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
Lovely talk by the late Ralph McInerny that opens with the vexed question of what one might mean by the “Catholic novel”, an idea deeply complicated by one of my favourite authors, the one and only Frederick Rolfe aka Baron Corvo, “the most anti-Catholic Catholic” (a la Buñuel). If you appreciate transgressive caustic humour (i.e. you are someone that hasn’t been…
For Walker Percy, philosophy and fiction were both tools for diagnosing the human condition, just as his medical training had taught him about tools for diagnosing the human body. His aim was nothing less than trying to understand how we fit into the cosmos. This collection of essays is a fascinating and worthy exploration of…
If you are inclined to the philosophical novel and one that is actually quite light-hearted such as A Confederacy of Dunces, then Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net would fit the bill. In much the same way as New Orleans is a “character” in CoD, so too is London in UtN. Jamieson Ridenhour discusses this aspect at The…
Looking forward to reading Jessica’s new book which arrived today. A great impetus to my long overdue return to thinking about Dostoevsky. Fyodor Dostoevskyjessica hooted wilsonphilosophical literatureWalker Percy
Having just seen a fully restored version of this film which I previously had last seen on the big screen at a midnight showing on its release in ’76, I was superficially struck by the prescience of the idea of space travel underwritten by private enterprise. Though Walter and Peter in their forthcoming book, Space…
Coming soon existentialismjessica hooted wilsonphilosophical literaturePhilosophy of LanguageWalker Percy
Having just finished Brian’s book Walker Percy and the Politics of the Wayfarer (which I’ll discuss at length in a forthcoming review essay), I was very pleased to come across Brian’s lovely podcast discussion with Richard Reinsch at the Law & Liberty blog. Brian’s exposition of Percy is a paragon of clarity and thus makes for a most reliable overview. (His…
Still on Percy I was very disappointed that I missed last year’s shindig! So check out this brief trailer and to keep apprised of the weekend’s emerging details, I suggest one signup here. Louisiananew orleansphilosophical literaturePhilosophyWalker PercyWalker Percy Weekend
The American Christian novelist faces a peculiar dilemma today. (I speak, of course, of a dilemma of the times and not of his own personal malaise, neuroses, failures, to which he is at least as subject as his good heathen colleagues, sometimes I think more so.) His dilemma is that though he professes a belief…
manwithoutqualities 