22 Friday, September 16, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS SAVE 1 00" on a Jewish Community Center membership ROBERT 546-6576 Walker Percy: The Southern Jewish Voice By JOSEPH COHEN NEW ORLEANS — In a widely publicized talk Walker Percy made in 1982, the renowned Pulitzer • • • • • • • • • • • • • prize-winning novelist, a Southerner and a Catholic, noted a "common strain" be- tween "the Southern novel of a generation ago" and • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • OUR BUSINESS GREW THE • • • • OLD FASHIONED WAY • THRU RECOMMENDATION • • • • • • • • • • • , • • • • • ' • • • • • AND WE KEEP WORKING AT IT. • • • DRAPERIES • BEDSPREADS • BLANKETS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • (Cleaned or Laundered) WINDOW SHADES • LAWS-HADES:PILLOWS : VENETIAN BLINDS (Cleaned, retaped & re-corded) ANY OTHER ITEMS YOU MAY HAVE — IF IT CAN BE CLEANED, WE'LL CLEAN IT AND CLEAN IT PROPERLY • • • ik. 'ct, If you're moving we can remake and re-install existing draperies to fit another window or 0) your room. S ‘. . I We Remove & install •, • • • • • S • DRAPERY CLEANERS 891-1818 NSA' masternarg s Suburban Call Collect VISA & MASTERCHARGE • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • "All that the name implies." •••••••••• Goaas aa•••••••••••••••••••••• "the so-called Jewish novel." Pondering that con- nection, Percy found it strange that "the Southern Jewish voice, with a few ex- ceptions, is yet to be heard." The absence of a strong Southern Jewish literary tradition is strange, given the close association in the past of literary-minded Jews with such well known Southern literary adven- tures as the Fugitive Movement in Nashville and the emergence of "The Dou- ble Dealer" in New Orleans. One recalls also the well known work of David Cohn in Mississippi and Harry Golden in North Carolina. Yet Southern Jewry has, in a sense, had its voice, - an enormously articulate and eloquent one, emanating from Covington. That voice is none other than Percy's. Out of the richly imagina- tive, multilayered hemi- spheres of his brain, the landscapes of his poetic heart, and the religious tapestries of his soul, he has for a generation now re- corded his affection for and his wonder over the special role in history Judaism has had. You don't have to be Leily to love Jewish wry bread. Jewish "wry bread," to stretch the metaphor about as far as it will go, provides much food for thought in Percy's novels. If casual Jews appear to turn up acci-/ Happy New Year EQUITY PROGRAMS, INC. "Your Insurance Agent" 358-1644 //Check These Rates For Substantial Savings On Your Term Life Insurance! 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Moviegoer" and "The Second Coming," Judaism directly influences the protagonists' world out- looks, and therefore their actions. Percy moves back and forth between Jewish major and minor chords. Jewish characteristics and values are sometimes praised, sometimes criticized, in the latter instance, by the bi- goted rednecks and roughnecks who people his pages; and Old Testament images and tenets are in- voked by intense Southern Christian fundamentalists. Indeed, it is easy to think of Percy himself in an image he is fond of using for others, that of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of God, for Percy wants nothing less than an updated Covenant between God and His worshippers. A concern for Covenant is pervasive, and it is attended by the considerations of Chosenness, menschlichkeit, dispersion and alienation, all em- ployed by Percy to illumi- nate his constant search for the proofs of God's exist- ence. In "The Moviegoer," Percy's protagonist, Binx Bolling, searching for meaning in his life, moves through what has been described as Kier- kegaardian existential stages, from the aesthetic to the ethical stage, which is to say that he comes to an awareness of a contractual moral obli- gation to be his brother's keeper, to be a mensch. An aunt gives him some advice on that subject. She says, ". . . one thing I be- lieve and I believe it with every fibre of my being. A man must live by his lights and do what little he can and do it as best he can. In this world goodness is de- stined to be defeated. But a man must go down fighting. That is the victory. To do anything less is to be less than a man." All this arises as much from a Jewish context as from a Kierkegaardian one. This is confirmed by Bol- ling's description of himself: . . it is true that I am Jewish by instinct. We share the same exile. The fact is, however, that I am more Jewish than the Jews I know. They are more at home than I am. I accept my exile." That Jews are the key to Bolling's successfully find- ing himself is made clear by his observation that ". . . when a man awakes to the possibility of a search and when such as man passes a Jew in the street for the first time, he is like Robinson Crusoe seeing the footprint on the beach." Again, in "The Second Coming," the pro- tagonist's objective is to find the proof of God's existence. His starting point and constant rally- ing cry is that Jews "are a sign of God's plan" for the universe and that their presence on earth confirms His existence. When the protagonist takes it into his head that the Jews are leaving North Carolina, he be- comes convinced that God is abandoning both His plan and humankind entirely. The pro-Semitic position Percy takes is predicated upon his belief that the elec- tion of the Jews, that is, their Chosenness is, indeed, part of God's master plan in providing for salvation and redemption achieved through Judeo-Christian history. The meaning of Judaism is locked into the meaning of Christianity, and vice versa. But religion is beset by mysteries, and given Per- cy's inquiring mind, it might have been expected that he would attempt at some point to deal with the complex mystery of sin. It is the subject of "Lancelot." Percy's search for the proof of God's existence in our time continues but with a difference here. Lancelot accepts as proof of God's existence His shadow, or sin. He sets out to commit the perfect sin, ironically, as an act of confirmation and faith. This approach is con- sistent with the strong tra- dition of gnosticism in Jewish mysticism. Because it is so esoteric, few people readily perceived Percy's intention. Percy's most recent book, a work of non- fiction entitled "Lost in the Cosmos" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), reit- erates the pro-Semitic stance of the novels. In- creasingly pessimistic over humankind's poten- tial for nuclear destruc- tion, Percy gives us in this last self-help book two choices for survival. One of these is based on scientific rationalism, fol- lowing B. F. Skinner's theories of behaviorism, an approach which seems to provide for more univer- sally free options yet one strongly opposed elsewhere in Percy's work ,because it totally ignores human yearning and it fails to pro- vide expression for spiritual longing. The second choice is reli- gious traditionalism in the same contexts found in the novels. Scientific rationalists may view both Judaism and Christianity as preposterous, but from Percy's point of view they are our civilization's only hope.