From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v012.n066
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 15:10:12 

Blattid said:

> FWIW, I was already a(n unChurched) Christian when I read tBotNS,
> but I wouldn't be surprised if that scene played its part in my
> journey to Rome.

I'd say Wolfe was pretty instrumental in my conversion (raised
Southern Baptist) as well.  Wolfe introduced me to Chesterton, and
then I began to say "you know, these Catholics can write," and sought
out O'Connor, Waugh, Spark, Percy, and Newman.


Nutria said:

> I don't really think so. Long ago I wrote to ask him if he thought
> of himself as a Christian writer, and he wrote back to say that no,
> he is a writer who is a Christian. I don't think "evangelization" is
> part of his intention, though I'm sure he'd be happy if it were part
> of the result.  BTW, I also asked him, in the light of *Peace,* if
> he thought of himself in any degree as a Southern writer (a la
> Walker Percy), and he responded by saying he that is more of an
> urban than a rural writer.

Interesting.  I don't see PEACE as a Southern novel.  There is the
scene at Grandfather's house, and the Gothic of Smart's story (anyway,
Florida isn't really "the South," Florida is its own little terra
incognita) but those are definitely set in a "foreign" place, not
"home."  However, I gave a copy to a friend for Christmas, and she's
halted her reading because it brings to mind "many bad memories of
self-forced readings in high school of faulkner before i was ready."


--
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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