[percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot

Ken Armstrong armstron at ohiou.edu
Mon Aug 28 08:25:34 EDT 2006


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
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>
>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: 
><mailto:percy-l-bounces%40lists.ibiblio.org>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
>
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