Karey Perkins makes the case for the view that Percy is more than a novelist with occasional random existential musings or themes. Although Percy begins in existentialism, his exploration of semiotics sparked his interest in language as the uniquely human symbolic activity. Moreover, Percy attempts a systematic philosophy based in Peirce's semiotic, by applying semiotic principles not just in his philosophical essays, but also in his novels—something rarely mentioned, even by Percy himself.