[percy-l] humor in Love in the Ruins versus sadness of Lancelot
Dye, Steve
sldye at bluegrass.org
Mon Aug 28 08:47:08 EDT 2006
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:
><mailto:percy-l-bounces%40lists.ibiblio.org>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
>
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