Abstract
Percy’s views of mind and behavior really do not differ greatly from those current in modern neuroscience. Further, the purposes for which Percy and neuroscientists would have their work used are not so different either: both wish to impose a view of the world that, if not exactly comforting, at least makes sense of it in a generally acceptable way — Percy and the modern neurobiologist do not want to be left with the problem of evil unexplained. Percy (1973) wants to know why
after three hundred years of the scientific revolution and in the emergence of rational ethics in European Christendom, Western man in the twentieth century elected instead of an era of peace and freedom an orgy of wars, tortures, genocide, suicide, murder, and rapine unparalleled in history? (p.27)
He backed away and went to the baby’s room, where it was dark except for the tiny night-light, a small bulb shining in a plastic lamp, with Mickey Mouse on the lampshade. The sight of it angered him. That was the new icon, that cartoon. It was not wicked but it was very stupid, and something so stupid was dangerous. Mickey Mouse was God — the fatuous smiling creature consoled people, because it was not human and not an animal and did not threaten anyone. It was a toy and it was not associated with any particular age or region or country. Mickey was a universal symbol of acceptance, and so people worshipped it—this item of colorful vermin. The worst of it was that people turned away from reality to venerate it. They pretended not to take it seriously, but they held on. —Theroux (1990, pp. 149–150)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alberts B, Bray D, Lewis J, Raff M, Roberts K, Watson JD (1989): Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2nd ed. New York: Garland
Brooks, VW (1956): Helen Keller: Sketch for a Portrait. New York: E. P. Dutton &Co.
Coles R (1978): Walker Percy: An American Search. Boston: Little, Brown and Company
Coles R (1990): The Spiritual Life of Children. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin
Cooter R (1984): The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth Century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gill E (1918): Sculpture: An Essay in Stone Cutting; with a Preface about God. Ditchling, England: St. Dominic’s Press
Girard R (1987): Job: The Victim of His People, Freccero Y (trans). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press
Harrington A (1987): Medicine, Mind, and the Double Brain: A Study in Nineteenth Century Thought. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press
Himmelfarb G (1986): The Victorian trinity: Religion, science, morality. In: Marriage and Morals among the Victorians and Other Essays. New York: Knopf
Kandel E, Schwartz JH, Jessell T, eds. (1991): Principles of Neural Science. New York: Elsevier
Kazin A (1971): The pilgrimage of Walker Percy. Harper’s Magazine, June, p. 84
Keller H (1903): The Story of My Life. Reprinted, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubledayand Company, 1954
Keller H (1908): The World I Live In. New York: The Century Co.
Latour B (1987): Science in Action. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Latour B (1988): The Pasteurization of France, Sheridan A, Law J (trans). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Maltin L (1987): Of Mice and Magic—A History of American Animated Cartoons, Rev. ed. New York: New American Library
Mitgang H (1977): A talk with Walker Percy. New York Times Book Review, February 20
Percy W (1971): Love in the Ruins. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Percy W (1973): The Message in the Bottle. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Percy W (1983): Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self Help Book. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Percy W (1989): “The fateful rift: the San Andreas Fault in the modern mind,” 18th Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. Delivered May 3, 1989. Excerpted as “The Divided Creature,” The Wilson Quarterly 13, 77–87
now available in Percy W (1991): Signposts in a Strange Land, Samway P (ed.) New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp 271–291
Schickel R (1968): The Disney Version. New York: Simon and Schuster
Sewall T (1837): An Examination of Phrenology: In Two Lectures. Washington City: B. Homans (printer)
Solomon C (1987): The Art of the Animated Image: An Anthology. Los Angeles: American Film Institute
Spurzheim JG (1815): The Physiognomical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, founded on an anatomical and physiological examination of the nervous system in general and of the brain in particular and indicating the dispositions and manifestations of the mind, 2nd and rev ed. (1st ed. in 1814). London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy; William Blackwood, Edinburgh
Stern MB (1971): Heads and Headlines: The Phrenological Fowlers. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
Stryer L (1988): Biochemistry, 3rd ed. New York: W. H. Freeman
Theroux P (1990): Chicago Loop. New York: Random House
Tower R (1987): New York Review of Books34:45
Warren RP (1946): All the King’s Men. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company
Young RM (1970): Mind, Brain, and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century: Cerebral Localization and the Biological Context from Gall to Ferrier. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Reprinted 1990. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schwartz, J.H. (1992). Walker Percy: Neuroscience and the Common Understanding. In: Harrington, A. (eds) So Human a Brain. Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0391-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0391-9_9
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6740-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0391-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive