Malcolm Cowley on Faulkner re: TRP

[Ian Livingston]

>  How does one define Hemingway's kind of Grace---Courage is grace under
fire.

I think that's the kick in the pants type of grace, from what I know of
Papa. (Note that Papa is Greek for Pope.) I never served in the military,
so it's safe to assume I've never seen a firefight, but in my incarnations
as a firefighter, a scaffold rigger, a mine worker, a logger and an
arborist, I've been in some pretty freakin' hairball situations that would
freeze most men to the shit in their pants. I once had to walk out a steel
I-beam 600' above the glass ceiling of the lobby in a snowstorm; I got
rolled over by a 10 ton log; and I've topped redwood trees and giant old
firs, among a number of other scary as hell activities. People have many
times asked me where I got guts to do those things and act with my wits
intact, and my answer is always the same: I get scared and then I know the
only way out is through what has to be done. Sometimes I don't have the
time to think it, but the point is the same. Comes to live or die it's a
grace of clarity in action that makes the difference. If you freeze up,
there's nothing left to talk about.

On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:

> On 12/3/2012 12:11 PM, Bekah wrote:
>
>> On Dec 3, 2012, at 2:48 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:
>>
>>>         And as for Grace, well I'm happy to see that we have revisited
>>> its types in RC and Calvinism etc, but is this not a more secular Grace? Is
>>> it not a correlate of the anarchy miracle and thus detached to some degree
>>> from its religious moorings? I agree with Mark that this line is very
>>> carefully weighted. Pynchon clearly states, in one of his letters in the
>>> Harry Ransom collection, that he is "big on last lines."
>>>
>>
>> Yes,  lots of meanings for  the term "grace."   And I'm not accusing TP
>> of having a  "religious" meaning in mind.   I think secular Grace is very
>> similar to what the Catholic site describes as "Actual Grace"  - it's the
>> supernatural type one.   This is not the kind that gets you to heaven or
>> prepares your soul or whatever.  This is the kind that's just a little
>> "kick in the pants."     It's not "irresistible" like the Calvinist.
>>
>> My bad  -  I  put in the quotes and forgot the links:
>> Actual Grace is  "a supernatural push or encouragement.  It's transient.
>>  It … acts on the soul from the outside, so to speak.  It's a supernatural
>> kick in the pants.  It gets the will and the intellect moving so we can
>> seek out and keep sanctifying grace."
>> http://www.catholic.com/**tracts/grace-what-it-is-and-**what-it-does<http://www.catholic.com/tracts/grace-what-it-is-and-what-it-does>
>>
>>
>> and
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Prevenient_grace<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevenient_grace>
>> "… prevenient grace allows persons to engage their God-given free will to
>> choose the salvation offered by God in Jesus Christ or to reject that
>> salvific offer."
>>
>>
>> There are lots (!) of sites with little definitions.
>>
>> Bekah
>> whose g'daughter is named Grace -
>>
>
> How does one define Hemingway's kind of Grace---Courage is grace under
> fire.
>
>
> P
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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