on an extensive correspondence and K wrote like mad--even to himself--K. used to carry on debates in his personal journals with the various psuedonyms he had created. It would be interesting to know just how many people wrote to Percy and got (seemingly same day) responses. Must be thousands. Robert Eckert Rochester, NY MorrisJD at aol.com wrote: 2 of 2 from same. -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping From rgeckert at yahoo.com Thu Dec 15 11:30:01 2005 From: rgeckert at yahoo.com (Robert Eckert) Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 08:30:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [percy-l] Polygenesis vs Monogenesis and the Triadic Threshold Message-ID: <20051215163001.13226.qmail@web32209.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Walker Percy theorized that at some point in our evolution, perhaps 100,000 years ago, the uniquely human ability to symbolize evolved. I can not recall Percy ever saying whether he believed there was a single origin, or multiple origins, for this change. If single origin, then the various races [there's more than three--Itzkoff adds boskopoids and capoids] evolved from a single race. This thought horrifies racists. If multiple origin, then how? Did that chance mutation which results in symbolization ability appear separately around the world? Simultaneously? If the ability is the result of a series of chance mutations, then could this same series have possibly occurred at different locations? Could even a single mutation occur simultaneously at different locations? If there was no triadic threshold, then the question of monogenesis vs polygenesis is not so problematic. If there was a triadic threshold, and it was the result of a chance mutation [a "hopeful monster" in a punctuated equilibrium approach], then it seems it must have been a single origin from which the various races resulted. This question of monogenesis vs polygenesis is HUGE. Ones understanding of human beings is critically different depending on ones answer. This is the sort of philosophical debate that inspired Socrates to teach wresting as well as rhetoric. Recently I was discussing this subject with co-workers, house framers from rural upstate New York, and it nearly came to blows. Robert Eckert Rochester, New York --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rgeckert at yahoo.com Thu Dec 15 11:41:35 2005 From: rgeckert at yahoo.com (Robert Eckert) Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 08:41:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [percy-l] Kramer's new book In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20051215164135.25003.qmail@web32214.mail.mud.yahoo.com> It is from "Is a Theory of Man Possile" which is in _Signposts in a Strange Land_. J Rivas-Pita wrote: Dear Robert, In case you could spare a few minutes, could you tell us something more on the last quote from Percy, "I can even visualize..."? Is the essay (or interview) it comes from available online? Many thanks and all best wishes, Julio On 6/24/05, Robert Eckert wrote: > > Dear List, > > Peter Kramer, the author of _Listening to Prozac_, recently published > _Against Depression_. > > The last chapter of _LP_ is "The Message in the Capsule" and deal > extensively with Percy. Kramer corresponded with Percy at some point. > > However, to me he gets Percy quite wrong. > > On p.265 of _AG_ Kramer writes: > > "...Percy's position blurs distinctions we might want to make. It overstates > the case only slightly to say that for Percy, there is no difference between > treating epilepsy and treating > alienation. Both are best approached via faith and revelation, not > technology." > > It amazes me that Kramer could have read Percy's nonfiction, which he states > he has (e-mail), and miss Percy's use of the Dyadic/Triadic distinction, > especially: > > "I can even visualize the hospital of the future in which the first signs > the patient sees in the corridor do not read INTERNAL MEDICINE, SURGERY, > OB-GYN, DERMATOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY UPSTAIRS, but rather two big signs just > inside the front door, one pointing left, one right (I won't say which is > which), but one reading DYADIC DISORDERS; the other, TRIADIC DISORDERS." > > To Percy, the distinction is so profound that he feels the very architecture > of the hospitals of the future could be based upon it! > > It is a shame that Kramer has broadly disseminated such a profound and > fundamental misreading of Percy's work. > > Robert Eckert > Rochester, New York > > > ________________________________ > Yahoo! Sports > Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football > > > -- > An archive of all list discussion is available at > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > > -- Be Happy! (Fr. Benito Ballesteros, OSB, 1924-1996) S? feliz! (P. Benito Ballesteros, OSB, 1924-1996) -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rhul at gwm.sc.edu Fri Dec 16 15:58:35 2005 From: rhul at gwm.sc.edu (Lawrence Rhu) Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:58:35 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] Kramer's new book Message-ID: Re Kramer, a thought: Kramer, in my reading, early and late, never imagines doing without the therapy of conversation, however helpful, even transformative, pharmaceutical intervention may be. Who would deny anti-depressants to the soul seriously afflicted with a mood disorder that strands it unreachably in silence and/or circularity, the treadmill of despair? But their possible effectiveness is a point of departure for productive talk as a means of care and healing, for relationship and community both adaptive and beyond adaptation. Such therapeutic conversations, I assume, would be triadic exchanges between animals that talk, like you and me, embedded in the symbolic economy of language, which Helen Keller discovers so decisively for Percy. Kramer is undeniably utopian, and he characterizes his book as polemical (e.g., who's for depression?), which isn't a conversible mode. He is also well aware of increasingly fine calibrations, observations, etc. that go with brain-imaging technology and computer-processing of data, so he celebrates the measurable, the quantifiable, as knowledge of great significance, but not as enough in itself to see the soul on its way through many dark passages. For this reason, Carl Elliott's end of this literary conversation (specifically with Kramer and about Percy) warrants a thoughtful hearing. There is a dialogue between the two of them, and often thanks to Percy, that moves the pertinence of Percy's distinction(dyadic/triadic) into the world many of us nowadays inhabit for better or for worse. Larry Lawrence F. Rhu Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Tel: 803 777 0144 Fax: 803 777 9064 Email: rhul at sc.edu >>> rgeckert at yahoo.com 12/15/05 11:41 AM >>> It is from "Is a Theory of Man Possile" which is in _Signposts in a Strange Land_. J Rivas-Pita wrote: Dear Robert, In case you could spare a few minutes, could you tell us something more on the last quote from Percy, "I can even visualize..."? Is the essay (or interview) it comes from available online? Many thanks and all best wishes, Julio On 6/24/05, Robert Eckert wrote: > > Dear List, > > Peter Kramer, the author of _Listening to Prozac_, recently published > _Against Depression_. > > The last chapter of _LP_ is "The Message in the Capsule" and deal > extensively with Percy. Kramer corresponded with Percy at some point. > > However, to me he gets Percy quite wrong. > > On p.265 of _AG_ Kramer writes: > > "...Percy's position blurs distinctions we might want to make. It overstates > the case only slightly to say that for Percy, there is no difference between > treating epilepsy and treating > alienation. Both are best approached via faith and revelation, not > technology." > > It amazes me that Kramer could have read Percy's nonfiction, which he states > he has (e-mail), and miss Percy's use of the Dyadic/Triadic distinction, > especially: > > "I can even visualize the hospital of the future in which the first signs > the patient sees in the corridor do not read INTERNAL MEDICINE, SURGERY, > OB-GYN, DERMATOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY UPSTAIRS, but rather two big signs just > inside the front door, one pointing left, one right (I won't say which is > which), but one reading DYADIC DISORDERS; the other, TRIADIC DISORDERS." > > To Percy, the distinction is so profound that he feels the very architecture > of the hospitals of the future could be based upon it! > > It is a shame that Kramer has broadly disseminated such a profound and > fundamental misreading of Percy's work. > > Robert Eckert > Rochester, New York > > > ________________________________ > Yahoo! Sports > Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football > > > -- > An archive of all list discussion is available at > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > > -- Be Happy! (Fr. Benito Ballesteros, OSB, 1924-1996) S? feliz! (P. Benito Ballesteros, OSB, 1924-1996) -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit the Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy --------------------------------- Yahoo! Shopping Find Great Deals on Holiday Gifts at Yahoo! Shopping