[percy-l] a new Percy book
Karey Perkins
karey1 at charter.net
Wed Mar 26 09:44:56 EDT 2008
Nikki,
I love all these little vignettes you relate about your interactions with
Percy and Percy in his life. They aren't in Tolson or Samway, and they
really add much to the picture of the man. When I went to the UNC archives
and read the Percy papers, there were such interesting things in the notes
that showed sides of him you don't get elsewhere - a couple of times in the
immense pack of papers there were some exclamations of religious joy written
down in one or two word exclamations that were completely opposite the
picture you get from the biographies and his writings - that of a cool,
analytical, stoic man who took his faith seriously but very intellectually.
Why don't you write all of these little stories down on paper, then bind the
pages together in that thing we call a book? I bet a lot of people would
buy it - at least one (me) would.
You could call it: Percy and me. Or: My Dinner[s] with Walker Percy. Or:
What Shelby Didn't Know. (Since apparently Shelby and Walker didn't talk
about that stuff.) Or: My Walk with Walker.
OK, maybe you'd better be the one to name it.
Karey
_____
From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Nikkibar at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 8:20 PM
To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Walker, animals and Julian Jaynes
Although we did not read Julian Jaynes' (TOOC&TBOTBM)book in the book group,
we did discuss Jaynes' theory of the development of the corpus callosum and
the notion that our distant human ancestors may have walked around in the
world hearing instructions from some outer or perhaps inner voice, like so
many teenagers with cosmic i-Pods. Walker tended to resist any attribution
to animals of anything that smacked of an animal soul in the lower primates
or mammals. I always held for the opposite view and it was I who introduced
Jaynes' theories to the group.
On the other hand, Walker was uncommonly fond of his own animals (to the
point of sardonic sentimentality) and kept schnauzers, and a Siamese cat
that I gave him (Old Broke-tail, photographed on his lap in a TIME magazine
story) and at the time of his death he had an affectionate corgi named Sweet
Thing. The schnauzers were forever getting smashed flat on the street and
were a cause for great grief whenever it would happen. Unfortunately Walker
developed a painful allergy to Old Broke who had to be given away. There was
nothing sardonic about MY affection for the non street wise schnauzers or
Old Broke, as I was (and am) unreservedly sentimental about mine, but then I
think of them as younger brothers, a non-canonical view that Walker regarded
as just plain silly. But then, whenever one of them got spread-eagle
flattened on Jahncke Ave. he was some broken up. Sometimes the emotional
centers in the hippocampus over-rule the cerebrum.
Towards the end of Jaynes' popularity, the word went round that his book had
been an elaborate academic leg-pull, and Walker very much enjoyed feeling
that he had gotten the best of the argument, in the notion that even Jaynes
had not been serious. Later I had occasion to discuss this urban myth with
Jaynes' tennis partner and his view was equivocal. So we'll never know.
Nikki
_____
Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch
<http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15?ncid=aolhom0
0030000000001> the video on AOL Home.
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