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

["Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>]

I am forwarding the below opening comments for Chapter Three prepared by Tom Gollier on through to the Reading Group. His comments initially went to the wrong email address. The address to use for submissions to the listserv is: <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>. Thanks for your contribution, Tom!

Henry Mills

Percy-L Listserv Manager

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From: Thomas Gollier <tgollier AT gmail.com>
To: Percy List
Subject: The Moviegoer - Chapter Three
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2024 05:25:44

Hello Everyone,

As an introduction to Chapter 3, I would note several contrasts:

   - 'Malaise', a loss of interest in the world, versus 'Everydayness', a loss of

      self in the world.
   
   - Binx connecting with Sharon, something of a dalliance, and his coming

     together with Lonnie, an enduring connection.

   - The Smith family together in the fishing camp versus in their "home in Biloxi

      … that narrow old house [of] dreariness."

   - Binx's ongoing search in light of his mother's description of his father's own 

     search for "something."

that all seem significant, if not integral, to the novel.

What I find most revealing, however, is the episode of Binx and Lonnie going to see the movie 'Fort Dobbs' with Sharon.  Binx early on says "the movies are onto it."  This is a joke, right?  The movies — 'Fort Dobbs'? — are onto it?  But in this episode, we see Binx and Lonnie, who are both moviegoers, both "get" the joke.

    Lonnie happy (he looks around at me with the liveliest sense of the 

    secret  between us; the secret is that Sharon is not and never will be

    onto the little touches we see in the movie and, in the seeing, know 

    that the other sees — as when Clint Walker tells the saddle tramp in

    the softiest easiest old Virginian voice: "Mister, I don't believe I'd do

    that if I was you."

They both get it, they each know the other gets it. They are both onto the kernel of truth at the center of this and any good joke.  Amid all the images of being-this-or-that on the screen, Clint Walker brings it down to the singular moment of their existence, to their being-or-not.  This actualization of them as existing subjects in the objective midst of all the moving images would seem to be just what the movies are onto. And, Binx and Lonnie, coming together on this "secret' between themselves, comes to include Sharon as well.

    But 'Fort Dobbs' is as good as can be. My heart sings like Octavian and
    there is great happiness between me and Lonnie and this noble girl and

    they both know it and have the sense to say nothing.

Anyway, I think there's a lot going on in this chapter with regard to the search, and how it's working out for Binx.

As for a question regarding this chapter, I'm wondering how Lonnie's integration of his disability and suffering into his religious faith relates to Percy's own embrace of Catholicism. I've always found the latter a bit perplexing.

Thanks,

Tom Gollier