L. Lamar Nisly, "Percy's Edgy Satiric Fiction" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
The second target for Percy's satire in Love in the Ruins is scientism. The scientific community is prominent in the novel. This community and Dr More have "bought into the allure that science can provide all the needed answers" (170-171). Representative of the scientific community is the Love Clinic, in which "volunteers perform sexual acts singly, in couples, and in groups, beyond viewing mirrors in order that man might learn more about the human sexual response" (Ruins 12). They turn the sexual act into a scientific experiment that is observed by people in white coats observing their activities. The second facility is the Geriatrics Rehabilitation which is meant to treat older people "for the blues and boredoms of old age" (Ruins 12). They are reconditioned in Skinner boxes to help them to respond positively to their environment. Those who are unable to be rehabilitated is sent to the Happy Isles Separation Center, where if "thy misbehave antisocially they're shocked into bliss" (Ruins 103). Percy in describing these facilities is attacking "an attitude that suggests that humans are simply organisms to be studied and manipulated" (171). Percy often asserts in his writings that people are more than organisms in an environment. They actually transcend their environment. Both the Love Clinic and the Geriatric Rehabilitation facilities turn people into a "specimen." Dr. More is "bothered' by these facilities, but, nevertheless, "is himself guilty of scientism, for he believes that he can diagnose and, he hopes eventually, treat people's psychological disturbances by massaging the brain's electrical pulses with his lapsometer" (171). This purpose is helped by the appearance of a devil figure, Art Immelman, who provides an adapter for More's lapsometer which enables him to "manipulate people's brains" (171). More is enticed into a Faustian bargain. Percy shows Art to be the devil because he is able to perform small miracles and "wince when a person mentions God" (171). More seems to be trying to serve as a savior figure by saving everyone from what ails them. In other words, he is entrapped by scientism too. Nisly asserts, "Rather than offer an alternative to the Scientism he dislikes, Tom embodies another version of science as offering an ultimate answer" (171).
A third target is how white people have treated African-Americans in the South. The relationship between whites and blacks are prominent in this novel. The novel also presents much polarization in the society. He divides the society into Right, Left, and Militant Blacks. Percy offers extensive remarks on race relations in the novel. Nisly observes, "As the society has become more splintered, fear and misunderstandings become more prominent between blacks and whites as well" (171). Percy talks about white flight from public schools through the creation of Valley Forge Academy. This is actually a private school in Louisiana and it still exists. Percy comments on the school, "which was founded on religious and patriotic principles and to keep Negroes out" (Ruins 10). Nisly asserts, "By making explicit what was often only implicit, Percy's use of satire forces his readers to confront directly attitudes behind segregated private schools" (171-172). Percy assigns certain discomforts to the splinter groups: "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" (Ruins 17). Nisly thinks these discomforts points to the extreme anger these groups were experiencing. The humor in describing these groups allows these groups to be seen "afresh."
Percy also criticizes the Church generally, and the Roman Catholic Church particularly. Nisly thinks that a "kind of cultural Christianity is present throughout the novel, with Christian language particularly tied to Knothead issues" (172). For example, they make a big thing of a "golfaroma, a mystical idea of combining a week of golf on a Caribbean Island with the Greatest Pro of them all--a week of revivals conducted by a member of the Billy Graham team" (Ruins 39). However, a more pronounced rebuke is to the fracturing of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has split into three groups: "The American Catholic Church, which emphasizes property rights and the integrity of neighborhoods, retained the Latin mass and plays The Star Spangled Banner at the elevation;" then, there is the Dutch Schismatics, who allow priest to marry, divorce, and maybe, remarry; and last, there is the Roman Catholic remnant, "a tiny scattered flock with no place to go" (Ruins 5). Percy with this satire notes the lack of unity in the Roman Catholic Church. By saying that the American Catholic Church is more concerned about property rights than being faithful disciples to Jesus Christ, shows their lack of commitment. He seems also to talk about priest who have left the church by portraying a former preach who works at the love clinic "vaginal console--but read Commonweal while he is working.
Percy seems to "undercut" these four areas by satire to "point to a deeper commitment that Percy hopes to push his readers to make" (172). Nisly states that after this novel was published, that there was actually a sniped staked out at the Howard Johnson Hotel. Percy was asked by this event stated that it is not difficult to see the path where the country is going: "I mean, we all live in this century, and God is dead, we're told, and what you should believe in is in yourself, your potential, or your neighbor, his potential, or some social change and a few more discoveries" (Robert Coles, Walker Percy, 193). Percy is undercutting certain ideas through his satire so that "these efforts to find meaning apart from faith in God are ultimately doomed for failure" (173).
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Monday, November 19, 2018
Satire in Love in the Ruins Part I
L. Lamar Nisly, "Percy's Edgy Satiric Fiction" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
Tom More says about the United States in the future: "The Center did not hold" (LIR 16). There have been certain criticism about this novel. Rodney Allen describes the novel as "broad, highly topical humor and heavy-handed allusions" (William R. Allen 78). John Edward Hardy observes Percy's "exaggerations, distortions and oversimplifications" in the novel which includes characters that are "types of one sort and another--representatives of social or professional classes, absurd mouthpieces for prejudices and pernicious ideologies--rather than fully individualized human beings. But that is what characters in satire supposed to be" (John Edward Hardy 111). Martin Luschei thinks that the novel works as "comic therapy" because "there is a connection between humor and wholeness. Whose ox has not been gored in this book" (The Sovereign Wayfarer 231). Love in the Ruins is different from his first two novels, but Percy was trying to do something different. Percy did explore different ways to create in his writings. The novel does present Percy's satirical attacks against certain broad themes.
Nisly thinks Percy acts as a canary in Love in the Ruins to warn of a coming disaster. Percy asserts, "The novelist writes about the coming end in order to warn about present ills and so avert the end" (Message 101). Percy describes his approach in the novel: "Increase the polarization, increase the mannerism or the psychic upsets, the anxieties of the liberals and the constipation of the conservatives. You know, that's really the business of the satirist and the futurist: to exaggerate so that things will become more noticeable" (CWP 45). In the novel, Dr. Tom More understands that his "society" is coming apart by noticing the "vines sprouting everywhere and people divided among the Lefts (liberals), Knotheads (conservatives), and Bantus (militant blacks)" (170). As More awaits the end of the world, he prepares three rooms in the abandoned Howard Johnson for three women who he loves. These three women symbolize various responses to the 'Chaos." Lola with her land and her big house represents the old Southern way of life; "Moira, who works at the Love Clinic, seems to represent an etheral sexual presence;" (170) Ellen is a Presbyterian is interested in doing right more than believing in God. She seems to stand as a contrast to the "craziness" around her. The main protagonist, Dr. More is tempted to make a Faustian bargain with the devil for the success of his lapsometer. It can diagnose the patient, but not yet cure the patient. He wants to win the Nobel Prize for his invention. He is tempted to sign over his invention to Art Immelman, the devil character, in exchange for funding his project.
There are several satirical attacks in this novel The attack against Southern Stoicism is not as prominent in this novel compared to other novels. Instead of having a particular character representing Southern Stoicism, he shows the emptiness of the Southern way of life as represented by Dusty Rhodes and his daughter, Lola. She tells Tom, "When all is said and done, the only thing we can be sure of is the land. The land will never let you down" (LIR 238). Tom verbally agrees with her,but in his mind he acknowledges, that "I never knew what that meant" (LIR 238). Lola represents a return to the old Southern ways with a stratified society with the need to protect "Southern womanhood" (170). Percy seems to be satirizing this nostalgic idea of returning to a former time. The next post will look at the target of scientism in Love in the Ruins.
Tom More says about the United States in the future: "The Center did not hold" (LIR 16). There have been certain criticism about this novel. Rodney Allen describes the novel as "broad, highly topical humor and heavy-handed allusions" (William R. Allen 78). John Edward Hardy observes Percy's "exaggerations, distortions and oversimplifications" in the novel which includes characters that are "types of one sort and another--representatives of social or professional classes, absurd mouthpieces for prejudices and pernicious ideologies--rather than fully individualized human beings. But that is what characters in satire supposed to be" (John Edward Hardy 111). Martin Luschei thinks that the novel works as "comic therapy" because "there is a connection between humor and wholeness. Whose ox has not been gored in this book" (The Sovereign Wayfarer 231). Love in the Ruins is different from his first two novels, but Percy was trying to do something different. Percy did explore different ways to create in his writings. The novel does present Percy's satirical attacks against certain broad themes.
Nisly thinks Percy acts as a canary in Love in the Ruins to warn of a coming disaster. Percy asserts, "The novelist writes about the coming end in order to warn about present ills and so avert the end" (Message 101). Percy describes his approach in the novel: "Increase the polarization, increase the mannerism or the psychic upsets, the anxieties of the liberals and the constipation of the conservatives. You know, that's really the business of the satirist and the futurist: to exaggerate so that things will become more noticeable" (CWP 45). In the novel, Dr. Tom More understands that his "society" is coming apart by noticing the "vines sprouting everywhere and people divided among the Lefts (liberals), Knotheads (conservatives), and Bantus (militant blacks)" (170). As More awaits the end of the world, he prepares three rooms in the abandoned Howard Johnson for three women who he loves. These three women symbolize various responses to the 'Chaos." Lola with her land and her big house represents the old Southern way of life; "Moira, who works at the Love Clinic, seems to represent an etheral sexual presence;" (170) Ellen is a Presbyterian is interested in doing right more than believing in God. She seems to stand as a contrast to the "craziness" around her. The main protagonist, Dr. More is tempted to make a Faustian bargain with the devil for the success of his lapsometer. It can diagnose the patient, but not yet cure the patient. He wants to win the Nobel Prize for his invention. He is tempted to sign over his invention to Art Immelman, the devil character, in exchange for funding his project.
There are several satirical attacks in this novel The attack against Southern Stoicism is not as prominent in this novel compared to other novels. Instead of having a particular character representing Southern Stoicism, he shows the emptiness of the Southern way of life as represented by Dusty Rhodes and his daughter, Lola. She tells Tom, "When all is said and done, the only thing we can be sure of is the land. The land will never let you down" (LIR 238). Tom verbally agrees with her,but in his mind he acknowledges, that "I never knew what that meant" (LIR 238). Lola represents a return to the old Southern ways with a stratified society with the need to protect "Southern womanhood" (170). Percy seems to be satirizing this nostalgic idea of returning to a former time. The next post will look at the target of scientism in Love in the Ruins.
Percy's Satiric Targets Part II
L. Lamar Nisly, "Percy's Edgy Satiric Fiction" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
Walker Percy had four broad satiric targets in his writing: Southern Stoicism, scientism, excesses in society, and the Church. The previous post covered Southern Stoicism. This post will cover the other three.
Percy's second satiric target was scientism. This is a target in a majority of Percy's writing. It is a theme that occurs again and again. Percy was a supporter of science and the scientific method, but he was a critic of scientism. Scientism is when science refuses to acknowledge its limitations and argues it has a monopoly on all knowledge. Percy believed that "a kind of idolatry develops when people assume that science can answer the most foundational questions" (164). Percy, in his own life found that science was limited in fundamental questions, that it could cot provide ultimate meaning. Percy learned out the limits of science from his own journey. He became aware "that there was a huge gap in the scientific view of the world. This sector of the world about which science could not utter a single word was nothing less than this: what it is like to be an individual living in the United States in the twentieth century" (SSL 213). Science could only compare things with other things. It could not speak to the condition of the individual person.
A third area for Percy's attack was the "excesses" he saw in the "larger society." Percy spoke out often against abortion and euthanasia. He wrote an op-ed piece against abortion which the New York Times refused to publish. Percy was interested in other issues: war, capital punishment, poverty, racism. Percy stated that being pro-life was more than just being against abortion. He asserted, "you're prolife wherever life is threatened, not just in the case of abortion" (MCWP 121). Percy also satirized the sexual revolution in Lost in the Cosmos.
The last area of satirical attack was issues in the Church. Percy critiques the Church in the South:
The triumphant Christendom of the Sunbelt creates problems for the Southern novelist,
whether he is a believer or unbeliever. If he is an unbeliever, he may feel like attacking it,
but he really doesn't have the heart. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Who needs another
Elmer Gantry?
If he is a believer, he is in a different kind of trouble. He finds himself in bed with the
wrong bedfellows. What makes it difficult for him is that they are proclaiming the same
good news he believes in, using the same noble biblical words, speaking of the same
treasure buried in the field, but somehow devaluing it. If these are the fellows who have
found the treasure buried in the field, then what manner of treasure is it? (SSL 180).
Percy thought that Christianity as practiced by modern Christians problematic because of the :failure of love" towards African-Americans and other minority groups. He also saw the Church as failing to be a light and a "voice of love and hope to an unbelieving world" (166).
Satirical attacks against four broad themes is prominent in the writings of Walker Percy: Southern Stoicism, scientism, the world and the Church. He sees these problems point to a deeper problem, a separation or absence of a relationship with God. Percy attacks these things to point people to a relationship with the transcendent (God).
Walker Percy had four broad satiric targets in his writing: Southern Stoicism, scientism, excesses in society, and the Church. The previous post covered Southern Stoicism. This post will cover the other three.
Percy's second satiric target was scientism. This is a target in a majority of Percy's writing. It is a theme that occurs again and again. Percy was a supporter of science and the scientific method, but he was a critic of scientism. Scientism is when science refuses to acknowledge its limitations and argues it has a monopoly on all knowledge. Percy believed that "a kind of idolatry develops when people assume that science can answer the most foundational questions" (164). Percy, in his own life found that science was limited in fundamental questions, that it could cot provide ultimate meaning. Percy learned out the limits of science from his own journey. He became aware "that there was a huge gap in the scientific view of the world. This sector of the world about which science could not utter a single word was nothing less than this: what it is like to be an individual living in the United States in the twentieth century" (SSL 213). Science could only compare things with other things. It could not speak to the condition of the individual person.
A third area for Percy's attack was the "excesses" he saw in the "larger society." Percy spoke out often against abortion and euthanasia. He wrote an op-ed piece against abortion which the New York Times refused to publish. Percy was interested in other issues: war, capital punishment, poverty, racism. Percy stated that being pro-life was more than just being against abortion. He asserted, "you're prolife wherever life is threatened, not just in the case of abortion" (MCWP 121). Percy also satirized the sexual revolution in Lost in the Cosmos.
The last area of satirical attack was issues in the Church. Percy critiques the Church in the South:
The triumphant Christendom of the Sunbelt creates problems for the Southern novelist,
whether he is a believer or unbeliever. If he is an unbeliever, he may feel like attacking it,
but he really doesn't have the heart. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Who needs another
Elmer Gantry?
If he is a believer, he is in a different kind of trouble. He finds himself in bed with the
wrong bedfellows. What makes it difficult for him is that they are proclaiming the same
good news he believes in, using the same noble biblical words, speaking of the same
treasure buried in the field, but somehow devaluing it. If these are the fellows who have
found the treasure buried in the field, then what manner of treasure is it? (SSL 180).
Percy thought that Christianity as practiced by modern Christians problematic because of the :failure of love" towards African-Americans and other minority groups. He also saw the Church as failing to be a light and a "voice of love and hope to an unbelieving world" (166).
Satirical attacks against four broad themes is prominent in the writings of Walker Percy: Southern Stoicism, scientism, the world and the Church. He sees these problems point to a deeper problem, a separation or absence of a relationship with God. Percy attacks these things to point people to a relationship with the transcendent (God).
Thursday, November 15, 2018
"Percy's Satiric Targets" Part I
L. Lamar Nisly, "Percy's Edgy Satiric Fiction" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
Percy used and satire and the indirect approach because he thought the direct method would not succeed. Nisly asserts, "An important impetus behind his use of indirection, I believe, is his belief that the religious establishment has largely emptied the Christian Language of meaning through overuse and abuse of these terms" (162-163). For example, words like sin, repentance, and salvation. Percy observes, "it's almost impossible for a novelist because you have to use standard words like 'God' and 'salvation' and 'baptism,' 'faith,' and the words are pretty well used up" (CWP 41). Lewis Lawson wrote about Percy's first two novels that Percy's audience was religious, it required him to use "indirect communication" to attract the readers in the aesthetic stage and then--"without ever directly discussing religion or lapsing into a serious tone--attack their religious illusions from behind" (Following Percy 6). Percy's method seems similar to Kierkegaard.
Nisly asks the question, how can we say that Percy's method is indirect when many critics have claimed that his later novels "contain overt attacks on societal ills?" (163). One must remember Percy's purpose in his writing. He is attacking problems in society to point to a greater need, an absence of God. Percy argues, "It becomes possible, whether one believes in God or not, soul or not, to agree in an age in which the self is not informed by cosmological myths, by totemism, by belief in God--whether the God of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam--it must necessarily and by reason of its own semiotic nature be informed by something else" (Lost in the Cosmos 178). Percy believes that everyone "must believe in something, even if it is not God" (163). A common strategy of Percy is to attack substitutes for belief in God for the purpose of pointing to God. Percy often said that the novelist is one of the few pointing to original sin. Percy asks, "Is it too much to say that the novelist, unlike the new theologian, is one of the few remaining witnesses to the doctrine of original sin, the imminence of catastrophe in paradise" (MB 106). It is questionable that all novelists are "witnesses" of original sin, but it is true of Percy. Percy is pointing out the problems in society, exploring the darkness of sin in the modern world.Percy thinks that it is the novelist's vocation "to explore the darker recesses of the human heart, there to name the strange admixture of good and evil, the action of the demonic, the action of grace, of courage and cowardice and vice versa; in a word, the strange human creature himself" (SSL 36). Since humans cannot find true fulfillment without believing in God, Percy "satirically exposes, undercuts, and indicts elements of American culture that humans turn to in place of belief in God" (164).
Nisly points out four satiric themes observed in Percy's fiction. The first target is Southern Stoicism. This is a part of the view of the Southern Aristocracy as modeled by Percy's Uncle Will. Percy thought that Southern Stoicism had a bigger influence on the South than Christianity. Percy asserts, "how curiously foreign to the South sound the Decalogue, the Beatitudes, the doctrine of the Mystical Body. The South's virtues were the broadsword virtues of the clan, as were her vices, too--the hubris of the noblesse gone arrogant" (SSL 84). Percy often points out how the Southerner treated the African American. Percy argues that the "Stoical attitude" made an inner call "to duty, to honor, to generosity to his fellow men and above all to his inferiors--not because they were made in the image of God and were therefore lovable in themselves, but because to do them an injustice would be to defile the inner fortress which was oneself" (SSL 85). Percy experienced the emptiness of Southern Stoicism through his relationship with his father and his Uncle Will. He used satire to pinpoint the weaknesses of Southern Stoicism throughout his fiction. We will look at the three other themes for satire in the next post.
Percy used and satire and the indirect approach because he thought the direct method would not succeed. Nisly asserts, "An important impetus behind his use of indirection, I believe, is his belief that the religious establishment has largely emptied the Christian Language of meaning through overuse and abuse of these terms" (162-163). For example, words like sin, repentance, and salvation. Percy observes, "it's almost impossible for a novelist because you have to use standard words like 'God' and 'salvation' and 'baptism,' 'faith,' and the words are pretty well used up" (CWP 41). Lewis Lawson wrote about Percy's first two novels that Percy's audience was religious, it required him to use "indirect communication" to attract the readers in the aesthetic stage and then--"without ever directly discussing religion or lapsing into a serious tone--attack their religious illusions from behind" (Following Percy 6). Percy's method seems similar to Kierkegaard.
Nisly asks the question, how can we say that Percy's method is indirect when many critics have claimed that his later novels "contain overt attacks on societal ills?" (163). One must remember Percy's purpose in his writing. He is attacking problems in society to point to a greater need, an absence of God. Percy argues, "It becomes possible, whether one believes in God or not, soul or not, to agree in an age in which the self is not informed by cosmological myths, by totemism, by belief in God--whether the God of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam--it must necessarily and by reason of its own semiotic nature be informed by something else" (Lost in the Cosmos 178). Percy believes that everyone "must believe in something, even if it is not God" (163). A common strategy of Percy is to attack substitutes for belief in God for the purpose of pointing to God. Percy often said that the novelist is one of the few pointing to original sin. Percy asks, "Is it too much to say that the novelist, unlike the new theologian, is one of the few remaining witnesses to the doctrine of original sin, the imminence of catastrophe in paradise" (MB 106). It is questionable that all novelists are "witnesses" of original sin, but it is true of Percy. Percy is pointing out the problems in society, exploring the darkness of sin in the modern world.Percy thinks that it is the novelist's vocation "to explore the darker recesses of the human heart, there to name the strange admixture of good and evil, the action of the demonic, the action of grace, of courage and cowardice and vice versa; in a word, the strange human creature himself" (SSL 36). Since humans cannot find true fulfillment without believing in God, Percy "satirically exposes, undercuts, and indicts elements of American culture that humans turn to in place of belief in God" (164).
Nisly points out four satiric themes observed in Percy's fiction. The first target is Southern Stoicism. This is a part of the view of the Southern Aristocracy as modeled by Percy's Uncle Will. Percy thought that Southern Stoicism had a bigger influence on the South than Christianity. Percy asserts, "how curiously foreign to the South sound the Decalogue, the Beatitudes, the doctrine of the Mystical Body. The South's virtues were the broadsword virtues of the clan, as were her vices, too--the hubris of the noblesse gone arrogant" (SSL 84). Percy often points out how the Southerner treated the African American. Percy argues that the "Stoical attitude" made an inner call "to duty, to honor, to generosity to his fellow men and above all to his inferiors--not because they were made in the image of God and were therefore lovable in themselves, but because to do them an injustice would be to defile the inner fortress which was oneself" (SSL 85). Percy experienced the emptiness of Southern Stoicism through his relationship with his father and his Uncle Will. He used satire to pinpoint the weaknesses of Southern Stoicism throughout his fiction. We will look at the three other themes for satire in the next post.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Walker Percy's Malicious Writing
L. Lamar Nisly, "Percy's Edgy Satiric Fiction" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
People are not usually "neutral" about Percy's writing. In regards to The Moviegoer, he stated, "They either like it and identify with it immediately, or they are repelled. As well as might be, since is the book is mainly an assault" (CWP 6). Percy means that they are attacking certain things that he sees is wrong. The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman have a milder tone than his later novels. Percy often described how his writing is motivated out of disgust or animosity. He wrote to Shelby Foote, "Sometimes I think the creative urge comes from malice--a strong desire to attack one's enemies or at least those in the culture one considers to be wrong-headed and injurious--from one's own malice, envy, pride, and other capital sins" (Correspondence of Percy with Foote 128-129). This statement implies a critique of others and himself. In regards to his tone, he "laughs to Foote that Percy's wife Bunt agreed with a reviewer of Love in the Ruins that 'I am a smart ass!' (160)." Percy also remarks that Robert Cole's assessment of himself makes him look too good: "I feel a good deal more malevolent, oblique, phony, ironical, and, I hope, more entertaining" (CSFAP 251).
Nisly thinks even if "Percy's fiction is often humorous, derisive, and hard to pin down, the reader must never lose sight of the larger affirmation that Percy is making" (161). Percy observed about his writing, "I'm always writing on the narrow edge between psychosis and neurosis and 'the norm.' My characters always have something apparently wrong with them and apparently they are living in a 'normal' world. The question is always that delicate balance: who is crazy and who is not? Who is right? The inkling is that the so-called neurotic or crazy person is on to something that 'normal' people are not" (MCWP 55). Nisly believes this focusing on his method "is one that resists simple univocal reading" (161; Walker Percy's Voices 20), because when he undermines a character he "may also be affirming some aspect that he or she represents." Because of Percy's levels of discourse it is often hard to pinpoint the exact meaning of the text. Percy's satire is ultimately life-affirming. His end is to build up after tearing down, especially, on better foundations. Percy's satire is "always launched in the mode of hope" (161).
People are not usually "neutral" about Percy's writing. In regards to The Moviegoer, he stated, "They either like it and identify with it immediately, or they are repelled. As well as might be, since is the book is mainly an assault" (CWP 6). Percy means that they are attacking certain things that he sees is wrong. The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman have a milder tone than his later novels. Percy often described how his writing is motivated out of disgust or animosity. He wrote to Shelby Foote, "Sometimes I think the creative urge comes from malice--a strong desire to attack one's enemies or at least those in the culture one considers to be wrong-headed and injurious--from one's own malice, envy, pride, and other capital sins" (Correspondence of Percy with Foote 128-129). This statement implies a critique of others and himself. In regards to his tone, he "laughs to Foote that Percy's wife Bunt agreed with a reviewer of Love in the Ruins that 'I am a smart ass!' (160)." Percy also remarks that Robert Cole's assessment of himself makes him look too good: "I feel a good deal more malevolent, oblique, phony, ironical, and, I hope, more entertaining" (CSFAP 251).
Nisly thinks even if "Percy's fiction is often humorous, derisive, and hard to pin down, the reader must never lose sight of the larger affirmation that Percy is making" (161). Percy observed about his writing, "I'm always writing on the narrow edge between psychosis and neurosis and 'the norm.' My characters always have something apparently wrong with them and apparently they are living in a 'normal' world. The question is always that delicate balance: who is crazy and who is not? Who is right? The inkling is that the so-called neurotic or crazy person is on to something that 'normal' people are not" (MCWP 55). Nisly believes this focusing on his method "is one that resists simple univocal reading" (161; Walker Percy's Voices 20), because when he undermines a character he "may also be affirming some aspect that he or she represents." Because of Percy's levels of discourse it is often hard to pinpoint the exact meaning of the text. Percy's satire is ultimately life-affirming. His end is to build up after tearing down, especially, on better foundations. Percy's satire is "always launched in the mode of hope" (161).
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Walker Percy's use of Satire
L. Lamar Nisly, "Percy's Edgy Satiric Fiction" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
Nisly asserts, "Percy's novels are, at times, wacky and over-the-top and potentially offensive--engaging in a kind of broad satiric comedy. At the same time, the stance from which Percy is writing is also from the edge, since his plaintive--and sometimes frantic--canary cries point out all areas in need of correction that he observes from his stance on the margins" (159). I have noticed or observed Percy to be a person on the margins of different communities: Church, Covington, the South, American culture, the Academy. Percy, even after conversion continued living as a wayfarer. This is why many readers feel drawn to his work. In addition, he is a satirical writer. He pokes fun at many modern theories in his writings, scientism, materialism, secularism.
Percy's purpose for his satirical writing is to produce change in his reader. Some reviewers have criticized Percy for being to harsh in his criticism, but it is important to keep in mind his purpose for his satirical wring. Percy sees himself as "life-affirming," but "before life can be affirmed for the novelist or his readers, death-in-life must be named." Pointing out this death-in-life is, Percy asserts, "a thousand times more life-affirming than all the life-affirming self-help books about me being okay and you being okay and everybody being okay, but more likely in deep trouble" (SSL 164). Percy points out the troubles in the world to wake up his reader from the the "malaise" and "everydayness" and to begin a search for real life.
Percy thinks religious language is worn out, so he can not speak directly about the Christian faith that "motivates his writing" (159). Nisly compares O'Connor's approach with Percy's: "In contrast to O'Connor, who often directly attacked unbelief in her fiction..., Percy's satiric approach, I believe, is his effort to engage indirectly his reader's spiritual malaise" (159-160). Percy's malaise is like Kierkegaard's despair without knowing one is in despair. One is dead, but does not know it. Percy is "distressed about the disbelief he sees around him, but he generally invokes this spiritual concern more obliquely through his dire criticisms of societal wrongs"(160). He see these wrongs as symptoms of larger problems. He thinks they point to spiritual issues. Nisly thinks that there are four basic targets for his satire in his novels: "his critique of southern Stoicism, his repudiation of Scientism, his condemnation of societal ills, and his criticism of the Church's failings" (160). These themes do appear in the early novels, but they are more prominent in his later novels, beginning with Love in the Ruins. It does not seem to be prominent in his Second Coming. Nisly asserts that "Percy also targets those characters who seem to represent his own positions, satirizing the moralists themselves" (160).
Nisly asserts, "Percy's novels are, at times, wacky and over-the-top and potentially offensive--engaging in a kind of broad satiric comedy. At the same time, the stance from which Percy is writing is also from the edge, since his plaintive--and sometimes frantic--canary cries point out all areas in need of correction that he observes from his stance on the margins" (159). I have noticed or observed Percy to be a person on the margins of different communities: Church, Covington, the South, American culture, the Academy. Percy, even after conversion continued living as a wayfarer. This is why many readers feel drawn to his work. In addition, he is a satirical writer. He pokes fun at many modern theories in his writings, scientism, materialism, secularism.
Percy's purpose for his satirical writing is to produce change in his reader. Some reviewers have criticized Percy for being to harsh in his criticism, but it is important to keep in mind his purpose for his satirical wring. Percy sees himself as "life-affirming," but "before life can be affirmed for the novelist or his readers, death-in-life must be named." Pointing out this death-in-life is, Percy asserts, "a thousand times more life-affirming than all the life-affirming self-help books about me being okay and you being okay and everybody being okay, but more likely in deep trouble" (SSL 164). Percy points out the troubles in the world to wake up his reader from the the "malaise" and "everydayness" and to begin a search for real life.
Percy thinks religious language is worn out, so he can not speak directly about the Christian faith that "motivates his writing" (159). Nisly compares O'Connor's approach with Percy's: "In contrast to O'Connor, who often directly attacked unbelief in her fiction..., Percy's satiric approach, I believe, is his effort to engage indirectly his reader's spiritual malaise" (159-160). Percy's malaise is like Kierkegaard's despair without knowing one is in despair. One is dead, but does not know it. Percy is "distressed about the disbelief he sees around him, but he generally invokes this spiritual concern more obliquely through his dire criticisms of societal wrongs"(160). He see these wrongs as symptoms of larger problems. He thinks they point to spiritual issues. Nisly thinks that there are four basic targets for his satire in his novels: "his critique of southern Stoicism, his repudiation of Scientism, his condemnation of societal ills, and his criticism of the Church's failings" (160). These themes do appear in the early novels, but they are more prominent in his later novels, beginning with Love in the Ruins. It does not seem to be prominent in his Second Coming. Nisly asserts that "Percy also targets those characters who seem to represent his own positions, satirizing the moralists themselves" (160).
Monday, November 12, 2018
Walker Percy as a Canary
L. Lamar Nisly, "Walker Percy: The Writer as Diagnostic Canary to Pilgrim Wayfarers" in Wingless Chickens, Bayou Catholics, and Pilgrim Wayfarers: Constructions of Audience and Tone in O'Connor, Gautreaux, and Percy. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2011.
Percy often compared his writing to a "canary in a mineshaft, to sound a warning when problems arose" (156). Percy once wrote in a letter to Caroline Gordon: "Actually I do not consider myself a novelist but a moralist and a propagandist. My spiritual father is Pascal (and/or Kierkegaard). And if I also kneel before the alter of Lawrence and Joyce and Flaubert, it is not because I wish to do what they did, even if I could. What I really want to do is tell people what they must do and what they must believe if they want to live" ( Tolson, Pilgrim, 500). The problem with this statement is that it must not be taken too seriously. Percy often spoke ironically, and it is hard to know when he is shooting straight with you. I do think that he considered himself a novelist and he did have a message he wanted to deliver. In a 1986 essay Percy wrote: "If he [the novelist] doesn't qualify as a prophet these days, he may at least serve as a curious outsider and watcher, a kind of monitor--something like those instruments they stick into the earth on each side of the San Andreas Fault" (SSL 162). Percy often said that it was not his role to edify his reader "but rather to participate with the reader in his or her journey" (156). The reader needs to take all of Percy's statements about his role as a writer and compare them with each other. Percy wanted to deliver message, but he did not want to write a gospel tract. In addition, many people do consider Percy to be an excellent novelist.
Percy did say in his essays that his writing was informed by his Catholic faith. Percy through his long career sought in different ways sought to communicate his role as a writer. They are not necessarily consistent. Percy saw his writing as prophetic or apocalyptic. He stated, "the novelist writes about the coming of the end in order to warn about present ills and so avert the end" (Message 101). Percy was a hopeful writer. He pointed out what was wrong with the world, so changes could be made to avoid disaster. He is also a writer of comedy because he uses satire to point out the ills in the world. Percy thought that novelists should "explore the darker recesses of the human heart, there to name and affirm the strange admixture of good and evil, the actions of the demonic, the action of grace" (SSL 36). Percy thought that the novelist is a diagnostician, "a person who stands toward another person in the relation of one who knows that something has gone wrong with the other. He, the physician-novelist, has a nose for pathology" (SSL 194). It is interesting that often when Percy describes novelists, he seems to be describing himself. He saw the novelist as a great explorer: "nothing less than an exploration of the options [...] a man who not only is in Crusoe's predicament, a castaway of sorts, but who is also acutely aware of his predicament" (SSL 217). He thinks that the writer should notice "small clues that something strange is going on, a telltale sign here and there. Sign of what? A sign that things have gotten very queer without anyone seeming to notice it" (SSL 115, 163). Percy believes that a "twentieth-century novelist should be a nag, an advertiser, a collector, a proclaimer of banal atrocities" (SSL 340).
A common theme in Percy's writings is that something is wrong and the novelist must point it out. Percy even differentiates his stance from Flannery O'Connor's: O'Connor recognized that "the modern world is territory largely occupied by the devil. No one doubts the malevolence abroad in the world. But the world is also deranged. What interests me as a novelist is not the malevolence of man--so what else is new?--but his looniness. The looniness, that is to say, of the normal denizen of the Western world who, I think it is fair to say, doesn't know who he is, what he believes, or what he is doing" (MCWP 141-142). Percy often has someone in his novel with mental disabilities and provokes the reader to decide who is sane in the world. Nisly states, "Percy is pointing out the craziness that he sees enacted around him. In pointing out this 'looniness,' Percy hopes to name the illness for his audience--an audience that he well knows since he was also in their same situation. With his position at the edge of the Church and the larger culture, he is uniquely situated to point out problems in both arenas" (157).
Percy often compared his writing to a "canary in a mineshaft, to sound a warning when problems arose" (156). Percy once wrote in a letter to Caroline Gordon: "Actually I do not consider myself a novelist but a moralist and a propagandist. My spiritual father is Pascal (and/or Kierkegaard). And if I also kneel before the alter of Lawrence and Joyce and Flaubert, it is not because I wish to do what they did, even if I could. What I really want to do is tell people what they must do and what they must believe if they want to live" ( Tolson, Pilgrim, 500). The problem with this statement is that it must not be taken too seriously. Percy often spoke ironically, and it is hard to know when he is shooting straight with you. I do think that he considered himself a novelist and he did have a message he wanted to deliver. In a 1986 essay Percy wrote: "If he [the novelist] doesn't qualify as a prophet these days, he may at least serve as a curious outsider and watcher, a kind of monitor--something like those instruments they stick into the earth on each side of the San Andreas Fault" (SSL 162). Percy often said that it was not his role to edify his reader "but rather to participate with the reader in his or her journey" (156). The reader needs to take all of Percy's statements about his role as a writer and compare them with each other. Percy wanted to deliver message, but he did not want to write a gospel tract. In addition, many people do consider Percy to be an excellent novelist.
Percy did say in his essays that his writing was informed by his Catholic faith. Percy through his long career sought in different ways sought to communicate his role as a writer. They are not necessarily consistent. Percy saw his writing as prophetic or apocalyptic. He stated, "the novelist writes about the coming of the end in order to warn about present ills and so avert the end" (Message 101). Percy was a hopeful writer. He pointed out what was wrong with the world, so changes could be made to avoid disaster. He is also a writer of comedy because he uses satire to point out the ills in the world. Percy thought that novelists should "explore the darker recesses of the human heart, there to name and affirm the strange admixture of good and evil, the actions of the demonic, the action of grace" (SSL 36). Percy thought that the novelist is a diagnostician, "a person who stands toward another person in the relation of one who knows that something has gone wrong with the other. He, the physician-novelist, has a nose for pathology" (SSL 194). It is interesting that often when Percy describes novelists, he seems to be describing himself. He saw the novelist as a great explorer: "nothing less than an exploration of the options [...] a man who not only is in Crusoe's predicament, a castaway of sorts, but who is also acutely aware of his predicament" (SSL 217). He thinks that the writer should notice "small clues that something strange is going on, a telltale sign here and there. Sign of what? A sign that things have gotten very queer without anyone seeming to notice it" (SSL 115, 163). Percy believes that a "twentieth-century novelist should be a nag, an advertiser, a collector, a proclaimer of banal atrocities" (SSL 340).
A common theme in Percy's writings is that something is wrong and the novelist must point it out. Percy even differentiates his stance from Flannery O'Connor's: O'Connor recognized that "the modern world is territory largely occupied by the devil. No one doubts the malevolence abroad in the world. But the world is also deranged. What interests me as a novelist is not the malevolence of man--so what else is new?--but his looniness. The looniness, that is to say, of the normal denizen of the Western world who, I think it is fair to say, doesn't know who he is, what he believes, or what he is doing" (MCWP 141-142). Percy often has someone in his novel with mental disabilities and provokes the reader to decide who is sane in the world. Nisly states, "Percy is pointing out the craziness that he sees enacted around him. In pointing out this 'looniness,' Percy hopes to name the illness for his audience--an audience that he well knows since he was also in their same situation. With his position at the edge of the Church and the larger culture, he is uniquely situated to point out problems in both arenas" (157).
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