Binx, the main character, still fails to get his act together so far. I'm on chapter 8 of section 2 and he's still well up in his head. A lot of this section up to this point is about his secretary. And also about his landlady. But he spends a lot of time talking about his secretary. He's "in love with her," although he rarely talks to her and never talks to her about anything rather than business. Clearly, he created a bit of a fantasy for himself in which everything is not quite what it seems to everybody else, including himself. He keeps "a Gregory Peckish sort of distance" from her. I've begun to wonder if his aunt isn't right about him and he's tricked himself into believing otherwise.
Occasionally, he'll get lost in his own description of a person or thing, such as his new secretary Sharon, such that he describes actually seeing sparks when they touch or feeling light as the moon (my words, not his).
"I have discovered," he says, "that most people have no one to talk to, no one, that is, who really wants to listen." This is a reflection on his conversations with the owner of the movie theater, who was quickly convinced to talk to Binx honestly about his business, and Binx enjoyed it. He enjoys being "selfish," as he calls it, and talks to people not for their sake but for his, so that he won't "[slip] clean out of space and time."
It occurs to me that, perhaps, the reason he likes movies but dislikes the endings is because, in the end, the characters settle down to reality. They settle down into the daily ways of life, whereas he was enjoying their explorations, their experiments, and their freedom to try anything they want and go anywhere they would. And yet, he is not a traveler. He is not a great explorer or a risk-taker. Perhaps it's the newness and mystery and chance of life that attracts him. He could be there but he's here. He could be seeing a showing of Jane Powell's movie in Arkansas but he's not. He's seeing it in Louisiana. But he's still a mystery to me. I think, ultimately, he's still a mystery to himself. Maybe he won't tell us what "the search" is because he doesn't quite know how to say what it is. But he seems to live in a world of what has happened, what could have happened, and what isn't happening. Does that make any sense? No, not at a lot.
Kate says something interesting in chapter 3. She says: "Have you noticed that only in times of illness or disaster or death are people real?" That's a very interesting observation. I think there's some truth to it. In times of difficulty, people are forced to show their true colors. And furthermore, people of all kinds drop their facades to reach out to someone in need.
In chapter 4, Binx muses about old houses, which reminds him of his father's insomnia. I'm not sure what he's getting at or if the thoughts on his father relate to his thoughts on the houses. And then he sleeps outside, apparently. I'm not sure what's going on in this chapter, unless it's only further introspection.
In chapter 6, Binx mentions this "clue" that he finds in Jews. Again, he doesn't identify it, which is because he doesn't know what it is. But I'm wondering if it will indeed turn out to be a clue to me, the reader, to what this is all about.
I haven't quite finished part 2 yet, but I will and I'll read part 3.
Five trivia:
- The Moviegoer was Percy's first published novel.
- The Moviegoer won the National Book Award.
- Percy was a scientist, but he was strongly influenced by the works of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky, and he lost faith in science to explain the mysteries of existence. (I think this could be a valuable insight into how to read this novel.)
- Supposedly, according to Wikipedia, themes in Binx Bolling's life parallel the narrator in Dante's the Divine Comedy.
- "In 1989, the University of Notre Dame awarded Percy its Laetare Medal, which is bestowed annually to a Catholic 'whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church, and enriched the heritage of humanity.'" (Wikipedia)