[percy-l] Kramer's new book
Robert_Pauley at oxy.com
Robert_Pauley at oxy.com
Fri Jun 24 18:26:30 EDT 2005
"However, to me he gets Percy quite wrong."
Everybody does. Percy is the most "gotten wrong" writer in American
letters. With the exception of this fine list, of course.
-----Original Message-----
From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Robert Eckert
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 8:01 AM
To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [percy-l] Kramer's new book
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
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