Re: "Ghost chapter" in The Moviegoer

Gail M. Pietrzyk (pietrzyk@pobox.upenn.edu)
Thu, 10 Apr 1997 17:02:45 -0500

Marcus Smith wrote:
>
> There is a "ghost chapter" in The Moviegoer and I wonder if the list might
> want to discuss it. Chapter 5 ends on Ash Wednesday with Binx and Kate
> parked near a playground in Gentilly. The "Epilogue" picks up over a year
> later. Binx and Kate are now married and he is going to medical school.
> In the sixth paragraph Binx says he is not inclined to discuss his search,
> he declines to be "edifying" (alluding to SK), and he declares himself
> ready for "asskicking."
>
> Clearly, this is a much different Binx than Binx at the end of Chapter 5.
> Query: what happens inside Binx to produce Binx of the Epilogue? Why
> does WP bypass any narrating of that transformation? Why does he require
> the reader to "write" across that space?

I'm going to jump in here even though I haven't had time to read all the other
messages in this discussion.

I find in my own experience that some transitions from one "state" to another
simply defy explanation. Rather like recovering from the flu or depression. One
day you feel awful and the next you feel like 'a different person.' When the
transformation is profound explaining how one got from event "a" to event "e" can
seem too profane.

Gail Pietrzyk
pietrzyk@pobox.upenn.edu