[percy-l] "Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Age of Suicide"
Jim Forest
jhforest at gmail.com
Mon Jun 3 13:37:21 EDT 2019
https://www.lawliberty.org/2019/05/31/prophets-for-our-age-of-suicide/
Jessica Hooten Wilson reviews
<https://micahmattix.us9.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09f1740da57f3d9169001129e&id=2270ee57b4&e=818af2b259>
John
Desmond’s *Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Age of Suicide*: “*Love
in the Ruins* is set a dozen years in the future from when Percy published
it, set in 1983 in an apocalyptic USA, vines are sprouting everywhere and
taking hold, violence is an acceptable form of arguing oppositional
ideologies, love equals orgies and multiple sexual partners, and demonic
forces sell technology and scientific advances to eager consumers. Percy
borrowed the idea from Dostoevsky’s *The Demons*. Although both novels
appear panoramic in scale, the problems arise from persons who, like
Dostoevsky’s title suggests, act devilishly, and the evil is contagious.
Both novels depict worlds where no one believes in God any longer.
Dostoevsky predicted, if God does not exist, all things are permitted.
Going a step further, Percy argues that this explains ‘the rise of all
these ideologies.’ Anyone want to live in these fictional brave new worlds?
Cultural diagnoses like these are easy and go rather unheeded if an author
only foretells gloom and doom. The prophets of genius must also elucidate
the cause and offer an alternative vision. Novelists like Dostoevsky and
Percy strive to prevent World War III not by lamenting the destruction, but
by depicting narratively how a person’s erroneous perception of herself may
lead to nuclear holocaust.”
* * *
recipient of the International Thomas Merton Society’s “Louie” award:
*The Root of War is Fear: Thomas Merton's Advice to Peacemakers *
www.jimandnancyforest.com/2016/06/root-of-war-is-fear/
*books in print: *www.jimandnancyforest.com/books/
*web site: *www.jimandnancyforest.com
*Facebook page:* https://www.facebook.com/jim.forest1
*photos: *www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/albums/
*Amazon author page*: www.amazon.com/author/jimforest
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