Russell Moore, dean of the School of Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote recently on the 20th anniversary of Walker Percy’s death.  In his post, Dr. Moore makes some interesting observations on Percy’s unique style.  I’ll provide one quote here, but it is worth reading all of Dr. Moore’s comments.

Percy’s apocalyptic writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, sounds so much different than the faux-apocalypticism of so much contemporary Christian “culture war” rhetoric. It’s direct, yes, about human sin and human guilt. He wasn’t writing to raise money from those who would love to have a “your future is bright” imprimatur for the way things are. But there’s a hopefulness there. Part of that is because Percy was writing for the human conscience, not to raise direct-mail money from the outraged.

Tags: Russell Moore

Percy examines the importance of language and ideas in a speech titled “The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind“.

The goal of the Walker Percy Center for Writing and Publishing is to foster literary talent and achievement, to highlight the art of writing as essential to a good education, and to serve the makers, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing by providing educational and vocational opportunities in writing and publishing. We envision the Center as a vital part of the University’s commitment to the educational needs of its students and of the citizens of New Orleans, as specified in Loyola’s Statement of Educational Purpose.

By naming the Center for Walker Percy, we honor the memory and contributions of this prominent American author, Catholic, and former Loyola faculty member. By establishing such a center and encouraging publication, we can draw on and further the strengths of several arts departments on campus, including English, communications, music, drama, and visual arts.

Tags: documentary, Win Riley

Andrew Santella makes his way through The Moviegoer each year as part of his Lenten preparation. He has been reading the book in “real time” and has decided to blog his progress.

For the last few years, I’ve been reading the book in real time, which is to say I read the sections of the book that take place on the Wednesday before Mardi Gras on that Wednesday, the Thursday sections on Thursday, etc. There’s no very compelling reason to read like this and some good reasons not to—for one thing, trying to explain this system tends to make you sound a little obsessed and unhinged. But I do it mainly because I think Binx Bolling, The Moviegoer’s hero and narrator, would approve.

Well, not that it matters, but I also approve. You can check out Andrew’s first post here, and you can keep up with him as he chronicles Binx’s search.

Tags: The Moviegoer

I’ve not seen a single episdoe of Lost, but I’m told there are a number of literary allusions in the story lines. This morning I came across a reference to the books of Lost.  Percy’s Lancelot makes an appearance, so now I’m half tempted to watch the show — although I’d have to start from the beginning.

Tags: Lancelot, Lost

I am just now reading the management book that everyone else in American business read 15 years ago–The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Believe it or not, Covey said something early in his book that made me think of the Will Barrett character from The Last Gentleman and The Second Coming. Nothing too profound here, just an observation. (And yes, I am aware of the irony of comparing what is basically a well-written self-help book to Percy’s novels given the treatment Percy gives the genre in Lost in the Cosmos.)

Covey writes that we should move on a Maturity Continuum from dependence, to independence and finally interdependence. He points out that we begin life as infants completely dependent on others. In order to survive we rely on someone else. It is a you focus–you take care of me, you need to handle this, I’m depending on you, etc. He then says that as we grow and mature we (should) rise to the level of independence. At this level we are focused on I–I can do it, I am responsible, I am capable. However, Covey believes we should then strive to reach the higher level of interdependence where the pronoun is we–we can do it, we cooperate, we can pool our talents, etc.

What does any of this have to do with Will Barrett? It struck me that throughout most of The Last Gentleman, Barrett is desperate for someone to tell him who to be and how to act. He clings to Kitty, Sutter, Val, anyone he thinks understands how to live with purpose. He is dependent. By the The Second Coming, Barrett is independent. He pronounces his independence by crawling into a cave to test God. The story ends with Barrett interdependent with his decision to marry Allison. He understands that together they are better than they were alone.

Again, nothing too original here, just the realization that Barrett had to become independent before he could become interdependent. He couldn’t skip that step. If he had stayed with Kitty, as we left him at the end of The Last Gentleman, he would have simply stayed dependent, and not much of a man. Yet, had he stayed independent much longer he would have eventually taken his own life. He moved from one stage (or paradigm to use Covey’s over-used word) to another just in the knick of time. God’s grace was extended at each transition, and Will was given the opportunity to grow and mature. Perhaps other opportunities had appeared before, but eventually grace and courage combined to move him forward.

Tags: Stephen Covey, The Last Gentleman, The Second Coming

The folks over at National Review have put together a list of the best conservative novels published since 1950. The Thanatos Syndrome makes number five on their list. I assume it is Percy’s attack on Fedville technocrat killers that earns him a place amongst conservative thinkers. While not known for being purposely political, Percy does use his insight and biting wit to highlight the devastating consequences of allowing collective social “good” to override the sanctity and primacy of individual life.

Tags: conservative, The Thanatos Syndrome

I agree with you about St. Thomas More.  He is, for us, the Road Back. For our countrymen, I mean, for Southerners…. He is the man to pray to for the conversion of the South. One of the stumbling blocks to the Southerner (or American) who is drawn to the Church is that he sees not the Church of More, not the English church which is his spiritual home, but the Church of St. Alphonsus by way of Irish Jesuits. If he does go in, he must go in with face averted and his nose held against the odor of Italian-Irish pietism and all the bad statues and architecture.

Cited in an essay by Marion Montgomery entitled, “With Walker Percy at the Tupperware Party.”

Tags: The South, Thomas More

It seems that the University of Minnesota and the Minneapolis VA Medical Center have invented something akin to Dr. Thomas More’s Qualitative-Quantitative Ontological Lapsometer–the stethoscope of the spirit.

CNN reports that researchers, “found a distinct pattern of brain activity among Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sufferers. The team used magnetoencephalography (MEG), a brain imaging method that measures how the brain processes information.” This scanner is used to track brain biomarkers, and they say the procedure is 90% accurrate in diagnosing PTSD suffers.

As readers of Percy’s Love in the Ruins will remember, with his trusty lapsometer, Dr. More surveyed Brodmann’s Area 32 in the human brain to assist those afflicted by angelism or bestialism tendencies. Essentially, he was able to help the alienated, anxious, lustful or those suffering from other forms of existential dis-ease.

You might also recall that in Dr. More’s world, our regular old televisions were being replaced by 3-D versions called stereo-Vs. It is nice to know that modern technology is again catching up to Percy. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, 3-D TVs were all the rage.

Furthermore, politically we know that just as Percy predicted, the center did not hold. “Conservatives have begun to fall victim to unseasonable rages, delusions of conspiracies, high blood pressure, and large bowel complaints. Liberals are more apt to contract sexual impotence, morning terror, and a feeling of abstraction of the self from itself.”

I think I’d better start drinking Early Times and carrying a revolver to prepare for what’s coming next.

Tags: lapsometer, Love in the Ruins