The Moviegoer

In his collection of essays, “Signposts in a Strange Land”, Walker Percy characterizes the condition of the modern American as the “anonymous consumer who is lost to himself, lost to the possibility of existing as an individual human being in a true community of other human beings” yet “the anxiety may be quite the reverse of a symptom. It may be the call of the self to the self, in Kierkegaard’s words: the discovery of the possibility of freedom to become a self” (Percy 255). Percy explores the condition of modern malaise in his novel, The Moviegoer, through the perspective of Binx Bolling, a disillusioned Korean War veteran and stock broker living in the small suburb of Gentilly. Walker Percy’s description of Gentilly echoes his hometown of Covington- described in his essay “Why I live Where I Live” where he defines it as a “non-place in a certain relation to a place… (3). The small town of Gentilly is not only a “non-place”, but serves as the physical counterpart to Binx’s alienation from society. As Binx takes on the ontological characteristics of a “non-place”, finding himself a stranger in the world due to a loss of self, he avoids personal responsibility and escapes his uncertainty through isolating himself from meaningful relationships and pursuing erratic romantic flings with secretaries. To preface the story, Percy quotes Kierkegaard: “…the specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being despair,” capturing the very dilemma of Binx Bolling as he attempts to escape himself. The irony then, for the reader, is a result of Binx’s own inauthenticity, emulating the qualities of the people he criticizes for being sunk in everydayness. As his perspective unwinds, it is clear he is deceiving himself, that his ordinary life is camouflaging the modern malaise and despair Kierkegaard references. Ultimately, it is perspective that awakens him to a “search” for a different type of knowledge than what satisfies scientific inquiry, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be an individual and live an authentic experience. This knowledge, gained through movie going and life-threatening experiences, brings him closest to his authentic self- he is then able to recognize his uniqueness and re-emerges in the world as a “place”, no longer separate and escaping but contributing and engaging with the rest of humanity. 

The beginning of the novel familiarizes the reader with Binx’s attitude toward the idea of happiness, his alienation, and the relevance of place and time, both as an ontological state of being and as physical space. On the first page, Binx recalls the memory of his Aunt informing him about his brother Scott’s death, then goes on to provide an anecdote from a movie about a man with amnesia who loses everything and finds “himself a stranger in a strange city” and concludes that “things were not so bad after all” as the man settles down to live a normal life with the local librarian (4). In the first few pages, Percy introduces the role of tragedy, place, and identity. Binx says after the movie Linda “was unhappy for the same reason [he] was happy- because here [they] were at the neighborhood theatre out in the sticks and without a car” (5). Binx is content being an “Anybody, Anywhere”, a “non-place”, whereas Linda wanted to be “downtown and have a supper at the Blue Room of the Roosevelt Hotel”, a somebody, in a definite place. This anecdote precursors Binx’s disconnect from society and authentic relationships. In addition, it introduces the role of film throughout the novel: movies are not only an escape mechanism, but provide Binx a separate type of understanding and perspective that aids his search. He states that “I am quite happy in a movie, even a bad movie. Other people, so I have read, treasure memorable moments in their lives… What I remember is the time John Wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in Stagecoach, and the time the kitten found Orson Welles in the doorway in The Third Man” (7). Movies are what he remembers because they allow him to escape the trenches of everydayness but also have the capability of providing a deeper understanding of individuality through their emphasis on the particular. 

While Binx is established as a metaphysical non-place as he attempts to escape his malaise and responsibility in the world, he is also unaware of his despair. Although his family wants him to go to medical school, like his father, he states “there is much to be said for giving up such grand ambitions and living the most ordinary life imaginable, a life without the old longings” (9). Enveloped in a lucrative industry and entertaining his false romanticism with secretaries, it is clear Binx is escaping himself and settling for an “ordinary life” in Gentilly. Binx describes malaise as “the pain of loss. The world is lost to you, the world and the people in it, and there remains only you and the world and you no more able to be in the world than Banquo’s ghost” (120). His sense of malaise encapsulates his perspective throughout the novel as he experiences estrangement and alienation from the world, mirroring the physical space he inhabits: the non-place of Gentilly. This is also seen in his description of the area he lives in, Elysian Fields: “though it was planned to be the grandest boulevard of the city, something went amiss, and now it runs an undistinguished course from river to lake…” (9). Percy’s decision to place Binx in Elysian Fields, also recognized as the realm of souls in Greek Mythology, may hint at the unreality of his identity and self-deception in believing he is living authentically by alienating himself, when this perception is really blinding him to the reality of his despair.  

While Binx deceives himself into believing isolation is guarding him from the everydayness around him, the search proposes seeing the ordinary in a new light. Binx goes on to describe how his “peaceful existence in Gentilly has been complicated” by the idea of a search. The first time he thought of the search was during the war, laying in a ditch watching a “dung beetle” and as a result, “there awoke in [him] an immense curiosity” (11). He is now reminded of “the possibility of a search” by looking at his usual belongings (wallet, keys, handkerchief) and realizing “they looked both unfamiliar and the same time full of clues” and “what was unfamiliar was that [he] could see them” (11). Percy illustrates the importance of perspective, of sight and surrounding, in both instances as Binx is experiencing a new outlook on ordinary objects, whether it be an insect or wallet, that breaks through the cloud of everydayness. This new insight allows for the idea of a search to begin- a search for signs and meanings beyond the tangible realm of scientific fact. Binx describes the search as “what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life” and goes on to explain, “This morning, for example, I felt as if I had come to myself on a strange island. And what does a castaway do? Why, he pokes around the neighborhood and he doesn’t miss a trick. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair” (13). The estrangement he faces can be paralleled to the man with amnesia in the beginning of the novel, but once finding himself in a strange place, a non-place, he must be vigilant and “not miss a trick.” This solidifies the importance of perception, of being aware in the present moment in order to reach a separate knowledge that counteracts the everydayness that dulls the life around him.  

Binx refers to two types of knowledge as the vertical and horizontal search: the vertical search is satisfied by scientific inquiry and concerns the universal picture, whereas the horizontal search is considering man as an individual and encompasses the mystery of being. To illustrate the differences, Percy describes Binx in an unfamiliar, scientific place- his summer at the laboratory- where Binx is “bewitched by the presence of the building” as the scientist Harry “was absolutely unaffected by the singularities of time and place. His abode was anywhere… for he is no more aware of the mystery which surrounds him than a fish is aware of the water it swims in” (51-52). These descriptions voice Binx’s disinterest in the “research” his Aunt wants him to pursue; in the lab he is enchanted by the light that fills the room, which represents the knowledge in the horizontal search. Just as the light infiltrates the space, he is filled with a sense of wonder at the world, which he points out the absence of in Harry. It is this perception that informs him about the uniqueness of being, it places him into the world. To further explain the search, he writes: 

 “During those years I stood outside the universe and sought to understand it. I lived in my room as an Anyone living Anywhere and read fundamental books and only for diversion took walks around the neighborhood and saw an occasional movie…But now I have undertaken a different kind of search, a horizontal search. As a consequence, what takes place in my room is less important. What is important is what I shall find when I leave my room and wander in the neighborhood. Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion” (70).

The Vertical Search is met by an understanding of scientific fact, but it left him “as an Anyone living Anywhere,” like the scientist Harry, whereas the Horizontal search, related to movie going, inspires him to wander and notice the life around him, giving him a different sense and insight into the reality of humanity than what science can explain. In his essays, Percy writes “that, with the method of science, one beholds what is generally true about individuals, but art holds what is uniquely true” (Percy 218). This characteristic of art draws Binx to the theatre, and why he refers to movie going as his most memorable experiences; their importance is rooted in the particular truth they convey about humanity, that also informs his horizontal search. When “the universe was disposed of” he is “leftover”, like a man who has found himself in a strange land, he realizes the importance of “wandering” or being aware of the world around him, so he may understand and re-immerse himself in it (70). 

The wandering Binx describes is an attribute of his horizontal search, and the perspective he strives for can reverse feelings of alienation. To solidify his feelings of isolation, Binx comments that he “share[s] the same exile” with the Jews, “but when a man awakes to the possibility of a search and when such a man passes a Jew in the street for the first time, he is like Robinson Crusoe seeing the footprint on the beach” (89). Percy’s reference to Jews and Robinson Crusoe reinforces the isolation Binx feels in the world, “the exile”, yet his quest, or search is what awakens the possibility of finding he is not alone. Through wandering and staying perceptive he is able to see the footsteps, which represent a sense of hope and unity with the rest of humanity. Arguably, it is this realization that transforms the strange land into a place. Components of his Horizontal search such as perspective, attention to detail, and awareness are what plant Binx in the world; he notes that in new towns he goes to for Movies, he must “learn something about the theater or the people who operate it, to touch base before going inside…There is a danger of slipping clean out of space and time. It is possible to become a ghost and not know whether one is in downtown Loews in Denver or suburban Bijou in Jacksonville…” (75). Again, without rooting himself in the present moment, Binx is wary he will “slip clean out of space and time,” so he talks to the managers or theatre clerks in order to make a non-place a concrete place in his mind- it serves as a footprint. 

Movies have the ability to validate the ordinary, they can take a non-place and transforms it into a concrete place and time through a new perspective and added meaning. Binx states: “Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him. More than likely he will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere” (63). This same quality of “certification” is seen earlier in the demeanor of William Holden, a movie star, as Binx is attracted to his “peculiar reality” (17). Percy gives an example of how place, and a person, are validated by the big screen. Just as Binx takes on the ontological characteristic of a non-place as he has lost himself to the world, movie going contains the power of discovery, one of which makes the ordinary, private life public, and uncovers personal truth that encompasses the mystery of the world. On the subject of art verses science, Walker Percy writes, “This may be the function of art in this peculiar age: to reverse the devaluation…depicting the commonplace allows the reader to penetrate the commonplace. The only other ways the husk of the commonplace can be penetrated is through the occurrence of natural disasters or the imminence of one’s death” (Percy 400). Art provides Binx a new viewpoint on the ordinary, just as he saw the dung beetle in the ditch, it awakens in him the reason for his search. Therefore, Movie going aids his search because it unravels a different type of knowledge and helps him see his individuality, therefore encompassing a quality of authenticity. 

In addition to Movie going, tragedy and disaster also appear to reverse the triviality and mindlessness of everydayness, therefore Binx relates to Kate in that they both treasure these moments. As most of the characters in the novel Binx classifies as under the umbrella of everydayness: talking to Eddie Lovell he says “No mystery here!” and criticizes his Uncle Jules for his lavish, oblivious lifestyle, and even Nell who talks as if she was “dead” (102). The people he observes are so ingrained in everydayness they miss the mystery and wonder of the world and are oblivious to their own despair. The quality of being “dead” is a lack of sincerity, a side effect of blind consumerism. On the subject, Kate comments: “have you noticed that only in time of illness or disaster or death are people real?” (81). Binx and Kate feel most alive and authentic during near death experiences. For example, when Binx goes on a trip to the Gulf Coast with his secretary Sharon and gets in a car accident, he feels the malaise disappear. While this is forces him out of his blind romanticism, Kate resembles Binx in that she also escapes her despair through an alienation: she “had become aware of the abyss that yawned at their feet even on the most ordinary occasions-especially the most ordinary occasions. Thus, she would thousand times rather find herself in the middle of no man’s land than at a family party or luncheon club” (111). Kate recognizes the “abyss” of everydayness and meaninglessness, and in an attempt to avoid it, would rather isolate herself physically and mentally, and even attempt the ultimate escape- suicide. Compared to the fleeting romances with his secretaries, Kate represents an intimate, relatable relationship that appears to ground Binx. Although, these attempts at escape are merely self-deception, it is closeness to death, like Binx’s car accident with Sharon and Kate’s suicide that offers a new perspective on the world that enhances meaning and authenticity. It is the type of perspective that Binx yearns to gain in his search. 

On his trip to his family’s house in a secluded area in the swamp, Binx is overwhelmed with the rush of memory that attaches him to the people and place he has been escaping. Binx defines a repetition as “the re-enactment of past experience toward the end of isolating the time segment which has lapsed in order that it, the lapsed time, can be savored of itself without the usual adulteration of events that clog time like peanuts in brittle” (79). Repetition is an example how memory can bring new perspective to time lapsed, which ultimately can clarify the present moment. Since he secludes himself from his family to avoid the soul-death, even criticizing his mother’s “election of the ordinary,” yet when he visits he finds himself in the trap of everydayness (142;144). His trip home elevates the sense of despair, as memory clarifies his condition, he writes “Three o’clock and suddenly awake amid the smell of dreams and of the years come back and peopled and blown away again like smoke….when I awake, I awake in the grip of everydayness. Everydayness is the enemy. No search is possible” (145). The search and everydayness are mutually exclusive, and his memory of home is pulling him back into the world, the everydayness he seeks to escape, therefore he wants to alienate himself and pursue his search. Even the descriptions of the swamp house reinforce the exclusiveness and ordinariness that kill one’s curiosity about the world. The one character Binx appears to want to engage with is Lonnie, his handicapped brother, and notes he is also a moviegoer (137).  Lonnie possesses a certain perspective and authenticity that is missing in the lives of others because of their resignation to the triviality of ordinary life. 

Towards the end of the novel, Kate goes on a trip with Binx to Chicago, and as they escape their familiar town and responsibilities, they come back with the weight of their new perspective. In Chicago, the “never suffer two seconds of malaise. Kate is jolly” because they have moved away from the everydayness of their home and are set in a definite place. Yet, on the train, Binx notes that “Kate is shaking like a leaf because she longs to be an anyone who is anywhere and she cannot” (190).  In addition, “the search has spoiled the pleasure of [his] tidy and ingenious life in Gentilly” (191). In the new city, both Kate and Binx realize the full force of their deception and despair, and more importantly that they can no longer can escape by alienation. On returning to their home, Binx describes “the little pagoda of aluminum and glass, standing in the neutral ground of Elysian Fields at the very heart of the uproar of a public zone” as “trim and pretty on the outside but evil-smelling within” (228). Elysian Fields becomes a metaphor for Binx’s own self-deception, he comes back to normal life and realizes the romanticized isolation he created for himself is truly despair. In the pit of his realization and facing himself, he concludes that he is able to recognize “the great shithouse of scientific humanism where needs are satisfied, everyone becomes an anyone, a warm and creative person, and prospers like a dung beetle...men are dead dead dead: and the malaise has settled like a fall-out and what people really fear is not that the bomb will fall but that the bomb will not fall. On this my thirtieth birthday, I know nothing and there is nothing to do but fall prey to desire. Nothing remains but desire, and desire comes howling down Elysian Fields like a mistral. My search has been abandoned…” (228). At the end of the novel, Percy returns to the image of a “dung beetle” that once awoke in him the possibility of the search, and now that he is resigned to the idea, he is off put by the inauthenticity of the world around him. Although he appears hopeless, lost to his sense of curiosity about the world and submitting to blind consumerism, “desire”, that overtakes people’s individuality, it is his choices that prove otherwise. In the end, his decision to marry Kate and go to Medical school is not falling prey to everydayness and malaise but an effort to insert himself into the world. With a purpose and contribution, he becomes his most authentic self, still valuing his movie going, but no longer alienated and blind to his own despair. 

As the novel navigates the space of New Orleans through descriptions and avid detail, it emphasizes the importance of perception as liberation from “everydayness”; the quality of awareness in the present moment and seeing things in a new perspective help counteract the malaise and despair. As Binx alienates himself, he avoids relationships throughout the novel, criticizing the everydayness around him, but he is still pulled toward Kate as she is enveloped in a similar despair. His search becomes a vehicle to escape the malaise, the everydayness, and art (movies) are the medium where he finds this different type of knowledge about the world, about the mystery and wonder of being a human being. Similarly, tragedy and near-death experiences also bring him closest to his horizontal search for meaning- about himself as an individual, not just a blind consumer. In the end of the novel he is no longer alone in a strange land but re-immerses himself in the world as an individual with a purpose, a relationship, and the ability to live authentically, to contribute, and ultimately to finally become a place. 

Works Cited

Percy, Walker. Signposts in a Strange Land. Picador USA, 2000. Print.