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…
Doug and Caren talk Walker Percy and the vagaries of the self in our age. (H/T Brian Smith). a confederacy of duncesamnesiaCatholicismcomplexityjay tolsonJohn Kennedy Toolelost in the cosmospersonal identityphilosophical literaturePhilosophyThe Message in the Bottlethe moviegoerWalker Percy
Several people have asked about my interest in John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. It’s one of those novels that one typically either “gets” or one does not — the former group can be pretty obsessive and protective about it (if you are one of those dour, humourless, censorious, and perpetually seeking offence types…
Born on this day. Every thing you need to know about Toole can be found here (documentary), here (biography) and here (review of aforementioned bio). Stay tuned for the forthcoming theatrical feature based upon JKT bio. When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against…
a confederacy of duncesJohn Kennedy Toolenew orleansphilosophical literature
Here is a freely available paper by Julija Potrč that I chanced across and is to be found in Acta neophilologica. The image below is of a paperback I picked up for $10 this past summer to add to my CoD collection of covers. In Confederacy, the normal existential mode of the main character is…
I would urge Walker Percy aficionados (and indeed Confederacy of Dunces fans) to view this series (only three seasons) so there’s no “jumping the shark” moment. (Do not bother with the remake). The protagonist’s life is the most Percyean character I’ve come across outside of Percy’s own novels. Even though Simon Heffer doesn’t reference Percy,…
