[percy-l] Re Lit Crit on Percy - Where to Start?
Steve Petrica
steve.petrica at gmail.com
Mon Feb 25 07:57:10 EST 2008
On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 6:50 AM, Jim Forest <jhforest at gmail.com> wrote:
> An extract from Robert Eckert's posting:
>
> >> In one interview, Percy, when asked a question concerning something
> about living at another time, said he would like to sit on a park bench in
> NYC in the year 2050 to see how we were doing. To see if we made it.
> >> Will we?
> >> Percy's questions concerning human destiny are still relevant.
> >> Even more so in a post 9/11 age.
> >> Bad people possess the capability to inflict inordinate damage upon you
> and everything you know.
>
> I have a feeling that, if Walker Percy were still with us and could
> respond, he might point out that it's not only the bad people (Them)
> but the good people (Us) who all too often inflict inordinate damage upon
> a great many people.
>
> My guess is that his response would be along the same lines as something
> Thomas Merton (a writer Percy greatly admired) wrote
> while the Vietnam War was gaining momentum.
>
Well, yes and no. Percy -- like most any good novelist -- was at home with
the idea of moral complexity and ambiguity. But I don't think he'd buy into
the notion of moral equivalence. Whatever his admiration for Merton, Percy
was no pacifist, nor did he (if I recall correctly) denounce the war in
Vietnam.
Steve
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