From hmills at public-humanities.org Mon Oct 1 12:39:14 2001 From: hmills at public-humanities.org (Henry Mills) Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 11:39:14 -0500 Subject: IMPORTANT: New Percy-L Submission Address (Via UNC) Message-ID: Dear Percy-L: As a follow-up to yesterday's announcement of changes in Percy-L services, this email is being sent to you through the new Percy-L listserv via UNC-Chapel Hill. Please read the following carefully and direct any questions or comments to . NEW PERCY-L SUBMISSION ADDRESS (UNC-CHAPEL HILL) The following is the new submission address for all future Percy-L discussion as of today (10/1). The new address via UNC is: percy-l at franklin.oit.unc.edu Use the above address for all future submissions to the list. OLD PERCY-L SUBMISSION ADDRESS (LSU) As for the old LSU service, please delete the following submission address from your address books: percy-l at listserv.lsu.edu The LSU account will be discontinued within the next 3-5 days in order to provide some overlap for the transition. After that time, all submissions to the LSU address will not be distributed to the list. Therefore, be careful of responding to any messages that are currently in your mailbox from past discussion. You will need to substitute the new UNC address for the old LSU address in the To: field. TRANSITION CONCERNS Please send any transition questions/issues you may have to rather than to the new listserv address at UNC. I will forward any questions of larger concern that are received to the new UNC list from those emails. FURTHER NOTIFICATION/TESTING I will be re-sending through the old LSU service the initial announcement I made yesterday (Sunday) at least two more times in order to make certain all members are aware of the new changes. Those who have already received and read it may disregard the message. Any comments or questions with regard to that announcement should again be submitted to rather than to the whole list. Likewise, this message will be redistributed within the next 24 hours via the new UNC address as a follow-up to the present transmission. THANK YOU Thank you to all current Percy-L members for your patience as we make this transition to a better, more reliable service that will provide a stable platform for the next five years of list discussion. I also wish to thank Ted Atkinson who has maintained the list for the past three years. Ted is further to be congratulated for recently completing his doctorate in literature at LSU. Finally, LSU Computer Services is to be recognized and thanked for hosting Percy-L since 1996. We express our sincere thanks to their support of Percy discussion. Sincerely, Henry Mills __________________________________________________________________________ Henry P. Mills, Director & Editor THE WALKER PERCY EDUCATIONAL PROJECT, INC. An Internet Literary Center Promoting the significant legacy of the 20th Century American author and philosopher, Walker Percy Hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Send s-mail to: P.O. Box 3561 Austin, TX 78764 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Subscribe to PERCY-L! Send an email to WPERCY1 at IBIBLIO.ORG with the following line in the body: subscribe PERCY-L YourFirst Name YourLastName (Listserv courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill) ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The Walker Percy Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. From hpmills3 at telocity.com Wed Oct 10 20:48:37 2001 From: hpmills3 at telocity.com (Henry Mills) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 19:48:37 -0500 Subject: percy and the information council of the americas? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear Percy-L, Here's something interesting that arrived in my mailbox. Any comments? Henry Mills ________________________ Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2001 18:01:49 -0500 Subject: percy and the information council of the americas could someone please tell me of any information they might have regarding w. percy's membership in the 1960s' new orleans' based, rabid anticommunist organization known as the information council of the americas? This group, i.n.c.a., was infamous for its preposterous and conspiratorial anticommunist beliefs and was associated with u.s. intelligence community personnel prior to and after the jfk assassination and much beyond that. other members were the fascist and racist n.o. heart surgeon, alton oschner, many corporate leaders whose financial interests suffered greatly because of the cuban revolution, and later political and social figures such as percy, senator boggs of la., and n.o. mayor chep morrison, as well as the loyola univ. law school dean (percy connection?). From Nikkibar at aol.com Fri Oct 12 10:38:24 2001 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 10:38:24 EDT Subject: percy and the information council of the americas? Message-ID: <57.d4c39.28f85a60@aol.com> Dear Henry, I don't know who put that inquiry in your mailbox but it seems to me a bit on the unhinged side. Never heard of the organization but the folks characterized as right wing nuts were hardly that. Nikki From hpmills3 at telocity.com Fri Oct 12 20:57:26 2001 From: hpmills3 at telocity.com (Henry Mills) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 19:57:26 -0500 Subject: percy and the information council of the americas? In-Reply-To: <57.d4c39.28f85a60@aol.com> Message-ID: Nikki, Marcus came up with the following. All the conspiratorial, extremist suggestions led me to think of Tom More in both LiR and TS. Thought someone might bite... Henry ---Start quote-- There's a "Short History of INCA" by Frank DeBenedictis at http://cuban-exile.com/doc_076-100/doc0078.htm Not bad but not that good either, it tells about the rise of Castro, the anti-Communist reaction and the creation of INCA. Refers to Oschner, Boggs, et al, but not to Percy. Brief discussion about whether the anti-Communism was broad-based and populist or orchestrated by conservative elites. I sort of doubt that Walker would have had much to do with INCA. Maybe shared a highball with some of its members. Maybe Samway might know something. Marcus --End quote-- On Fri, 12 Oct 2001 10:38:24 EDT, Nikkibar at aol.com wrote: >Dear Henry, > >I don't know who put that inquiry in your mailbox but it seems to me a bit on >the unhinged side. Never heard of the organization but the folks >characterized as right wing nuts were hardly that. > >Nikki > >--- >You are currently subscribed to percy-l as: hpmills3 at telocity.com >A current archive of all messages is pending at >. From tbassett at acsu.buffalo.edu Tue Oct 16 20:01:08 2001 From: tbassett at acsu.buffalo.edu (tbassett at acsu.buffalo.edu) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 20:01:08 -0400 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <2535088372.1003262468@ubppp234-71.dialin.buffalo.edu> Hello all - I'm writing to solicit advice, warnings, direction, etc. regarding my decision to teach a course on Percy's novels and essays to law students next semester. Any feedback will be cheerfully (and not a little desperately ) accepted. I'm not sure why I decided to take this seminar on, in place of my usual one on the death penalty. Partly because I haven't had a chance to read Percy carefully in the last few years. I don't know how representative a Percy reader I am (atheist, socially and politically way over on the left, secular through and through . . . all in all a constellation of traits and opinions and practices that Percy skewered well and truly more than once), but I do know that dipping into his work every few years renews a long and respectful conversation/quarrel/? I've had going with the man for a long time. I think my decision also partly traces to this deepening sense -- which is difficult to articulate, though nonetheless very real -- that law students might benefit just as much as anyone from reading him. The longer I teach law, the more I think I see my students -- usually bright, talented, hard-working, privileged -- feeling bad when they should be feeling good. And, of course, Percy has one or two things to say about that. I don't know much about how I might teach the class. Something like ten students . . . maybe three of the novels (Moviegoer, Love In the Ruins, Thanatos????) . . . some of the essays (beyond starting the semester with Notes for a Novel About the End of the World, I don't have a clue) . . . I've been too busy with this semester to think beyond gross generalities). Which is why virtually anything any of you have to say will be helpful. Thanks in advance. I look forward to listening in on the list in the future, too. Regards, Thom Bassett SUNY-Buffalo Law School From Robert_Pauley at OXY.com Tue Oct 16 20:27:46 2001 From: Robert_Pauley at OXY.com (Robert_Pauley at OXY.com) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 19:27:46 -0500 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students Message-ID: Having attended Coles' class on Percy (in truth, it was called "Moral Inquiry in Literature") and watched my brother teach Percy also at Harvard I offer the idea of teaching one novel along with Percy's interviews on same novel and some related essays. I suggest The Second Coming -- in my view his most emotionally accessible novel (arguably an old-fashioned love story, with the usual Percy underpinnings of paradox) and about a lawyer to boot. As for the essays or other writings, Lost in the Cosmos is a class pleaser. There are some hilarious pieces in there, many of which can be tied into themes of the novels, i.e., SC. Best of luck. R. Pauley -----Original Message----- From: tbassett at acsu.buffalo.edu [mailto:tbassett at acsu.buffalo.edu] Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 5:01 PM To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion Cc: tbassett at acsu.buffalo.edu Subject: [percy-l] Teaching Percy . . . to law students Hello all - I'm writing to solicit advice, warnings, direction, etc. regarding my decision to teach a course on Percy's novels and essays to law students next semester. Any feedback will be cheerfully (and not a little desperately ) accepted. I'm not sure why I decided to take this seminar on, in place of my usual one on the death penalty. Partly because I haven't had a chance to read Percy carefully in the last few years. I don't know how representative a Percy reader I am (atheist, socially and politically way over on the left, secular through and through . . . all in all a constellation of traits and opinions and practices that Percy skewered well and truly more than once), but I do know that dipping into his work every few years renews a long and respectful conversation/quarrel/? I've had going with the man for a long time. I think my decision also partly traces to this deepening sense -- which is difficult to articulate, though nonetheless very real -- that law students might benefit just as much as anyone from reading him. The longer I teach law, the more I think I see my students -- usually bright, talented, hard-working, privileged -- feeling bad when they should be feeling good. And, of course, Percy has one or two things to say about that. I don't know much about how I might teach the class. Something like ten students . . . maybe three of the novels (Moviegoer, Love In the Ruins, Thanatos????) . . . some of the essays (beyond starting the semester with Notes for a Novel About the End of the World, I don't have a clue) . . . I've been too busy with this semester to think beyond gross generalities). Which is why virtually anything any of you have to say will be helpful. Thanks in advance. I look forward to listening in on the list in the future, too. Regards, Thom Bassett SUNY-Buffalo Law School --- You are currently subscribed to percy-l as: Robert_Pauley at OXY.COM An archive of all discussion is available at . Visit the Walker Percy Project at From BHolo at aol.com Tue Oct 16 21:44:15 2001 From: BHolo at aol.com (BHolo at aol.com) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 21:44:15 EDT Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students Message-ID: As a law student, hearing this makes me want to transfer to SUNY for the remainder of my third year. Percy in law school? Creative curriculum at its very best! Law school is so relentlessly uncreative and pedantic at times and courses that expand the bounds of traditional law curriculum are precious few. Where I attend school, the course "Law and Literature" fills up with the first 15 students who can access the registration line (and it's not because the class is a "slide"--it's taught by a very intelligent constitutional/ethics scholar who requires each student to write several lengthy papers and direct a meeting of the seminar). It's impressive that an administration would allow such a foray as yours, however tenuously linked it is to the study of law. Lancelot is a must, especially in a law school setting (most relevant novel topically). I hope your students enjoy this breath of fresh air. BH -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From piat at juno.com Tue Oct 16 23:47:28 2001 From: piat at juno.com (James L Piat) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 22:47:28 -0500 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students Message-ID: <20011016.224746.-138921.0.Piat@juno.com> Dear Thom-- I'm curious --to what extent are courses dealing with the philosophy and sociology of law as an institution part of the traditional required law school curriculum? I'd recommend Percy essays. My fear is that studying the novels, the very act of it, might encourage a bit of snobbery when what is needed in all walks of life is humility and recognition of the fact that our vocational roles are controlled by forces we do not understand. I think Percy himself has a much better sense of this in his essays than in his novels. Percy seems to laugh at himself and our common predicament in his essays. His novels sometimes strike me a preachy --attempts to enlighten rather than discover. Sort of like the comments I'm making now, but done in a much more subtle and appealing way of course. Hey, just one man's opinion. Apologies if this sounds a bit negative. I don't mean it that way. Like you I'm a great fan of Percy's work and love to hear what others think of it. Almost forgot --I too think Percy is very funny (again, especially in his essays) and agree all students should have a good chuckle. Plus I think his general reflexivity comes across well in his essays and this seems to me especially good preparation for professional careers. Screw the tests and required papers. Percy and your lofty aims deserve no less. Good luck! Cheers, Jim Piat From marlorod at nb.sympatico.ca Wed Oct 17 09:31:18 2001 From: marlorod at nb.sympatico.ca (M Barry Roderick) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:31:18 -0300 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students References: Message-ID: <3BCD8826.E4AB648B@nb.sympatico.ca> A distinguished Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon has made particular reference to Walker Percy in "A Nation Under Lawyers" - 'How the Disarray in the American Legal Profession is affecting American Society' see" http://chapters.indigo.ca/search/default.asp?Search_Method=AdvancedSearch&Search_Catalog=books&Search_Phrase_SearchPeople=Mary+A%2E+Glendon&Search_Modifier_SearchPeople=ALLTERM&Search_Sort=RANK%2D&lang=en&mscssid=HU7LW02AELD89KEVWD8A4KTVH2WR2SDB&WSID=0910B03D61ABEE594E27A4493669999519FD1717 for a link. Thisbook has been widely acknowledged as a guide as to how the profession is andhow it may become. Personally. after 30 years in law, I believe the arguments and the extensively footnoted references in this text are a must for any aspiring person entering law and for those now within the profession. This is why i am on this list serve. M.Barry Roderick LLB Univ of Western Ontario 1968; Of the bars of New Brunswick and Ontario; Canada BHolo at aol.com wrote: > As a law student, hearing this makes me want to transfer to SUNY for > the remainder of my third year. Percy in law school? Creative > curriculum at its very best! > > Law school is so relentlessly uncreative and pedantic at times and > courses that expand the bounds of traditional law curriculum are > precious few. Where I attend school, the course "Law and Literature" > fills up with the first 15 students who can access the registration > line (and it's not because the class is a "slide"--it's taught by a > very intelligent constitutional/ethics scholar who requires each > student to write several lengthy papers and direct a meeting of the > seminar). It's impressive that an administration would allow such a > foray as yours, however tenuously linked it is to the study of law. > > Lancelot is a must, especially in a law school setting (most relevant > novel topically). > > I hope your students enjoy this breath of fresh air. > > BH --- > You are currently subscribed to percy-l as: marlorod at NB.SYMPATICO.CA > An archive of all discussion is available at > . Visit the Walker Percy > Project at -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From doneskey at swau.edu Wed Oct 17 12:26:51 2001 From: doneskey at swau.edu (Renard Doneskey) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:26:51 -0500 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students In-Reply-To: <2535088372.1003262468@ubppp234-71.dialin.buffalo.edu> References: Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.20011017112651.00ed0d7c@cosmic.swau.edu> I'd like to 2nd BH's suggestion of teaching Lancelot for your class. I believe it's Percy's best novel (by far) and you can tie it in with law in several ways: the 1st person narrator has comitted murder is in a mental institution rather than prison (so, you've got the insanity plee there). Is he really insane? What determines insanity in legal cases? You've also got Percy's most problematic character in Lancelot Lamar--he's on kind of a jihad, if you'll excuse the term. He even wants to found his own kind of holy land. Just a great, troubling book. RD From hmills at public-humanities.org Wed Oct 17 15:56:30 2001 From: hmills at public-humanities.org (Henry Mills) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 14:56:30 -0500 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students References: <131288@percy-l> Message-ID: in article 131288 at percy-l, BHolo at aol.com at BHolo at aol.com wrote on 10/16/01 8:44 PM: As a law student, hearing this makes me want to transfer to SUNY for the remainder of my third year. Percy in law school? Creative curriculum at its very best! Law school is so relentlessly uncreative and pedantic at times and courses that expand the bounds of traditional law curriculum are precious few. Where I attend school, the course "Law and Literature" fills up with the first 15 students who can access the registration line (and it's not because the class is a "slide"--it's taught by a very intelligent constitutional/ethics scholar who requires each student to write several lengthy papers and direct a meeting of the seminar). It's impressive that an administration would allow such a foray as yours, however tenuously linked it is to the study of law. Lancelot is a must, especially in a law school setting (most relevant novel topically). I hope your students enjoy this breath of fresh air. BH Here is a reply message to see what it looks like. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From riddick at mail.la.utexas.edu Wed Oct 17 20:41:44 2001 From: riddick at mail.la.utexas.edu (Wade Riddick) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 19:41:44 -0500 Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law student Message-ID: [Forgot to send this through my old account last night.] Focus on interpretation and whatever differences there might be between scientific progress vs. interpretive disciplines like literary studies or the law. What did Holmes mean that the life of the law is experience, not logic? Does a scientist look at a result from an experiment differently than a juror weighs the words of a witness? Why are 12 jurors needed? What is intersubjectivity? How do you reach the appropriate judgment/interpretation of a given set of clues/symbols? Are there common religious foundations in both Percy and American law? Failure and redemption? You might want to shine a spotlight on consitutional law since it deals with the big issues of who are we, why are we hear, what should we think? What was Percy's view of grace and original sin? How does this compare to Madison's ideas in Federalists 10 & 14 (or Hamilton's idea of "ambition checking ambition")? Is there something anti-bureaucratic in both habits of thought (Percy's Nazis vs. Publius' tyranny)? What about justice vs. revenge? What's the point of punishment? Revenge? (Would _Lancelot_ be more interesting?) Lawyers have to use a lot of words and deal with what witnesses have to tell them. Do they know what "metaphor by mistake" is all about? Do they know something about modern interpretive theory - forget fancy deconstruction - do they understand how different words can be from the things they represent? What is it lawyers have to "diagnose?" (Hint: the first job of any good attorney is to get paid by a client; that's different from the first job of any good judge.) Why do we have freedom of speech, religion and other liberties? Does it have to do with the idea that grace should be freely received and that the spirit of the message is in the message itself and not the messenger? Steer clear of _The Second Coming_. Go for the essay about the astronomer who can see things a billion light-years away but can't figure out that his wife is about to divorce him. Law students will understand myopia. From RGray at montreat.edu Thu Oct 18 10:46:12 2001 From: RGray at montreat.edu (Gray, Rich) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 10:46:12 -0400 Subject: Percy and O'Connor Message-ID: Walker Percy told an interviewer once that he attended a lecture by Flannery O'Connor toward the end of her public life. I am curious to know when and where that lecture took place. Also useful would be to know if Percy and O'Connor spoke then, or if they ever met. Anybody know? Rich Gray From Nikkibar at aol.com Thu Oct 18 12:54:03 2001 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:54:03 EDT Subject: Teaching Percy . . . to law students Message-ID: Dear Thom I don't know that there is a whole lot to connect the Percy canon to students of the law, particularly the common law. I have no suggestions as to how to go about it but would like a post mortem on how you fare after the ourse is over. Did you have the good fortune to know my old Master Teacher, Mitchel Franklin? Nikki -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hpmills3 at telocity.com Thu Oct 18 13:04:39 2001 From: hpmills3 at telocity.com (Henry Mills) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 12:04:39 -0500 Subject: Hugh White In-Reply-To: <3BCECC41.E43B9CE3@crab.rutgers.edu> References: Message-ID: Dear Ms. White, Thank you for writing to tell of your father and of his sustained interest in Percy-L. His email address has been removed as you request. We are sorry that he is no longer with us, and I know the whole Percy-L community sends their condolences along with me. Sincerely, Henry Mills Director, The Walker Percy Project >Hugh White was a member of this list. I am his daughter and writing to >inform you all that he passed away in July from complications from >Leukemia. We are >very saddened by this. I am hoping that his name will now be removed from >this list. I know that this was an important part of his research - he >saved many of >your messages. Thank you for removing him from this list. >If anyone needs to contact his family write to Jess504 at juno.com >Thank you Jessica White From Nikkibar at aol.com Thu Oct 18 13:25:46 2001 From: Nikkibar at aol.com (Nikkibar at aol.com) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:25:46 EDT Subject: Percy and O'Connor Message-ID: <22.1d719084.29006a9a@aol.com> Walker was supposed to get together with Ms O'connor after the reading but her health was so frail that they exchanged only a few words of greting and she was then whisked away in exhaustion. Nikki -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wpercy1 at metalab.unc.edu Thu Oct 18 23:50:46 2001 From: wpercy1 at metalab.unc.edu (Henry P. Mills) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 22:50:46 -0500 Subject: Updated Percy-L Guidelines (Please Read) Message-ID: Dear Percy-L: With the new list service in operation, the time is good for revisiting the Percy-L guidelines, which have now been updated. Please take a few minutes to review the guidelines and save this document for future reference. In particular, I call your attention to Parts IV and V, most notably the new "special considerations" section at the end of IV. Both sections provide an overview of communal responsibilities and suggestions for improving the quality of discussion for list members. If all members will take the time to review and put to use the Percy-L guidelines as follows, we all stand to benefit from the base they provide to our discussion and our community. As usual, please send any questions or comments you may have to: . The online version of the guidelines is available at http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/list-guidelines.html Sincerely, Henry Mills Director, The Walker Percy Project _______________________________________________ WELCOME TO THE PERCY-L GUIDELINES New Users: Please read and save for future reference. (I) How to Join Percy-L (II) How do a Keyword Search of the Archives (III) Basic Percy-L Instructions (IV) Percy-L Policies (V) Posting Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (I) To join Percy-L: Send an e-mail to with the following line in the body: subscribe PERCY-L YourFirstName YourLastName Further information will be automatically forwarded to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (II) To do a KEYWORD Search of the Percy-L Hypermail Archives: Go to: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/search.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (III) Basic Percy-L Instructions (for list subscribers only) 1) Send email messages for group viewing to: 2) Send administrative concerns to the list manager: 3) You may leave the list at any time by clicking on the "List-Unsubscribe" link found in the header of messages you receive. Each subscriber is given a separate subscriber number that is embedded in the unsubscribe link. 4) To re-subscribe to PERCY-L, simply click on the "List-Subscribe" link in the email header of a list message you received, or send an email to: . 5) All messages are archived at the following address: http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/hypermail. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (IV) Percy-L Policies A. GENERAL The Percy-L forum is open to the discussion of all topics pertaining to the work and thought of the American novelist and philosopher Walker Percy. Students, general readers, and scholars are all welcome, as well as simply the curious. There is no standing agenda for the list except the promotion of commentary of the sort which one would expect from people with a special interest in Percy. As such, the list will remain unmoderated unless some future reason requires it. A diverse range of critical perspectives is therefore welcomed, if not encouraged, as long as the manner and method of expression are responsible to and respectful of the parties to whom they are addressed. B. INTRODUCING YOURSELF Please consider introducing yourself to the other mailing list users even if you plan to participate only as an observer. The more we all know what our various interests are, the more likely it is that someone will address them in some way. Then, too, even though the mailing list is first of all a means of communication, it will also hopefully develop into a growing community resource, only to become all the more valuable the more we contribute useful information to it and establish connections with each other. C. INTRODUCING TOPICS You should feel free to introduce a new topic for discussion or to respond to an existing "thread" or line of thought already in process at any time, as you see fit. This medium of communication takes multiple "threads" of discourse to be a given: anyone can enter into the discussion at any time, just as those already involved in it can pay as much or as little attention to whatever is of interest to them. Needless to say, both patience and tolerance are encouraged in all matters related to the mailing list, for electronic discussion of this sort is fraught with the potential for misunderstanding, even as it provides for new channels of discussion. If no one responds to your posts, you should not assume that it is because of a lack of interest, or that your post is perceived as unimportant. Frequently, the interested reader just doesn't have time to respond, and few of us have time to answer more than a small percentage of the ones that are of interest to us in any case. Therefore, pose your questions and comments well by your own standards, and remind yourself that, even if there is no overt response, what you have said or asked will be read by a large body of people. And who is to say in what way ripples may occur? If overt response is important to you, then wait a month or so and try your query again. D. REPLYING TO TOPICS In replying to posted topics, you should provide a beginning line in the message itself in which you indicate to whom you are replying and about what (brevity is encouraged when it comes to quoting). For the same reason, you should also have a closing signature line or block in all of your messages that identifies who you are. How much information you wish to provide about yourself is up to you, but the participants need enough information about your identity to keep track of the conversational flow. E. A NOTE ON THE NATURE OF GROUP DISCUSSIONS Group discussions are not meant to be exclusively personal, and when people reply to others individually and address them as such, this does not mean that the discussion has become "personal" in the sense that it would best be conducted off-list. In other words, the personal and the private are considered to be separate in a listserv environment. Rather, the question at hand is whether the discussion concerns topics of broader interest to the purposes of the mailing list as a whole. It is therefore more than acceptable to pursue special interests in public electronic-based discussions of this sort as long as there is nothing exclusive of others in it, either explicitly or in tone. However, if you have any problems about topics being posted or in connection with the receipt or posting of your own messages, please contact the list manager. F. SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS In order to maintain the smooth flow of discussion as well as be mindful of several technical considerations related to Percy-L, please observe the following: --Discussion 1. Avoid introducing political topics, unless they directly bear on or are explicitly related to Percy and his thought. This rule does not exclude current events from discussion, but merely underscores that this is a listserv dedicated to Percy topics. 2. Please do not forward outside announcements through the list unless a case can be made for a direct connection to Percy and the interests of those who have joined the list. If in doubt, contact the list manager at . --Technical 1) Please send all messages through the listserv as plain text messages rather than HTML-encoded. Not everyone's email client supports HTML-encoded messages and further they cause a conflict with the list's archiving system. For this reason, messages sent through the list in HTML format will not be archived. Check the preference settings on your specific email client to determine in what format your messages are being sent. (If you have the option of adding bold, italics, or font size to your email text, you are using HTML-encoded email.) This same rule barring HTML-encoded emails also applies to external HTML documents you place in your email messages. Do not paste these as HTML, but rather as text. 2) Please do not send images through the listserv. If you wish for members to see a particular image, place it on a website and then direct the members of the list to it with a URL included in your message. Since some members use a dial-up connection, this tactic provides users with the option of viewing the image, and hence will limit frustration with download times associated with the list. 3) Lastly, please do not forward any large attachments through the list. This rule also limits member frustration with download times. If you have a particular document to share that relates to Percy, please make certain that its size is no more than 100kb. Also, be mindful of sending the document in a format that will be readily accessible by all, for instance, Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF. Alternatively, you can cut-and-paste the contents of your document directly into the body of the email. Since this method presents the document in a text-only format, the size of the document will be considerably smaller. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (V) Posting tips to help message archiving for future readers 1) Please quote messages you are replying to sparingly, using your cut, paste, and delete functions. A "reader-friendly" message has a better chance of being responded to. 2) Avoid short, personal comments along the lines of "I agree," etc. that do not significantly advance Percy-content discussion. These would best be submitted solely to the person they are intended for rather than to the listserv address (i.e., the entire group). Please be mindful of the time of the list members--many, in fact, belong to multiple mailing lists--by only submitting posts that in some shape or form better the interests of the entire community. 3) Always fill in the "subject" box of your email to help readers identify your topic of discussion. 4) Remember that if you use the "reply" command to a message you have received through the list, your message will be distributed publicly to all members of the list. In contrast, if you want to have private correspondence with someone who has sent a message through the list, you must create a "new" e-mail and address it specifically to him or her lest the entire list read your message. 5) To help individual members of the Percy-L community follow the context of your comments, strive to be mindful of your use of quoting and quote identification methods. For example, consider beginning responses as follows: At 06:18 PM 9/17/96 -0600, Binx Bolling wrote: >I am on a search! > Then add your own comments about the text in question (i.e., Binx's search). In turn, if you add other quotes to your message from multiple posts, repeat the process so it is clear where the material came from. As always, the better crafted and referenced your message, the more likely it will generate thoughtful response from the community. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send questions or comments about this document to: wpercy1 at ibiblio.org Henry P. Mills Last revised: 10/01 From wpercy1 at metalab.unc.edu Tue Oct 23 17:08:27 2001 From: wpercy1 at metalab.unc.edu (Henry P. Mills) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:08:27 -0500 Subject: Call for Papers: ALA (May, 2002) Message-ID: CALL FOR PAPERS Special Session of The Walker Percy Society at the American Literature Association Annual Meeting May 30 - June 2, 2002 Long Beach, California Topic: "Walker Percy and Friends" (Papers that examine Percy's relation to other writers, e.g,. O'Connor, Welty, Chekhov, Merton, Coles, Bosworth, Faulkner, Tim Gautreaux, Foote, Warren, etc.) Send proposals and/or 10 page paper by December 1, 2001 to: Prof. John Desmond English Dept. Whitman College Walla Walla, WA 99362 Address inquiries to: desmond at whitman.edu __________________________________________________________________________ Henry P. Mills, Director & Editor THE WALKER PERCY EDUCATIONAL PROJECT, INC. An Internet Literary Center Promoting the significant legacy of the 20th Century American author and philosopher, Walker Percy Hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy Send s-mail to: P.O. Box 3561 Austin, TX 78764 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Subscribe to PERCY-L! Send an email to WPERCY1 at IBIBLIO.ORG with the following line in the body: subscribe PERCY-L YourFirst Name YourLastName (Listserv courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill) ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The Walker Percy Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. _________________________________________________________________________