Backwoods Phenomenal

It's really not a great shock to learn that Ron Cooper's first book was an academic piece: Heidegger and Whitehead: A Phenomenological Examination into the Intelligibility of Experience (1993). His most recent book, a fictional work called Purple Jesus, does, after all, explore phenomenological issues such as the limitations of human consciousness to sufficiently explain the complexities of even one's own perspective of existence. The characters in Purple Jesus, such as Purvis Driggers, operate as concrete examples of the very filters by which individual human experience might dispel the notion of a truly objective truth. However, what may surprise and impress the reader is the manner in which Cooper conveys such philosophical depth without sacrificing style and storyline in Purple Jesus. In his refreshing take on the novel of ideas, Cooper combines philosophical reflection with a rural setting, working-class characters, an engaging storyline, and South Carolina low-country vernacular to create a rare, pleasurable experience for the reader.

One of the greatest strengths of Purple Jesus lies in Cooper's skill in shifting the reader's expectations about the form and substance of the narrative, as the plot is propelled through the worldview of several primary characters. Most of the third-person novel follows Purvis Driggers, an unlikely protagonist and an even less likely hero, a figure perhaps better suited for a secondary role, much like Cormac McCarthy's Harrogate in Suttree (1979). Yet, Purvis is the driving force behind most of the narrative, as the reader follows him on his quixotic quest for wealth, true love, and existential fulfillment. Driggers demonstrates a certain awareness of knowledge, philosophy, and a reflection on his own existence, but these are issues that he cannot quite completely grasp. He seeks a definitive answer to his existential queries, pointing out relevant symbols and metaphors that surround him, while, most of the time, by his own admission, lacking the cognitive ability and educational background to ascertain their figurative value. This internal conflict made external ultimately creates a misreading of the perceptions of the other characters around him as well; at times, even his own relative, personal experience is, in a sense, intangible to him. In the end, he is exposed as a sort of false protagonist, a failed hero: someone who carries the plot in the meantime. Like T.S. Eliot's Prufrock, Purvis seems an incapable protagonist of his own life, his own story. Even Martha, the woman with whom Purvis is romantically involved, does not view him as a leading man. When she reveals that she wants to have a baby and is asked if she will pursue a relationship with Purvis, she responds, "Shh. No, I'm not getting married, but maybe him for the father."

The story of Purvis is, in a sense, a quest for personal satisfaction and an objective enlightenment that proves impossible to achieve. As Martin Heidegger explains in Being and Time (1927), "The question of the meaning of Being must be formulated. If it is a fundamental question, or indeed the fundamental question, it must be made transparent, and in an appropriate way." Purvis's role in the novel, on one level, is to formulate the fundamental question of being in a manner that is transparent for the reader. Through Purvis Driggers, the novel explores the impossibility for one to achieve a definitive, universal understanding of the world around him. Purvis seeks knowledge; he wants to learn more about Aristotle, Occam, and other great thinkers he knows relatively little about. He craves the ability to decipher symbols and comprehend metaphors, but, ultimately, Purvis's arrival at one experiential truth proves impossible, despite his rather naïve belief that such truth might be attainable to him if he could only extract meaning from the figurative clues around him. In the end, he remains merely an embodiment of these fundamental questions.

Purple Jesus is the manifestation of phenomenological philosophy in a backwoods setting, a sophisticated discussion of existentialism, employing redneck mythology. The significance of symbols shifts in meaning throughout the text just as it...