|
Religious Set Phrases and Walker Percy's Theory of Language
by
Karey Perkins
Walker Percy is a contemporary Catholic, Southern novelist, who won a National Book Award for his first novel, The Moviegoer. He has written several humorous novels of social criticism and the unusual theme, today, of religious confusion and estrangement in America. A former medical student who contracted tuberculosis during rounds as a resident, spending two years in a hospital bed reading existential writers such as Kierkegaard, facing the prospect of death, meditating on the effect of postmodern American society on man's soul, and noting the religious alienation among Americans, Percy's protagonists were similar to each other and to himself, and thus, autobiographical: white Southern Catholic intelligent males, upper middle class, who face their alienation from God, from Christianity, from other people in their lives, detached, stoically and humorously. So Percy occupied much of his mental time philosophizing about life, man, and language. Greatly influenced by the existentialists as well as his Catholic faith, Percy's focus on the condition of man in the modern world influenced and drove his opinions and ideas on just about everything he wrote and thought about. Thus, when Percy formulated a theory of language, the human factor was the most integral component to his understanding of how communication occurs.
For Percy, necessary to comprehend the nature of language is understanding the nature of man, which he believes is problematic in this modern age in which the current theories of man are incoherent and that there is no consensus as to what is the nature of man (and hence, how man perceives language) (Percy 18). He says that our "world view no longer works and we find ourselves without the means to understand ourselves" (19). Percy's concern is then this: what is inside the human being, what is in what linguist-philosopher Noam Chomsky called the "black box" or "language acquisition device" (Percy 15) in the mind of man that enables him to comprehend language. Chomsky concludes first that the black box is "mind stuff" and then "computerlike elements" (Percy 16). For Percy, what is contained in this black box is entirely different than what Chomsky labels it.
Percy's language theory disagrees with both the Skinnerians and the Chomskians. His philosophy begins with a tenet that for him, the modern age questions: that man has a "soul, mind, freedom, will, Godlikeness" (Percy 7), that transforms mere physical objects into symbols. For him, "Earthlings seem to spend most of their time trafficking in one kind of symbol or another, while the creatures of earth - more than two million species - say not a word" (13). Thus he sees an understanding of the nature of the language process to be intimately and indissolubly tied up in an understanding of the nature of man because only man speaks, and only man is capable of what he refers to as "symbol-mongering." He cites the "Helen Keller phenomenon," that famous moment that blind and deaf Helen Keller relates in her autobiography in which she UNDERSTOOD that the sign language motions her teacher made in Helen's one hand related, stood for, symbolized, meant, the water in the other hand (Percy 35). Helen's subsequent and continuing joy at this experience, at participating in the act of language, is explained by Percy: "Unquestionably Helen's breakthrough was critical and went to the very heart of the terra incognita. Before, Helen had behaved like a good responding organism. Afterward, she acted like a rejoicing, symbol-mongering human" (Percy 38). Percy felt that Helen's experience transcended the behaviorist "stimulus-response model, and did NOT involve a causal relation" (Lawson 109). Helen's experience of language involved a third element in the mix.
So for Percy, the language experience is not a dyadic one, as the behaviorists' Stimulus- Response theory would hold. Percy has an existential approach that is a reaction to the prevalent behaviorist view of both man and language. For Percy, language is a triadic experience, as Charles Sanders Peirce would have it, with the third point in the model being the human being herself, and whatever it is that goes on within the human in the language process. For Percy, this "whatever it is," acts as Chomsky postulates a Language Acquisition Device does, but Percy's is something less computer-like and more ineffable. It is what makes man a unique creature, different from the animals in a qualitative, not a quantitative way (Poteat 88). Thus, man's capacity for symbolic behavior, at the root of the language experience, is what differentiates him from anything else in the universe. It is what makes him human.
So rather than the communication act being a dyadic experience, as in the following example Percy uses when the father points to a balloon and tells his child that that is balloon:
Balloon---------------------------------------------->Balloon
(actual object)-------------------------------------->(sign, word, utterance)
But for Percy, communication is NOT the above, but a "Non-linear, nonenergic natural phenomenon" that Percy calls the "Delta factor" (referring the triangle created in diagramming this phenomenon) (Percy 39). Percy calls this the structure of symbolic behavior:
Balloon------------------------------------------------->Balloon
(actual object)----------------------------------------->(sign, word, utterance)
Organism
(or interpreter)
The third element is the human element and as such, it contains many elements that cannot be grasped…it is a mystery (Percy 150). It contains elements of the human existential condition, and the message is then filtered, understood, modified by the addition of the third element.
Percy also speaks of the concept of "intersubjectivity" or that "without the presence of another, symbolization cannot conceivably occur because there is not one from whom the word can be received as meaningful" (Percy 257). He has a tetradic drawing for this interaction:
Organism 1 (I)
Balloon----------------------------------------> Balloon
(actual object)---------------------------------> (sign)
Organism 2 (Thou)
The horizontal axis is a relationship of quasi-identity. In other words, it seems to convey identity, but is not identity. The vertical axis is the relationship of intersubjectivity. For Percy, what happens along the vertical axis deeply modifies and affects what happens along the horizontal axis. Or, in other words, meaning is affected by the condition of the humans sending and receiving the communication. For Percy, "between the sign and organism, organism and object, 'real' causal relations hold. The line between sign and object is dotted because no real causal relations hold but only an imputed relation, the semantical relation of designation" (Percy 252). So Percy believes that the act of communication, of naming, serves the purpose of an existential healing, for it enables a connection of the speakers ontological self to reality through an epistemological act. In other words, though the word is not really (one with) the object, though it makes a play at approximating the object, the word enables a grasping and an understanding of the object (the world), healing for the modern alienated man, reversing that alienation (Telotte 172). Hence, the joy that Helen Keller experienced at understanding the word "water".
While Percy denied any relationship between his linguistic theory and his novels, evidence to the contrary is abundant (Telotte 171). The artistic communicative vision of the artist reunites man with his world, and "confers meaning where even the hope for something meaningful has been all but forgotten (Telotte 172). Thus Percy's act of writing itself relates to his language theory, as well as the actual themes of the novels he writes.
Reviewing Percy's major novels, The Moviegoer, the Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, Lancelot, The Second Coming, The Thanatos Syndrome, and Lost in the Cosmos, critic Jenkins discusses the role of language, love, and the American church in those novels. Appropriately, and in keeping with Percy's language theory, Jenkins focuses on Percy's characterization, and the psychological dilemmas of the protagonists, as they reveal Percy's themes of language, love, and his criticism of the American church. His insight is on the role that language plays in the spiritual life of the protagonists; in other words, as the protagonist of each novel seems to be increasingly unable to understand and increasingly alienated from the language of the church, and even the language of human love, he seems to be increasingly unable to reach and connect to God and others (that is, increasingly unable to love).
Jenkins is referring to Percy's "semiotics of self" (141). Percy's view is that language, knowing and being are integrally and irreducibly related, and that one affects the other, and it is illustrated in his novels. Generally speaking, Percy theorizes that one may adopt different "postures" relative to any given sentence, and that this posture is bound up with (a) one's situation in the world, and (b) the demeanor and authority of the speaker, and (c) the mode in which the sentence is presented. Thus in Percy's novels, communication is ineffectual or effectual on the basis of not only a causal relation between sign (word) and signified (actual object), but is profoundly influenced by the third (and fourth) factor, the human beings involved, and the existential, social, and personal situation and attitude of the humans involved (a, b, and c above).
So for Percy, whose most prevalent theme is the lonely and destitute spiritual state of modern man and his inability to overcome alienation through love, the American church's communication of its solution to the existential dilemma fails for the reasons listed above. The situation of the recipients of the church's message renders them unable to understand its message (factor (a)). The demeanor and authority of the church are weak (factor (b)). Love is a foreign concept in postmodern American society, and the American Christian church, both Protestant and Catholic, has more of a social function than a spiritual function, and fails to bring the idea of love into the lives of its people. It does not know God, nor does it know how to introduce God to others (Jenkins).
One of Jenkins' points is that Percy shows that the language of the church has become empty and cliched, and so now has become powerless and meaningless, echoing its inability to understand its own message, that of love, and its inability to convey that message to others. This is tied up in the ontological state of the people (the church members) using the language, as well as the opinion of those receiving the message of the bearers of the message. Throughout Percy's novels he shows that love is a foreign concept in postmodern American society, and that the American Christian church, both Protestant and Catholic, has more of a social function than a spiritual function, and fails to bring the idea of love into the lives of its people. It does not know God, nor does it know how to introduce God to others. Jenkins quotes Percy in an interview: "[American Christians] generally practice the same brand of brotherhood as the local country club. If Jesus Christ showed up at the Baptist church in Plains, the deacons would call the cops" (155, qtd. in Lawson and Kramer, 174).
Therefore, the church can no longer communicate its message because of (a) its epistemological and ontological status, that is, not knowing the message in either mind or soul, and (b) the perceived demeanor and authority of the speakers of the message, the church, by the receiver of the message, the American public. In other words, the socio-cultural situation of the majority of the American public is that of lack of respect in the authority of the church, so it cannot hear the message. The message, communication, and language are inextricably bound up with the cultural context of the speakers and listeners. Thus, those few that can hear the message, do so because their cultural background inclines them to accept those words as viable and meaningful utterances.
In order to investigate this phenomenon, I chose between five and ten people (seven), accrued their demographic data for a cursory determination of their cultural context, such as ages, where they are from, gender, race, religion, and how often they attend religious services. including questions on their religious beliefs and practices. I then asked them their perception on certain religious set phrases. My study consisted of choosing some typical phrases one hears from the American Christian Church, such as "Jesus died for your sins," or "God is love," and asking a diverse selection of people what they feel the meaning of those phrases are, expecting to also elicit how they feel about those phrases.
I would expect, if Percy's theory and Jenkins' exposition of that are correct, that the interviewees' reaction and interpretation of these phrases would be closely linked to (a) their socio-cultural context, and (b) their attitudes toward religious affiliation and the church (the demeanor and authority of the speaker, in their eyes).
The set phrases chosen were the following:
The results of the interview revealed that the interviewees' attitudes toward these set phrases, the speakers of the phrases, and the perceived messages were very closely linked to the interviewee's socio-cultural and religious backgrounds. For all of the interviewees but one, the majority of the phrases were perceived with the following reactions, listed here from weakest to strongest:
(a) uncertainty as to intended meaning ("I've never heard that before")
(b) understanding speaker's intended meaning, but perception of phrase as meaningless cliché anyway ("That's just a saying, like a cliché" "That's a truism")
(c) viewing speaker as disrespectful or uninterested in the listener's point of view
(d) assessment of the speaker as ignorant or unenlightened ("bizarre" "a religious zealot")
(e) cynicism regarding the message and the speaker's intent ("If in fact there is a real Jesus")
(f) defensiveness on the part of the listener ("I would run like a jack rabbit" )
(g) feeling of disgust, anger or aggression towards the speaker ("a total idiot")
There were only 2 or 3 phrases: "He's backsliding," "It's such a blessing," and "The spirit moved me," that sometimes generated neutral or slightly positive responses (besides the ones that the interviewees did not understand). These phrases were less specific to a particular religious belief, and were also more easily generalized to other social situations than just religion, and so did not relay as specific a socio-cultural context with which the listeners did not identify.
The phrases that evoked the strongest negative responses were the two that were viewed as aggressively proselytizing of the listeners: "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?" and "Repent and give your heart to the Lord." These were seen as blatant and inappropriate displays of religious belief by zealots, as a challenge (with a negative connotation), as an attempt to "brainwash", as giving an instantly negative bias, evoking feelings of caution, leeriness.
The strongest negative response to all of these statements came from the one non-Christian respondent, raised Jewish, though now interested in Buddhism. The lone positive responses came from the self professed born again Christian respondent, who stated he would have feelings of "warmth" and "gratitude" and "thankfulness" to the sender of these messages as well as agreeing to the truth of the content of the messages. Even the most abrasive of these statements to all other respondents ("Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour") was greeted with this positive attitude: "My thoughts to such a person would be a warm gratitude that this person cares about me, not just here-now, but here-after. I would also be challenged to do the same things for others that this person is trying to do for me."
This preliminary study supported Percy's triadic theory of language in that the communication was profoundly affected by the third element of the Delta phenomenon: the human factor. The existential situation, the socio-cultural background, the attitudes and perceptions of the listeners of the message greatly influenced their interpretation and understanding of that message. Also, Percy's theory that the church can no longer communicate is borne out as well, as the demeanor and authority of the American church is weak, as is shown in the respondents' attitudes towards both the phrases and someone who might utter those phrases. Ultimately, unless one has already "bought into" the Christian paradigm, and in a certain specific form, that is fundamentalist born-again form, any message communicated in that context will be seen as meaningless, uninformed, inappropriate, and/or offensive.
Works Cited and Works Consulted
Edwards, Bruce L. "The Linguist as Castaway: A Meditation on Walker Percy's
Semiotic Apologetics." Renascence. pp. 129-144.
Jenkins, Bill. "Language, Love and the American Church in the Novels of Walker
Percy." Southern Studies. 4:2. (Summer 1993): pp. 141-156.
Hobson, Linda Whitney. "Interview with Walker Percy." More Conversations with
Walker Percy. Lewis A. Lawson and Victor A. Kramer, Eds. Jackson: Univ. of
Mississippi, 1993. pp. 84-102.
Percy, Walker. The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer
Language Is, and What One has to Do with the Other. New York: Farrar
Strauss and Giroux, 1975.
Poteat, Patricia Lewis. Walker Percy and the Old Modern Age: Reflections on
Language, Argument, and the Telling of Stories. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1985.
Samway, Patrick H., S. J., ed. A Thief of Peirce: The Letters of Kenneth Laine
Ketner and Walker Percy. Jackson: U of Miss Press, 1995.
Telotte, J. P. "A Symbolic Structure for Walker Percy's Fiction." Critical Essays on
Walker Percy. J. Donald Crowley and Sue Mitchell Crowley, Eds. Boston: G.K.
Hall, 1989. pp. 171-183.
|
|