Please help me understand Binx's journey in The Moviegoer

August 29, 2010 12:11 AM

Please help me understand what exactly happened in The Moviegoer.

As recommended in this thread, I finally picked up and just finished Walker Percy's The Moviegoer. Please understand that I loved it, and clearly it's really sticking with me, I'm just not sure I entirely got what happened to Binx.

Did he escape from the malaise by the end? I get the feeling not -- he's back to nearly his old life (just married to Kate now), and when his aunt questions him, he has no answers for her. Is Lonny the only one to escape the malaise, first through the movies and then by death?

I understand the nature of Binx's search, but did his trip to Chicago actually do anything, other than maybe begin to bring Kate more alive?

(Extenuating circumstances: I am very good at missing the obvious, I suspect I'm relatively young (28, though with an awful lot of living crammed in) to really grok a book like this, I read it in a very disjointed way.)

In conclusion, help? Am I missing anything, and if so, what?

posted by kalimac to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

Geez, I read that book about 13 years ago and I'm not sure I can answer the question the way you're asking it. I think maybe that rather than worrying about whether you "got" the book you might focus on the implications of what you got. In other words, if you feel like he didn't escape from the malaise, what does that mean? What does it say about what the roots of the malaise were? Do those roots exist in your own life? - or are they different for you? - or do you identify with Binx at all?
You say you loved it and it's really sticking with you, so the only thing you could be missing is what it was that you love about it and some reflection on what is sticking with you. Walker Percy is dead and you don't know me or anyone else who might answer this question so what it might mean to me or Walker Percy isn't the most important thing.
posted by Quizicalcoatl at 4:30 AM on August 29, 2010

FWIW, an interesting take by the Brothers Judd:

"Percy was a convert to Catholicism & his books tend to concern men who are at odds with the moral tenor of their times...When the novel ends, & his search is presumably over, Binx has made choices that I was not confident would satisfy his desire for transcendence. I fear his search is not over. "

brothers judd review
posted by frosty_hut at 8:09 AM on August 29, 2010

The Moviegoer is essentially an existentialist, maybe even absurdist. It's not so much about result (what he figured out) as it is about process (his effort to figure things out). Even if he appears to figure things out from time to time, whether there is ever any permanent growth is questionable. cf The Myth of Sysiphus.
posted by alms at 10:32 AM on September 5, 2010