I wouldn't say that I'm more knowledgeable, but, just based on MG, it seems
like Percy consider the cult of celebrity to be an inauthentic referent--in
other words, as long as Binx is beseeching Bill Holden and Rory Calhoun for
answers, he's living in bad faith. Notice that in the epilogue, after he's made
that leap to the religious, there's no need for talk of movies and movie stars
any longer. Rather than the movies certifying his existence, he's able to
certify his own being as well as Kate's.
Just my two cents.
Sure is good to hear a little chatter!
Rhonda
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 9:01
AM
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Some Thoughts on
The Moviegoer
* * This communication is CONFIDENTIAL * *
I've enjoyed
today's flurry of postings on this list. I definitely fall
into the
'lay' category -- perhap sub-lay -- that one of you mentioned.
I really
can't contribute to this academic-oriented crowd, but I enjoy
reading the
thoughts of those who are, by profession, able to spend time
thinking
seriously about Percy and his connections to literature,
semiotics,
Catholicism, and 4 pm angst, and who are willing to share
their
observations.
Perhaps one of you will take a bite at this: I've
been thinking about
the scene early in The Moviegoer where Binx sees
William Holden on the
street, and Percy describes the peculiar power of the
celebrity image.
I'm in mind of this as I've been engaged in discussion
recentlywith
others about Lance Armstrong. This led to a discussion
about 'true
heroes and mere celebrity,' and the paucity of - and cynical
fear of -
the former, and the overload in our culture of the
latter. We spoke
about Andy Warhol's use of the
celebrity image in the same way that he
used a Brillo Soap Pad box, and how
these images are at one and the same
time trivial, while also serving as
symbols that trigger other
less-than-conscious references.
I'm
fascinated not by celebrities themselves, but by how they effect us.
We
live, it has been said, in a time in which we see more images in a
day than
rural Victorians would view in a lifetime. What are the
implications
of this? What did Percy think about this?
I once saw
Elizabeth Taylor in a Musuem cafeteria getting a cup of
coffee (30 years
ago, when she was still beautiful), and my recognition
of her (instanteous)
took my breath away. Why was that?
Is the
disconnect or chasm between celebrity and hero akin to the
illusion of
happiness and the state of 'alertness, awareness,
engagement,' that chaslow53 AT aol.com spoke about? While
the former is
fleeting but seductive, the latter is genuine but
difficult.
Let's hear from those of you far more knowledgeable about
Percy on this.
Karl
-----Original Message-----
From: chaslow53 AT aol.com
[mailto:chaslow53 AT aol.com]
Sent: Sun Jul 31 16:39:52 2005
To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject:
[percy-l] Some Thoughts on The Moviegoer
I shall see to it, by making
you all read the thoughts set out below,
that no one ever again complains
about inactivity on this list!
As I mentioned in a previous
posting, I first read The Movieoer at the
age of fifty-two (I have shoes
and neckties older than some people on
this list), and it changed my
life. Without going into any detail about
how it changed my life--as
Justice Rhenquist fanously said, that's for
me to know and you to find
out--I have spent quite a lot of time
thinking about the book, and I would
be grateful for any reactions,
either to the list or privately, about the
views I am formulating but
which are far from complete.
I'm
not sure that novels, good ones anyway, have a message that is
intended by
the author and more or less automatically picked up by
astute
readers. One of the interesting things about literature, in
fact, is
how authors change their minds about their own books over the
years and how
readers can come to startlingly different conclusions
about
books.
With those prefatory remarks, I have come to see an
element in The
Moviegoer that is clearer and clearer to me with each
rereading. There
is a strong message in the book about happiness: it
is in most cases
impossible to grasp, both as a concept and as a
reality. Further, it is
largely irrelevant. To be alert,
engaged, aware, these states of being
are more important, and more real,
than to be happy. And finally, there
is only the most accidental
relationship between our plans and actions
and what we hope will be our
happines.
Let us take Kate as our first example. Binx, by
the end of the book, is
pleased to marry her, even though they both realize
that there is
virtually no chance that she will ever attain a measure of
happiness,
and even in daily life she will be a constant and inevitable
burden to
Binx.
Not only is Binx's mother not a candidate for
happiness, it is
specifically disavowed on her behalf. She employs
all her resources,
including religion, in the "canny management of the
shocks of life."
Aunt Emily is so wrapped up in her Stoic
philosophy, with its "lost
cause-Southern" tint, that she positively
embraces failure in its
historic dimension.
Binx himself sets
the terms of his search in such a way that happines
cannot possibly be the
result. Instead, it is an engaged awareness that
is his goal.
<<She asks, What are you going to do? I shrug. There
is
only one thing to do: listen to people, see how they stick
themselves
into the world, hand them along a ways on the dark journey and
be handed
along, all for good and selfish reasons.>>
The
two difficulties to be dealt with before declaring this attitude to
be
comprehensive are Uncle Jules (He is an exemplary Catholic, but it is
hard
to know why he takes the trouble. For the world he lives in, the
City
of Man, is so pleasant that the City of God must hold little in
store for
him.) and Mercer.
All things considered, I wonder if we can say
that WP hides an important
clue for us in an off-hand thought by Binx on
his way home from the Gulf
with Sharon:
Joy and sadness come
by turns, I know now. Beauty and bravery make you
sad, and victory
breaks your heart. But life goes on, and on we go...
I plan
on expanding these thoughts into a full-blown essay one day, but
any
thoughts, criticisms (I have a wife and two daughters, aged
twenty-one and
seventeen, so do not think that you can say anything to
offend me) or
suggestions you have are welcome.
Chuck Lowry
Brooklyn, New
York
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