Re: Moviegoer and despair


Subject: Re: Moviegoer and despair
From: Marcus Smith (marcus@LOYNO.EDU)
Date: Thu Nov 25 1999 - 13:07:17 EST


I had been away for several days and had not read all my mail when I
replied to Rhonda, so I did miss your interesting (and gracious) reply.

As for Binx getting to neither ethical or religious, I only say that
Percy--for novelistic reasons probably having to do with the exhausted
potential of the language of religious and ethical "interiority"--simply
bypasses the issue of Binx' conversion, leap or whathaveyou and jumps to
the Postscript. The readers (a la Umberto Eco's "ghost chapter"
arguments)
must fill that space from their own reservoirs. Percy's novelistic
reticence here, by the way, is consistent with what to me is perhaps the
most iteresting thing about him as a "religious hero": Percy's interior
spirituality is as shielded as Binx's. What you get is the stoic-ironic
mask. The unfortunate thing is that this allows a lot of folks to try to
claim Percy in their cause.

Marcus

On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, David Alan Beck wrote:

> Marcus,
> Maybe you missed my last posting that gave the opposite position
> (Rhonda's--though I don't consider her posting necessarily opposite of
> mine). What both quotes prove, as I asserted in my last posting, is that
> one is free to decide based on the text alone. While by no means do I
> consider the author's opinion as the final say, I have shown two quotes
> from Percy that contradict each other.
>
> I'm of the opinion that, using Percy's terms, Rhonda is on to something.
>
> Finally,
> > whether Binx gets to the religious or the ethical (or neither??), what
> > happens to him between the end of thelast chapter and the postscript?
>
> As for Binx achieving neither the ethical nor the religious would, in my
> opinion, need some support. It is clear (at least to me) that Binx has
> made the inner move to the religious. The question is whether he passed
> the ethical or moved through it on his way to the religious.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> David Beck
>
> "Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle,
> curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf."
> - Annie Dillard
> from "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"
>
>
>
> On Wed, 24 Nov 1999, Marcus Smith wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, Rhonda McDonnell wrote:
> >
> > > All right David, I take that as a check mate! Since Percy himself maintains
> > > that Binx vaults over the ethical sphere, I can't very well maintain that at
> > > the point under discussion Binx is in the ethical stage. Proof again that
> > > research pays off. Bravo! And, continued good luck wishes on your project.
> > >
> > Rhonda, I think you are gracious to defer to David, but I am not sure that
> > Percy's ex post facto account of his intent ends the argument. Also, I'm
> > not going to go back into Walker's various pronouncements at various
> > places and times, but I'm not at all sure the interpretation David posted
> > is the only one Percy made about the ending of The Moviegoer. Finally,
> > whether Binx gets to the religious or the ethical (or neither??), what
> > happens to him between the end of thelast chapter and the postscript?
> > Some time back we had a discussion of the "ghost chapter" in that space,
> > an and.
> >
> > Marcus Smith
> > Department of English
> > Loyola University
> > New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
> > Office: 504-865-2481; Fax 504-866-1966
> >
>

Marcus Smith
Department of English
Loyola University
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
Office: 504-865-2481; Fax 504-866-1966



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Thu Jan 11 2001 - 12:52:24 EST