From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Sun May 22 19:21:13 2011 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janet cantor) Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm@web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jeriley at uark.edu Mon May 23 14:41:12 2011 From: jeriley at uark.edu (John E. Riley) Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 18:41:12 +0000 Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman Message-ID: Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind. Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested). The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling. Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography. The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965. There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them. Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof). These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens. Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels. Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile. I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic. You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Mon May 23 23:30:16 2011 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janet cantor) Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 20:30:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <804296.84447.qm@web125910.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Mr. Riley, I thank you for your detailed response which helped me a lot. Having read only these two novels of Percy's and The Last Gentleman only once, I am not in a position to rank them. I preferred The Moviegoer because I liked its construction better. Some of the digressions in The Last Gentleman lost me. But on the whole it was a marvelous read. ?What you say of this novel is just about what I saw as well. I liked most of the detours for what they told us about America at the time and in each locale. Percy is certainly vivid in his descriptions and characterizations. The writing is sumptuous. I laughed a lot. Those things in themselves make any book worthwhile. As for the endings, I like the endings of both. For The Last Gentleman all the way through I thought I was reading one story. Then suddenly the book was about Sutter. So it was a sweet surprise that it will be Bill who might be saving Sutter. ?And the epilogue of The Moviegoer I have said many times is one of the most beautiful and satisfying endings I've ever read. Percy seems to have certain themes in his books. The isolated protagonist adrift in the world must connect himself to God, and must love or care for one person, for life to have meaning. In this case Bill will settle with Kitty, but perhaps he will also do some good for Sutter. Ironically the lost soul will be the one to do the healing of others. Forrest Gump escaped me. Not one of my favorite movies. ?I prefer to compare Will Barrett to Chauncey Gardner. So many in the book find Will so interesting because he is a kind of cipher. They can write their script on him. They can read his non reactions to them as a lack of opposition and it is just a short step from that to validation of them. There is something about the way Percy writes that draws me in. I can't say that is? universal. I believe many contemporary readers are not willing to be patient; they want more excitement in their reading. It is wrong to forget when Percy wrote or to ignore his biography when one reads his books. Someday I will reread these books and read others of Percy's. I am not a scholar. I am only a reader, but I so much enjoy these discussions. Janet Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind.? Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested).? The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling.? Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography.? The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965.? There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them.? Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof).? These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens.? Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels.? Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile.? I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic.? You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Tue May 24 00:11:17 2011 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janet cantor) Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [percy-l] another thing Message-ID: <970099.80049.qm@web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. Janet -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com Tue May 24 00:20:42 2011 From: rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com (RHONDA MCDONNELL) Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:20:42 -0700 Subject: [percy-l] another thing In-Reply-To: <970099.80049.qm@web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> References: <970099.80049.qm@web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Janet, I agree with this point wholeheartedly! I love Percy's ending, particularly the ending of THE LAST GENTLEMAN, when will goes bounding toward Sutter's car. Even LANCELOT, which is by far Percy's darkest, ends with hope, but it is LG that ends with joy. --Rhonda "You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing." Walker Percy Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [percy-l] another thing I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. Janet -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com Tue May 24 00:21:41 2011 From: rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com (RHONDA MCDONNELL) Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:21:41 -0700 Subject: [percy-l] another thing In-Reply-To: References: <970099.80049.qm@web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>, Message-ID: Ugh, I should have proofread that post before hitting send. Indulge me, Percy-list friends, in my foibles ;) --Rhonda "You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing." Walker Percy From: rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:20:42 -0700 Subject: Re: [percy-l] another thing Janet, I agree with this point wholeheartedly! I love Percy's ending, particularly the ending of THE LAST GENTLEMAN, when will goes bounding toward Sutter's car. Even LANCELOT, which is by far Percy's darkest, ends with hope, but it is LG that ends with joy. --Rhonda "You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing." Walker Percy Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: [percy-l] another thing I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. Janet -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jeriley at uark.edu Tue May 24 09:38:50 2011 From: jeriley at uark.edu (John E. Riley) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 13:38:50 +0000 Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman Message-ID: Janet: You may be right about the ending, I like your reading of it. The tables are turned and Barrett can actually save Sutter. Sutter seems intent on "checking out" at the end, but Barrett will try to stop him because he hasn't yet learned what he needs to learn from Sutter. I think you're right about Barrett's character also: sort of an everyman or a blank slate upon which others inscribe their own wishes and desires. he lacks direction (I can relate) but his great talent is having this radar through which he can read people's wavelengths, pick up on all their nonverbal, involuntary communication. That strikes me as very Southern. Percy's humor is very underrated. You may want to move on to The Second Coming next, since Percy revived the Will Barrett character for that novel. Sutter and Kitty also make appearances. John Riley Reference & Index Arkansas Mullins Library University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:11 PM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: The Last Gentleman (John E. Riley) 2. Re: The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) 3. another thing (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 18:41:12 +0000 From: "John E. Riley" Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind. Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested). The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling. Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography. The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965. There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them. Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof). These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens. Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels. Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile. I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic. You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 20:30:16 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: <804296.84447.qm at web125910.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Mr. Riley, I thank you for your detailed response which helped me a lot. Having read only these two novels of Percy's and The Last Gentleman only once, I am not in a position to rank them. I preferred The Moviegoer because I liked its construction better. Some of the digressions in The Last Gentleman lost me. But on the whole it was a marvelous read. ?What you say of this novel is just about what I saw as well. I liked most of the detours for what they told us about America at the time and in each locale. Percy is certainly vivid in his descriptions and characterizations. The writing is sumptuous. I laughed a lot. Those things in themselves make any book worthwhile. As for the endings, I like the endings of both. For The Last Gentleman all the way through I thought I was reading one story. Then suddenly the book was about Sutter. So it was a sweet surprise that it will be Bill who might be saving Sutter. ?And the epilogue of The Moviegoer I have said many times is one of the most beautiful and satisfying endings I've ever read. Percy seems to have certain themes in his books. The isolated protagonist adrift in the world must connect himself to God, and must love or care for one person, for life to have meaning. In this case Bill will settle with Kitty, but perhaps he will also do some good for Sutter. Ironically the lost soul will be the one to do the healing of others. Forrest Gump escaped me. Not one of my favorite movies. ?I prefer to compare Will Barrett to Chauncey Gardner. So many in the book find Will so interesting because he is a kind of cipher. They can write their script on him. They can read his non reactions to them as a lack of opposition and it is just a short step from that to validation of them. There is something about the way Percy writes that draws me in. I can't say that is? universal. I believe many contemporary readers are not willing to be patient; they want more excitement in their reading. It is wrong to forget when Percy wrote or to ignore his biography when one reads his books. Someday I will reread these books and read others of Percy's. I am not a scholar. I am only a reader, but I so much enjoy these discussions. Janet Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind.? Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested).? The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling.? Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography.? The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965.? There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them.? Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof).? These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens.? Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels.? Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile.? I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic.? You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110523/792d6d10/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] another thing To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <970099.80049.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. Janet -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110523/d485f519/attachment.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2 ************************************** From jhforest at gmail.com Tue May 24 10:08:34 2011 From: jhforest at gmail.com (Jim Forest) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 16:08:34 +0200 Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman Message-ID: Dear John Riley, I?m certain I?m far from the only one on the WP List grateful for your comments re The Last Gentlemen. You make me want to read the novel again. It has been too long. By any chance would you be willing to share an e-copy (PDF?) of your thesis with those on the List who have a special interest? I would put my name on the list of grateful recipients. Friendly greetings, Jim Forest * * * *Jim & Nancy Forest* Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands Just published: ?*All is Grace*,? my revised and expanded biography of Dorothy Day: http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2006/03/24/all-is-grace/ Out in June: "*Saint George & the Dragon*" http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2011/04/04/saint-george-and-the-dragon/ *Photos taken while in the US earlier this month*: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/72157626610535756/ Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com Jim's books: http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/books/ Photo collections: www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/collections/ In Communion site: www.incommunion.org Forest-Flier Editorial Services: www.forestflier.com On Pilgrimage blog: http://jimandnancyonpilgrimage.blogspot.com/ A Tale of Two Kidneys blog: http://ataleof2kidneys.blogspot.com/ * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jp at jlarsp.com Tue May 24 11:19:46 2011 From: jp at jlarsp.com (John Pearson) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 10:19:46 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] another thing In-Reply-To: References: <970099.80049.qm@web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <913E8704-F503-415D-971E-C40E12FF6F71@jlarsp.com> It's great to see activity on the list. Makes me want to read LG again. It's been a few years. The Second Coming has always been my favorite Percy novel, though I think part of the reason for that may be that it was the first of his books that I read. It's interesting to read the thoughts on the book's endings. I could be wrong, and I seem to recall reading in one of the interviews Percy describing how he wrote and he said something to the effect that he put a man in a situation and watched to see what happened. I always liked that. In my own attempts at writing novels, I often find characters end up going in directions I hadn't planned. I find that philosophy, or method, of writing, however you want to characterize it, more interesting than for example, that of John Irving, who has said he always writes the last line of his novels first, because he has to know what the final destination is (or words to that effect). I always felt Percy used fiction as a means of discovery, which I tend to think all good writing is. John On May 23, 2011, at 11:20 PM, RHONDA MCDONNELL wrote: > Janet, I agree with this point wholeheartedly! I love Percy's ending, particularly the ending of THE LAST GENTLEMAN, when will goes bounding toward Sutter's car. Even LANCELOT, which is by far Percy's darkest, ends with hope, but it is LG that ends with joy. > > --Rhonda > > "You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual, because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing." > > Walker Percy > > > > > Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 > From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com > To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org > Subject: [percy-l] another thing > > I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. > Janet > > > -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project athttp://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -- > An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jesse.rimshas at gmail.com Tue May 24 12:19:19 2011 From: jesse.rimshas at gmail.com (jesse.rimshas at gmail.com) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 09:19:19 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 Message-ID: <4ddbda87.27788e0a.697f.ffffb1f6@mx.google.com> Unsubscribe -----Original Message----- Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:02:34 am To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org From: percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: The Last Gentleman (Jim Forest) 2. Re: another thing (John Pearson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 16:08:34 +0200 From: Jim Forest Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Dear John Riley, I?m cert From jesse.rimshas at gmail.com Tue May 24 12:38:03 2011 From: jesse.rimshas at gmail.com (jesse.rimshas at gmail.com) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 09:38:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 Message-ID: <4ddbdeeb.4a44440a.7e84.7a2e@mx.google.com> Help -----Original Message----- Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:02:34 am To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org From: percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: The Last Gentleman (Jim Forest) 2. Re: another thing (John Pearson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 16:08:34 +0200 From: Jim Forest Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Dear John Riley, I?m cert From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Tue May 24 13:59:32 2011 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janet cantor) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 10:59:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <822634.86103.qm@web125902.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> John, Thank you so much for all of these responses. I will try to get to The Second Coming this year. Janet Cantor Janet: You may be right about the ending, I like your reading of it.? The tables are turned and Barrett can actually save Sutter.? Sutter seems intent on "checking out" at the end, but Barrett will try to stop him because he hasn't yet learned what he needs to learn from Sutter. I think you're right about Barrett's character also: sort of an everyman or a blank slate upon which others inscribe their own wishes and desires.? he lacks direction (I can relate) but his great talent is having this radar through which he can read people's wavelengths, pick up on all their nonverbal, involuntary communication.? That strikes me as very Southern. Percy's humor is very underrated. You may want to move on to The Second Coming next, since Percy revived the Will Barrett character for that novel.? Sutter and Kitty also make appearances.? John Riley Reference & Index Arkansas Mullins Library University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:11 PM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. Re: The Last Gentleman (John E. Riley) ???2. Re: The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ???3. another thing (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 18:41:12 +0000 From: "John E. Riley" Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org" Message-ID: ? ? ? ? Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind.? Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested).? The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling.? Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography. The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965.? There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them.? Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof).? These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens.? Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels.? Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile.? I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic.? You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 20:30:16 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" ? ? ? ? Message-ID: <804296.84447.qm at web125910.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Mr. Riley, I thank you for your detailed response which helped me a lot. Having read only these two novels of Percy's and The Last Gentleman only once, I am not in a position to rank them. I preferred The Moviegoer because I liked its construction better. Some of the digressions in The Last Gentleman lost me. But on the whole it was a marvelous read. ?What you say of this novel is just about what I saw as well. I liked most of the detours for what they told us about America at the time and in each locale. Percy is certainly vivid in his descriptions and characterizations. The writing is sumptuous. I laughed a lot. Those things in themselves make any book worthwhile. As for the endings, I like the endings of both. For The Last Gentleman all the way through I thought I was reading one story. Then suddenly the book was about Sutter. So it was a sweet surprise that it will be Bill who might be saving Sutter. ?And the epilogue of The Moviegoer I have said many times is one of the most beautiful and satisfying endings I've ever read. Percy seems to have certain themes in his books. The isolated protagonist adrift in the world must connect himself to God, and must love or care for one person, for life to have meaning. In this case Bill will settle with Kitty, but perhaps he will also do some good for Sutter. Ironically the lost soul will be the one to do the healing of others. Forrest Gump escaped me. Not one of my favorite movies. ?I prefer to compare Will Barrett to Chauncey Gardner. So many in the book find Will so interesting because he is a kind of cipher. They can write their script on him. They can read his non reactions to them as a lack of opposition and it is just a short step from that to validation of them. There is something about the way Percy writes that draws me in. I can't say that is? universal. I believe many contemporary readers are not willing to be patient; they want more excitement in their reading. It is wrong to forget when Percy wrote or to ignore his biography when one reads his books. Someday I will reread these books and read others of Percy's. I am not a scholar. I am only a reader, but I so much enjoy these discussions. Janet Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind.? Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested).? The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling.? Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography.? The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965.? There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them.? Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof).? These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens.? Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels.? Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile.? I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic.? You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110523/792d6d10/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] another thing To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <970099.80049.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. Janet -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110523/d485f519/attachment.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2 ************************************** -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cgmwebb at gmail.com Tue May 24 15:21:11 2011 From: cgmwebb at gmail.com (Cindy Montgomery Webb) Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 15:21:11 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Walker Percy Documentary Message-ID: Re: John Riley's question about the Percy documentary. The 2010 film is now available on DVD. The documentary contains some insightful interviews with Percy scholars (i.e. Linda Whitney Hobson, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Jay Tolson, Paul Elie) and Percy's fellow writers and friends (Richard Ford, Ben Toledano, respectively). Much of the film considers Percy's personal life and shows how these events connect to his writing. Percy's haunting childhood and experiences gained while living with uncle William Alexander Percy segue into Walker's own considerations of honor and tradition in later writings. His teenage and adult adventures with Shelby Foote include an excursion to Santa Fe as "the land of pure possibility," a place not weighed down by a sense of history, which Percy addressed in The Last Gentleman. Percy's experience of being "trapped" into the Southern writer label is also developed in the documentary as are discussions of philosophical, religious, and semantic concerns throughout his career. The documentary seemed a bit short at only sixty minutes long, but that lends itself well to instructional use. I would say that it presents a good range of Percy's concerns in writing and in life and offers a strong introduction, or even synopsis, of his work in interesting ways. A short preview of the film and more information can be found at: http://www.walkerpercymovie.com/watchashortprevi.html -Cindy Montgomery Webb University of North Carolina at Greensboro Dept. of English PhD candidate -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jeriley at uark.edu Wed May 25 12:05:27 2011 From: jeriley at uark.edu (John E. Riley) Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 16:05:27 +0000 Subject: [percy-l] Percy Thesis Message-ID: Jim Forest and list, Thank you for the compliment. If you will email me off the list at jeriley761 at gmail.com I can send you a copy. The agreement my university has with ProQuest digital dissertations probably precludes me from posting it on this list. Thanks for your interest! If anyone else is interested, my title is "Somewhere between Possibility and Actuality: Walker Percy's Nonplaces." It is a study of Percy's concept of the nonplace as it functions in his first two novels. It should be available electronically through the aforementioned ProQuest Digital Dissertations in the next six months or so. I can't claim much in the way of entertainment value--it IS academia, after all--but I certainly learned a lot about Percy in the course of writing it. Re (John Pearson's?) remarks about Percy's endings--I agree with you that Percy may not have had much idea where a particular novel was going when he bagan writing. I read somewhere that the key for him was actually the first line: Once he had a first line that struck the right note the writing began to come to life for him. Maybe it was about capturing the voice of his protagonist. I've just been reading the book of correspondence between Percy and Shelby Foote and these two seemed to have diametrically opposed approaches to writing. Foote needed to have a novel completely mapped out start to finish before he could even begin writing, it seemed. For Percy, it seemed the writing was more a process of discovery. Anyway, I find that sort of discussion interesting. John Riley Reference & Index Arkansas Mullins Library University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 12:59 PM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 5 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 (jesse.rimshas at gmail.com) 2. Re: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 (jesse.rimshas at gmail.com) 3. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 09:19:19 -0700 (PDT) From: "jesse.rimshas at gmail.com" Subject: Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <4ddbda87.27788e0a.697f.ffffb1f6 at mx.google.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Unsubscribe -----Original Message----- Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:02:34 am To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org From: percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: The Last Gentleman (Jim Forest) 2. Re: another thing (John Pearson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 16:08:34 +0200 From: Jim Forest Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Dear John Riley, I?m cert ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 09:38:03 -0700 (PDT) From: "jesse.rimshas at gmail.com" Subject: Re: [percy-l] Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <4ddbdeeb.4a44440a.7e84.7a2e at mx.google.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Help -----Original Message----- Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 11:02:34 am To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org From: percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 4 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: The Last Gentleman (Jim Forest) 2. Re: another thing (John Pearson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 16:08:34 +0200 From: Jim Forest Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Dear John Riley, I?m cert ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 10:59:32 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: <822634.86103.qm at web125902.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" John, Thank you so much for all of these responses. I will try to get to The Second Coming this year. Janet Cantor Janet: You may be right about the ending, I like your reading of it.? The tables are turned and Barrett can actually save Sutter.? Sutter seems intent on "checking out" at the end, but Barrett will try to stop him because he hasn't yet learned what he needs to learn from Sutter. I think you're right about Barrett's character also: sort of an everyman or a blank slate upon which others inscribe their own wishes and desires.? he lacks direction (I can relate) but his great talent is having this radar through which he can read people's wavelengths, pick up on all their nonverbal, involuntary communication.? That strikes me as very Southern. Percy's humor is very underrated. You may want to move on to The Second Coming next, since Percy revived the Will Barrett character for that novel.? Sutter and Kitty also make appearances.? John Riley Reference & Index Arkansas Mullins Library University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:11 PM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. Re: The Last Gentleman (John E. Riley) ???2. Re: The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ???3. another thing (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 18:41:12 +0000 From: "John E. Riley" Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org" Message-ID: ? ? ? ? Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind.? Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested).? The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling.? Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography. The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965.? There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them.? Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof).? These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens.? Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels.? Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile.? I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic.? You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 20:30:16 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: Re: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" ? ? ? ? Message-ID: <804296.84447.qm at web125910.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Mr. Riley, I thank you for your detailed response which helped me a lot. Having read only these two novels of Percy's and The Last Gentleman only once, I am not in a position to rank them. I preferred The Moviegoer because I liked its construction better. Some of the digressions in The Last Gentleman lost me. But on the whole it was a marvelous read. ?What you say of this novel is just about what I saw as well. I liked most of the detours for what they told us about America at the time and in each locale. Percy is certainly vivid in his descriptions and characterizations. The writing is sumptuous. I laughed a lot. Those things in themselves make any book worthwhile. As for the endings, I like the endings of both. For The Last Gentleman all the way through I thought I was reading one story. Then suddenly the book was about Sutter. So it was a sweet surprise that it will be Bill who might be saving Sutter. ?And the epilogue of The Moviegoer I have said many times is one of the most beautiful and satisfying endings I've ever read. Percy seems to have certain themes in his books. The isolated protagonist adrift in the world must connect himself to God, and must love or care for one person, for life to have meaning. In this case Bill will settle with Kitty, but perhaps he will also do some good for Sutter. Ironically the lost soul will be the one to do the healing of others. Forrest Gump escaped me. Not one of my favorite movies. ?I prefer to compare Will Barrett to Chauncey Gardner. So many in the book find Will so interesting because he is a kind of cipher. They can write their script on him. They can read his non reactions to them as a lack of opposition and it is just a short step from that to validation of them. There is something about the way Percy writes that draws me in. I can't say that is? universal. I believe many contemporary readers are not willing to be patient; they want more excitement in their reading. It is wrong to forget when Percy wrote or to ignore his biography when one reads his books. Someday I will reread these books and read others of Percy's. I am not a scholar. I am only a reader, but I so much enjoy these discussions. Janet Janet and list: I recently completed a Master's thesis on The Moviegoer and Last Gentleman so the latter is very fresh in my mind.? Here goes... So, both novels have strongly autobiographical elements, which is something you say and then move on because it's ultimately irrelevant (Read the Tolson bio if you're interested).? The two protagonists certainly share commonalities, though the Last Gentleman's narration keeps us at more of a distance from Will Barrett than is the case for Binx Bolling.? Both protagonists are involved in a search, but Barrett's search is much more haphazardly undertaken--he knows something is missing in his life and philosophy and so he is continually looking for THE ANSWER, whether is be in psychoanalysis, a technologically-advanced German telescope, upper-middle-class values (Kitty Vaught), a father figure/mentor/confidante (Sutter Vaught), the New Mexico desert, etc...The novel is a kind of picaresque in that Barrett is constantly moving and covers a wide range of US geography.? The novel is an impressive commentary on American culture circa 1965.? There are so many cultural references and allusions that you could spend weeks tracing them.? Percy weaves seminal events of the day into the narrative, particularly those surrounding race relations (or lack thereof).? These include: --Levittown--the suburb(s) created as middle-class white havens.? Attempts to desegregate were met with mob violence (Barrett gets punched in the nose by an angry homeowner) --James Meredith's attempt to desegregate Ole Miss (Barrett gets caught in the middle of an angry mob on campus and is knocked out by a swinging flagstaff) --Reference to the Birmingham church bombing in Sutter's journal --Freedom riders (scene in Ithaca, MS bar, Barrett helps the activists escape) --Others? Come to think of it, Barrett is sort of a Forest Gump-like character. So Percy moves into the arena of cultural criticism with Last Gentleman, though I think he does it better in Love in the Ruins, where the satirical tone and futuristic setting allows for better treatment of the themes, in my opinion. Even though I've read it multiple times, I'm still not sure where to rank Last Gentleman among Percy's novels.? Sometimes I think it's his best and sometimes I think it's among his worst (though even his worst was pretty good). It seems unfocused, if that's the right word, and does not have a particularly satisfying conclusion (is it just me, or did Percy have trouble ending his novels?). But his descriptions of American manners and the physical/cultural landscape makes this journey worthwhile.? I know I discover new things with each re-reading. Sorry for the too long post, and I hope I don't come across as didactic.? You just caught me at the right--or wrong--time! I look forward to hearing from others. By the way, has anyone seen the Percy documentary yet? Reviews? John Riley University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to ? ? ? ? percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit ? ? ? ? http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to ? ? ? ? percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at ? ? ? ? percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: ???1. The Last Gentleman (janet cantor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 May 2011 16:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] The Last Gentleman To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <619898.1247.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I just finished The Last Gentleman and I would like someone to tell me his ideas about it especially the way it ended. I read in an Amazon review that Percy said it was his version of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I found the book engrossing all through and found a lot of the same themes and ideas that were in The Moviegoer. Can someone get a discussion of this book started please? Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110522/f4f60639/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 1 ************************************** -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110523/792d6d10/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 21:11:17 -0700 (PDT) From: janet cantor Subject: [percy-l] another thing To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Message-ID: <970099.80049.qm at web125906.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I would even go so far as to say that the endings of Percy's books are the reasons he writes the books in the first place. Judging from only these two, I'd bet the stories, characters and situations are there to entertain and inform; and they are preordained to come to a specific conclusion. Janet -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110523/d485f519/attachment.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2 ************************************** -- An archive of all list discussion is available at http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ Visit The Walker Percy Project at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Contact the moderator: percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org (note: add @ sign when addressing email) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110524/1fecaea3/attachment.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 5 ************************************** From jeriley at uark.edu Wed May 25 12:12:42 2011 From: jeriley at uark.edu (John E. Riley) Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 16:12:42 +0000 Subject: [percy-l] Walker Percy Documentary Message-ID: Cindy Webb: Thank you for that synopsis--the film sounds very interesting. I know that the filmmaker has been on this list from time to time and his enthusiasm for the project was evident. I will recommend that our library purchase a copy and I'll probably have to buy one for myself as well! John Riley Reference & Index Arkansas Mullins Library University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA ________________________________________ From: percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org [percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org] Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:01 AM To: percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org Subject: Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 6 Send Percy-L mailing list submissions to percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to percy-l-request at lists.ibiblio.org You can reach the person managing the list at percy-l-owner at lists.ibiblio.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Percy-L digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Walker Percy Documentary (Cindy Montgomery Webb) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 15:21:11 -0400 From: Cindy Montgomery Webb Subject: Re: [percy-l] Walker Percy Documentary To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Re: John Riley's question about the Percy documentary. The 2010 film is now available on DVD. The documentary contains some insightful interviews with Percy scholars (i.e. Linda Whitney Hobson, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Jay Tolson, Paul Elie) and Percy's fellow writers and friends (Richard Ford, Ben Toledano, respectively). Much of the film considers Percy's personal life and shows how these events connect to his writing. Percy's haunting childhood and experiences gained while living with uncle William Alexander Percy segue into Walker's own considerations of honor and tradition in later writings. His teenage and adult adventures with Shelby Foote include an excursion to Santa Fe as "the land of pure possibility," a place not weighed down by a sense of history, which Percy addressed in The Last Gentleman. Percy's experience of being "trapped" into the Southern writer label is also developed in the documentary as are discussions of philosophical, religious, and semantic concerns throughout his career. The documentary seemed a bit short at only sixty minutes long, but that lends itself well to instructional use. I would say that it presents a good range of Percy's concerns in writing and in life and offers a strong introduction, or even synopsis, of his work in interesting ways. A short preview of the film and more information can be found at: http://www.walkerpercymovie.com/watchashortprevi.html -Cindy Montgomery Webb University of North Carolina at Greensboro Dept. of English PhD candidate -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20110524/69e67862/attachment-0001.html ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Percy-L mailing list Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 83, Issue 6 ************************************** From dabeck at iupui.edu Wed May 25 12:14:55 2011 From: dabeck at iupui.edu (Beck, David A) Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 12:14:55 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Walker Percy Documentary In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20110525121455.zac2ybhwro0o0ckw@webmail.iu.edu> I agree with Cindy. The documentary is a good intro to Percy. It's good to see the scholars she mentioned being interviewed. My main problem with it is that it seems incomplete. While I realize they probably had time constraints, I was disappointed that they never mentioned Lancelot or Thanatos. (I don't think they did much with LG and SC, but I can't remember for sure.) LIR and MG are the books that are discussed the most. Still, it's worth the money. I'll probably show it to my students next year, when we discuss Lancelot. -David Quoting Cindy Montgomery Webb : > Re: John Riley's question about the Percy documentary. The 2010 film is now > available on DVD. The documentary contains some insightful interviews with > Percy scholars (i.e. Linda Whitney Hobson, Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Jay Tolson, > Paul Elie) and Percy's fellow writers and friends (Richard Ford, Ben > Toledano, respectively). Much of the film considers Percy's personal life > and shows how these events connect to his writing. Percy's haunting > childhood and experiences gained while living with uncle William Alexander > Percy segue into Walker's own considerations of honor and tradition in later > writings. His teenage and adult adventures with Shelby Foote include an > excursion to Santa Fe as "the land of pure possibility," a place not weighed > down by a sense of history, which Percy addressed in The Last Gentleman. > Percy's experience of being "trapped" into the Southern writer label is also > developed in the documentary as are discussions of philosophical, religious, > and semantic concerns throughout his career. The documentary seemed a bit > short at only sixty minutes long, but that lends itself well to > instructional use. I would say that it presents a good range of Percy's > concerns in writing and in life and offers a strong introduction, or even > synopsis, of his work in interesting ways. > > A short preview of the film and more information can be found at: > http://www.walkerpercymovie.com/watchashortprevi.html > > > > > > -Cindy Montgomery Webb > University of North Carolina at Greensboro > Dept. of English > PhD candidate >