"love is gone but war remains"

[kxllyconflict]

"Scene in one thousand movies: a party, formal stuffed-shirt party, NYC cocktail party, country club party, New Year's Eve party, hippie party -- any kind of party -- but with one common denominator of a failed festival, a collapsed and fragmented community. There is always the painfully perceived gap between what is and what might be. If there

Comments

[kxllyconflict]

Nor could I.

[kidsluvnickcore]

Bibliomancy.

Not so much

[kxllyconflict]

How do you take the excerpt? Agree/disagree?

Re: Not so much

[kidsluvnickcore]

I'd say it's more a critique of contemporary social relationships than consumption of alcohol since Percy doesn't seem to criticize its use in "celebrating festivals" (at least not in this excerpt). Thus Percy is saying that alcohol is our imperfect solution to the problem rather than the cause. It also relies on an unrealistic and glorified view of history that denies or ignores rampant sexism, racism and certainly classism during whatever past time he is implying was a better one. Surely the "what-might-be" portion of the "what-is/what-might-be" equation would be significantly larger in a time when you have rigid economic/social classes and divisions along race and gender lines. This is not to say that we don't face those problems today, but I would say that at the very least they aren't any worse

[kxllyconflict]

The book is written as "The Last Self-Help Book" and it primarily focuses on how to identify the self.
What happens from then on is less of a concern in the text because a truly aware self will have consciously shaken off the shackles of religious devotion and sectarianism (<-- addressed at length in the text; and, it could be assumed, though it isn't addressed as much-->) along with oppressive social and political forces