My experience reading The Moviegoer was somewhat enjoyable. I think Percy is an excellent writer and there is no doubt that his craft enables him to convey the story in a way that makes it interesting for the reader. For me though, I liked reading the book, but I hated talking about it.
Each day we had a discussion in class, I came happily to share my thoughts on what I liked or disliked about the book, what themes I was able to see, and what I thought were the central conflicts. To my chagrin, I left each class unable to dispel my feelings of disappointment. Hearing mostly negative responses about Binx and his quest for purpose and happiness reminded me how much I hate hearing pessimistic thoughts. Although I do agree with most of what was said in class, I did not experience the same feelings on my own when thinking about the book. I saw Jack as a man who was coasting through life and feeling no signs of progress or any sort of calling, but I did not think it was worst thing in the world to be a little bit lost. I guess I failed to realize the degree of Binx’s unhappiness. With that said, I’d say I was unsuccessful in my attempt to identify with the main character.
The misfortune that Mr. Bolling experienced throughout his life is something to which I cannot relate. I have a very fortunate background and most people with whom I have close relationships do too. Felling little identification with the character, I concentrated more on future action rather than how sad of a life Binx had. Anyway, now that I have stated my feelings about the book, I am going to try to connect the dots and give my opinion about Binx’s state at the end.
Throughout the majority of this book, Jack Bolling describes how his life is unfulfilling and how he is unable to find everlasting happiness. Dr. Watson informed us of Kierkegaard’s philosophy of existentialism and how Binx remains in the aesthetic stage. I think this is a good assessment, but I find myself trying to focus on the good aspects of his life. With a good job, a nice car, relationships with women, and a caring-albeit not immediate-family, Binx has a life that many people could only dream of. I can certainly see why people would want more-a wife; a family; a house; the American dream in short. Still, he has so much more than so many other people.
I would like to say that I do not understand his complete state of ennui, but since it is human nature to want what you do not have, I can see why his life is unfulfilling. He does not have a happy childhood to recollect; he has no people in his life that he feels understand him; he is not religious; and he cannot find a woman who holds his interest beyond anything physical. The only one of these that changes later in the book is his relationship with women when he and Kate get engaged. This seems to be the first step en route to a happier life.
In the end, when Binx marries Kate and attends medical school, one might think he has advanced to the ethical stage of existentialism. There is even an argument that he is nearing the religious stage when he tells the kids “He’ll be like you,” when he tells them what Lonnie will be like in heaven. I happen to disagree with both. The ending of this book is so ambiguous that, even though many ideas can be argued and supported, I just have to go with my gut. I see Binx happier married to Kate and working as a doctor, but I still think he will be living more to find himself and his place in the world than for other people. Perhaps he will espouse religion after a short time of living for others. At the conclusion of the book I think he is exiting the aesthetic stage, but he has not yet progressed to the ethical stage.
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Binx is certainly not a clear-cut character, nor is his search easy to label in a lock-and-key sense. However, I do not believe that Binx is quite as sad as you've portrayed him here. Yes, there is the overwhelming sense of the malaise, - that instantaneous wash of gray discomfort - but it is not a round-the-clock problem. The malaise comes and goes, essentially when Binx feels himself slipping into the dreaded routine of the everydayness. The problem of Kierkegaard's aesthetic stage is not that one is sad all the time as a result of some intuitive lack of being but rather that one craves an almost spontaneously sharpened sense of reality, the here-and-now. Binx is always on the look-out for ways to validate himself, to make his life seem real, just as he feels after his fender bender with Sharon when he is shaken loose of his routine and given a live, bitter taste of the world. It's not so much that he is seeking what other people have - he doesn't see the other characters, with the exception of Lonnie perhaps, as having made any great discovery on how to live - but more that is seeking the Great or the Real of existence.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that a hopscotch leap to the religious stage, or even the ethical stage, at the closing of the novel is a little hard to take at face value. I do think it is a step in the right direction though, even if it feels a little staged.
I'm happy to see that you feel the same as I do about the temporary result of Binx' mishaps and misfortunes. While happiness has seemingly found him through his relationship with Kate and his pursuance of higher learning, I honestly believe this will be a temporary fix of an unattainable goal.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though there are people in this life that will simply not be satisfied; that no amount of money, love, affection or good fortune can remove them from a proverbial rut that they consciously place themselves in from day-to-day. Regardless of any single persons past experiences, human beings are such complex creatures and so resilient in mind and body, that we are able to overcome great things. This isn't simply my personal belief, but also a historically proven fact (i.e. Helen Keller, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. et al.).
From my eyes, I saw Binx as very unlikeable. I saw him as the same pessimistic person that you didn't want to view him as. After reading your blog, I think that a lot of us in class [or at least me] enjoyed not liking Binx. Yet perhaps, like the popular expression states, first impressions aren't always correct. Personally, I got stuck on his beginning character so much that it took me until nearly the end of the book to realize that Binx wasn't such a bad guy after all.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. Though Binx had obvious character flaws, what real-life person doesn't? I was holding Binx to the standards of any hero or protagonist, but in this book, you can't really do that. If I held Binx to the standards of real people, I think I would have liked him a lot more. He had a great relationship with his half-brothers and sisters, he treated Kate and his secretaries [though many] well, too. I suppose as a person Binx is decent, but as a character he's not.
I think it'd be really interesting to see a follow up on this book. We're just left to fill in the blanks and question whether or not Kate and Binx's marriage survive. Whether Binx remains faithful to her. If he truly found religious enlightenment or if he was just putting on a ruse for his half-siblings. If he enjoys his life and job as much as he enjoys watching movies. Or if he even continues watching movies as he once did. You're right: it's way too ambiguous to have a solid answer to any of those questions, but it's nice to imagine.