[percy-l] hurricane in Lancelot

Tommy Armstrong tfa at brickengraver.com
Wed Sep 28 06:05:19 EDT 2005


Rhonda said:
"NOT being fatally injured, NOT losing people you love, NOT having your home
crash down around you"
 
That really is the important thing. 
 
Hopefully, ten years from now the student will be able to look back to
2005--"the year of the hurricane" --and remember some good that came out of
it. How she was scared, depressed, heartbroken, but still alive and glad she
is. Hopefully her life might even be better "after the hurricane" than
before--that is the job of America for the evacuees--to try and somehow make
that a reality. And its usually those little things that happen that one
looks back to --the little acts of kindness--that changes everything. One of
course never knows what they will be, the thing that causes a a change in
direction towards something , if not better than before, at least something
not worse. These depend on individual acts by individuals--the government
cannot do it --its an indvidual human to individual human thing--and that I
think that is much of the philosophy of Percy. The government is incapable
of "love" as is even the Red Cross or any other organization. Individuals
human beings are the only entities that are capable of that. Its the job of
America to help the victims "To become aware of the possibility of a " new
"search". 
 
Tommy Armstrong
PO Box 484 
Lillington, NC   27546
http://www.brickengraver.com
 
The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the
everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the
search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in
despair. 
 
Walker Percy




 
 
  _____  

From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of RHONDA MCDONNELL
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 2:21 AM
To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [percy-l] hurricane in Lancelot



The thing about feeling good in bad situations seems predicated upon NOT
being fatally injured, NOT losing people you love, NOT having your home
crash down around you--in other words, it's that supercharged feeling that,
in part, is the result of being thankful for being alive in a world newly
charged with meaning because of the imminence of danger--but in Percy,
Lancelot excepted, it's a danger that doesn't cause permanent
damage--remember Binx in the MG with Sharon when they have the fender bender
and all the malaise is swept away? Or Will and some girl in the hurricane
(was it a hurricane?) when they take the child into the diner and feed him
chicken soup and, in the end, everyone is okay? Sort of like the end of War
of the Worlds . . .

--Rhonda

The best lack all convictions, while the worst 
Are full of passionate intensity. -- WB Yeats


  _____  

From: dabeck at iupui.edu
Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [percy-l] hurricane in Lancelot
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 20:21:53 -0500
>
>First, I want to applaud Henry, who has taken some undeserved shots, for
>trying to bring the list back to the literary/philosophical discussion for
>which it is intended. When those who disagree are labeled as Nazis and
>Klansmen, it's time to step in and bring some integrity (and maturity) back
to
>the discussion. Maybe the tree needed to be pruned. Regardless, I
appreciate
>his input (why can't members correspond with each other instead of the
list? I
>carry on off-list conversations with several members of the list).
> But, since some want to discuss the hurricane, I thought I'd throw out
this
>experience. In my fiction class, I have a "displaced" student from New
>Orleans, who, with her family, lost everything (she had two changes of
clothes
>as of last week). She came to Indianapolis a few weeks ago, several weeks
into
>the semester.
> Anyway, today I began my lecture on Percy and, in particular, Lancelot. It
>wasn't until I was into my spiel on Percy's "hurricane syndrome" that I
>realized I had just (possibly) stepped into a mess. I wasn't sure if I
could
>convey the anticipation, the rush, the break from everydayness, without
>seeming pretty shallow (in her eyes anyway). She is pretty shy, so I didn't
>want to "push" her to respond, but I was interested in hearing her take on
it.
>But last week, when she came to my office to get "caught up," we talked
>briefly about her situation. She said that they couldn't return, and so she
>didn't know the extent of damage to her home; she did say, however, that
the
>area in which she lived was hit hard and not much was left standing (based
on
>news reports). But she started to get choked up, so I backed off.
> She is way behind in class work, and I don't think she has been able to
buy
>the books (I'm meeting with her tomorrow to work something out). Still, I
>wonder how she will see the whole hurricane effect and the hurricane in
>Lancelot.
> Any suggestions?
>-David
>
>
>--
>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


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