Percy, Walker. "The Delta Factor" in The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, And What One Has To Do With the Other. New York: Picador.
The Delta Factor is the first essay in Percy's book The Message in the Bottle. It was first published in January 1975 in The Southern Review. The essay is a good introduction to the book because it discusses the major theme of the book: how can language help us develop a theory of Man (and Woman). Percy introduces the essay about describing "the Delta Factor": "How I discovered the Delta Factor sitting at my desk one summer day in Louisiana in the 1950's thinking about an event in the Life of Helen Keller on another summer day in Alabama in 1887" (3). This even is mentioned many times in his writing. It is like it was a revelation for him. He is referring to the experience of Helen Keller at the well with water. It was there that it was revealed to her that water, the concept was related to water the material thing. After her birth into language, she transcended her environment. She no longer was captive to her environment, but actually transcended it.
Another strategy he uses in his writing is asking one question after another. A sample from this essay:
Why does man feel so sad in the twentieth century? Why does man feel so bad in the very age when, more than in any other age, he has succeeded in satisfying his needs and making over the world for his own use?. . . . Why do people often feel bad in good environments and good in bad environments? Why do people often feel so bad in good environments that they prefer bad environments? (4).
There are other questions, but this is a good sample of them. It definitely gets one thinking. Maybe, it opens a door for a conversation with the reader. Percy asks questions about modern theories of man and why it does not work. He hints that one age has ended and we are in transition to a new age (secular?). He states that people cannot understand themselves by the theories of modern times. He asks the question, what is different about man? He distinguishes between animals and man living in an environment. Why does man feel bad in a good environment? Is this something animal feels? He states that the theory of man that says man is like another organism in an environment does not work. We need to find another theory for man. He believes the place to start is language. He asks the question: "What does it entail to be a speaking creature, that is, a creature who names things and utter sentences about things which other similar creatures understand and misunderstand? " (8).
He thinks there is a gap between animal speech and human speech. He believes humans are different from animals in kind, not just degree. He wonders if language is the key than could tell us about this difference. He asks, "Why is it that scientists have a theory about everything under the sun but do not have a theory of man?" (8). He thinks that the scientist's theories explains everything, but the scientist. He thinks that the "old modern world" has ended. He asserts, "Man knows he is something more than an organism in an environment, because for one thing he acts like anything but an organism in an environment" (9). Percy makes this point over and over again in his work.
Percy says that his book (and this essay) is about "two things, man's strange behavior and man strange gift of language, and about how understanding the latter might help understanding the former" (9). Percy believed that by understanding the language of man, one could understand man. He does not think a theory of man now exists. He is probably thinking a coherent theory of man. Percy thought about the theory of man and the theory of language most of his life. It had an impact on his novels. Percy recognizes that he is an amateur in this discipline, but he refuses to surrender it to the experts. Percy notes, "So the book is not about language but about the creatures who use it and what happens when they do. Since no other creature but man uses language, it is really an anthrpology, a study of man doing the uniquely human thing" (11).
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