[percy-l] Believers...

Gray, Rich RGray at montreat.edu
Fri Dec 22 12:52:24 EST 2006


I am not persuaded that any non-Arab understands jihadists.  Maybe no
Arabs understand them either.  But Arabs will probably be first to
figure them out.

 

Percy's Lancelot Lamar is a terrorist, mentally unbalanced, disappointed
in life, and holding to a rationalized ideology that permits him to
divide the whole culture into sheep and goats, with himself as god.
Like jihadists, his killing has little or no correction on the social
misbehavior he deplores.  Like jihadists, Lance expected to die in his
executing explosion of his home, Belle Isle.  Ranting is Lance's lingo:

 

"I cannot tolerate this age.  And I will not.  I might have tolerated
you and your Catholic Church, and even joined it, if you had remained
true to yourself.  Now you're part of the age.  You've the same fleas as
the dogs you've lain down with.  I would have felt at home at
Mont-Saint-Michel [loads of irony here], the Mount of the Archangel [?]
with the flaming sword, or with Richard Coeur de Lion at Acre [more
irony].  They believed in a god who said he came not to bring peace but
the sword.  Make love not war?  I'll take war rather than what this age
calls love." (pp. 157-8)

 

Rich Gray

 

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only
because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C.S. Lewis

  _____  

From: RHONDA MCDONNELL [mailto:rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 11:37 PM
To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...

 

So what do you all think Percy might make of the jihadists? I've been
wondering that lately, in light of his thoughts regarding Nazi Germany
and the "tenderness leads to terror" concept that he and Flannery
O'Connor shared. We can't accuse the jihadists of falling prey to
scientific humanism, that's for sure. But what to make of their sort of
belief? It seems to me to be as abstracted as any -ism out there, but
I'm looking from the outside. Anyone with insight?

--Rhonda 

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"
  
                                    e.e. cummings

	
  _____  


	From: <Robert_Pauley at oxy.com>
	Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
<percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
	To: <percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
	Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...
	Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:25:39 -0800

	Rhonda: I was drawn in to a running conversation about God with
a group of men. The sort of conversation which, to quite Percy, "give me
a neckache." This passage came to me, vaguely, but with a memory of
pungent satisfaction. (Percy's ruminations on faith are always on the
edges of my consciousness, I guess). I remembered how Percy managed to
displease everybody and yet get at the old dilemma of faith in a fresh
way. I, too, wanted to displease and provoke. I also thought it was a
good opportunity to introduce Percy to a bunch of young people. 

	regards, R

	 

	
  _____  


	From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of RHONDA MCDONNELL
	Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 4:09 PM
	To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
	Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...

	Just for curiousity's sake, what are you using the passage for?

	--Rhonda 
	
	"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
	than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance"
	  
	                                    e.e. cummings

		
  _____  


		From: <Robert_Pauley at oxy.com>
		Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical
Discussion" <percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
		To: <percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
		Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...
		Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:55:08 -0800

		Found it referred to in an essay by Kent Gramm. From The
Second Coming. Of course it is much longer than this. Thank you.

		 

		Excerpts:

		There are only two classes of people, the believers and
the unbelievers. The only difficulty is deciding which is the more
feckless.

		... As unacceptable as believers are, unbelievers are
even worse.

		... The present day unbeliever is crazy because he finds
himself born into a world of endless wonders, having no notion how he
got here, a world in which he eats, sleeps ... works, grows old, gets
sick, and dies, and... Not once in his entire life does it cross his
mind to say to himself that his situation is preposterous...

		... The more intelligent he is, the crazier he is... He
is as insane as a French intellectual.

		 

		
  _____  


		From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of
RobtSchaefer at aol.com
		Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 3:33 PM
		To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
		Subject: Re: [percy-l] Believers...

		"To people! To unbelievers and to so-called believers."
...

		 

		Fr. Smith is talking to Tom More about how words have
been deprived of their meaning.  

		 

		The Thanatos Syndrome, Section II, part 6 (or chapter 6)

		 

		R. Schaefer

		Mobile

		 

		 

		 

		 

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