Here is astrophysicist Adam Frank’s insightful look at Walker Percy’s wonderful book. I don’t share Frank’s nor Lawler’s nor Percy’s optimism but I’m trying very hard. Also check out Peter Lawler’s take on LITC.
There is one book that begins to answer these questions and I’m happy to pass it on. Walker Percy’s “Lost In The Cosmos” is subtitled “The Last Self-Help Book.” And while Percy keeps his tongue held firmly in cheek, his goal is to help in the most universal sense. He knows we are lost. Why it is possible, he asks, to learn more in ten minutes about the Crab Nebula, which is 6,000 light years away, than you presently know about yourself even though you’ve been stuck with yourself all your life? (Frank)
Percy explains, quite scientifically, why each of us is homeless, and, by so doing, he helps us be at home with our homelessness, and so free to be as at home as we can be with the good things of this world. (Lawler)
manwithoutqualities 