You Are Here Walker Percy's Theory on the Redemptive Power of Hurricanes

Jon Miltimore | September 11, 2017

The idea that hurricanes can be anything other than destructive might sound strange to many people. And the idea that they can be a source of redemption and healing probably sounds downright absurd.

But the novelist Walker Percy (1916-1990) believed just that.

To Percy, a writer and philosopher from Louisiana, modern man’s great struggle was the absence of great struggle. He believed malaise is the scourge of postmodernity, and violent storms are a respite from the dreary humdrum of our monotonous existence.

“I knew a married couple once who were bored with life, disliked each other, hated their own lives, and were generally miserable — except during hurricanes,” a character recalls in the novel Lancelot. “Then they sat in their house at Pass Christian, put a bottle of whiskey between them, felt a surge of happiness, were able to speak frankly and cheerfully to each other, laugh and joke, drink, even make love.”

Read more at http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/walker-percys-theory-redemptive-power-hurricanes?roi=echo3-46556018836-44164071-f576dd8cdbb27ba00f1d7294873c7fa0&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9051581&utm_content=newsletter(9051581)&utm_term=newsletter