What’s In a Name?

Walker Percy and the Mystery of Human Language

Joseph L. Grabowski

ENG 335

Rev. David Diamond

08 December 2005

Grabowski, 1

What does a man do when he finds himself living after an age

has ended and he can no longer understand himself because

the theories of man of the former age no longer work…?1

Why does man feel so sad in the twentieth century?2

Page after page of rhetorical questions like those above Walker Percy poses for his

readers in the opening sections of “The Delta Factor,” Percy’s premier essay in The Message in

the Bottle. The book, a collection spanning some twenty years of Percy’s labor concerning the

study of semiotics, explores the problems indicated by the work’s subtitle: How Queer Man Is,

How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other.3 Percy would apply his

efforts to this field continually throughout his entire life, eventually resulting in some of his most

important writing.4 In Percy’s essays on language one finds him tackling the same perennial

philosophical problems that pervade his fiction works. In language, Percy contends, lie answers

such as science and contemporary trends in philosophy cannot provide to the questions asked by

his fictional characters – fundamental questions about man’s nature and what it is to truly,

authentically exist as a human being in relationship with others and with God.5 Elusive though

these answers remain, one cannot be unaffected by Percy’s insight, nor help sharing in his

captivation with the seemingly simple question: “What is language?”6

The modern world is hopelessly scientific. The predominating worldview is one of

empiricism, at least for those who make some effort to understand the phenomena surrounding

them. Even considering those who do not, mankind generally seeks for every phenomenon in

1 Walker Percy, 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, Straus, and Giroux, 1975), 7. Subsequent references: Percy, MITB.

2 Percy, MITB, 3.3 See Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (New York: Farrar, Straus

and Giroux, 2003), 441.4 Elie, 450.5 Percy, MITB, 19-22. See also, Kieran Quinlan, Walker Percy: The Last Catholic Novelist (Baton Rouge,

LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 138.6 C.f., Walker Percy, “Naming and Being,” in Signposts in a Strange Land, ed. Patrick Samway (New York:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991), 130: “What is naming?”

Grabowski, 2

the universe a simple explanation of causal relation. And generally, the search is fruitful. In the

writings of the philosopher Charles Pierce, however, one finds a notable exception: the

phenomenon of language. Pierce posited that, while most events have such a “dyadic,” or cause-

effect pattern, language is uniquely “triadic” (see fig. 1-1 and 1-2).7 Here, a relationship is

interpreted to exist between an object and its referent by a human agent, not in linear sequences

of causes and effects, but in a mysterious manner inside the human mind.8 Although Pierce

never satisfactorily explained how this interpretive act takes place, he wholly rejected, along

with many other semioticists such as Noam Chomsky, certain popular behaviorist theories

reducing language to a concept of dyadic stimuli and responses.9 Walker Percy rejects such

theories, as well.

Percy relates that on one ordinary summer day, while deep in thought at his home in

Louisiana about the subject of communication and the person of Helen Keller, he came upon his

own account for language, much akin to the theory of Charles Pierce (fig. 2-1).10 Convinced by

Keller’s linguistic breakthrough that the activity of naming objects is “utterly different from… a

conditional response,”11 Percy set himself to solving the puzzle. In this endeavor, he took

Charles Pierce as “his philosophical mentor” and continued in the latter’s realist semiotic

tradition.12 Percy’s project, however, was larger in scope. Percy knew that there was a deeper

meaning behind the mystery of language, at the very root of which was man’s essential nature.

Naming objects, Percy believed, was the activity which makes a man a person – through which

7 Robert E. Lauder, Walker Percy: Prophetic, Existentialist, Catholic Storyteller (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1996), 19.

8 Ibid.9 See Percy, MITB, 34.10 Percy, MITB, 30.11 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 131.12 John F. Desmond, “Percy’s Triad: Science, Literature, and Religion,” Renascense 47, no. 1 (Fall 1994);

available from http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/desmond.html; Internet; accessed 01 December 2005.

Grabowski, 3

he becomes an “I” or a “Thou,” becomes really human in existence (see fig. 2-2).13 In the

simpler words of critic Martin Luschei, in the act of naming an individual joins “the I-Thou

community of the truly human.”14 The interpretive act distinguishing this singular occurrence in

human existence Percy called Δ – the Delta phenomenon.15

Percy’s inquiry into the peculiarity of human communication quickly expanded into a

more ambitious exploration of man’s existential reality. Given Δ, this shift in focus was quite

logical, as he explains in his essay, “Naming and Being”:

Naming brings about a new orientation toward the world…. As

soon as an individual becomes a name-giver or a hearer of a

name, he no longer coincides with what he is biologically.

Henceforth, he must exist either authentically or inauthentically.16

Reflecting again on the same event in Helen Keller’s life which led to his previous breakthrough,

Percy describes Keller’s driving hunger to continue learning what were the names of the various

things she encountered.17 Scholar Thomas LeClair sees a connection between this urge and the

Kierkegaardian angst felt by Binx Bolling, in Percy’s The Moviegoer: “Binx… is the man

among persons and things for whom naming and its wonder constitute existence.”18 While

LeClair’s assessment may be too narrow, Percy would almost certainly contend that Δ relates

somehow to the anxiety felt by his protagonist, who undeniably seeks a more “authentic”

existence. Furthermore, Percy says that any anthropological philosophy – which may be

reducible to no more than a conception of man as Homo loquens (man the speaker) – “must

13 Percy, “Is a Theory of Man Possible?” in Signposts in a Strange Land, ed. Patrick Samway (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991), 121-124; see also, Percy, “Naming and Being,” 132-134.

14 Martin Luschei, “Excerpt from: The Sovereign Wayfarer: Walker Percy’s Diagnosis of the Malaise,” in Contemporary Literary Criticism: Volume 3, ed. Carolyn Riley (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975), 378.

15 Percy, MITB, 40.16 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 134.17 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 135-136.18 Thomas LeClair, “From the New York Times Book Review,” in Contemporary Literary Criticism:

Volume 6, ed. Carolyn Riley (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976), 401.

account for the alienation of man.”19 Thus, Binx’s own isolation and malaise may amount

simply to a lack of true communication in his life.

Looking further into how the activity of language relates to the deeper meaning of human

life, Percy identifies two sources for the sort of anxiety experienced by a Helen Keller or a Binx

Bolling. They are: the “uncanny,” or the radically different; and man himself.20 The uncanny is

described as a sort of fearful confusion, akin to Kierkegaard’s dread, that arises when an

individual encounters a new thing for which he has no name.21 Here, the adage that ‘man fears

the unknown’ holds true for Percy, in whose realist semiotic philosophy, language is seen to be

the very medium by which the form of a thing becomes intelligible and knowable, albeit

indirectly.22 This means more than simple classification or categorical assessment; for Percy,

naming does not merely speak about a thing, but captures what the very thing is.23

The second source of such anxiety, Percy says, is man himself. As critic Richard Lehan

observes: “Life, for Percy… [is] a search for shared consciousness, for a communication of

mind, for the affirmation of self which can only be found in the reflection of another.”24 Such a

search occupies the lives of Percy’s fictional characters, always endeavoring to find meaningful

communication with one another, with themselves, and with God. About objects in the world,

man frequently is successful in this search, and he and his interlocutors can be “co-celebrants of

being.”25 However, when man looks inward, taking his own person as the subject, he comes face

to face with the inexplicable Δ factor itself. He cannot say what it is that makes one human:

19 Percy, MITB, 23, 30.20 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 136.21 Ibid. See also, Søren Kierkegaard, “Sickness unto Death,” in A Kierkegaard Anthology, ed. Robert Bretall

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1946), 346.22 Desmond, “Percy’s Triad: Science, Literature, and Religion.”23 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 133.24 Richard Lehan, “The Way Back: Redemption in the Novels of Walker Percy,” in Contemporary Literary

Criticism: Volume 2, eds. Carolyn Riley and Barbara Harte (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1974), 333.25 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 137.

“The being of the namer slips through the fingers of naming.”26 Likewise, with the hearer, Percy

concludes, “Nor are you formulable under the auspices of a symbol…. There remains your stare,

which may not be symbolized. If I am determined to dispose of you by formulation, I had better

not look at you.” 27 So closely does Percy align human nature with the concept of language that a

final attempt to explain either is like trying to see a mirror behind the image it reflects.28 In the

end, under the shadow of the monolithic Δ the true nature of man, homo loquens, remains

hidden.

Many have criticized Percy’s work as a semioticist, either for weakness of theory or for

its eventual inconclusiveness.29 One criticism which cannot be made, however, is that Percy was

insincere. And in the final appraisal, this is all that matters. Percy’s passion for semiotics

provides an indispensable clue to understanding his work and his life as an essayist, novelist,

philosopher, and Catholic. As John F. Desmond points out, there is an “intrinsic connection

between [Percy’s] semiotic realism, his Christology, and his view of science and novel-

writing.”30 In his essay, “Walker Percy’s Eucharistic Vision,” Desmond touches on Percy’s

struggle to understand Δ, calling it the “‘interpretant’ or ‘coupler’… in acts of communication

between human beings.”31 Revealingly, Desmond cites an interview in which Percy himself

identified this so-called ‘intepretant’ as God.32 It would be an oversimplification to conclude

therefore that God is Δ; but, it is clear that Percy’s search for the elusive meaning of words was

closely linked to his search for personal meaning in the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. His entire

26 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 136.27 Percy, “Naming and Being,” 137.28 See Percy, MITB, 12; see also, Percy, “Naming and Being,” 132.29 For example, Quinlan, 82-83; Jane Larkin Crain, “Saturday Review [Excerpt],” in Contemporary Literary

Criticism: Volume 6, ed. Carolyn Riley (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976), 401.30 Desmond, “Percy’s Triad: Science, Literature, and Religion.”31 John F. Desmond, “Walker Percy’s Eucharistic Vision,” Renascense 52, no. 3 (Spring 2000), in

FirstSearch [database online], EBSCOhost; accessed 01 Dec 2005; 219.32 Desmond, “Walker Percy’s Eucharistic Vision,” 220.

career in one way or another consisted in this quest. As Desmond elsewhere points out, “For

Percy… the hypostatic Event – the coming of the divine Word into history – validates man as a

symbol-maker… [and] gives ultimate ontological meaning to both the scientific and artistic

enterprises.”33 Debate will continue as to the validity of Percy’s conclusions; past debate,

however, is the fact that his semiotic work continues to provoke thought, and each year brings

new explorers to seek the true identity of the mysterious Δ.

33 Desmond, “Percy’s Triad: Science, Literature, and Religion."

Grabowski, i

ILLUSTRATIONS

A B

Fig 1-1: Dyadic event

(SRC: Percy, “Is a Theory of Man Possible,” 121)

ball (object)

child

ball (word)

Fig. 1-2: Triadic event

(SRC: Percy, “Is a Theory of Man Possible,” 121)

Water (word)

Helen “is”

Water (the liquid)

Fig. 2-1: Percy’s triangular theory

(SRC: Percy, MITB, 41)

Grabowski, ii

symbol

I you

referent

Fig. 2-2: Human activity of language

(SRC: Percy, “Is a Theory of Man Possible,” 124)

Grabowski, iii

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Crain, Jane Larkin. “Saturday Review [Excerpt].” In Contemporary Literary Criticism: Volume

6, ed. Carolyn Riley, 401. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976.

Desmond, John F. “Percy’s Triad: Science, Literature, and Religion.” In Renascense 47, no. 1

(Fall 1994): 3-9. Available from http://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy/desmond.html; Internet;

accessed 01 December 2005.

Desmond, John F. “Walker Percy’s Eucharistic Vision.” Renascense 52, no. 3 (Spring 2000):

219-231. Database on-line. FirstSearch, EBSCOhost; accessed 01 Dec 2005.

Elie, Paul. The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage. New York: Farrar,

Straus and Giroux, 2003.

Kierkegaard, Søren. “Sickness unto Death.” In A Kierkegaard Anthology, ed. Robert Bretall,

339-371. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1946.

Lauder, Robert E. Walker Percy: Prophetic, Existentialist, Catholic Storyteller. New York:

Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1996.

LeClair, Thomas. “New York Times Book Review [Excerpt].” In Contemporary Literary

Criticism: Volume 6, ed. Carolyn Riley, 400-401. Detroit: Gale Research Company,

1976.

Lehan, Richard. “The Way Back: Redemption in the Novels of Walker Percy.” In

Contemporary Literary Criticism: Volume 2, eds. Carolyn Riley and Barbara Harte, 332-

333. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1974.

Luschei, Martin. “The Sovereign Wayfarer: Walker Percy’s Diagnosis of the Malaise

[Excerpt].” In Contemporary Literary Criticism: Volume 3, ed. Carolyn Riley, 378-381.

Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975.

Grabowski, iv

Percy, Walker. “Is a Theory of Man Possible?” In Signposts in a Strange Land, ed. Patrick

Samway, 111-129. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991.

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, Straus, and Giroux, 1975.

Percy, Walker. “Naming and Being.” In Signposts in a Strange Land, ed. Patrick Samway, 130-

138. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991.

Quinlan, Kieran. Walker Percy: The Last Catholic Novelist. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State

University Press, 1996.