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

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  • From: hughesl6363 AT aol.com
  • To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [percy-l] The Moviegoer - Chapter Four
  • Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2024 16:22:28 +0000 (UTC)



Dear Percy Projectors:

I have to confess, when Mr. Mills asked me if I’d like to lead the discussion
of Chapter Four, my first reaction was, “Oh no, there goes my Little Way!”

But I figured I could still fit in my re-runs of “Perry Mason” and my
obligatory cat duties. I’m not interested in NBC’s Olympic coverage, anyhow
(cf. my Letter to the Editor forthcoming in the Washington Post).

I admit I was flattered, and intimidated, and I hope my attempt to understand
Percy will help me to understand him better, maybe in a different light.

I really enjoyed Mr. Serafin’s video. It distills Binx’s comments on the
Search, separating them into a coherent essay. I believe Percy always wanted
someone to make movies out of his novels. I think actress Karen Black at one
time had the rights to “The Moviegoer.” I don’t know what happened. Mr.
Serafin gave us a taste of the book in a different medium. (Black, you may
recall, played Myrtle Wilson in “The Great Gatsby.”)

Chapter Four opens with Sam Yerger.  One book on Percy, which has interested
me is William Rodney Allen’s 1986 “Walker Percy: A Southern Wayfarer,”
because it considers his American influences, an unusual approach. He follows
sources and allusions to Twain, Faulkner, Hemingway and others among five of
the six novels.

“ ’The Moviegoer’s’ Hemingway is Sam Yerger,” Allen writes.

He makes good points, leading me to a multiple-choice question: who does Sam
most resemble?
a.)    Hemingway
b.)    Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King (partly because of his resemblance to
Hemingway)
c.)    Lyle Saxon (author Southern studies, including “Gumbo Ya-Ya”—Sam wrote
books on the South, including my favorite, “Yambilaya Ya-Ya.”)
d.)    W.J. Cash (author of “The Mind of the South”—Sam lectured on “the mind
of the south” [p. 179])
e.)    All of the above
f.)    None of the above

If you answered “All of the above,” what is Percy doing?

I find that when I run across literary allusions in his work, they often
point in multiple directions.  So many writers have identified different
“structural” allusions (as Allen calls them, as opposed to “incidental”
allusions). Has “The Moviegoer” rung any bells for you in that way?

Another multiple choice: which strikes you as a likely source of “The
Moviegoer”?

a.)    Dostoevesky’s “Notes From Underground” (explored by the great Percy
scholar Lewis A. Lawson, and in a book by Jessica Hooten Wilson)
b.)    Warren’s “All the King’s Men” (Allen Shepherd suggests parallels in a
1971 article)
c.)    “The Great Gatsby” (my choice…Hahaha)
d.)    All of the above

Chapter Four isn’t my favorite section, partly because it pulls Binx out of
New Orleans.
He warns us that he hates the planned trip, saying a man “may find himself No
one and Nowhere” (p. 99). Are any of his fears realized in Chapter Four? What
techniques does he use to guard himself?

    Another reason Chapter Four doesn’t stand out for me, is that the humor I
find in so much of Percy’s work isn’t so prominent. (The only problem I have
with Mr. Serafin’s video is the glum tone, by the way.) Although, in Chapter
Four, I get a kick out of the awkward failure of Binx and Harold Graebner to
have a joyous reunion, similar to Kate’s failure to converse with that opera
singer years back in Memphis. Why does Percy focus on broken “messages”? On
the train, he reads headlines from a fellow traveler’s newspaper, leading to
that odd dream about the sex specialists (p. 189). Any thoughts about that
dream (which prefigures a theme in “Love in the Ruins,” do you think)?

    The broken conversations Binx and Kate hear when they eavesdrop back at
Aunt Emily’s house is another instance of incomplete communication. Why does
Percy set it up that way?

    There is a series of failures all through Chapter Four. The Harold
Graebner incident is one. In a previous chapter, Binx tells us that seeing
Jews turns him on to the Search (p. 88-89), yet when he meets up with Sidney
Gross (p. 185) on the train, he would prefer to ignore him. Is that another
failure?

    Binx recalls a more serious failure, when he was unable to bond with his
father years ago at the Field Museum (p. 204). I find the relationship with
the father to be murky. Allen’s essay on “The Moviegoer” makes a convincing
argument that Binx is most affected by his father’s suicide “in the wine-dark
sea.” DID MR. BOLLING KILL HIMSELF?

    It’s a compelling argument.  Suicide is a recurring theme throughout
Percy’s work, especially given the incidents in his own family. I’m just not
sure about Binx’s father; I think the idea is contrary to the comic tone of
the novel. The issue is more prominent in Kate’s case. Sam and her mother
reasonably suspect that Kate is trying to kill herself.  Is Kate’s
pill-popping another case of failure? Or does Percy have something else in
mind? He has said suicide is the only cure for depression; is Kate depressed,
as Aunt Emily believes, or is something else plaguing her?

    Binx and Kate’s relationship takes a big leap in Chapter Four. He
proposes marriage for the second time, and they sleep together (another
failure!).  What does Kate have going for her that Sharon lacks for Binx?

    I love his vision of their life together, eating oysters on Magazine
Street (I miss that city!). At the end of Chapter Two, he offers to calm her
fears by getting coffee in the French Quarter. What else does Binx have going
for her?

    I haven’t talked about Percy’s descriptive powers that I love so much.
The train ride above the cities of the dead, the picture of a deserted
Jackson, Miss., the howling wind in Chicago (threatening like Keats’s “Keen
Fitful Gusts”)….I’ll leave off here, and let you enjoy it for yourselves.

    Finally, I have to ask…what is the point of the memory Binx relates about
visiting Johnny Weismuller’s pool? (Gatsby ended up in a swimming pool 😊. )

    Naturally, you don’t have to respond to all of my concerns—hope I didn’t
talk too much.

--Leonard

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  • [percy-l] The Moviegoer - Chapter Four, hughesl6363, 08/02/2024

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