From RGray at montreat.edu Tue Aug 15 12:58:32 2006 From: RGray at montreat.edu (Gray, Rich) Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:58:32 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot Message-ID: I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about. Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic: "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a withered finger--"but two." "Two?" "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough." After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed (I believe). Rich Gray From RhuL at gwm.sc.edu Tue Aug 15 13:02:01 2006 From: RhuL at gwm.sc.edu (Lawrence Rhu) Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:02:01 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot (Out of Office 2/19-7/2) Message-ID: I will be out of my office from 2/19-7/2, and I will be able to check my messages only intermittently. Please be patient. I will respond to you when I have the opportunity to do so. If you are inquiring about MAT matters, please contact Harriet Williams at williams at gwm.sc.edu. Thank you From RGray at montreat.edu Wed Aug 23 11:44:37 2006 From: RGray at montreat.edu (Gray, Rich) Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:44:37 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] conference opportunity in New Orleans Message-ID: Peter S. Rogers, S.J., professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans invites us to participate in the Conference on Christianity and Literature. The date is April 12-14, 2007 Those interested in sending 7-10 page papers to present should send them to Professor Rogers by January 15, 2007. His email address is progers at loyno.edu and his phone is 504-865-2691. The conference topic is Literary Representations of the Politics of Religion: Christian Perspectives. In addition, any discussion of the relationship of Christian perspectives on literature would be fine. Papers on any Walker Percy topic would be suitable. From sldye at bluegrass.org Fri Aug 25 14:04:38 2006 From: sldye at bluegrass.org (Dye, Steve) Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:04:38 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot Message-ID: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C2141C@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> I re-read LITR every 5 years or so, too. It is one of my favorite novels and I find it just as humorous - and relevant - in 2006 as I did upon first serendipitous reading (stumbled onto it in a book store in New Orleans) in 1983. I also laugh out loud a lot while reading it. As for being relevant, I thought of LITR in the dark days after 9/11 and I also thought about it when Katrina hit New Orleans. I work in the mental health field, so ol' Dr. Tom More is a kindred soul to me for many reasons. Steven L. Dye, MA Director Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. 1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 Lexington, KY 40511 -----Original Message----- From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:59 PM To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about. Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic: "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a withered finger--"but two." "Two?" "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough." After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed (I believe). Rich Gray -- 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 From srcoyote at aol.com Fri Aug 25 14:20:53 2006 From: srcoyote at aol.com (srcoyote at aol.com) Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:20:53 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot In-Reply-To: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C2141C@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> References: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C2141C@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> Message-ID: <8C8968A55A755C7-500-2462@FWM-D26.sysops.aol.com> Steven: I work in a similar field (services to people with cognitive disabilities), and live in Cincinnati. That is the only thing different I would have written in a paragraph about LITR. . . oh, except that I first read it in 1993 (stumbling on to it in a bookstore in Pensacola, FL). My sister who works in mental health and who is not as keen on Percy as readers of this list, names LITR as the one book she actually liked. There are very few books that make me laugh out loud, and LITR is one of them. And Rich: I think you'd find Thanatos Syndrome much darker (perhaps not as dark as Lancelot) than LITR even though it features the same character. David -----Original Message----- From: sldye at bluegrass.org To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Sent: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 2:04 PM Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot I re-read LITR every 5 years or so, too. It is one of my favorite novels and I find it just as humorous - and relevant - in 2006 as I did upon first serendipitous reading (stumbled onto it in a book store in New Orleans) in 1983. I also laugh out loud a lot while reading it. As for being relevant, I thought of LITR in the dark days after 9/11 and I also thought about it when Katrina hit New Orleans. I work in the mental health field, so ol' Dr. Tom More is a kindred soul to me for many reasons. Steven L. Dye, MA Director Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. 1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 Lexington, KY 40511 -----Original Message----- From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:59 PM To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about. Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic: "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a withered finger--"but two." "Two?" "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough." After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed (I believe). Rich Gray -- 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 -- 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 ________________________________________________________________________ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sldye at bluegrass.org Fri Aug 25 14:31:03 2006 From: sldye at bluegrass.org (Dye, Steve) Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:31:03 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot Message-ID: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C21429@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> Thanks for the comment. I also thought Thanatos Syndromw was a rare case of Percy running "amok" and becoming uncharacteristically "hyperactive" - WAY over the top. It made my head spin. It is the one Percy book I never re-read. Steven L. Dye, MA Director Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. 1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 Lexington, KY 40511 -----Original Message----- From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of srcoyote at aol.com Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:21 PM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot Steven: I work in a similar field (services to people with cognitive disabilities), and live in Cincinnati. That is the only thing different I would have written in a paragraph about LITR. . . oh, except that I first read it in 1993 (stumbling on to it in a bookstore in Pensacola, FL). My sister who works in mental health and who is not as keen on Percy as readers of this list, names LITR as the one book she actually liked. There are very few books that make me laugh out loud, and LITR is one of them. And Rich: I think you'd find Thanatos Syndrome much darker (perhaps not as dark as Lancelot) than LITR even though it features the same character. David -----Original Message----- From: sldye at bluegrass.org To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Sent: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 2:04 PM Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot I re-read LITR every 5 years or so, too. It is one of my favorite novels and I find it just as humorous - and relevant - in 2006 as I did upon first serendipitous reading (stumbled onto it in a book store in New Orleans) in 1983. I also laugh out loud a lot while reading it. As for being relevant, I thought of LITR in the dark days after 9/11 and I also thought about it when Katrina hit New Orleans. I work in the mental health field, so ol' Dr. Tom More is a kindred soul to me for many reasons. Steven L. Dye, MA Director Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. 1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 Lexington, KY 40511 -----Original Message----- From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org ] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:59 PM To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about. Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic: "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a withered finger--"but two." "Two?" "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough." After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed (I believe). Rich Gray -- 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 -- 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 _____ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From armstron at ohiou.edu Mon Aug 28 08:25:34 2006 From: armstron at ohiou.edu (Ken Armstrong) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:25:34 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot In-Reply-To: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C21429@KingKong.Bluegras s.Board> References: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C21429@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060828082135.02c7fbc0@oak.cats.ohiou.edu> To each his own, I guess. Thanatos was by far my favorite Percy book. Searingly funny and over the hump of the somewhat personal, romantic tics of earlier books. Ken Armstrong At 02:31 PM 8/25/2006, you wrote: >Content-class: urn:content-classes:message >Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C6C874.9F90D64E" > >Thanks for the comment. I also thought Thanatos Syndromw was a rare case >of Percy running ?amok? and becoming uncharacteristically ?hyperactive? ? >WAY over the top. It made my head spin. It is the one Percy book I never >re-read. > >Steven L. Dye, MA >Director >Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. >1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 >Lexington, KY 40511 > >-----Original Message----- >From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org >[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of srcoyote at aol.com >Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:21 PM >To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org >Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot > >Steven: > >I work in a similar field (services to people with cognitive >disabilities), and live in Cincinnati. That is the only thing different I >would have written in a paragraph about LITR. . . oh, except that I first >read it in 1993 (stumbling on to it in a bookstore in Pensacola, FL). My >sister who works in mental health and who is not as keen on Percy as >readers of this list, names LITR as the one book she actually >liked. There are very few books that make me laugh out loud, and LITR is >one of them. > >And > >Rich: > >I think you'd find Thanatos Syndrome much darker (perhaps not as dark as >Lancelot) than LITR even though it features the same character. > >David > > >-----Original Message----- >From: sldye at bluegrass.org >To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org >Sent: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 2:04 PM >Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot >I re-read LITR every 5 years or so, too. It is one of my favorite novels >and I find it just as humorous - and relevant - in 2006 as I did upon >first serendipitous reading (stumbled onto it in a book store in New >Orleans) in 1983. I also laugh out loud a lot while reading it. As for >being relevant, I thought of LITR in the dark days after 9/11 and I also >thought about it when Katrina hit New Orleans. I work in the mental >health field, so ol' Dr. Tom More is a kindred soul to me for many >reasons. > >Steven L. Dye, MA >Director >Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. >1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 >Lexington, KY 40511 > > >-----Original Message----- >From: >percy-l-bounces at lists..ibiblio.org >[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich >Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:59 PM >To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion >Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot > >I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed >to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered >it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about. >Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic: > "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June >we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a >withered finger--"but two." > "Two?" > "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough." > >After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this >swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in >blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed (I >believe). > >Rich Gray > >-- >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 >-- >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 > >---------- >Check >out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. >All on demand. Always Free. >-- >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 From sldye at bluegrass.org Mon Aug 28 08:47:08 2006 From: sldye at bluegrass.org (Dye, Steve) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:47:08 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot Message-ID: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C2149A@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> Yeah, it probably says more about my inability to "get" Thanatos than any "criticism" of Percy. Having read your comments, now it may be time for me to re-read it. It seemed like Percy knew that may be his last book and he tried to cram everything into it. I will take another look at it. Steven L. Dye, MA Director Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. 1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 Lexington, KY 40511 -----Original Message----- From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Ken Armstrong Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 8:26 AM To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot To each his own, I guess. Thanatos was by far my favorite Percy book. Searingly funny and over the hump of the somewhat personal, romantic tics of earlier books. Ken Armstrong At 02:31 PM 8/25/2006, you wrote: >Content-class: urn:content-classes:message >Content-Type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="----_=_NextPart_001_01C6C874.9F90D64E" > >Thanks for the comment. I also thought Thanatos Syndromw was a rare case >of Percy running "amok" and becoming uncharacteristically "hyperactive" - >WAY over the top. It made my head spin. It is the one Percy book I never >re-read. > >Steven L. Dye, MA >Director >Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. >1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 >Lexington, KY 40511 > >-----Original Message----- >From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org >[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of srcoyote at aol.com >Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:21 PM >To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org >Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot > >Steven: > >I work in a similar field (services to people with cognitive >disabilities), and live in Cincinnati. That is the only thing different I >would have written in a paragraph about LITR. . . oh, except that I first >read it in 1993 (stumbling on to it in a bookstore in Pensacola, FL). My >sister who works in mental health and who is not as keen on Percy as >readers of this list, names LITR as the one book she actually >liked. There are very few books that make me laugh out loud, and LITR is >one of them. > >And > >Rich: > >I think you'd find Thanatos Syndrome much darker (perhaps not as dark as >Lancelot) than LITR even though it features the same character. > >David > > >-----Original Message----- >From: sldye at bluegrass.org >To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org >Sent: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 2:04 PM >Subject: Re: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot >I re-read LITR every 5 years or so, too. It is one of my favorite novels >and I find it just as humorous - and relevant - in 2006 as I did upon >first serendipitous reading (stumbled onto it in a book store in New >Orleans) in 1983. I also laugh out loud a lot while reading it. As for >being relevant, I thought of LITR in the dark days after 9/11 and I also >thought about it when Katrina hit New Orleans. I work in the mental >health field, so ol' Dr. Tom More is a kindred soul to me for many >reasons. > >Steven L. Dye, MA >Director >Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. >1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 >Lexington, KY 40511 > > >-----Original Message----- >From: >percy-l-bounces at lists..ibib lio.org >[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Gray, Rich >Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:59 PM >To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion >Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot > >I just re-read Love in the Ruins after about ten years. It is supposed >to be dated, but I found it relevant -- and funnier than I remembered >it. Members of my family were asking what I was laughing about. >Stryker announcing his discovery at the Love Clinic: > "I think you might be interested to learn, Tom, that since June >we've been using not one subject at a time" -- he touches my arm with a >withered finger--"but two." > "Two?" > "Yes. A man and a woman. Here's the breakthrough." > >After LITR, Percy wrote Lancelot, somber and violent. How can this >swing in mood be accounted for? The other four novels are similar in >blending satire with serious theme development. And no one is killed (I >believe). > >Rich Gray > >-- >An archive of all list discussion is available at >http://lists.ibiblio.org/p ipermail/percy-l/ > >Visit the Walker Percy Project at >http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy >-- >An archive of all list discussion is available at >http://lists.ibiblio.org/p ipermail/percy-l/ > >Visit the Walker Percy Project at >http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > >---------- >Check >out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. >All on demand. Always Free. >-- >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 -- 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 From Nikkibar at aol.com Mon Aug 28 10:38:19 2006 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 10:38:19 EDT Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot Message-ID: Dear List, Remembering Walker Percy by David Harwell has just been published University of North Carolina Press. For serious Percy readers, this is a must read book. I just spent the weekend with it and a tumbler of bosky bourbon on the rocks. Like Walker, it is by turns funny, sad and sometimes obscure -- but always a joy, and vastly entertaining. Nikki Barranger -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From daveduty at austin.rr.com Mon Aug 28 12:00:57 2006 From: daveduty at austin.rr.com (Dave Duty) Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:00:57 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <44F31339.9040303@austin.rr.com> Below is the Itunes URL for an instrumental entitled Goodbye Walker Percy by Brooks Williams on an album called Little Lion -- speaking of any and all things Percy -- FYI - Dave Duty PS -- Nikki -- thanks for the heads up on Harwell's book. BTW -- any thoughts on Covington and NO one year after the Katrina ??? file:///C:/DOCUME~1/DAVEDU~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/Goodbye%20Walker%20Percy.url Nikkibar at aol.com wrote: > Dear List, > > Remembering Walker Percy by David Harwell has just been published > University of North Carolina Press. For serious Percy readers, this is > a must read book. I just spent the weekend with it and a tumbler of > bosky bourbon on the rocks. Like Walker, it is by turns funny, sad and > sometimes obscure -- but always a joy, and vastly entertaining. > > Nikki Barranger > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >-- >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 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- [InternetShortcut] URL=http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=169036020&s=143441&i=169036433 Modified=01c6cababfd54230 From JHForest at cs.com Tue Aug 29 05:16:12 2006 From: JHForest at cs.com (JHForest at cs.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 05:16:12 EDT Subject: [percy-l] re The Thanatos Syndrome Message-ID: Re the current discussion of The Thanatos Syndrome, here is a review I wrote when the book was published. As I recall, this was written for Commonweal. Jim Forest * * * The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 1987, 372 pp reviewed by Jim Forest Walker Percy is southern and Catholic, Kurt Vonnegut northern and secular, not minor differences, but perhaps they recognize each other as relatives. Both are inclined to use comedy, at times the slapstick variety, in order to talk about some of the unfunniest subjects in the world, like war, euthanasia, abortion, and other justifications we cook up for killing one another. Percy's hero in this book, as in his earlier novel, Love in the Ruins, is Dr. Thomas More, resident of a rural Louisiana parish (what we yankees call a county) and a direct descendent of St. Thomas More. Like his ancestor, he has been a prisoner, but for selling amphetamines to truckers rather than for acts of fideility to conscience. Also like his ancestor, he is a Catholic, except in the current generation, things being what they are, More's connection to his Church is threadbare. Still there is a bit of religious glue holding body and soul together. Tom More isn't able to make himself comfortable with the contemporary mercies that pave the way to the gas chamber and the abortorium. In The Thanatos Syndrome we encounter a few psychiatrists who makes heaps of money running the Qualitarian Center, where the old and/or feeble-minded are provided with Death with Dignity. In their spare time, using a federal grant, the clever doctors are in the midst of a local experiment that they regard as the best idea since fluoride in toothpaste. While sticking to bottled water for themselves, they are lacing the water supply with a substance (borrowed from a nearby nuclear generator) that knocks out the part of the brain that makes people dangerous and miserable. Violent crime has evaporated in the area effected. Black prisoners are singing the old spirituals as they cheerfully pick cotton on the local prison farm. Sexual-transmitted diseases have practically disappeared. No more AIDS, no more herpes. At first glance it looks like the doctors have found a chemical method to mass produce the lifestyle of the saints. People drinking the local water aren't inclined to do the sorts of things that make headlines in The National Enquirer. (But not quite. It turns out that adults who drink too much of the local water find that the ideal sex-partners are children.) The part of the brain made dormant also happens to be where the soul and conscience hang out. It is the patch that has most to do with creativity, verbal skills, and what makes us who we are. Those drinking the local water are better at telling you exactly where St. Louis is than in making a sentence that includes a subject, verb and object. They are a whiz at bridge but incapable of theology. Percy links what is now happening in manipulative medical technology in the US and what was going on with psychiatry in Germany from the twenties until the collapse of the Nazis, at the same time pointing out that you don't have to like Hitler (the German shrinks didn't) to end up doing some of the worst things that happened in Hitler's Germany. Percy integrates a steady stream of observation about the American Way of Life and what is like living in "the Age of Not Knowing What to Do." For example here is Tom More reflecting about a patient who, before the local water ironed out all depression and anxiety, felt like a failure: "What is failure? Failure is what people do ninety-nine percent of the time. Even in the movies: ninety-nine outtakes for one print. But in the movies they don't show the failures. What you see are the takes that work. So it looks as if every action, even going crazy, is carried off in a proper, rounded- off way. It looks as if real failure is unspeakable. TV has screwed up millions of people with their little rounded-off stories. Because that is not the way life is. Life is fits and starts, mostly fits." Percy continues his assessment of contemporary American Catholicism that began in Love in the Ruins. Fr. Kev Kevin, the former director of the Love Clinic, has abandoned the controls of the Orgasmatron computer and given up the priesthood as well. He is "into Hinduism," has married a former Maryknoll nun who is taking up witchcraft, and together they run a marriage encounter center in a rehabilitated stable. In The Thanatos Syndrome we meet a very different kind of priest: Fr. Simon Smith, a modern stylite, fasting atop a fire- watch tower as the book begins. People consider him crazy as a loon. Maybe he is, but he's a saint as well. His "confession" is the keystone of the novel. Here we discover that his vocation is an on-going penitential work having chiefly to do with the devastation his father helped bring about in Europe -- he is the son of one of the liberal German physicians (anti-Nazis one and all) whose work to "relieve suffering" via euthanasia helped prepare the way for the Holocaust. Father Smith's big discovery in life was that "the only people I got along with were bums, outcasts, pariahs, family skeletons, and the dying." It isn't a boast. "I don't know about Mother Theresa, but I [did what I did] because I liked it, not for love of the wretched ... dying people were the only people I could stand. They were my kind ... Dying people, suffering people, don't lie." * * * Jim and Nancy Forest Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands tel: (31)(72) 511 2545 Jim's e-mail: jhforest at cs.com (alternative address: jhforest at gmail.com) Nancy's e-mail: forestflier at cs.com (alternative address: forestflier at gmail.com) Jim and Nancy Forest web site: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ Forest-Flier Editorial Services: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ffes/ Jim's photo web site: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: www.incommunion.org * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JHForest at cs.com Tue Aug 29 05:25:08 2006 From: JHForest at cs.com (JHForest at cs.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 05:25:08 EDT Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy Message-ID: <3a5.2c0faac.322561f4@cs.com> >> Remembering Walker Percy by David Harwell has just been published University of North Carolina Press. For serious Percy readers, this is a must read book. I just spent the weekend with it and a tumbler of bosky bourbon on the rocks. Like Walker, it is by turns funny, sad and sometimes obscure -- but always a joy, and vastly entertaining. << Thanks, Nikki, for letting us know about this. How can one best order the book? I didn't find it listed on Amazon. Jim Forest * * * Jim and Nancy Forest Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands tel: (31)(72) 511 2545 Jim's e-mail: jhforest at cs.com (alternative address: jhforest at gmail.com) Nancy's e-mail: forestflier at cs.com (alternative address: forestflier at gmail.com) Jim and Nancy Forest web site: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ Forest-Flier Editorial Services: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ffes/ Jim's photo web site: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: www.incommunion.org * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From armstron at ohiou.edu Tue Aug 29 07:54:36 2006 From: armstron at ohiou.edu (Ken Armstrong) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 07:54:36 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy In-Reply-To: <3a5.2c0faac.322561f4@cs.com> References: <3a5.2c0faac.322561f4@cs.com> Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.2.20060829075414.04c9deb0@oak.cats.ohiou.edu> Jim, Check Amazon again under the author's name. Ken A. At 05:25 AM 8/29/2006, you wrote: > >> Remembering Walker Percy by David Harwell has just been published > University of North Carolina Press. For serious Percy readers, this is a > must read book. I just spent the weekend with it and a tumbler of bosky > bourbon on the rocks. Like Walker, it is by turns funny, sad and > sometimes obscure -- but always a joy, and vastly entertaining. << > >Thanks, Nikki, for letting us know about this. How can one best order the >book? > >I didn't find it listed on Amazon. > >Jim Forest > >* * * >Jim and Nancy Forest >Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands >tel: (31)(72) 511 2545 >Jim's e-mail: jhforest at cs.com (alternative address: jhforest at gmail.com) >Nancy's e-mail: forestflier at cs.com (alternative address: >forestflier at gmail.com) >Jim and Nancy Forest web site: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ >Forest-Flier Editorial Services: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ffes/ >Jim's photo web site: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ >Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: www.incommunion.org >* * * >-- >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 From JHForest at cs.com Tue Aug 29 08:12:09 2006 From: JHForest at cs.com (JHForest at cs.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:12:09 EDT Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy Message-ID: <521.582bae00.32258919@cs.com> Thanks, Ken! In a message dated 8/29/2006 1:56:35 PM Romance Daylight Time, armstron at ohiou.edu writes: > Check Amazon again under the author's name. > > Ken A. > > At 05:25 AM 8/29/2006, you wrote: > >>>Remembering Walker Percy by David Harwell has just been published > >University of North Carolina Press. For serious Percy readers, this is a > >must read book. I just spent the weekend with it and a tumbler of bosky > >bourbon on the rocks. Like Walker, it is by turns funny, sad and > >sometimes obscure -- but always a joy, and vastly entertaining. << > > > >Thanks, Nikki, for letting us know about this. How can one best order the > >book? > > > >I didn't find it listed on Amazon. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JHForest at cs.com Tue Aug 29 08:19:56 2006 From: JHForest at cs.com (JHForest at cs.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:19:56 EDT Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy Message-ID: <474.5792eb7.32258aec@cs.com> In a message dated 8/29/2006 1:56:35 PM Romance Daylight Time, armstron at ohiou.edu writes: > Check Amazon again under the author's name. Here's the Amazon URL: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807830399/ref=sr_11_1/104-8239179-7932752?ie =UTF8 Jim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sldye at bluegrass.org Tue Aug 29 08:49:43 2006 From: sldye at bluegrass.org (Dye, Steve) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:49:43 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] re The Thanatos Syndrome Message-ID: <74C25147FD45F644AAB363F7A432E5F501C21657@KingKong.Bluegrass.Board> Excellent! This reinforces my goal of trying to find the time and energy to reread Thanatos Syndrome. Thanks so much. Steven L. Dye, MA Director Bluegrass MH-MR Board, Inc. 1500 Leestown Road, Suite 338 Lexington, KY 40511 -----Original Message----- From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of JHForest at cs.com Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 5:16 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [percy-l] re The Thanatos Syndrome Re the current discussion of The Thanatos Syndrome, here is a review I wrote when the book was published. As I recall, this was written for Commonweal. Jim Forest * * * The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 1987, 372 pp reviewed by Jim Forest Walker Percy is southern and Catholic, Kurt Vonnegut northern and secular, not minor differences, but perhaps they recognize each other as relatives. Both are inclined to use comedy, at times the slapstick variety, in order to talk about some of the unfunniest subjects in the world, like war, euthanasia, abortion, and other justifications we cook up for killing one another. Percy's hero in this book, as in his earlier novel, Love in the Ruins, is Dr. Thomas More, resident of a rural Louisiana parish (what we yankees call a county) and a direct descendent of St. Thomas More. Like his ancestor, he has been a prisoner, but for selling amphetamines to truckers rather than for acts of fideility to conscience. Also like his ancestor, he is a Catholic, except in the current generation, things being what they are, More's connection to his Church is threadbare. Still there is a bit of religious glue holding body and soul together. Tom More isn't able to make himself comfortable with the contemporary mercies that pave the way to the gas chamber and the abortorium. In The Thanatos Syndrome we encounter a few psychiatrists who makes heaps of money running the Qualitarian Center, where the old and/or feeble-minded are provided with Death with Dignity. In their spare time, using a federal grant, the clever doctors are in the midst of a local experiment that they regard as the best idea since fluoride in toothpaste. While sticking to bottled water for themselves, they are lacing the water supply with a substance (borrowed from a nearby nuclear generator) that knocks out the part of the brain that makes people dangerous and miserable. Violent crime has evaporated in the area effected. Black prisoners are singing the old spirituals as they cheerfully pick cotton on the local prison farm. Sexual-transmitted diseases have practically disappeared. No more AIDS, no more herpes. At first glance it looks like the doctors have found a chemical method to mass produce the lifestyle of the saints. People drinking the local water aren't inclined to do the sorts of things that make headlines in The National Enquirer. (But not quite. It turns out that adults who drink too much of the local water find that the ideal sex-partners are children.) The part of the brain made dormant also happens to be where the soul and conscience hang out. It is the patch that has most to do with creativity, verbal skills, and what makes us who we are. Those drinking the local water are better at telling you exactly where St. Louis is than in making a sentence that includes a subject, verb and object. They are a whiz at bridge but incapable of theology. Percy links what is now happening in manipulative medical technology in the US and what was going on with psychiatry in Germany from the twenties until the collapse of the Nazis, at the same time pointing out that you don't have to like Hitler (the German shrinks didn't) to end up doing some of the worst things that happened in Hitler's Germany. Percy integrates a steady stream of observation about the American Way of Life and what is like living in "the Age of Not Knowing What to Do." For example here is Tom More reflecting about a patient who, before the local water ironed out all depression and anxiety, felt like a failure: "What is failure? Failure is what people do ninety-nine percent of the time. Even in the movies: ninety-nine outtakes for one print. But in the movies they don't show the failures. What you see are the takes that work. So it looks as if every action, even going crazy, is carried off in a proper, rounded- off way. It looks as if real failure is unspeakable. TV has screwed up millions of people with their little rounded-off stories. Because that is not the way life is. Life is fits and starts, mostly fits." Percy continues his assessment of contemporary American Catholicism that began in Love in the Ruins. Fr. Kev Kevin, the former director of the Love Clinic, has abandoned the controls of the Orgasmatron computer and given up the priesthood as well. He is "into Hinduism," has married a former Maryknoll nun who is taking up witchcraft, and together they run a marriage encounter center in a rehabilitated stable. In The Thanatos Syndrome we meet a very different kind of priest: Fr. Simon Smith, a modern stylite, fasting atop a fire- watch tower as the book begins. People consider him crazy as a loon. Maybe he is, but he's a saint as well. His "confession" is the keystone of the novel. Here we discover that his vocation is an on-going penitential work having chiefly to do with the devastation his father helped bring about in Europe -- he is the son of one of the liberal German physicians (anti-Nazis one and all) whose work to "relieve suffering" via euthanasia helped prepare the way for the Holocaust. Father Smith's big discovery in life was that "the only people I got along with were bums, outcasts, pariahs, family skeletons, and the dying." It isn't a boast. "I don't know about Mother Theresa, but I [did what I did] because I liked it, not for love of the wretched ... dying people were the only people I could stand. They were my kind ... Dying people, suffering people, don't lie." * * * Jim and Nancy Forest Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands tel: (31)(72) 511 2545 Jim's e-mail: jhforest at cs.com (alternative address: jhforest at gmail.com) Nancy's e-mail: forestflier at cs.com (alternative address: forestflier at gmail.com) Jim and Nancy Forest web site: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ Forest-Flier Editorial Services: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ffes/ Jim's photo web site: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: www.incommunion.org * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JHForest at cs.com Tue Aug 29 09:14:50 2006 From: JHForest at cs.com (JHForest at cs.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:14:50 EDT Subject: [percy-l] re The Thanatos Syndrome Message-ID: In a message dated 8/29/2006 2:48:51 PM Romance Daylight Time, sldye at bluegrass.org writes: > Excellent! This reinforces my goal of trying to find the time and energy > to reread Thanatos Syndrome. Thanks so much. When you find the time, please post your impressions to the list. I'd love to hear about your response to the novel. Jim * * * Jim and Nancy Forest Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands tel: (31)(72) 511 2545 Jim's e-mail: jhforest at cs.com (alternative address: jhforest at gmail.com) Nancy's e-mail: forestflier at cs.com (alternative address: forestflier at gmail.com) Jim and Nancy Forest web site: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ Forest-Flier Editorial Services: www.incommunion.org/forest-flier/ffes/ Jim's photo web site: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: www.incommunion.org * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Nikkibar at aol.com Tue Aug 29 11:16:52 2006 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:16:52 EDT Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy Message-ID: I think I got my copy of Walker Percy Remembered through Barnes and Noble Use Key word BN for finding their on line sales outlet. Nikki -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Nikkibar at aol.com Tue Aug 29 11:18:22 2006 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:18:22 EDT Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy Message-ID: <313.b37549e.3225b4be@aol.com> Try the title Walker Percy Remembered. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Nikkibar at aol.com Tue Aug 29 11:19:07 2006 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 11:19:07 EDT Subject: [percy-l] Remembering Walker Percy Message-ID: <552.604c6d00.3225b4eb@aol.com> Try the title: Walker Percy Remembered. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com Thu Aug 31 21:30:35 2006 From: rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com (RHONDA MCDONNELL) Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:30:35 -0700 Subject: [percy-l] re The Thanatos Syndrome In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: