Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[Michael Larson <larsonovic AT gmail.com>]

I like Terrence Malick, and Tree of Life is an especially poignant film, so I was pretty hopeful about Knight of Cups when I heard it was based on The Moviegoer. Unfortunately, Christian Bale's character is really nothing like Binx, and his search is almost insufferable. He's a quiet, painfully sensitive guy always looking for various women to give him meaning. But alas, none of them is ever quite enough for how sensitive he is, and he just keeps having to find another one. This is all inferred as there is literally no script or definable story line. By contrast, Binx likes his women, of course, but he is also bright enough to know that they are not the end of his search, and he is therefore also mentally healthy enough not to be locked forever in that loop.

 Just to be clear, I like Christian Bale's acting a lot. The fact that Knight of Cups is so vacuous is not his fault. It's Malick's.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 1:33 PM <percy-l-request AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

   1. More "Moviegoer" (Michael Serafin)
   2. Re: More "Moviegoer" (Henry P. Mills)
   3. Re: "Living as an Ex-Suicide" by Jessica Hooten Wilson
      (Plemmons, Gregory)


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2019 23:23:41 +0000
From: Michael Serafin <michael_serafin AT hotmail.com>
To: "percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [percy-l] More "Moviegoer"
Message-ID:
        <BN6PR22MB09784715FC0494BB6287B25A93920 AT BN6PR22MB0978.namprd22.prod.outlook.com" target="_blank">BN6PR22MB09784715FC0494BB6287B25A93920 AT BN6PR22MB0978.namprd22.prod.outlook.com>

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There is a new paperback edition of "Moviegoer" published in January, with an afterword by Paul Elie.

I thought I read somewhere that Terence Malick has written a screenplay of "Moviegoer". Considering the kind of films he has been making lately, starting with 'Tree Of Life", he would probably do justice to the novel.
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2019 02:31:23 -0500
From: "Henry P. Mills" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
To: Percy-L <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] More "Moviegoer"
Message-ID: <796C3E7D-2655-4A7F-A38E-025B3FBA1ACE AT gmail.com" target="_blank">796C3E7D-2655-4A7F-A38E-025B3FBA1ACE AT gmail.com>
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Michael et al,

Perhaps this brief transcription might shed some light on Malick and his use of the MG as noted in an earlier Percy-L post on his 2016 release of  "Knight of Cups."  Quite an amusing anecdote from lead Christian Bale. Did anyone see the movie to comment?

Thanks for calling our attention to the new edition of the MG and Paul Elie?s afterword, Michael.

Best,
Henry Mills
Percy-L Administrator

----
Christian Bale hates talking about acting: 'I just want to push a pencil through my eyeball'
Audio Interview by Take Two, Southern California Public Radio
March 04 2016
Source: https://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2016/03/04/46931/christian-bale-on-acting-life-in-los-angeles-and-h/

While working on "Knight of Cups," Terrence Malik's latest film,
Christian Bale didn't have much to work with.

"We would get on the set, they're already filming me [and] I don't know
what we're doing," said Bale. "The only research that Terry really gave
me other than our conversations ? which were extensive ? was the book by
Walker Percy, 'The Moviegoer,' where he's on a search for who knows
exactly what, but you know you must be on that search.

Bale, who's best known for his roles in the Batman series, "The Fighter"
and his Oscar-nominated turn in "The Big Short," plays a decidedly
different character this time: a screenwriter named Rick that has lost
his way, spiritually and emotionally.

He spoke to Take Two about the film, which is set in Los Angeles,
touching on the director's unique methods, filming with a confused cast,
how conversations about acting make him feel and more.

On Terrence Malik's style:

"He talked about how he wants to start to move towards films where
there's just no script whatsoever. Making a film that is more like, more
akin to a piece of music or to literature where the audience [have]
their own feelings about the film rather than being dictated to about
what they should be feeling... A lot of times he loves the fact that you
didn't say your lines. It's always just about being absolutely sincere
and truthful."

...continue the article and above media at:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2016/03/04/46931/christian-bale-on-acting-life-in-los-angeles-and-h/


ORIGINAL PERCY-L POST
https://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/percy-l/2016-March/002084.html






> On Feb 1, 2019, at 6:23 PM, Michael Serafin <michael_serafin AT hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> There is a new paperback edition of "Moviegoer" published in January, with an afterword by Paul Elie.
>
> I thought I read somewhere that Terence Malick has written a screenplay of "Moviegoer". Considering the kind of films he has been making lately, starting with 'Tree Of Life", he would probably do justice to the novel.










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Message: 3
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:50:19 +0000
From: "Plemmons, Gregory" <gregory.plemmons AT Vanderbilt.Edu>
To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion"
        <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] "Living as an Ex-Suicide" by Jessica Hooten
        Wilson
Message-ID:
        <5EC8B5055FCBD04E8197CAD3EA5A1FB04EB23185 AT ITS-HCWNEM104.ds.vanderbilt.edu>

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Thanks for posting, Henry.


Tonight, I happened upon a video promoting the new PBS series The Great American Read featuring the young adult author John Green (link here: https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/a70ef29d-b06a-4f15-8a49-2d398b9e0444/the-great-gatsby-part-1-crash-course-english-literature-104/? ). While none of Percy?s novels made the top 100, watching the video, I had to smile on seeing The Last Gentleman atop a stack of books (screencap attached). I have no idea if this was Green?s idea or the producer?s, but it has struck me at times how Green, despite his YA label, is in many ways a worthy heir to Percy?s spirit, as he has explored many themes common to Percy throughout his novels, his protagonists often akin to Binx Bolling or Will Barrett. For those of you who may not be familiar with his work, his first novel (Looking For Alaska) examined a high school suicide with grief, hope, and search for meaning. Green wrote his sixth (arguably his most famous) novel The Fault In Our Stars after he in
 terned for a year as a children?s hospital chaplain. And his latest, Turtles All The Way Down, is in some ways his most autobiographical, as he explores mental illness and depression and has been candid about his own struggles. Green's ability to finesse melancholy and humor have always reminded me of Percy, and his novels, like Percy?s, are never driven primarily by plot. Anyhow, when I saw The Last Gentleman perched next to him, it got me wondering if any other Percy fans have read him. If you haven?t, he?s worth a look.

Gregory Plemmons

________________________________
From: Percy-L [percy-l-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] on behalf of Marshall Smith [mhsmithjrlaw AT gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2018 8:07 PM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] "Living as an Ex-Suicide" by Jessica Hooten Wilson

I have always marveled at the way Percy wrote about suicide philosophically and matter of factly at the same time.  It?s obvious in his writing that he had a terrible familiarity with it but had also thought about the philosophical/moral/religious implications deeply for many years.

Marshall
Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 20, 2018, at 2:33 AM, Henry P. Mills <wppdirector AT gmail.com<mailto:wppdirector AT gmail.com>> wrote:

Dear Percy-L:

For the group's reading and reflection. Certainly the recent suicides of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade reveal how millions can be affected by the suicides of but two of us.  Percy himself once remarked how he was at the time the only one in multiple generations in his family lineage to live beyond 70 due repeated suicides in his family.

***Jessica Hooten Wilson is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at John Brown University. She is the author of three books, including Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky & the Search for Influence and Reading Walker Percy's Novels.***

All best,
Henry Mills
Percy-L Administrator


-------Living as an Ex-Suicide
by JESSICA HOOTEN WILSON<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url="http%3A%2F%2Fwww.libertylawsite.org%2Fauthor%2Fjessica-hooten-wilson%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cgregory.plemmons%40vanderbilt.edu%7C6ec1a8da774c46bf9d7508d5d71370c9%7Cba5a7f39e3be4ab3b45067fa80faecad%7C0%7C1%7C636651400848491095&sdata=FNtjonSpt9vw%2FdWXUry11zPccTo2IQ6fsJRlJwU%2FdFU%3D&reserved=0>
JUNE 15, 2018

Opening paragraphs:
?The only cure for depression is suicide.? Walker Percy was not joking when he penned this line. The author himself was a survivor of suicide?though he did not attempt it. His grandfather and father both shot themselves at home; his mother either intentionally or not drove off of a bridge and drowned; and the first American Percy, Charles Percy, tied a kettle to his neck and also drowned.
Unlike his ancestors, Walker Percy lived a full life and died of prostate cancer at 74 years old. Why did they die but he lived? Because Percy chose to be a survivor, to find out not only why his father took his own life, but, as he put it, ?to make damn sure it didn?t happen to [him].? This determination fueled his work. Percy wrote novel after novel trying to solve what Albert Camus called the only philosophical question, to be or not to be?.
http://www.libertylawsite.org/2018/06/15/living-as-an-ex-suicide-walker-percy/<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url="http%3A%2F%2Fwww.libertylawsite.org%2F2018%2F06%2F15%2Fliving-as-an-ex-suicide-walker-percy%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cgregory.plemmons%40vanderbilt.edu%7C6ec1a8da774c46bf9d7508d5d71370c9%7Cba5a7f39e3be4ab3b45067fa80faecad%7C0%7C1%7C636651400848491095&sdata=knCzy73RGN0ldLEmmQ4JVJEvQZOQkdIH52ILLJqCkw8%3D&reserved=0>







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