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

[hughesl6363 AT aol.com]

Dear Mr Lowry...

Thanks for these provocative observations!

I always found a lot of stuff in this section to be interesting, especially when I was a bit younger. The meeting with Mr S itself isn't so interesting to me either. It's a glimpse into Binx's life as a money-man, and I'm not into financial matters. But, like so much of the novel I love, it permits Percy to describe some of the natural outskirts of New Orleans. Percy's descriptive power transports me, and since we're in and around the city that has a magical attraction for me, I hang on every word. Chapter Two is filled with that: the paragraph that begins "Evening is the best time in Gentilly." (p. 73) is one of my favorite evocative passages in the book. Reminds me of the amazing descriptions in "The Great Gatsby."

I'll try my best not to drag Fitzgerald's book into the discussion too often, but I can't unsee it when I read "The Moviegoer."

Getting back to Mr S, Binx shows us his professional business, occupied as he is, like Nick Carraway, making his living with finances (both characters even do business with members of the underworld). The selling of the family fishing camp is largely an excuse for getting Sharon Kincaid out in the wilds with him. A good portion of Chapter Two deals with Binx's often-failed relationships. (Nick Carraway also confesses to his affairs with women, and even has a fantasy about one, very similar to one Binx indulges in on p. 12.)

Today, Percy would catch flak from people who would object to his character's behavior toward his secretaries, but even back in 1960, I don't think Percy was condoning Binx's behavior. The superficial dalliances are in contrast to his deeper commitment to Kate. (Beyond suggesting "I love you" to her, he even confesses to asking her to marry him (p. 116), however humorously the moment is portrayed in the scene.)

These superficial love affairs, I believe, are presented as evidence of existential despair. The E-word had to enter the discussion at some point. I only know of Kierkegaard what I've read from or about Walker Percy, so I'll probably oversimplify it, but it has to do with avoiding despair, nothingness, ennui, "everydayness," etc., in favor of living an "authentic" life, undistracted by boring, valueless, phony behavior or sentiments (as in This I Believe"). One way to look at life with significance is to engage in a Kierkegaardian "repetition," which employs the passage of time to perceive the reality that endures despite time's ravages. (Okay, that's how I see it.) Awareness of the reality around you and that of your own being are existential goals. It's hard to explain "Binx's necessity to form a connection" with places without referring to the E-word and what it means to the explainer.

In the final dialogue of Chapter Two, I'm not sure if Percy is showing that Kate has achieved new freedom because she has given up worrying about what others expect her to be, or if he's saying Kate is mistaken because she's given up the effort to "be" authentically the way she felt after the accident that killed her fiance.

I think Binx is accepting some responsibility for Kate at this point, but his statement that things will be all right, may be just the temporary fix he knows an order of beignets and coffee at the Cafe du Monde just has to provide.

The average reader will keep on, as I did many years ago, if no other reason that he'd want to see if Binx gets anywhere with the woman who's reading "Peyton Place."

Thanks for listening,
Leonard

On Saturday, July 13, 2024 at 12:57:21 PM EDT, <lowry.charles AT gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends,

>

> I was pleased that Henry asked me to make the first posting of Chapter Two (pp. 64-116), because in this same chapter we find (a) the part of The Moviegoer I have generally found least interesting, the sale of the family fishing camp, and (b) the dialogue at the end of the chapter that I think gives us insight into the most significant aspect of the novel.  Let us begin, and to help us begin, I shall make just a couple observations, at which you may smile indulgently, jeer scornfully or nod enthusiastically.  Please also, by the way, feel free to take up for our group’s benefit any part of Chapter Two that I have neglected.  It’s a group effort!

>

> * I have said that this chapter contains the section of the novel I find least interesting.  That is the trip to sell the fishing camp to Mr. Sartalamaccia. (pp. 89-96)  I don’t see how it advances the action of the plot, which is not such a big deal, or draws out any of the important characters, which would indeed for this book be a big deal.  Help me: what am I missing?

>

> * In several places in the novel, Binx insists that he has to get some down-to-earth detail about a place before it becomes real to him, or before he has a fighting chance to prevent the spirit genie of a place from overwhelming him utterly.  In our chapter, twice we see the necessity of approaching a new place in a very particular way to make it real.  We hear about this first in regard to the movie theater: “Yet it was here at the Tivoli that I first discovered place and time, tasted it like okra.  It was during a rerelease of Red River a couple years ago that I became aware of the first faint stirrings of curiosity about the particular seat I sat in, the lady in the ticket booth…” (p. 75)  Binx is even more emphatic about the thought of just picking up and going to Chicago: “Chicago.  Misery misery son of a bitch of all miseries.  Not in a thousand years could I explain it to Uncle Jules, but it is no small thing for me to make a trip, travel hundreds of miles across the country by night to a strange place and come out where there is a different smell in the air and people have a different way of sticking themselves into the world.” (p. 98)  The perspicacious critic Jessica Hooten Wilson gives us an idea of Binx’s hesitation : “Binx sweats and curses over such an assignment because the journey removes him from the particularity of his place and time.”  What is the point of Binx’s necessity to form a connection with anyplace he stops at or travels to?

>

> * The chapter concludes with Kate’s trip to Elysian Fields after the supper for former Neptune queens.  Binx has been alerted that she may be en route, so, clad in pajamas and a raincoat, he waits for her on a bus stop bench.  After she arrives, she speaks to Binx of her psychiatric breakthrough, that she is a free being required to meet no one’s expectations but her own.  Alas, Kate is, in Jay Tolson’s memorable phrase, “someone who has never found her footing in the world.”  As dawn approaches, then, the old fears and insecurities return:

> <<“Ooooh,” Kate groans, Kate herself now.  “I’m so afraid.”

> “I know.”

> “What am I going to do?”

> “You mean right now?”

> “Yes.”

> “We’ll go to my car.  Then we’ll drive down to the French Market and get some coffee.  Then we’ll go home.”

> “Is everything going to be all right?”

> “Yes.”

> “Tell me.  Say it.”

> “Everything is going to be all right.”>> (p. 116)

> Borrowing now from my Goodreads review, I think this is a truly remarkable piece of dialogue. In a medieval romance, this would mean, “Your crops won’t fail, the tax collections will be good, your late husband’s evil brother will not kidnap your children and seize the crown.”  Of course this is a modern novel, not a medieval romance.  Binx cannot possibly promise Kate all of this.  Perhaps what he means here is, “Maybe things will be all right and maybe they won’t, but either way, I’ll be right here by your side.”  I am convinced that this is the equivalent of “I love you.”  And that should be enough.  This moment signifies Binx’s acceptance of his responsibilities toward Kate.  Am I wrong about this?  Do I overestimate the importance of this scene?

>

> Lagniappe: the first two chapters make up about 45% of the book.  So far, so good?  Would the “average” reader keep reading?

>

> Please feel free to comment on any of these paragraphs, or indeed any other material from this chapter.

>

> Chuck Lowry

> Brooklyn, NY

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