The answer to this question is one of the main themes of Walker Percy's serious parody of self-help books: Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. The title itself is in some sense an answer to the question: modern (post-modern? Definitely post-religious) man is hungry for these "self-help" books because he feels lost in the cosmos, unable to find his place…in reality, unable to find himself, to understand himself. The different chapters or "questions" (the book is somewhat forced into a "20-question quiz" similar to those in self-help books, to add to the parody aspect) either discuss different signs of man's loss of self or the failure of different ways man tries to find himself.
The book, though nominally and somewhat effectively a parody of self-help books, is much more difficult than such books. Percy, a Catholic writer from the American South, is at least influenced by Christian existentialism, if he is not fully a Christian existentialist, and he is a semiotician. Thus there is a 40-page sidebar giving a compact and dense summary of semiotics (science of signs), and many different writers are mentioned and discussed: Soren Kierkegaard, Carl Sagan, Sigmund Freud, and even Catholic science fiction novelist Walter M. Miller, Jr.
What is the message of the book? Modern "post-religious" man is, precisely due to his lack of religion, lost to himself. From the dense semiotic discussion (which, I must confess, I could not completely follow), Percy concludes that man is the only creature who has a "world" and interacts it with "triadically," and from this he realizes that he cannot understand himself, he cannot truly conceive of the self, and thus he is lost. (I apologize for the confusion of this line: as I said, some of it is my own confusion.) Man, alone of all creatures, has self-consciousness, and through this he realizes that he cannot know himself, so he tries to find himself.
An idea from a didactic science fiction tale near the end of the work seems to summarize his views well: C1, C2, and C3 consciousnesses. A C1 consciousness is "preternatural," it just wonders at the world without being self-conscious. A C2 consciousness is "fallen," in a sense: he is self-conscious, and he realizes he cannot know himself, but he tries to solve this issue himself. A C3 consciousness is "redeemed": he is self-conscious, realizes he cannot know himself, yet realizes his need for help, asks for help, and receives it. Percy seems to say that post-religious man is C2, while a faithful Christian is C3, the greatest consciousness. (This idea is fairly low-profile in the text, because Percy's not trying to beat Christianity into his readers, though he was a faithful and open Catholic.)
Percy's technique in imparting this idea is via a parody, but a serious one, of self-help books. It's structured around a 20-question quiz, complete with thought exercises, multiple-choice questions, didactic tales, etc. Sometimes the format can seem a bit forced, but overall it fits pretty well. Percy references many authors, as mentioned above, and his discussions can get dense (especially discussions of semiotics). As a heavy word of caution, though, to be able to hit modern man hard, Percy resorts to blatant discussions that can often be lurid, especially in terms of sexuality.
How effective is the book? As a Christian already, I can't evaluate its effects on me: I can't really tell if it can help push someone from being a C2 to a C3. I know it could be harmful in its luridity, but the audience it's written to is, in general, already immune to this danger. Is it too dense? The most dense section is the introduction to semiotics, which Percy says you are free to skip. Does the form work? Fairly well, though a bit forced. In the end, the book may be useful to those who are lost in the cosmos (though I can't truly guess if it's useful), and it's possible that it could give a Christian methods to deal with such C2 consciousnesses. Is it truly useful?
In the end, I can't say because I am not the target audience. Is it worthwhile reading? The introduction to semotics is interesting, and its connection to Christianity is thought-provoking, but it's dense and oftentimes a bit too lurid.
As assistance to a philosophically-minded Christian or as a possible tool for the conversion of a "post-religious" man, it may be useful, but this work of Percy's is in no way good material for uplifting a Christian's soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment