Thelma Toole interviewed by Tom Snyder

john kennedy toole

As a regular viewer of Tom Synder’s late night interview show ostensibly dealing with less fluffy primetime subject matter (e. g. Johnny Rotten, Lennon, Sterling Hayden, Manson), I recall seeing Thelma being interviewed: at the time it made little impression upon me. Since my interest in “Ken” Toole has been ignited I’ve failed to find a recording of that interview but I did find the transcript in the Toole archives at Tulane. If you want to get a strong sense of what Thelma was like, check out this video. Chris Harris who shot the image below spent a great deal of time with her, taking her shopping, being her on-call photographer and tells me that she was always “on”.

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Walker Percy, philosopher (2)

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Forthcoming: Walker Percy, Philosopher.

Philosopher of Precision and Soul

by Leslie Marsh

The theme of abstraction operates in a twofold way in Percy – abstraction in the sense of being alienated from ones true or more authentic way of being/self and abstraction in a methodological sense, the inherent abstraction of scientific method and the more vulgar invocations of methodological individualism – social atomism.

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The alienation that so animated Percy is deeply connected to the Cartesian tradition. Noted Harvard child psychiatrist and Percyean Robert Coles (1999, 127) quotes Percy: “The abstract mind feeds on itself, takes things apart, leaves in its wake all of us, trying to live a life, get from the here of now, today, to the there of tomorrow.” It entails an estrangement of the self both from the world and from itself. Walker Percy discerned what he took to be a distinctively 20th century (peculiarly western) form of disquieted consciousness – a miasmic malaise – consisting in a loss of the self brought about by three inextricably linked phenomena: (a) our inherited bifurcated Cartesian self – and derivatively (b) an uncritical assimilation and extension of scientific a priorism; and (c) atomistic social abstraction in the form of homo economicus. The upshot to these unremittingly abstract conceptions of being is that despite living in an age of considerable scientific achievement and attendant technological enhancement along with material abundance, we have been lulled us into a false sense of well-being. This shallow or inauthentic “well-being” is often manifest more as a distraction from boredom, a social palliative or stupor to ameliorate our heightened anomie and desiccated inner life – a rampant consumerism that defines us by what we want. But the “consumer” that Percy has in mind is not just of the commonplace “retail therapy” variety but also the consumer of ideas – junk science, conspiracy theorists, the New Age movement, cults, gurus of all sorts, fundamentalism, evangelicalism, zealotry of all kinds – all offering salvation that can be institutionalized as political, religious, or even academic charlatanism, the latter having a willing supply of vociferous illiberal student acolytes to do their bidding. It should be noted that though the root of our Western existential malaise is our Cartesian inheritance, I emphasize the adjectival so as not to cast Descartes as the whipping boy – that was not Percy’s intention.

 

Vanilla and Leather

wine

This 2014 vintage has the most gorgeously addictive nose — and the wine itself was smooth and quite light despite the unusually high alcohol content. Scored highly by most others and is very well priced. Seek it out.

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The Mystery of Rationality: Mind, Beliefs and Social Sciences

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I have a chapter in this forthcoming book entitled “Pathologizing Ideology, Epistemic Modesty and Instrumental Rationality”.

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Divine Embodiment in Philo of Alexandria

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Here is a recent paper by a young Philo scholar, Deborah Forger (glad some youngsters are engaging with Philo). And when I say scholar I mean scholar — not to be confused with many who are merely “regurgitation generators” for some trendy ism or other. Though officially listed here behind a paywall, the paper is freely available here. (Speaking of Philo I’m in the process of finishing up a short review of this new book).

Philo’s soul performs a distinct soteriological purpose. Partaking directly in the divine essence, yet simultaneously placed within the dust and clay of human materiality, the soul functions as the instrument or agent by which humanity escapes, or is saved from, the material world.

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Walker Percy, philosopher (1)

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This marks the first of a series of extracts from the forthcoming Walker Percy, Philosopher.

Percy: The Wondering Physician-Philosopher

by Richard Gunderman

Percy did not advocate an abandonment of science, but he did see the need for another way of knowing, or at least another means of investigation – one that recognized the possibility of a different kind of truth. There are some insights that cannot be captured in terms of sensory data and therefore prove less immediately apparent. They cannot be weighed or measured or even captured in words. They are best likened to glimpses, perhaps intimations.

 

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To pursue such truths is not to abandon rationality but to recognize the true subtlety and complexity of the reality we hope to recognize. To apprehend them we need to reset our tuners to a different frequency, one that resembles not a statistic but a narrative. When it comes to such truths, we must set aside our microscopes and CT scanners and behold through a quite different approach to exploration and discovery.

 

Tour of Pops’ House

Louis Armstrong

This is my favourite stop whenever I’m in NYC (Corona) — the house and garden gives off a profoundly calming vibe (in person it is very intimate and not as large as one might presume). Here is master biographer, archivist and blogger Ricky Riccardi leading the tour and moreover explaining how he came to be the keeper of the Pops flame. The volunteers at the house are incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating so I’d urge you to visit — it’s good for the soul.

Walker Percy: Diagnosing the Modern Malaise

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Born on this date. I don’t recall this rare bit of Percyana ever being mentioned by Rhoda Faust. Most appropriately entitled Diagnosing the Modern Malaise it was published by Rhoda’s imprint in 1985 and is one of only 250 numbered copies signed by Percy (with 50 others on special paper) and is listed with various antiquarian booksellers at $300 plus.

 

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