Immersed in reading Percy it has become blindingly clear that these two writers have such similar concerns. de Unamuno’s the Tragic Sense of Life rates as having made the most profound of impressions upon me — and that was going on thirty years ago. Whatever else separates Percy and de Unamuno, it is my view that de…
He was unaffected by the singularities of time and place. His abode was anywhere. It was all the same to him whether he catheterized a pig at four o’clock in the afternoon in New Orleans or at midnight in Transylvania. . . . Yet I do not envy him. I would not change places with…
Here is one of the more thoughtful, subtle and insightful takes on one of Percy’s masterpieces. existentialismphilosophical literaturethe last gentlemanWalker Percy
Michael Baruzzini‘s thoughts on Percy’s famous “ode” to Bourbon. (A companion piece is Luis Buñuel’s recipe for the perfect Martini mentioned in his autobiography and perhaps most famously in the film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie — for another time). Not only should connoisseurs of bourbon not read this article, neither should persons preoccupied with the…
The boy has done it! He has won the title to his own existence, as plenary an existence now as Holden’s, by refusing to be stampeded like the ladies from Hattiesburg. He is a citizen like Holden; two men of the world they are. All at once the world is open to him. Nobody threatens…
Truthfully, it is the fear of exposing my own ignorance which constrains me from mentioning the object of my search. For, to begin with, I cannot even answer this, the simplest and most basic of all questions: Am I, in my search, a hundred miles ahead of my fellow Americans or a hundred miles behind…
Alan Sokal weighs in again thanks to Nick Brown who was troubled by the conclusion that The mysteries of love, happiness, fulfilment, success, disappointment, heartache, failure, experience, random luck, environment, culture, gender, genes, and all the other myriad ingredients that make up a human life could be reduced to the figure of 2.9013. It’s quite astonishing…
What do you seek — God? you ask with a smile. I hesitate to answer, since all other Americans have settled the matter for themselves and to give such an answer would amount to setting myself a goal which everyone else has reached — and therefore raising a question in which no one has the…
Speaking of Percy, here is a piece I came across examining the notion that Percy’s NBA victory for The Moviegoer in 1962 was a fix. What are prizes for, in the end? Sure, the culture machine needs them, publicity departments and the gaggle of blogs, but does literature? The glitzy rah-rah of the awards dinner, the indignation suffered…
Now this is what I call a “conference“: from what I know of Percy he’d have approved. philosophical literaturePhilosophyreligion and scienceWalker PercyWalker Percy Weekend
manwithoutqualities 