From wppdirector at gmail.com Fri Jun 5 08:08:02 2015 From: wppdirector at gmail.com (Henry Mills) Date: Fri, 05 Jun 2015 08:08:02 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] 2015 Walker Percy Weekend Schedule / "Remembering Walker Percy" by Jim Brown Message-ID: <55719122.7000207@gmail.com> Dear Percy-L: This weekend, June 5-7, in St. Francisville, LA, marks the occasion of the second annual "Walker Percy Weekend: A Literary Festival Celebrating the Acclaimed Novelist's Life and Work." For general reading, the festival's website is available at http://www.walkerpercyweekend.org . A fine Percy portrait and quote adorn the homepage. For those most directly adventurous, you may enjoy putting on your best Bayou waders and jumping right into descriptions of the festival's activities, panels, and other sundry Southern "Goings On" by visiting its full schedule at: http://www.walkerpercyweekend.org/full-schedule/ Bourbon or mint jullep flask recommended. Any and all Percy-L members attending the festival are invited to share a personal follow-up report with our listserv community. Also of note is a recent short remembrance of Percy noting the festival in a web posting by former Louisiana Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner, Jim Brown: http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/latest-buzz/item/898942-remembering-louisiana-novelist-percy-walker All Best Percy Wishes, Henry Mills Percy-L Administrator -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Fri Jun 5 09:22:41 2015 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janetcantor37 at yahoo.com) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2015 13:22:41 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [percy-l] 2015 Walker Percy Weekend Schedule / "Remembering Walker Percy" by Jim Brown In-Reply-To: <55719122.7000207@gmail.com> References: <55719122.7000207@gmail.com> Message-ID: <731757465.2028212.1433510561696.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Loved the Faulkner story.Janet Cantor Also of note is a recent short remembrance of Percy noting the festival in a web posting by former Louisiana Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner, Jim Brown: http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/latest-buzz/item/898942-remembering-louisiana-novelist-percy-walker -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jhforest at gmail.com Sun Jun 7 16:16:38 2015 From: jhforest at gmail.com (Jim Forest) Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2015 22:16:38 +0200 Subject: [percy-l] A Good Stamp is Hard to Find Message-ID: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/a-good-stamp-is-hard-to-find.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=true&src=recg&pgtype=article A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find By LAWRENCE DOWNES / NY TIMES / JUNE 4, 2015 Photo Credit United States Postal Service English majors, say hooray: Flannery O?Connor is on a postage stamp. It comes out Friday and costs 93 cents. It?s a pretty picture. She wears a simple top with a jewel neckline, and pearls. Her pink porcelain face, framed in a 1940s bob, glows with the barest hint of a how-do-you-do smile. Wait ? what?s Betty Crocker doing on Flannery?s stamp? This stamp does not, to my eyes, show Flannery O?Connor, the 20th-century master of the short story, the ?hermit novelist? who fused her art and life as a Southerner and a Roman Catholic with stories that are shocking, hilarious and often bloody. The one who lived with her mother in Milledgeville, Ga., and raised peafowl. Who got sick and died young, of lupus, in 1964. Who gazed at the sin-stricken world through cat-eye glasses that are as much her visual signature as Hemingway?s beard or Frida?s eyebrow. This stamp shows the artist as a very young woman, barely 20 years old. It?s based on a photo of her as an undergraduate at Georgia State College for Women. Her oeuvre then amounted to cartoons and stories for the college magazine. Everything else in her dazzling career ? the Iowa Writers? Workshop, the artists? retreat Yaddo, ?Wise Blood,? ?A Good Man Is Hard to Find? ? lay ahead. Photo Flannery O'Connor beneath her self portrait in June 1962. Credit Joe McTyre/Atlanta Journal-Constitution The image has rattled some O?Connor admirers. (Facebook : ?This is all wrong. They glamour-shot her. She looks like she has a bad case of pink eye.? ) The United States Postal Service gave this job to an art director, who hired a freelance artist. I spoke with both of them, and learned that neither knew much about O?Connor, but they did their best with the images they had. The artist told me he had read one of her novels in college. He knew O?Connor had raised peacocks, so he framed her with feathers. The art director remembered that her work was ?unsettling,? and that she was a Catholic. I can?t blame either of them for deciding on this striking portrait as the best fit for their tiny canvas, but I wish they and the Postal Service had produced a stamp that was more recognizably the grown-up Flannery, and contained some taste of her strange and majestic artistic vision. I know she does not present an automatic illustrative equation, like mustache + steamboat = Mark Twain. But a better choice was staring the Postal Service in the face: a painting made by the author herself, a self-portrait from 1953. She is wearing a yellow straw hat, holding a devilish-looking pheasant and looking straight at you, baleful and brilliant, as if she could smell your stupidity. It is gorgeous and jagged and honest and perfect. ?The self-portrait was made ten years ago,? O?Connor wrote to a friend, ?after a very acute siege of lupus. I was taking cortisone, which gives you what they call a moon-face, and my hair had fallen out to a large extent from the high fever, so I looked pretty much like the portrait. When I painted it I didn?t look either at myself in the mirror or at the bird. I knew what we both looked like.? A version of this editorial appears in print on June 5, 2015, on page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find. -- *two new books*: *Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment*: www.jimandnancyforest.com/2014/07/loving-our-enemies/ *Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins:* www.jimandnancyforest.com/2015/04/saint-nicholas-and-the-nine-gold-coins/ Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com Photo albums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ *Jim & Nancy Forest* Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wppdirector at gmail.com Thu Jun 11 08:28:49 2015 From: wppdirector at gmail.com (Henry Mills) Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2015 08:28:49 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Mississippi Literacy and the Walker Percy Festival - Peter Augustine Lawler Message-ID: <55797F01.4050507@gmail.com> Dear Percy-L: I've posted the full text of this blog by Peter Lawler here because the blog page contains more than its share of other articles slowing the download speed of the page. Lawler is co-editor of "A Political Companion to Walker Percy (Political Companions to Great American Authors)," The University Press of Kentucky (2013). With any good fortune, in days coming other reports on last weekend's Walker Percy Festival will surface (this one seems to be a "wind up"). All Percy-L community members are invited to share any they may find. The original post of the below blog is located at: http://www.nationalreview.com/postmodern-conservative/419561/mississippi-literacy-walker-percy-and-klingons-peter-augustine-lawler Best, Henry Mills Percy-L Administrator ???????????? *Postmodern Conservative: Reflections on Politics, Culture, and Education* "Mississippi Literacy and the Walker Percy Festival" Peter Augustine Lawler June 10, 2015 1:47 PM ???????????? So I?m sitting in a motel in Tuscaloosa, Ala., with my wife, Rita, on the way home from St. Francisville, La., and the Walker Percy festival. One thing I?ve done is dramatically increase my Mississippi literacy. We spent one night in Meridian, which turns out to be an architectural marvel. Why? Sherman helpfully burned the town to the ground in the so-called Battle of Meridian, which really wasn?t a battle because there were no Confederate troops present. Sherman thought Meridian had been wiped off the map forever, but the locals got the railroad going in just 29 days. Meridian was the largest city in Mississippi from 1890 to 1930, as a railroad and industrial center. So plenty of citizens had lots of money and lots of class, and they hired the nation?s leading architects (during the golden age of distinctively American architecture) to build their homes. After decades of decline, Meridian seems to be on a slight upswing now, and there?s the will and some real money available to return the downtown to some of its former glory. Today, Meridian is also distinguished by huge, almost palatial, versions of chain motels on the interstate ? in some ways worthy successors of the beautiful hotels that used to grace downtown (including just about the only hotel available to black travelers in the South) near the train station. We stayed at a Drury with nine floors, which was plenty nice. The Drury should be the choice of anyone traveling with kids. It has a complimentary happy hour with a buffet full of food kids love ? such as hot dogs and mac-n-cheese ? and, for all practical purposes, unlimited mixed drinks for parents. We also stopped in Jackson to visit the home of Eudora Welty. It turns out to be intact and organized as a thoroughly instructive introduction to the life of the great writer. Miss Welty grew up and spent almost all of her life here. She was exceedingly well raised (as were her siblings) by middle-class, highly functional parents. She wasn?t obviously plagued by the high-octane existential issues (related to being personally wounded) on display in the work of Percy, O?Connor, and Faulkner. She excelled in her uncannily attentive descriptions of the ways of living ? beginning, of course, with the manner of speaking ? that surrounded her in her place. But she was also a highly sophisticated writer completely connected with the best writers and currents of thought of her (and other) times. I don?t know enough to be able to say whether she?s the best Southern writer, but she might be. She said she was always about the particular, never the general. Although all Southern writers seem to say something like that, she?s the one who might have stayed most perfectly in character in accessing the general through the particular and in showing, not telling, the truth about who each of us is. Miss Welty also said something like small-town Southerners love to dramatize the details of daily life. Let?s say that Southerners are particularly adept at doing that. At St. Francisville (which I will talk about soon), someone said that Mississippi is the best and worst of states. Someone could add, of course, that the South is the best and worst part of our country. Someone could say that the best of Mississippi is displayed in the writing of Welty, Faulkner, and William Alexander Percy (of Greenville and responsible for the outstanding public schools that educated Walker Percy and Shelby Foote) ? as part of a long list of writers, white and black. But you also find it in the music memorialized all along the blues trail that meanders across Mississippi. In general, small Mississippi towns arouse nostalgia for ways of life no longer present. Things are much better, of course, when it comes to black participation in political life and the administration of justice. But it?s hard to say that things are good for blacks who have no access to decent jobs and, in some places, the public schools all to themselves. Is Mississippi still better in some ways? You have to look to the persisting manners and morals and general interpersonal gentleness and savvy. And you might add the abiding presence of the living God of the Bible. Mississippi is somewhere between Christ-centered and Christ-haunted, and there?s not much evidence that it?s on the way to becoming more post-Christian. You also have to say something about the upsides of the honor, violence, and patriotism of democratized Southern Stoicism. Still, all in all, things continue to get worse in rural Mississippi, even as the cities of the South (such as Jackson) have become the most livable parts of our country. Things continue to get worse in rural America, as most of the ?mental labor? has traveled elsewhere. There?s a lot more to say about Mississippi. I will conclude with a word about the festival in St. Francisville. It was, in part, a homecoming for me, as about half of the hundreds of people there this year were repeat attenders. Whole families ? from little kids through grandparents ? show up. There aren?t many professors, but lots of doctors and lawyers and various other professionals. They?re just about all there because they read Percy, O?Connor, Welty, and all kinds of contemporary writers (such as David Foster Wallace). Going to hang out with other readers is their idea of a fine time. More soon. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wppdirector at gmail.com Sat Jun 13 09:05:40 2015 From: wppdirector at gmail.com (Henry Mills) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 09:05:40 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE - Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers Message-ID: <557C2AA4.1040800@gmail.com> The following is a Call for Papers Announcement. For more information, contact Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu ). ** *** Walker Percy Centennial:****Pilgrimage in Literature* 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE *April 7-9, 2016* Montreat College, Montreat, NC 28757 Keynoters: *Farrell O?Gorman*, Belmont Abbey College *Jim Wildeman*, Covenant College, emeritus Like Binx Bolling in Walker Percy?s first novel /The Moviegoer, /literary characters often seek relationship with the God of the Bible. They feel detached from affairs in the material world. Pilgrims sense a call from God to pursue him in spite of the unbelief surrounding them. Essays will be considered from a variety of authors. Topics should pursue the intersection of faith and literature. Creative writing presentations are welcome. Undergraduate Research essays are invited; the Thursday evening session is devoted to them. Please submit completed essays to Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu ) by January 10, 2016 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jopomojo at gmail.com Tue Jun 16 12:32:59 2015 From: jopomojo at gmail.com (Jonathan Potter) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:32:59 -0700 Subject: [percy-l] A Good Stamp is Hard to Find In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Someone at the Korrektiv blog has created an enhanced version of the Flannery O'Connor stamp: http://korrektivpress.com/2015/06/lets-try-that-again/ On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Jim Forest wrote: > > http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/a-good-stamp-is-hard-to-find.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=true&src=recg&pgtype=article > A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find > > By LAWRENCE DOWNES / NY TIMES / JUNE 4, 2015 > Photo > Credit United States Postal Service > > English majors, say hooray: Flannery O?Connor is on a postage stamp. It > comes out Friday and costs 93 cents. > > It?s a pretty picture. She wears a simple top with a jewel neckline, and > pearls. Her pink porcelain face, framed in a 1940s bob, glows with the > barest hint of a how-do-you-do smile. > > Wait ? what?s Betty Crocker doing on Flannery?s stamp? > > This stamp does not, to my eyes, show Flannery O?Connor, the 20th-century > master of the short story, the ?hermit novelist? who fused her art and life > as a Southerner and a Roman Catholic with stories that are shocking, > hilarious and often bloody. The one who lived with her mother in > Milledgeville, Ga., and raised peafowl. Who got sick and died young, of > lupus, in 1964. Who gazed at the sin-stricken world through cat-eye glasses > that are as much her visual signature as Hemingway?s beard or Frida?s > eyebrow. > > This stamp shows the artist as a very young woman, barely 20 years old. > It?s based on a photo of her as an undergraduate at Georgia State College > for Women. Her oeuvre then amounted to cartoons and stories for the college > magazine. Everything else in her dazzling career ? the Iowa Writers? > Workshop, the artists? retreat Yaddo, ?Wise Blood,? ?A Good Man Is Hard to > Find? ? lay ahead. > Photo > Flannery O'Connor beneath her self portrait in June 1962. Credit Joe > McTyre/Atlanta Journal-Constitution > > The image has rattled some O?Connor admirers. (Facebook > : ?This is all wrong. They > glamour-shot her. She looks like she has a bad case of pink eye.? ) > > The United States Postal Service gave this job to an art director, who > hired a freelance artist. I spoke with both of them, and learned that > neither knew much about O?Connor, but they did their best with the images > they had. The artist told me he had read one of her novels in college. He > knew O?Connor had raised peacocks, so he framed her with feathers. The art > director remembered that her work was ?unsettling,? and that she was a > Catholic. > > I can?t blame either of them for deciding on this striking portrait as the > best fit for their tiny canvas, but I wish they and the Postal Service had > produced a stamp that was more recognizably the grown-up Flannery, and > contained some taste of her strange and majestic artistic vision. > > I know she does not present an automatic illustrative equation, like > mustache + steamboat = Mark Twain. But a better choice was staring the > Postal Service in the face: a painting made by the author herself, a > self-portrait from 1953. She is wearing a yellow straw hat, holding a > devilish-looking pheasant and looking straight at you, baleful and > brilliant, as if she could smell your stupidity. It is gorgeous and jagged > and honest and perfect. > > ?The self-portrait was made ten years ago,? O?Connor wrote to a friend, > ?after a very acute siege of lupus. I was taking cortisone, which gives you > what they call a moon-face, and my hair had fallen out to a large extent > from the high fever, so I looked pretty much like the portrait. When I > painted it I didn?t look either at myself in the mirror or at the bird. I > knew what we both looked like.? > > A version of this editorial appears in print on June 5, 2015, on page A26 > of the New York edition with the headline: A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find. > -- > *two new books*: > *Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment*: > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2014/07/loving-our-enemies/ > *Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins:* > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2015/04/saint-nicholas-and-the-nine-gold-coins/ > > > Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com > Photo albums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ > > *Jim & Nancy Forest* > Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands > > * * * > > * Percy-L Discussion Archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > * Manage Your Membership: > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org > > * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wppdirector at gmail.com Mon Jun 22 07:35:28 2015 From: wppdirector at gmail.com (Henry Mills) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 07:35:28 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William Giraldi Message-ID: <5587F300.6070206@gmail.com> Dear Percy-L: For those wishing to read an interesting, if not provocative essay byWilliam Giraldi -- novelist and contributing editor for /The New Republic -- /on his views of Catholicism and novel-writing from hiscontemporary perspective, you may wish to consider his below essay just published online. Entitled "Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and blood aren't just water, bread and blood," Percy, O'Connor, and Graham Greene are each considered and represented in their perspectives with numerous quotes and discussion by Giraldi. In addition, given the recent postal stamp "controversy" with O'Connor, the essay features a fascinating photograph of her standing with one of her peacocks, a photo worth enjoying. SPOILER ALERT: Giraldi's essay is both affirming and non-affirming of its treated subjects. Perhaps some list members would like to respond for the benefit of the Percy-L community? See: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122078/confessions-catholic-novelist Best, Henry Mills Percy-L Administrator -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Mon Jun 22 08:49:44 2015 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janetcantor37 at yahoo.com) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 12:49:44 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William Giraldi In-Reply-To: <5587F300.6070206@gmail.com> References: <5587F300.6070206@gmail.com> Message-ID: <1658251440.3131984.1434977384919.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> ?http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122078/confessions-catholic-novelist Here I go again, a non Catholic, reading this long piece and offering my two cents. I will only comment on these excerpts: 1. ?Existential? is the always modish tag bandied about to describe the crisis of characters such as Binx and Kate, except that what ails them is much more particular, more personally dire than what that catchall, knee-jerk term denotes.??Despair? gets nearer the mark: It?s the term Binx himself employs throughout his telling. .. Percy doesn?t wallop you with the doctrinal understanding of ?despair? (the sin of shunning God?s grace, the very sin for which Faustus is hurled hellward), and at times Binx prefers to call it ?malaise,? that globetrotting ?pain of loss? that restricts itself to no denomination, no theism: ?The world is lost to you, the world and the people in it, and there remains only you and the world and you no more able to be in the world than Banquo?s ghost.?? 2. ?You want the tension and the tremble that can happen when faith infiltrates fiction. But let it be achieved as Percy achieves it in The Moviegoer... 3.?, Mary McCarthy admits: ?I am not sorry to have been a Catholic???this sensuous life,? she calls it, and like Percy and O?Connor she speaks of ?the sense of mystery and wonder,? of how in certain ?exalted moments of altruism the soul was fired with reverence.? I?d like to second that: I am not sorry to have been a Catholic. An upbringing in the Church has, I suspect and hope, outfitted me well as a storyteller. In his essay ?The Holiness of the Ordinary,? Percy contends that ?whatever else the benefits of the Catholic faith, it is of a particularly felicitous use to the novelist,? and I?d like to second that, too. It gives a writer that dramatic itch for sin, for judgment and damnation, for the rottenness of the world and the holy in us all.? The first excited me because it is so close to the way I read The Moviegoer. The second I liked the way he expressed so succinctly what happens in The Moviegoer. It was probably what so moved me in the Epilogue. The third is interesting ?to me because it asserts that it was the mystery of faith that helped enrich the plots of certain Catholic novelists. And it is, I believe, helpful to understanding the way Percy constructed all of his novels. The secular pervades each story and only in the end does the preparation for ?acceptance of grace come in. The stories are wild and goofy and, in the end, calm and predictability are there.?It is this contrast between madness and that calm that gives us Percy's antic self and his ideal self and, instead of being a polemic, uses good storytelling to try to inch the reader to a better path. Humbly,Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From larsonovic at gmail.com Mon Jun 22 12:14:49 2015 From: larsonovic at gmail.com (Michael Larson) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 11:14:49 -0500 Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of a Catholic Novelist Message-ID: I so hope the world will take him at his word when Mr. Giraldi denies being a Catholic. Otherwise, people might mistake his interests and concerns for those of a real Catholic novelist. As a secular novelist, Mr. Giraldi seems most interested in how his life has prepared him to be an *artiste*, his boyhood Catholicism being one of those preparations: "An upbringing in the Church has, I suspect and hope, outfitted me well as a storyteller." He likes the instincts Catholicism gave him--but for the purpose of storytelling and not for the purpose of apprehending and conforming oneself to the truth. He even likes there to be a quasi-religious vision to fiction, as long as it is sufficiently amorphous: "A novel should indeed be a groping after some form of the metaphysical, a benediction to unseen powers, the upholding of the *mysterium tremendum*, those insistent inklings of the numinous." But the Catholic novelist is most interested in objective reality, and he sees his role as artist to be one of rendering that reality as well as he can. Obviously some novels (and novelists) are better than others, but the vision of the Catholic novelist is neither narcissistic nor subjective (Nor is it proselytizing, as Giraldi claims with regard to Percy and Greene in particular.). No, the Catholic novelist's vision is of something outside of himself, corresponding to divine revelation. His characters may be at any level of understanding (or rejecting) that reality, but the (Catholic) novelist himself has no such freedom. He knows what he knows, and the world he creates, in which his characters live and breathe, must bear a close resemblance to the real one. But this includes immaterial as well as material reality. Mr. Giraldi is fine with being exact about material reality ("my books are flesh-obsessed"), but he wants to keep the immaterial vague, subjective, fuzzy. That's why he's not a Catholic ... and why he should therefore remain silent about the concerns of Catholic writers. Michael Larson On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 6:35 AM, wrote: > 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. 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE - > Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers (Henry Mills) > 2. Re: A Good Stamp is Hard to Find (Jonathan Potter) > 3. Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and > blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William Giraldi > (Henry Mills) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 09:05:40 -0400 > From: Henry Mills > To: Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org:Literary and Philosophical Discussion > > Subject: [percy-l] 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND > LITERATURE - Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers > Message-ID: <557C2AA4.1040800 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > The following is a Call for Papers Announcement. For more information, > contact Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu ). > > ** > > *** > Walker Percy Centennial:****Pilgrimage in Literature* > > 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE > > *April 7-9, 2016* > Montreat College, Montreat, NC 28757 > > Keynoters: *Farrell O?Gorman*, Belmont Abbey College > > *Jim Wildeman*, Covenant College, emeritus > > Like Binx Bolling in Walker Percy?s first novel /The Moviegoer, > /literary characters often seek relationship with the God of the Bible. > They feel detached from affairs in the material world. Pilgrims sense a > call from God to pursue him in spite of the unbelief surrounding them. > Essays will be considered from a variety of authors. Topics should > pursue the intersection of faith and literature. Creative writing > presentations are welcome. > > Undergraduate Research essays are invited; the Thursday evening session > is devoted to them. > > > Please submit completed essays to Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu > ) > by January 10, 2016 > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20150613/5d567519/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:32:59 -0700 > From: Jonathan Potter > To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" > > Subject: Re: [percy-l] A Good Stamp is Hard to Find > Message-ID: > < > CALpVE-4JnfLF9H9E7RcoovDKxkV8sHWp_gaopxt13C6H_oAXzA at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Someone at the Korrektiv blog has created an enhanced version of the > Flannery O'Connor stamp: > > http://korrektivpress.com/2015/06/lets-try-that-again/ > > On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Jim Forest wrote: > > > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/a-good-stamp-is-hard-to-find.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=true&src=recg&pgtype=article > > A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find > > > > By LAWRENCE DOWNES / NY TIMES / JUNE 4, 2015 > > Photo > > Credit United States Postal Service > > > > English majors, say hooray: Flannery O?Connor is on a postage stamp. It > > comes out Friday and costs 93 cents. > > > > It?s a pretty picture. She wears a simple top with a jewel neckline, and > > pearls. Her pink porcelain face, framed in a 1940s bob, glows with the > > barest hint of a how-do-you-do smile. > > > > Wait ? what?s Betty Crocker doing on Flannery?s stamp? > > > > This stamp does not, to my eyes, show Flannery O?Connor, the 20th-century > > master of the short story, the ?hermit novelist? who fused her art and > life > > as a Southerner and a Roman Catholic with stories that are shocking, > > hilarious and often bloody. The one who lived with her mother in > > Milledgeville, Ga., and raised peafowl. Who got sick and died young, of > > lupus, in 1964. Who gazed at the sin-stricken world through cat-eye > glasses > > that are as much her visual signature as Hemingway?s beard or Frida?s > > eyebrow. > > > > This stamp shows the artist as a very young woman, barely 20 years old. > > It?s based on a photo of her as an undergraduate at Georgia State College > > for Women. Her oeuvre then amounted to cartoons and stories for the > college > > magazine. Everything else in her dazzling career ? the Iowa Writers? > > Workshop, the artists? retreat Yaddo, ?Wise Blood,? ?A Good Man Is Hard > to > > Find? ? lay ahead. > > Photo > > Flannery O'Connor beneath her self portrait in June 1962. Credit Joe > > McTyre/Atlanta Journal-Constitution > > > > The image has rattled some O?Connor admirers. (Facebook > > : ?This is all wrong. They > > glamour-shot her. She looks like she has a bad case of pink eye.? ) > > > > The United States Postal Service gave this job to an art director, who > > hired a freelance artist. I spoke with both of them, and learned that > > neither knew much about O?Connor, but they did their best with the images > > they had. The artist told me he had read one of her novels in college. He > > knew O?Connor had raised peacocks, so he framed her with feathers. The > art > > director remembered that her work was ?unsettling,? and that she was a > > Catholic. > > > > I can?t blame either of them for deciding on this striking portrait as > the > > best fit for their tiny canvas, but I wish they and the Postal Service > had > > produced a stamp that was more recognizably the grown-up Flannery, and > > contained some taste of her strange and majestic artistic vision. > > > > I know she does not present an automatic illustrative equation, like > > mustache + steamboat = Mark Twain. But a better choice was staring the > > Postal Service in the face: a painting made by the author herself, a > > self-portrait from 1953. She is wearing a yellow straw hat, holding a > > devilish-looking pheasant and looking straight at you, baleful and > > brilliant, as if she could smell your stupidity. It is gorgeous and > jagged > > and honest and perfect. > > > > ?The self-portrait was made ten years ago,? O?Connor wrote to a friend, > > ?after a very acute siege of lupus. I was taking cortisone, which gives > you > > what they call a moon-face, and my hair had fallen out to a large extent > > from the high fever, so I looked pretty much like the portrait. When I > > painted it I didn?t look either at myself in the mirror or at the bird. I > > knew what we both looked like.? > > > > A version of this editorial appears in print on June 5, 2015, on page A26 > > of the New York edition with the headline: A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find. > > -- > > *two new books*: > > *Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment*: > > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2014/07/loving-our-enemies/ > > *Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins:* > > > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2015/04/saint-nicholas-and-the-nine-gold-coins/ > > < > http://jimandnancyforest.com/2015/04/saint-nicholas-and-the-nine-gold-coins/ > > > > > > Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com > > Photo albums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ > > > > *Jim & Nancy Forest* > > Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands > > > > * * * > > > > * Percy-L Discussion Archives: > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > > > * Manage Your Membership: > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > > > * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org > > > > * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20150616/d1256539/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 07:35:28 -0400 > From: Henry Mills > To: Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org:Literary and Philosophical Discussion > > Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, > bread, and blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William > Giraldi > Message-ID: <5587F300.6070206 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > Dear Percy-L: > > For those wishing to read an interesting, if not provocative essay > byWilliam Giraldi -- novelist and contributing editor for /The New > Republic -- /on his views of Catholicism and novel-writing from > hiscontemporary perspective, you may wish to consider his below essay > just published online. > > Entitled "Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and > blood aren't just water, bread and blood," Percy, O'Connor, and Graham > Greene are each considered and represented in their perspectives with > numerous quotes and discussion by Giraldi. > > In addition, given the recent postal stamp "controversy" with O'Connor, > the essay features a fascinating photograph of her standing with one of > her peacocks, a photo worth enjoying. > > SPOILER ALERT: Giraldi's essay is both affirming and non-affirming of > its treated subjects. Perhaps some list members would like to respond > for the benefit of the Percy-L community? > > See: > http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122078/confessions-catholic-novelist > > Best, > > Henry Mills > Percy-L Administrator > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/attachments/20150622/47268d0b/attachment.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > Percy-L mailing list > Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > > ------------------------------ > > End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 114, Issue 3 > *************************************** > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lauren.stacy.berdy at gmail.com Mon Jun 22 14:37:22 2015 From: lauren.stacy.berdy at gmail.com (Lauren Stacy Berdy) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 14:37:22 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of a Catholic Novelist In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5EACED28-6399-4482-8025-B08CAAF2FF25@gmail.com> The reader as much as the writer creates the vision in their own mind If the process of creation does not happen in the readers mind is not reenacted If the subterranean links and connections do not link The work fails For this reader Born a Jew Dr Percy wants us alert like one of his hawks His words give us a renewal and a resuscitation for our own lives Whitman too was religious ( okay a religion not made by a mind) he helped us with our emotional evolution Dr Percy adds to that self generating order That creative struggle that all great authors ask of Their readers I read that article twice and I am sorry that he is wresting so with his demons catholic or otherwise. Sent from my iPad On Jun 22, 2015, at 12:14 PM, Michael Larson wrote: > I so hope the world will take him at his word when Mr. Giraldi denies being a Catholic. Otherwise, people might mistake his interests and concerns for those of a real Catholic novelist. As a secular novelist, Mr. Giraldi seems most interested in how his life has prepared him to be an artiste, his boyhood Catholicism being one of those preparations: "An upbringing in the Church has, I suspect and hope, outfitted me well as a storyteller." He likes the instincts Catholicism gave him--but for the purpose of storytelling and not for the purpose of apprehending and conforming oneself to the truth. He even likes there to be a quasi-religious vision to fiction, as long as it is sufficiently amorphous: "A novel should indeed be a groping after some form of the metaphysical, a benediction to unseen powers, the upholding of the mysterium tremendum, those insistent inklings of the numinous." > > But the Catholic novelist is most interested in objective reality, and he sees his role as artist to be one of rendering that reality as well as he can. Obviously some novels (and novelists) are better than others, but the vision of the Catholic novelist is neither narcissistic nor subjective (Nor is it proselytizing, as Giraldi claims with regard to Percy and Greene in particular.). No, the Catholic novelist's vision is of something outside of himself, corresponding to divine revelation. His characters may be at any level of understanding (or rejecting) that reality, but the (Catholic) novelist himself has no such freedom. He knows what he knows, and the world he creates, in which his characters live and breathe, must bear a close resemblance to the real one. But this includes immaterial as well as material reality. Mr. Giraldi is fine with being exact about material reality ("my books are flesh-obsessed"), but he wants to keep the immaterial vague, subjective, fuzzy. That's why he's not a Catholic ... and why he should therefore remain silent about the concerns of Catholic writers. > > Michael Larson > > > > > On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 6:35 AM, wrote: > 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. 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE - > Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers (Henry Mills) > 2. Re: A Good Stamp is Hard to Find (Jonathan Potter) > 3. Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and > blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William Giraldi > (Henry Mills) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 09:05:40 -0400 > From: Henry Mills > To: Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org:Literary and Philosophical Discussion > > Subject: [percy-l] 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND > LITERATURE - Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers > Message-ID: <557C2AA4.1040800 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > The following is a Call for Papers Announcement. For more information, > contact Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu ). > > ** > > *** > Walker Percy Centennial:****Pilgrimage in Literature* > > 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE > > *April 7-9, 2016* > Montreat College, Montreat, NC 28757 > > Keynoters: *Farrell O?Gorman*, Belmont Abbey College > > *Jim Wildeman*, Covenant College, emeritus > > Like Binx Bolling in Walker Percy?s first novel /The Moviegoer, > /literary characters often seek relationship with the God of the Bible. > They feel detached from affairs in the material world. Pilgrims sense a > call from God to pursue him in spite of the unbelief surrounding them. > Essays will be considered from a variety of authors. Topics should > pursue the intersection of faith and literature. Creative writing > presentations are welcome. > > Undergraduate Research essays are invited; the Thursday evening session > is devoted to them. > > > Please submit completed essays to Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu > ) > by January 10, 2016 > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:32:59 -0700 > From: Jonathan Potter > To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" > > Subject: Re: [percy-l] A Good Stamp is Hard to Find > Message-ID: > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Someone at the Korrektiv blog has created an enhanced version of the > Flannery O'Connor stamp: > > http://korrektivpress.com/2015/06/lets-try-that-again/ > > On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Jim Forest wrote: > > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/a-good-stamp-is-hard-to-find.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=true&src=recg&pgtype=article > > A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find > > > > By LAWRENCE DOWNES / NY TIMES / JUNE 4, 2015 > > Photo > > Credit United States Postal Service > > > > English majors, say hooray: Flannery O?Connor is on a postage stamp. It > > comes out Friday and costs 93 cents. > > > > It?s a pretty picture. She wears a simple top with a jewel neckline, and > > pearls. Her pink porcelain face, framed in a 1940s bob, glows with the > > barest hint of a how-do-you-do smile. > > > > Wait ? what?s Betty Crocker doing on Flannery?s stamp? > > > > This stamp does not, to my eyes, show Flannery O?Connor, the 20th-century > > master of the short story, the ?hermit novelist? who fused her art and life > > as a Southerner and a Roman Catholic with stories that are shocking, > > hilarious and often bloody. The one who lived with her mother in > > Milledgeville, Ga., and raised peafowl. Who got sick and died young, of > > lupus, in 1964. Who gazed at the sin-stricken world through cat-eye glasses > > that are as much her visual signature as Hemingway?s beard or Frida?s > > eyebrow. > > > > This stamp shows the artist as a very young woman, barely 20 years old. > > It?s based on a photo of her as an undergraduate at Georgia State College > > for Women. Her oeuvre then amounted to cartoons and stories for the college > > magazine. Everything else in her dazzling career ? the Iowa Writers? > > Workshop, the artists? retreat Yaddo, ?Wise Blood,? ?A Good Man Is Hard to > > Find? ? lay ahead. > > Photo > > Flannery O'Connor beneath her self portrait in June 1962. Credit Joe > > McTyre/Atlanta Journal-Constitution > > > > The image has rattled some O?Connor admirers. (Facebook > > : ?This is all wrong. They > > glamour-shot her. She looks like she has a bad case of pink eye.? ) > > > > The United States Postal Service gave this job to an art director, who > > hired a freelance artist. I spoke with both of them, and learned that > > neither knew much about O?Connor, but they did their best with the images > > they had. The artist told me he had read one of her novels in college. He > > knew O?Connor had raised peacocks, so he framed her with feathers. The art > > director remembered that her work was ?unsettling,? and that she was a > > Catholic. > > > > I can?t blame either of them for deciding on this striking portrait as the > > best fit for their tiny canvas, but I wish they and the Postal Service had > > produced a stamp that was more recognizably the grown-up Flannery, and > > contained some taste of her strange and majestic artistic vision. > > > > I know she does not present an automatic illustrative equation, like > > mustache + steamboat = Mark Twain. But a better choice was staring the > > Postal Service in the face: a painting made by the author herself, a > > self-portrait from 1953. She is wearing a yellow straw hat, holding a > > devilish-looking pheasant and looking straight at you, baleful and > > brilliant, as if she could smell your stupidity. It is gorgeous and jagged > > and honest and perfect. > > > > ?The self-portrait was made ten years ago,? O?Connor wrote to a friend, > > ?after a very acute siege of lupus. I was taking cortisone, which gives you > > what they call a moon-face, and my hair had fallen out to a large extent > > from the high fever, so I looked pretty much like the portrait. When I > > painted it I didn?t look either at myself in the mirror or at the bird. I > > knew what we both looked like.? > > > > A version of this editorial appears in print on June 5, 2015, on page A26 > > of the New York edition with the headline: A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find. > > -- > > *two new books*: > > *Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment*: > > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2014/07/loving-our-enemies/ > > *Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins:* > > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2015/04/saint-nicholas-and-the-nine-gold-coins/ > > > > > > Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com > > Photo albums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ > > > > *Jim & Nancy Forest* > > Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands > > > > * * * > > > > * Percy-L Discussion Archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > > > * Manage Your Membership: > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > > > * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org > > > > * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 07:35:28 -0400 > From: Henry Mills > To: Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org:Literary and Philosophical Discussion > > Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, > bread, and blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William Giraldi > Message-ID: <5587F300.6070206 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" > > Dear Percy-L: > > For those wishing to read an interesting, if not provocative essay > byWilliam Giraldi -- novelist and contributing editor for /The New > Republic -- /on his views of Catholicism and novel-writing from > hiscontemporary perspective, you may wish to consider his below essay > just published online. > > Entitled "Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and > blood aren't just water, bread and blood," Percy, O'Connor, and Graham > Greene are each considered and represented in their perspectives with > numerous quotes and discussion by Giraldi. > > In addition, given the recent postal stamp "controversy" with O'Connor, > the essay features a fascinating photograph of her standing with one of > her peacocks, a photo worth enjoying. > > SPOILER ALERT: Giraldi's essay is both affirming and non-affirming of > its treated subjects. Perhaps some list members would like to respond > for the benefit of the Percy-L community? > > See: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122078/confessions-catholic-novelist > > Best, > > Henry Mills > Percy-L Administrator > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > Percy-L mailing list > Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > > ------------------------------ > > End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 114, Issue 3 > *************************************** > > * Percy-L Discussion Archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > * Manage Your Membership: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org > > * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From desmond at whitman.edu Mon Jun 22 17:41:25 2015 From: desmond at whitman.edu (desmond) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 14:41:25 -0700 Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of a Catholic Novelist In-Reply-To: <5EACED28-6399-4482-8025-B08CAAF2FF25@gmail.com> References: <5EACED28-6399-4482-8025-B08CAAF2FF25@gmail.com> Message-ID: <55888105.3000402@whitman.edu> On 6/22/2015 11:37 AM, Lauren Stacy Berdy wrote: > The reader as much as the writer creates the vision in their own mind > If the process of creation does not happen in the readers mind is not > reenacted > If the subterranean links and connections do not link > The work fails > For this reader Born a Jew Dr Percy wants us alert like one of his hawks > His words give us a renewal and a resuscitation for our own lives > Whitman too was religious ( okay a religion not made by a mind) he > helped us with our emotional evolution > Dr Percy adds to that self generating order > That creative struggle that all great authors ask of Their readers > > I read that article twice and I am sorry that he is wresting so with > his demons > catholic or otherwise. > > > > > > > Sent from my iPad > > On Jun 22, 2015, at 12:14 PM, Michael Larson > wrote: > >> I so hope the world will take him at his word when Mr. Giraldi denies >> being a Catholic. Otherwise, people might mistake his interests and >> concerns for those of a real Catholic novelist. As a secular >> novelist, Mr. Giraldi seems most interested in how his life has >> prepared him to be an /artiste/, his boyhood Catholicism being one of >> those preparations: "An upbringing in the Church has, I suspect and >> hope, outfitted me well as a storyteller." He likes the instincts >> Catholicism gave him--but for the purpose of storytelling and not for >> the purpose of apprehending and conforming oneself to the truth. He >> even likes there to be a quasi-religious vision to fiction, as long >> as it is sufficiently amorphous: "A novel should indeed be a groping >> after some form of the metaphysical, a benediction to unseen powers, >> the upholding of the /mysterium tremendum/, those insistent inklings >> of the numinous." >> >> But the Catholic novelist is most interested in objective reality, >> and he sees his role as artist to be one of rendering that reality as >> well as he can. Obviously some novels (and novelists) are better than >> others, but the vision of the Catholic novelist is neither >> narcissistic nor subjective (Nor is it proselytizing, as Giraldi >> claims with regard to Percy and Greene in particular.). No, the >> Catholic novelist's vision is of something outside of himself, >> corresponding to divine revelation. His characters may be at any >> level of understanding (or rejecting) that reality, but the >> (Catholic) novelist himself has no such freedom. He knows what he >> knows, and the world he creates, in which his characters live and >> breathe, must bear a close resemblance to the real one. But this >> includes immaterial as well as material reality. Mr. Giraldi is fine >> with being exact about material reality ("my books are >> flesh-obsessed"), but he wants to keep the immaterial vague, >> subjective, fuzzy. That's why he's not a Catholic ... and why he >> should therefore remain silent about the concerns of Catholic writers. >> >> Michael Larson >> >> >> >> >> On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 6:35 AM, > > wrote: >> >> 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. 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE - >> Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers (Henry Mills) >> 2. Re: A Good Stamp is Hard to Find (Jonathan Potter) >> 3. Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and >> blood aren't just water, bread and blood - William Giraldi >> (Henry Mills) >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 09:05:40 -0400 >> From: Henry Mills > > >> To: Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org:Literary and Philosophical Discussion >> > > >> Subject: [percy-l] 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND >> LITERATURE - Walker Percy Centennial - Call for Papers >> Message-ID: <557C2AA4.1040800 at gmail.com >> > >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" >> >> The following is a Call for Papers Announcement. For more >> information, >> contact Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu >> >). >> >> ** >> >> *** >> Walker Percy Centennial:****Pilgrimage in Literature* >> >> 2016 SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE >> >> *April 7-9, 2016* >> Montreat College, Montreat, NC 28757 >> >> Keynoters: *Farrell O?Gorman*, Belmont Abbey College >> >> *Jim Wildeman*, Covenant College, emeritus >> >> Like Binx Bolling in Walker Percy?s first novel /The Moviegoer, >> /literary characters often seek relationship with the God of the >> Bible. >> They feel detached from affairs in the material world. Pilgrims >> sense a >> call from God to pursue him in spite of the unbelief surrounding >> them. >> Essays will be considered from a variety of authors. Topics should >> pursue the intersection of faith and literature. Creative writing >> presentations are welcome. >> >> Undergraduate Research essays are invited; the Thursday evening >> session >> is devoted to them. >> >> >> Please submit completed essays to Rich Gray (rgray at montreat.edu >> >> >) >> by January 10, 2016 >> >> >> >> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 2 >> Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:32:59 -0700 >> From: Jonathan Potter > > >> To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" >> > > >> Subject: Re: [percy-l] A Good Stamp is Hard to Find >> Message-ID: >> >> > > >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" >> >> Someone at the Korrektiv blog has created an enhanced version of the >> Flannery O'Connor stamp: >> >> http://korrektivpress.com/2015/06/lets-try-that-again/ >> >> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Jim Forest > > wrote: >> >> > >> > >> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/a-good-stamp-is-hard-to-find.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=N.Y.%20%2F%20Region®ion=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=true&src=recg&pgtype=article >> > A Good Stamp Is Hard to Find >> > >> > By LAWRENCE DOWNES / NY TIMES / JUNE 4, 2015 >> > Photo >> > Credit United States Postal Service >> > >> > English majors, say hooray: Flannery O?Connor is on a postage >> stamp. It >> > comes out Friday and costs 93 cents. >> > >> > It?s a pretty picture. She wears a simple top with a jewel >> neckline, and >> > pearls. Her pink porcelain face, framed in a 1940s bob, glows >> with the >> > barest hint of a how-do-you-do smile. >> > >> > Wait ? what?s Betty Crocker doing on Flannery?s stamp? >> > >> > This stamp does not, to my eyes, show Flannery O?Connor, the >> 20th-century >> > master of the short story, the ?hermit novelist? who fused her >> art and life >> > as a Southerner and a Roman Catholic with stories that are >> shocking, >> > hilarious and often bloody. The one who lived with her mother in >> > Milledgeville, Ga., and raised peafowl. Who got sick and died >> young, of >> > lupus, in 1964. Who gazed at the sin-stricken world through >> cat-eye glasses >> > that are as much her visual signature as Hemingway?s beard or >> Frida?s >> > eyebrow. >> > >> > This stamp shows the artist as a very young woman, barely 20 >> years old. >> > It?s based on a photo of her as an undergraduate at Georgia >> State College >> > for Women. Her oeuvre then amounted to cartoons and stories for >> the college >> > magazine. Everything else in her dazzling career ? the Iowa >> Writers? >> > Workshop, the artists? retreat Yaddo, ?Wise Blood,? ?A Good Man >> Is Hard to >> > Find? ? lay ahead. >> > Photo >> > Flannery O'Connor beneath her self portrait in June 1962. >> Credit Joe >> > McTyre/Atlanta Journal-Constitution >> > >> > The image has rattled some O?Connor admirers. (Facebook >> > : ?This is all >> wrong. They >> > glamour-shot her. She looks like she has a bad case of pink eye.? ) >> > >> > The United States Postal Service gave this job to an art >> director, who >> > hired a freelance artist. I spoke with both of them, and >> learned that >> > neither knew much about O?Connor, but they did their best with >> the images >> > they had. The artist told me he had read one of her novels in >> college. He >> > knew O?Connor had raised peacocks, so he framed her with >> feathers. The art >> > director remembered that her work was ?unsettling,? and that >> she was a >> > Catholic. >> > >> > I can?t blame either of them for deciding on this striking >> portrait as the >> > best fit for their tiny canvas, but I wish they and the Postal >> Service had >> > produced a stamp that was more recognizably the grown-up >> Flannery, and >> > contained some taste of her strange and majestic artistic vision. >> > >> > I know she does not present an automatic illustrative equation, >> like >> > mustache + steamboat = Mark Twain. But a better choice was >> staring the >> > Postal Service in the face: a painting made by the author >> herself, a >> > self-portrait from 1953. She is wearing a yellow straw hat, >> holding a >> > devilish-looking pheasant and looking straight at you, baleful and >> > brilliant, as if she could smell your stupidity. It is gorgeous >> and jagged >> > and honest and perfect. >> > >> > ?The self-portrait was made ten years ago,? O?Connor wrote to a >> friend, >> > ?after a very acute siege of lupus. I was taking cortisone, >> which gives you >> > what they call a moon-face, and my hair had fallen out to a >> large extent >> > from the high fever, so I looked pretty much like the portrait. >> When I >> > painted it I didn?t look either at myself in the mirror or at >> the bird. I >> > knew what we both looked like.? >> > >> > A version of this editorial appears in print on June 5, 2015, >> on page A26 >> > of the New York edition with the headline: A Good Stamp Is Hard >> to Find. >> > -- >> > *two new books*: >> > *Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment*: >> > www.jimandnancyforest.com/2014/07/loving-our-enemies/ >> >> > *Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins:* >> > >> www.jimandnancyforest.com/2015/04/saint-nicholas-and-the-nine-gold-coins/ >> >> > >> >> > >> > Jim & Nancy web site: www.jimandnancyforest.com >> >> > Photo albums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/ >> > >> > *Jim & Nancy Forest* >> > Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands >> > >> > * * * >> > >> > * Percy-L Discussion Archives: >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ >> > >> > * Manage Your Membership: >> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l >> > >> > * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org >> >> > >> > * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy >> > >> > >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Message: 3 >> Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 07:35:28 -0400 >> From: Henry Mills > > >> To: Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org:Literary and Philosophical Discussion >> > > >> Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, >> bread, and blood aren't just water, bread and blood - >> William Giraldi >> Message-ID: <5587F300.6070206 at gmail.com >> > >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" >> >> Dear Percy-L: >> >> For those wishing to read an interesting, if not provocative essay >> byWilliam Giraldi -- novelist and contributing editor for /The New >> Republic -- /on his views of Catholicism and novel-writing from >> hiscontemporary perspective, you may wish to consider his below essay >> just published online. >> >> Entitled "Confessions of A Catholic Novelist: When water, bread, and >> blood aren't just water, bread and blood," Percy, O'Connor, and >> Graham >> Greene are each considered and represented in their perspectives with >> numerous quotes and discussion by Giraldi. >> >> In addition, given the recent postal stamp "controversy" with >> O'Connor, >> the essay features a fascinating photograph of her standing with >> one of >> her peacocks, a photo worth enjoying. >> >> SPOILER ALERT: Giraldi's essay is both affirming and non-affirming of >> its treated subjects. Perhaps some list members would like to >> respond >> for the benefit of the Percy-L community? >> >> See: >> http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122078/confessions-catholic-novelist >> >> Best, >> >> Henry Mills >> Percy-L Administrator >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> Subject: Digest Footer >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Percy-L mailing list >> Percy-L at lists.ibiblio.org >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> End of Percy-L Digest, Vol 114, Issue 3 >> *************************************** >> >> >> * Percy-L Discussion Archives: >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ >> >> * Manage Your Membership: >> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l >> >> * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org >> >> >> * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy > > > * Percy-L Discussion Archives: http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/ > > * Manage Your Membership: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/percy-l > > * Contact the Moderator: percy-l-owner (at) lists.ibiblio.org > > * Visit The Walker Percy Project: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy In his reading of The Moviegoer, Mr. Giraldi completely ignores one of its most important thematic threads, i.e. Binx's intuition of his "Jewishness" as a "clue" to his deepest identity, and where that clue leads him in the novel. Giraldi's simplified interpretation is a serious misreading of the novel (for his own purposes, I suppose). John Desmond -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wppdirector at gmail.com Tue Jun 23 06:27:11 2015 From: wppdirector at gmail.com (Henry Mills) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 06:27:11 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] Confessions of a Catholic Novelist In-Reply-To: <55888105.3000402@whitman.edu> References: <5EACED28-6399-4482-8025-B08CAAF2FF25@gmail.com> <55888105.3000402@whitman.edu> Message-ID: <5589347F.70208@gmail.com> /Note: the following 6/22 post is a re-post of a message that appeared at the bottom of a long section of text for those who missed its commentary. Further comments on Giraldi's essay or otherwise on Percy are invited.// //Henry Mills, Percy-L Administrator/ -- On 6/22/15 5:41 PM, desmond wrote: In his reading of The Moviegoer, Mr. Giraldi completely ignores one of its most important thematic threads, i.e. Binx's intuition of his "Jewishness" as a "clue" to his deepest identity, and where that clue leads him in the novel. Giraldi's simplified interpretation is a serious misreading of the novel (for his own purposes, I suppose). John Desmond > On 6/22/2015 11:37 AM, Lauren Stacy Berdy wrote: >> The reader as much as the writer creates the vision in their own mind >> If the process of creation does not happen in the readers mind is not >> reenacted >> If the subterranean links and connections do not link >> The work fails >> For this reader Born a Jew Dr Percy wants us alert like one of his hawks >> His words give us a renewal and a resuscitation for our own lives >> Whitman too was religious ( okay a religion not made by a mind) he >> helped us with our emotional evolution >> Dr Percy adds to that self generating order >> That creative struggle that all great authors ask of Their readers >> >> I read that article twice and I am sorry that he is wresting so with >> his demons >> catholic or otherwise. >> >> >> On Jun 22, 2015, at 12:14 PM, Michael Larson > > wrote: >> >>> I so hope the world will take him at his word when Mr. Giraldi >>> denies being a Catholic. Otherwise, people might mistake his >>> interests and concerns for those of a real Catholic novelist. As a >>> secular novelist, Mr. Giraldi seems most interested in how his life >>> has prepared him to be an /artiste/, his boyhood Catholicism being >>> one of those preparations: "An upbringing in the Church has, I >>> suspect and hope, outfitted me well as a storyteller." He likes the >>> instincts Catholicism gave him--but for the purpose of storytelling >>> and not for the purpose of apprehending and conforming oneself to >>> the truth. He even likes there to be a quasi-religious vision to >>> fiction, as long as it is sufficiently amorphous: "A novel should >>> indeed be a groping after some form of the metaphysical, a >>> benediction to unseen powers, the upholding of the /mysterium >>> tremendum/, those insistent inklings of the numinous." >>> >>> But the Catholic novelist is most interested in objective reality, >>> and he sees his role as artist to be one of rendering that reality >>> as well as he can. Obviously some novels (and novelists) are better >>> than others, but the vision of the Catholic novelist is neither >>> narcissistic nor subjective (Nor is it proselytizing, as Giraldi >>> claims with regard to Percy and Greene in particular.). No, the >>> Catholic novelist's vision is of something outside of himself, >>> corresponding to divine revelation. His characters may be at any >>> level of understanding (or rejecting) that reality, but the >>> (Catholic) novelist himself has no such freedom. He knows what he >>> knows, and the world he creates, in which his characters live and >>> breathe, must bear a close resemblance to the real one. But this >>> includes immaterial as well as material reality. Mr. Giraldi is fine >>> with being exact about material reality ("my books are >>> flesh-obsessed"), but he wants to keep the immaterial vague, >>> subjective, fuzzy. That's why he's not a Catholic ... and why he >>> should therefore remain silent about the concerns of Catholic writers. >>> >>> Michael Larson >>> >>> >>> >>> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Tue Jun 23 09:18:50 2015 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janetcantor37 at yahoo.com) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 13:18:50 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [percy-l] request Message-ID: <386929496.3903091.1435065530275.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> -- On 6/22/15 5:41 PM, desmond wrote: In his reading of The Moviegoer, Mr. Giraldi completely ignores one of its most important thematic threads, i.e. Binx's intuition of his "Jewishness" as a "clue" to his deepest identity, and where that clue leads him in the novel.? Giraldi's simplified interpretation is a serious misreading of the novel (for his own purposes, I suppose). John Desmond I wonder, would Mr. Desmond care to expand on this for us?Every time I?think I understand something in Percy, someone says something and I think I understand nothing. Janet -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wppdirector at gmail.com Sat Jun 27 09:10:02 2015 From: wppdirector at gmail.com (Henry Mills) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2015 09:10:02 -0400 Subject: [percy-l] 2015 Walker Percy Weekend recap Message-ID: <558EA0AA.7040606@gmail.com> Dear Percy-L: For those interested in a recap of the recent Walker Percy Weekend, June 5-7, in St. Francisville, LA ? where over 350 people joined together in community to celebrate Percy's legacy ? you may enjoy the below readings. Mary Pratt Percy Lobdell, Walker's and Bundt's daughter, attended and shared anecdotes of her life with her father and mother as one unique component of the weekend, among many other Percyesque activities. I hope the list might enjoy these short pieces, and all members will keep the weekend in mind for next year if you are so inclined. Best wishes, Henry Mills Percy-L Administrator -- *The 2015 Walker Percy Weekend* By James Fox-Smith, publisher of /Country Roads Magazine/ - June 2015 /Country Roads/ is a cultural reporting publication focusing on the communities of the Great River Road region between Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana. /Country Roads/ is a leading sponsor of the Walker Percy Weekend. http://www.countryroadsmagazine.com/featured/blogs/editorial-reflections/the-2015-walker-percy-weekend *The Remains of the Weekend* By Rod Dreher, senior editor at /The American Conservative/ - June 8, 2015// /The American Conservative/ is a print magazine and daily site for political analysis based in Washington, DC http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-remains-of-the-weekend-walker-percy/ *2015 Walker Percy We**ekend - Facebook Page *The Walker Percy Weekend's Facebook page based somewhere on the web but hopefully not lost in its vast digital cosmos* *https://www.facebook.com/walkerpercyweekend -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From janetcantor37 at yahoo.com Sat Jun 27 09:56:45 2015 From: janetcantor37 at yahoo.com (janetcantor37 at yahoo.com) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2015 13:56:45 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [percy-l] 2015 Walker Percy Weekend recap In-Reply-To: <558EA0AA.7040606@gmail.com> References: <558EA0AA.7040606@gmail.com> Message-ID: <1771853293.848713.1435413405104.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> 2015 Walker Percy Weekend - Facebook Page The Walker Percy Weekend's Facebook page based somewhere on the web but hopefully not lost in its vast digital cosmos https://www.facebook.com/walkerpercyweekend Reading about the Percy weekend in St. Francisville was all fascinating, but what was the most fun for me to read were the Bruce Springsteen letter and comments from the above link.?These are the things that I am talking about: ?1. It warmed me that someone expressed just the way I felt when the commenter expressed regret for not having written Percy while he was alive. It was only after I read all of the comments that I saw that it was I who said that. Ha. 2. This is from Springsteen's letter about Flannery O'Connor: ?A prime example of her faith: she was participating in a seminar with some modish ex-Catholics like Mary McCarthy. Mary, thinking to be generous toward the church, said something like: ?Well, it is true, some of the Catholic rituals, like the Eucharist, are good symbols.? To which Flannery, who hadn?t said a word, responded with a single sentence: ?I say that it it?s only a symbol, to hell with it.? You will recognize Flannery?s tone. ?I couldn't figure out what that meant and why she would say that, especially since the commenter said you can see O'Connor's tone there. I copied and pasted it to ask Catholic scholar, Carlos Eire what she meant. Then I read---3. Another comment corrected the quote to say "IF it's only a symbol, to hell with it." instead of "it it's". Ha again. ?Now it makes sense. ( not to mention how easily my eye did not see that it and just read the phrase it's only a symbol.) Janet Cantor -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: