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

[hughesl6363 AT aol.com]

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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