[percy-l] FW: percy's southernness
Garic Barranger
nikkibar at aol.com
Tue Oct 20 11:41:03 EDT 2009
Dear Rizwana,
It is doubtful whether Uncle Will would have been thought of by his
contemporaries as bigoted. Walker certainly wasn't. It would also be a
mistake to assume that Southern implies bigotedness. There are lots of
folks hereabouts who are not, although sometimes we have to struggle
against it. If you want to understand Uncle Will's influence on
Walker, reread The Moviegoer. There is therein a beneficent aunt who
is a kind of alter ego of uncle Will, someone who stands for the
things of the generation before to which we are loyal without
surrendering our inner most selves. You might get some further insight
into the matter by reading Walker Percy Remembered. I have some
trouble figuring what you mean by alienated in your last question. You
might read Eudora Welty (particularly her piece about the death of
Medgar Evers) and although it may be hard to follow the ironies within
the works (many Americans can't) look at Flannery O'Connor,
particularly A Good Man Is Hard To Find. It would be difficult to
describe Miss Welty as being alienated but if I catch the drift of
your question she may fit with what you mean. I hope this doesn't
confuse the issue further for you.
Nikki Barranger
On Oct 20, 2009, at 5:14 AM, rizwana banu wrote:
>
>
> From: riz_banu at hotmail.com
> To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: percy's southernness
> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:43:38 +0530
>
> I have been trying to understand Percy's southernness in terms of
> his biography, as regards the influence of "Uncle Will" on him. I
> find that inspite of his upbringing in a upper class southern
> background he had a mind of his own which went beyond mere class
> distinctions and vested interests in retaining class distinctions.
> Percy was able to see clearly the two sides of the coin as regards
> the civil war, not as a defeat of the South but as one of a
> particular class of society. Percy with his southern roots of
> aristocracy was yet not bigoted. He seems to be a minority within
> his own circle. Who are the other southern novelists during the
> period from 1960s to 1990s or even contemporary novelists who seem
> to be alienated/unique in their understanding within their own group?
>
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