Subject: Re: Moviegoer and despair
From: Sunni McMillan (skmcmill@ENGLISH.UMASS.EDU)
Date: Wed Nov 10 1999 - 21:44:57 EST
Hi everybody. It's been a long while since I've posted, but I have been
reading the various spurts of activity on this list-serve since I joined
last Fall. It's funny (and quite appropriate) how the list always comes
back around to The Moviegoer. It happens to be one of those books that I
recommend all the time, and from said recommendation wait a long while for
feedback. It seems that it takes a few readings and a lot of mulling before
a reader fully appreciates or begins to understand the novel, which in my
opinion is what makes it so interesting a read (again and again).
Since I've been shunning my official academic work, I had a little time to
think through these most recent thoughts. I agree with the statement "those
who lead superficial lives are those who are most at risk" but I venture to
say that many are not "dancing merrily along." The feeling of despair in The
Moviegoer seems most poignant in its sort of unnameable quality, that those
who are in despair are unable to name the despair. This to me seems quite
different than being unaware of the condition of despair. This epigraph has
always troubled me for this very reason.
Rhonda raises an interesting question. Does Binx's awareness somehow free
him toward his search? But the more interesting question comes before this
one -- how do you define the feeling if you recognize you are in despair? Is
this not, then, actual despair? What are we to do with the myriad of people
who lead these so-called superficial lives yet still remain unsatisfied?
Who, I don't find it unreasonable, would name their feeling as despair? Is
this merely a dissatisfaction, an empty unnameable place that is perhaps
more a clue to their despair rather than the despair itself?
Perhaps it is in these subtle shadings of discontentment that Kierkegaard
lodges his claim about despair. Those who are the most desperate are the
least aware and those who are the most aware, while still dissatisfied
perhaps, are by their very awareness relieved of a large portion of despair.
Sunni McMillan
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Warren <RWarren@BCCB.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list PERCY-L <PERCY-L@LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 1999 7:47 PM
Subject: Re: Moviegoer and despair
I have understood Kierkegaard to have meant that those who lead superficial
lives are those who are most at risk. Dancing merrily along in the
aesthetic sphere, happy with your little sports car and your latest
secretary, is a long way from coming to oneself and leading an authentic
life. I wonder if the Hebrew Bible isn't making the same point when it says
that in the fear (or awe) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
>>> Rhonda McDonnell <rhonda_mcdonnell@HOTMAIL.COM> 11/10/99 05:58PM >>>
I'm re-reading MOVIEGOER for the first time in years, and had what I'd guess
is an old question for some of you veterans. When considering the
Kierkegaard epigraph, "the specific character of despair is precisely this:
it is unaware of being despair," in terms of Binx (and myself perhaps), I
can't help but wonder how you define the feeling you have if you recognize
you are in despair. For example, when Binx realizes that he and all around
him are dead, dead, dead, is that despair? Or does that somehow free him
from the everydayness of despair so that he may embark upon his search?
Once we realize that no matter what time it is, it's four o'clock on a
Wednesday afternoon, does that set us free, or merely make us aware of the
situation we find ourselves in?
Rhonda McDonnell
Arizona State University
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