by Walker Percy
(bio and other
books)
In
The Moviegoer, Percy lays out the
foundation of two so-called "cures” for isolation
and boredom. The first is the devotion to duty and
traditional Southern values, as exemplified by Aunt
Emily. The second is the mystery and absurdity of
Catholicism, and Ash Wednesday as taught and
practiced by Binx's unconventionally catholic mother.
John Binkerson ("Binx") Bolling is a self-described
fine, contributing citizen of a New Orleans family
who for some years has devoted himself to money,
sex, and watching movies. The movies in which Binx
immerses himself is our first clue to the
superficiality and lack of "substance" in his own
life. The novel begins during Mardi Gras when Binx
begins to feel a need for something more substantial
in his life. We meet his Aunt Emily, a fine Southern
woman of the community, and Kate, his cousin whom
others view as unstable since her fiancé’s death
some years earlier.
All of this takes place on the bayous, where Binx
visits his mother and her
new family. (Binx's father died in World War II; Binx,
served in the Korean War.) After this visit, Binx
goes to Chicago with Kate where, unlike in the
movies, he is forced to answer questions, make
decisions and live with the effects those decisions
have on the lives of others.
Quotes from
The Moviegoer:
“I go to bed cozy and dry in the storm snug as a
larva in a cocoon, wrapped safe and warm in living
Christian kindness. From chair to bed and from TV
to radio for one little nightcap of a program.
Being a creature of habit, as regular as a monk, and
taking pleasure in the gram called This I believe.
Monks have their compline, I have This I Believe.
On the program hundreds of the highest-minded
people, people in the country, thoughtful and
intelligent people, people with mature inquiring
minds, state their personal credos. The two or
three hundred I have heard so far were without
exception admirable people. I doubt if any other
country or any other time in history has produced
such thoughtful and high-minded people, especially
the women. And especially the South. I do believe
the South has produced more high-minded women, women
of universal sentiments, than any other section of
the country except possibly New England in the last
century. Of my six living aunts, five are women of
the loftiest theosophical panBrahman sentiments.
The sixth is still a Presbyterian.”
NOTE:
One of Percy's most cited statements about the
ambiguity of the old Southern codes comes in Love
in the Ruins when Dr. Thomas More witnesses a
black man, and a white racist putting aside ideology
to help him:
“the terror comes from the goodness and what lies
beneath, some fault in the soul's terrain so deep
that all is well on top, evil grins like good, but
something shears and tears deep down and the very
ground stirs beneath one's feet. . . . The terror
comes from piteousness, from good gone wrong and not
knowing it, from Southern sweetness and cruelty, God
why do I stay here? In Louisiana people still stop
and help strangers. Better to live in New York where
life is simple, every man's your enemy, and you walk
with your eyes straight ahead.”
Buy
The Moviegoer
Read our bio of
Walker Percy
and peruse his other books!
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Read our bio of
Walker
Percy and peruse his other books!
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