In the Moviegoer with Ils Corin- Pson

splendor. Behind the façade Summary lurks a paradoxical confidence man/pilgrim who does nol believe A feminisl dose reading of himself lo be the soul of financial WalkerPercy's The moviegoer. integrily andstability thalheadver- tises but who does yearn for Resumo psychological integrily. Encum- bered In his search for spiritual Leitura feminista e minuciosa meaning and self-knowledge bythe do livro The moviegoer do very jumble of cultural fragmenis escritor americano contem projecied on the façade. Binx does porâneo wish ironically on a more profound and idealistic levei to plan people"s Walker lives. and he waits to plan lives — Gesture and Style Percy. his own and olhers. But like his lilerary forbearers. lhe unreliable Myfirst narrators Miles Coverdale. Jake idea was lhe buãding itself. It Barnes. and Nick Carraway. and lookslikea min Melville's Pierre and the failed iature bank Southern searcher Quentin Com- in The Moviegoer with ils Corin- pson. Binx may be unable lo escape ihian pilasters. lhe double-bond of narcissism and pórtico and iron self-deceplion which makes him a scrolls over tlie windows. Tl\e self-righteous crilic ofhis world who Gesto e Estilo em The firm's name. Cutrer, Klosier- employs irony to deny the implica- matin & Lejier is leilercd in lions of his own partlcipaiion and Moviegoer Golhic and below in smallcr responsibility. Or likeanolher set of lellers. the names of lhe Bos lilerary predecessors. Huck Finn. ton mutual funds we repre Ike McCaslin. Warren*s Jack Bur- Geste und Stil in The sent. Il looksfar more conser- den, and Ellison*s Invisible Man. he valive lhan lhe modem baitks may be able lo cast off some of lhe Moviegoer in Genlilly. Il announces to l/u? layers of the façade of the Purilan. world: modem mcthods are rio Enlighlenmenl. Euro-American doubt excellcnl bul here is Soulhem self to discover some rem- good oldfashioncd stability. nanl of a human soul worlhy of a Emory ELLIOTT* bul stability with imaginalion. fulure. A liille bit ofold New England with a CrcoleJlavor. The Par- This comic passage points lo thenon jaçade cosi iwclve lhe conllicl belween the public and lliousand dollars bul commis- privaie man which is ai lhe themalic sions have doublcd. Tlie young cenler of 7Vte moviegoer and of the man uou see insidc is clcarly criticai controversies surrounding tliesoul ojintegrily: lie asks no lhe texl. The problem of the book as more llian lo beallowed loplan il is usually posed is whal sort of yourfuture. Tlxis is true.This is resolulion does Binx achieve ai lhe j ali l as/c. end of the novel? Afler ali his high- minded talk of malaise. everyday- ness. cultural collapse. and the In the midst of lhe exisicniial la- need lo search for new values and a menl of John-Jack-Binx-Rollo- personal spirilual calling. Üinx*s Bolling. the humor of this pas- silualiun at the conclusion is am sage may not ai first be apparcnl. biguous at besl or is at worsl a Like an image out of a novel by sentimental acceplance of his Aunt Fenimore Cooper depicting the Emily's imposcd mission. Of his comic amalgam ofslyles in America, spirilual sceking. Binx says in the the façade blends elements of Epilogue. "I have nol the inclinalion European and American regional lo say much on lhe subject" (187). architecture lo convey a permanenl. ambiguous advertising slogan of • Dcparlnu-nl of Knulish. UiiívitmIv oi purilanical auslerily and classical Califórnia. Klvvrsfüi'. USA.

Estudos Germânicos Belo Horizonte V.9 N" 1 p.30-37 DEZ. 1988

30 Revista de Estudos Gcrnutnicos and he retreals behind the hard- Noting the obvious aulobio- emptiness. Instead. style and ges- boiled language of a Hemingway graphical elements in the novel, ture are an integral part ofthe work anti-hero: "much too late to edify or critics often assume that Binx's as a whole. and call attention to the do much of anything except plant a resolution parallels Percy's own sublle forms of communication. fool in the right place as the oppor- quest for answers. Like Percy. Binx bolh verbal and non-verbal. that tunity presents itself — if indeed is a young man who sees through operate between the characters. asskicking is properly distinguished the sham of public rhetoric and Body movement. physical man- from edification" (187-88). He seems discovers the meaning of alienation, nerisms. silences, and shifts in tone to have advanced only slightly from malaise. and náusea. Turning aside often impart coded messages be lhe soldier his aunt told him to be from the false values ofmaterialism tween characters and may suggest whenhe was elght to the rankof drill and empiricism, Binx. like Percy. to the readerotherpossible explana- sergeant. After seeming to prepare was led by European philosophy to tions ofthe noveVs resolution. his heart, and the reader, for his discover a new sense of purpose Close attention to the functions spiritual conversion. he is now "shy" upon which to base a radically new of style andgesture inThe moviegoer on the subject of religion. He ap- plan for life.3 not only provldes a key to the novel's pears embarrassed and awkward ending, but it also can help us ac- about ali that has gone before and The problem with this reading. count for the intricacy of Binx's quick lo complete his manuscripl: however, is that it is not bome out by the text. especially that of the relationships wilh Kate and Aunt "Reticence. therefore. hardly having Emiry and explain the meaning of a place in a document of this kind. final chapter and epilogue. It also overlooks another dimension of his comment in the Epilogue that it seems as good a time as any lo Percy's work thal he himself some- "bolh women And me comical and make an end" (188). A reader may times mentions but that criticism laugh a good deal at my expense" well feel that Binx's Celestial Rail- has tended to slight — his debt to (187). Percy himself has beenac- road ride from New Orleans to cused by several critics of sexlsm. Chicago has merely come full circle American writers. At various times. Percy has said that he admires the and he does admit that his female to bring its pilgrim-seeker to an un- characters do not fare too well.4 expected but hardly transformed works of Poe. Hawlhome, Melville. Twain. Hemingway. Faulkner. O'- However. the women In The station in life. Such ambiguity has Connor. Welty. Ellison and Wright. moviegoermay fare better than it at led many critics to seek out lhe real and he dois his works with literary first may appear. Walker Percy himself to ask him alluslons and wilh references lo In orderto see the roles of Emily what this ali means.2 American hislory and popular cul- and Kate in the novel clearly. it is lure. In fact, alerlness to the many necessary to make distinction be alluslons to American predecessors When critics prepare for these tween the narratorand the narrative can reveal some quite delightful interviews. lhey learn the essenlial audience he addresses and the parodies of the styles of other biographical facts. Percy had a author and his authorial audience. writers. The moviegoer opens wilh tragic childhood. His falher com- Binx makes certain assumptions alluslons lo the opening ofAbsalom. mitted suicide when Walker was about social and cultural attitudes Absalom! where Quentin is sum- eleven. and his mother died in an that he believes he shares with his automobile accident when he was moned by a note to visit his Aunt projected narrative audience. For fifleen. He was raised by a second Rosa. and Mr. Sarlalamaccia's story example. Binx assumes that his of the hunting party at Roaring cousln. William Alexander Percy. a readers share his liberal attitudes "bachelor-poet-lawyer-planter"who Camp recalls Faulkner's The bear. on race and social class and are imparted to Walker the Greek- including the breaking of Binx's dismayed, with him. at the raclst Roman Sloic vision expressed by watch. which alludes to bolh works. and aristocratic attitudes Aunt Aunt Emily in The moviegoer. When he tells of how Judge Anse Emily exhibits in her final outburst Walker went lo the Universily of (rememberAnse Bundren in As 1lay about the decline of the old South. North Carolina to study chemistry dying) ordered him. like Thomas While it is possible that Percy may and to Columbia Universily medicai Sutpen. to build him a lodge. Mr. also make that assumplion about school. During two bouts with Sartalamaccla "walts until the his authorial audience. he makes tuberculosis. he read extensivery in words. the very words. speak them- olher assumptions of which Binx is French and Russian lileralure and selves" (177). And, of course. when never aware. Percy's literary al philosophy. In the late 1940s he they speak. they appear in italics. luslons and parodies of the style of These humorous evocations of married. converted to Roman otherAmericanwriters. for example. Catholicism. settled permanently in America and American literary are signals to the author's audience traditlons are not merely pari of a Covington. Louisiana. and began to ofanotherlevei ofcommunication at wrile essays about alienation. exls- veneer of Americanism that Percy work to which Binx is not privileged. tentialism. malaise. and the failure lays over the philosophical. ofChristlanity In the modem world. European core of his work. in the Once the reader begins to dis- He published his first novel The way that Binx employs the gestures tinguish between these two narra moviegoer In 1961. of movie aclors to mask his inner tive voices. he or she may also »*

Gesiure and Style in The Moviegoer 31 recognize other elements ofthe nar Confident that his sexual impotence. Binx fails to note the rative to which Binx is blind. He failure here (which parallels similar contradiclion in his theory about never records a conscious recogni- failures with Sharon and even Kate) the MG's immunity when he and tion ofthe fact, for example, that he was the fault of a car rather than Sharon retumed from the failed never really proposed marriage to himself, Binx buys a symbol of weekend and "the MG becomes in- Kate but that she transformed his sexual potency, a red MG: "My little fested with malaise" (133). When suggestion that she might visit him red MG... is immune to the malaise. Sharon rejects his lasl desperate to watch television into a proposal You have no idea what happiness overture of his hand on her thigh upon which they finally both act. Mareia and I experienced as soon as wilh her firm "'Son, don't you mess Binx's belief that Kate is mentally we found ourselves spinning along with me", he reports: "'Very well. I disturbed to the point of not being the highway in this bright little wonV I say gloomily. as willing nol able to control her life may preveni beetle. We looked at each olher in to mess with her as mess with her. him from seeing the degree to which astonishment: the malaise was to tell the truth" (134). Kate says she controls his life.Actually. his life gone!" (100). When Binx sets out to earlier that Binx is "'Colder |lhan is much more controlled by Emily seduce Sharon who, he says, will she). Cold as the grave" (70). and Kate than he realizes. The ways bring him the greatest "happiness" Sharon. having discovered herselfto in which Kate subtly uses style and yet. Percy has his narrator describe be a victim offalse advertising rather gesture to control Binx's destiny are their ride in the MG in the imagery than malaise, rushes back lo renew immedtately evident because they ofBinx's movie fantasies. The comic her affair with the man she now are never apparent to Binx himself. linking Binx's hyperbole of the car inlends to many and over whom Focus upon the function ofstyle and in battle to the serious nolion of Binx expected to triumph. Kate. on gesture wilhin the text reveals the cultural malaise signals lhe gap be the olher hand. paliently persists in fallacyofthe autobiographical inler- tween the aulhor and his narralor: her own search of the real Binx and pretation of The moviegoer and sug- in the process to prepare him. nol gests that Binx is hardly the godlike For the stakes were very high. for grace, but for herself. prime mover that Kate proclaims Eilher very great happiness him to be. lay in storefor us, or malaise In spite of his MG, like bravados past ali conceiving (Freudian about his affairs with his slips on Binx'spari? Intention- secretaries, it is evident lhat Binx It is at first perhaps hard to ai puns on Percy's pari?).... I fears women. needs to feel in control imagine that Binx himself could be spin along the precipice with in his relations with them, and finds the victim of another's use of style. the blackest malaise below it painfully difficult to communicate forhe is so conscious ofusing exter and me greenest of valleys wilh women on a serious levei. As he nais to represent a chosen image of ahead,... [1)1 seems to me that I admils at lhe outset. his affairs with the self in order to achieve his catch a whijfofmalaise. A litlle Mareia and Linda were superficial desires. The most humorous and tongue of hellfire licks at our and ended in "lelephone conversa- revealing example of his process of heels and the MG jumps tions... made up moslly of long self-projection is his experience in ahead, roaring like a bomber silences" (15). In such silence he is choosíng a car. He adheres to lhe through the sandy pine bar- not unlike his falher, who left lhe Madison Avenue association ofcars rens and across Bay SLLouis. marital bed to sleep in the back yard withsex."You sayit is a simpletKing (101) and who took ten-mile hikes alone. surery... to pick up a good-looking When Binx. who like Melville's woman and head for the beach on Binx assumes that the Pierre is also on a search for his the first fine day ofthe year. So say audienceofhis document shares his falher. asks his mother if his falher the newspaper poets. Well. it's not belief in lhe power of the material was a good husband, she answers such a simple thing..." (99)."Thecar object to symbolize h»s sexual that "'... he was a good walker"' itself is ali important." Initially. he potency and attract Sharon to him, (123). Lackinga strong self-image as chose a car that fit the lmage he just as he had assumed lhal the a man, lhe way thathe canconceive wished to present of himself as a buildingofGentilly hadbroughlhim ofhimselfwilh women isbyinvoking reliableyoung businessman. But on business. In the debate between his fantasies of different movie ac- his first date with Mareia in his Isabel Archer and Madame Merle in tors and lmitaling their language Dodge Ram Six sedan, he "dis- Theportrait ofalady (abookalluded and gestures. Whilé he claims to be covered to my dismay that my fine to through Percy's choice of "Merle" attracted to the Amazon type of new Dodge was a regular incubator as the name for Kate'spsychiatrist), woman with a helmet-like Prince Vai of malaise." He recalls, "We sat Binx clearly sides wilh Merle lhat haircut whom he sees on the bus frozen in a gelid amiabilUy. Our one's physical objects are an expres- and says mockingly that "Imjosl cheeks ached from smiling.... Mar sion of oneself. But just as Gilbert men are afraid of them" (17), he does eia and I retumed to New Orleans Osmond's house and Binx's office not approach the glrl even when he defeated by the malaise. It was building may present a deceptive detecls an invillng smile. Instead. he weeks before wevenluredout again" façade, so too lhe gloss of the MG becomes absorbed by his thoughts (100). conceals sexual limidity and even of the search. Only Kate is able to

32 Revista de Estudos Germânicos reach him. and this is because she There are three scenes in par Even as Binx reports small knows his secret language and how ticular in which Percy zooms his details of herappearance and move to appeal to him indirectry through lens In upon Kate's romantic over- ments he continues to believe that style and gesture. tures to Binx and his unconscious his interest In her is no more than evasions. One of the frequent hints patemal. "She is in tolerable good Kate is first mentioned in the that Kate and her aunt may actually third sentence of the book. and she spirits. It is not necessary to pay too be scheming to make this match is constantly in touch with Binx; as much attention to her." But pay at occurs as Binx prepares to speak Sharon reports. many people say tention he does, in spite of himself. with Kate for the first time in the and perform she does: "Kate they are married. Yet Binx's efforts action. His aunt hassummoned him slretches out a leg to get hercigaret- to evade Kate's love and the serious for the purpose ofthis meetlng, and tes.... Pushing back her shingled commitment she represents causes as he prepares to descend to the hair. she blows out a plume of gray him to diminish the importance of basement to speak wilh Kate. he lung smoke and plucks a grain from her presence for his narrative notes: "...I can see my aunt sitling her longue. She reminds me of col- readers. Thus. the authorial reader by the fire.... She opens her eyes lege girls before the war, how they must infer much about her impor and, seeing me. forms a soundless would sit. seeming old to me and tance in Binx's life. For example. word wilh her lips." When Kate tells sullen-silent towards men..." (41). from the knowledge she displays of him a few minuteslaler lhat she and Could Kate's pose be consciously his ideas about movies, it is evident her aunt talk about him ali the time. designed to give him this repetition that they have lenglhy conversa- there is a slight hint that he may be and take him back across the void tions logelher that Binx does not on the verge of suspecling that this of the last ten years after the war to report. Just as Binx knows lhe lan whole meeting has been slaged, but the vitality of his early twenties?The guage ofthe Catholic calechism well Kate quickly changes to her "objec- extent of the couple's past intimacy enough to banter with Lonnie about live" tone which dislracts his pos is suggested when Kate's new scien- sacrifice and grace. Kate knows sible suspicion. Her pose and ges- llfic tone suddenly reminds him of about BInx's search and under- lures during this scene, however. conversations they used to have stands his notion of repetitions and are reminiscent of a movie scene about her social work, and one case revolutions. When they attend Panic played by Bette Davis. As Binx ob in particular comes to Binx's mind: in the streets logelher. she asks "'Is serves, she has evengolten Into cos he remembers Kate saying '"— and this part of the repelilion? Part of tume for this tete-à-tete: "As if to ali the while il was perfectly obvious the search?'" (69) emphasize her sallowness and thin- that the poor woman had never ex Because he cannot let himself ness. she haschanged inlo shirt and perienced an orgasm.' 'Is such a see the degree of her romantic inter- jeans. She is as frail as a ten year thing possible!' I would cry and we est in him and of his altachment to old, except in her thighs" (39). Just would shake ourheads in the strong her. Binx has developed strategies as he has shared wilh her at pre- sense of our new camaraderie." for ignoring her or dismissing her vious times his search and ideas Given Kate's appeal and the direc- advances as signs of her mental in- about moviegoing. perhaps he may tion of Binx's thinking. it is not stabilily. Like John Marcher in also have revealed — as he does surprising that he brings up the James' Beast in thejungle, he seeks throughout lhe text—the altraction matterof her impending marriage to for something and yet refuses to he feels toward certain boyish Walter. But now he is coming too recognize whal is in front of him. characterislics in women (he later close to her anxieties, and she uses Katesays"'|ilt is possible. you know, notices Sharon's boyish cheek and hisbroach asan opportunityto start that you are overlooking something, boy's pants) and his weakness for a quarrel. The terms of the argu- the most obvious thing of ali. And women's hips as their most sexually ment, however, suggest what may you would not know it ifyou fell over exciting feature. But her particular be on both of their minds. She ac- it" (70). Not havlng read his Henry costume certainly triggers the ap- cuses him and his aunt of patroniz- James and thus unable lo recognize propriate fantasies: he remembers ing Walter at lunch. But when she lhe parallelsbetween hissearch and thal "Sometimes she speaks of her uses the phrase '"[wjhat a lovelypair Marcher's wasted life, Binx answers derriere. sücks it out Beale Street you are," referring to Binx and with a dull '"What?" and then is style and gives it a slap and this Emily, he tums it to themselves: "'I puzzled: "She would not tell me. In- makes me blush because it is a very thought you and I were the stead. in the streelcar. she becomes good one. marvellously ample and pair." to which Kate snaps "'You gay and affectionate toward me. She mysterious and nolhing to joke and I are not a pair of any sort." locks herarms around mywaist and about." He says that at the moment Binx rèmarks to the reader. "I con- givesme a kiss on the mou th..." (70). "|s)he has the advantage of me..." as sider this" (41-43). she taunls him about his mission Still Kate has achieved her purpose. Given the fact that only a few from his Aunt to counsel her. for in spite of his insislence lo his minutes before Binx felt that it was "Tou"re to tell me ali sorts of readers that he loves Sharon Kin- "not necessary to pay any attention cade. Percy's readers note that it is things." she says. but when he fal- ters. she says prophetically: "'It will to Kate." this serious act of con- to Kate that Binx's mind repeatedly sideratlon of this remark represents returns. end with me lelling you" (39-49).

Gesture and Style in TheMoviegoer 33 quite a heightenlng of interest. yet nizes the movie actress that Kate is with Kale on a kind of pre-marriage he seems still oblivious to the »* playing: "— as enraptured and ex- mock honeymoon. Binxis still drow- possible design for him that may tinguished in her soul. gone. as a sy, and Percy adds a touch of underlie her series of sexual ges- character played by Eva Marie Freudian humor to Binx's dream on tures. But designs are certainly Saint," but he fails once more lo the trainwhen Binximaginesstand- being made upon him by his aunt, understand that he is not Just a ing in Une in a crowdedbookstore to as he discovers in the next scene casual observer of her performance buya copy of Technique inmarriage: when she proposes that he move but her intended audience (95). "I noticed that nearly ali the crowd back to her home and prepare to Jammlng against me are women, The turning point In their attend medicai school. Both his from middle-aged one-fifly relationship occurs on Monday aunt Emily and his mother have pounders" (151). If his fear is that night when Kate proposes that she long hoped that Kate and Binx women are pressing in on his life accompany him to Chicago. The should be married. Does Emily have and that he may need such a book preparation for that suggestion is this in mind for Binx's future, as in his relationship with Kate, il is well.and is Kate's approachingwed- especially well-slaged. He is again soon borne out when Kate seduces ding date and her real love for Binx being sent — this time by Sam — lo him and he proves impotent. the actual source of her present counsel her. Even Sam appears to In his non-ficlion works. Percy psychic crisis? But marriage is a furtherthe relationship by depicting often writes about linguistics and word that Binx never uses in regard Kate as a Russian Princess ofthe old the function oflanguage, and he has to Kate. until she proposes it. aristocracy and by apparently proposing to her himself, which commented upon the concept of On the night that Kate comes to Kate later reports to Binx to make defamiliarization that he leamed see Binx at three A.M.. and he fears him jealous. Allhough Kate is sup from the Russian formalists. Binx for her mental state. he tries to posed to be in a very disturbed men plays with the notion of humor her by speculating about tal state, she seems quite well- defamiliarizalion when he speaks of how they could live together. He has prepared for this meeting: how the movies take aspects of ordi- come into money and speculates nary life and make them more real about buying a service station and Kale sits... and cheerfuüy by pultlng them on lhe screen. His living his life in his present apart- makes room for me in the experience of seeing Panic in the ment: almost casually he says '"We loveseaL Not unlü later do I streets. in a theater in the very could stay on here at Mrs. think why it is she looks so neighborhood in which lhe film was Schexnaydre's. It is very comfort- well she is ali dressed up.for shot, defamiliarizes the área for him able. I might even run the station thejirst time since Christmas, and enables him to see it more clear- myself. You could come sit wilh me It is the scent oj her perfume, ly. Simllarly. Binx describes his ex at night, ifyou liked.'"To this rather her nylon-whispering legs, the perience of talking with his half- dreary prospect. which would not at white dress against her dark brother Lonnie about religions as ali seem to suit Kate's romantic skin. aproperdressJlutedand decentering language and thus moodofthe moment, shestill replies Jlouncedand nowgatheredby making it better able to be heard: with enthusiasm "You sweet old her andfolded awayfrom me. "Lonnie's monotonous speech gives Binx! Are you asking me to many (141) him an advantage, the same ad- you?" "'Sure.'" he says while telling vantage foreigners have: his words the reader "I watch her uneasily." Though Binx remembers this pic- are not wom out. It is like a code Binx expects her to play off of this ture later. at the time he is dis- tapped through a wall. Sometimes bantering remark in theirusual lan tracted and appears to pay little at he asks straight out: do you love guage games, but to his surprise tention to her. As she talks on, he is me?" (131) By alterlng the usual and dismay, he sees that she is lislening to the dlnner conversalion form ofspeaking, Lonnie gets Binx's serious. Kate exclaims. "'Not a bad from downstairs. Perhaps detecting attention. Lonnie is the only other lifeyou say. It would be the besl of his distraction, she picks up upon characterbesides Kate who also un- ali possible lives,'" and Binx the idea that he had proposed mar derstands Binx's way of reading despairs: "She speaks in a rapture riage again: "'I thought about your movies, and the experience ofseeing —something like my aunt. Myheart proposal and it seemed to me that it Fort Dobbs at the Drive-in with Lon sinks. It is too late." Binx's con mighl be possible after ali" (143). nie is for Binx"a good rotation" (116- clusion is that Kate hasslipped over While Binx appears not even to 17). the edge emotionally and is no notice this remark, he does begin to longer herself, but his mental as- become sleepy — the same reaction Less apparent is the skillful way sociation with the tone of her voice he hadwhen his aunt told him ofher that Kate uses the process of and that ofhis aunt is most signifi plans for his life and the same reac defamiliarization to get Binx to see her more sharply. By altering her cam, especially in view of the laler tion he has later on the train. Like situation where she and her aunt Jack Burden in Warren's Ali the speaking style, tone, and gestures live together wilh him and laugh at king's men, Binx escapes into sleep. and playing out roles from the stage his expense. This time Binx recog- When he awakens. he is on the train and screen in lhe characterofher •*

34 Revista de Estudos Germânicos own person. she alters and varies is steadier, but he atlributes this tually uses shifts in tone and ges her self-presentation. For example. change lo lhe motion ofthe train. By ture. and antic poses to direct the in her telephone conversations with this taclic. however. she forces Binx entire scene: the only thing she can Binx she is unconvenlional: he says for the first time to take a stand in not control is Binx's libido. The final "(f)or some reason or anolher she favor of their marriage. but afler word goes lo Kate. who invokes both feelsobliged lo keep one jumpahead they debate the issue, It is clear lhat Romeo's Julietle and Hamlefs of the conventional. When I answer Binx still does nol take her serious- Ophelia in her mocking "'Good the phone, instead of hearing 'Hello. ly. As he says. "I do not. lo tell the mght. sweet Whipple. Now you tuck this is Kale' |which Kate knows truth. pay too much attention lo Kate in. Poor Kate.... Good night would be everydaynessl. there whal she says" (153-55). sweet Whipple. good night. good comes into my ear a low-pitched mght. good night." Percy, of course. But shortly Kale takes a new voice saying something like: "Well. invokes Eliot in The wasleland(157- lack: She "shakes her head in the the knives have started flying.'" 159). which he then has to inlerpret: rapt way she gol from her slep- "which means that she and her molher." and she resorts to com Even if lheseduclion is a physi molher have been aggressive," or plete female submission. She tells cal failure, however. it is a "What doyou know. I'mcelebrating Binx he is her God ("'You are the psychological victory for Kate. for the riles of spring afler ali,' which unmoved mover"), and lhat the when they arrive in Chicago the next tums out lo mean that she has marriage willwork if in ali Ihings he day, Kate assumes firm and per- decided in her ironic and reflected should tell her what lo do. She manent command of the relation way to altend lhe annual supper proclaims her total submission lo ship. "Kale looks after me." he says given for former queens of the Nep- his will and gives him a passionate (160). Binx has become a submis- tune Bali". She ends this conversa- kiss. This ancient strategy of declar- sive husband even before the wed- tion by hanging up abruplly. Binx ing her own helplessness serves a ding as Kate atlends to the praclical observes: There comes a silence double funclion: it assuages Binxs details of life, just as she had pur- and a click. But this doesn'1 mean fear of women by making him feel chased lhe train tickets while he anything. Abrupt hang-ups are part that she is unlhreatening. and it slept. The extent of her dominance of our analylic way of talking." The encourages him to Ihink of her as is most apparent in the scene after only danger with Kale's device is easily seduced. She is. like Alice his confronlation wilh Aunt Emily. lhat what is first defamiliarized may Doan in The house oj lhe seven The meeling itself deserves atten soon become conventional. Bul she gables, hypnolized by a man"s power tion. for Emily is a master of style slrives to keep him offguard (57-58). and open to lhe suggestion of his and gesiure. employing lhe rheloric will. Meanwhile. lesl Percy's readers of lhe Puritanjeremiad and the en- There are two key passages that begin lo Ihink lhat Kale is really nol lightenmenl language of republican would seem to weigh against the in control of this scene, he has Binx virtue lo chastise him while wielding suggestion thal Binx is guided look out lhe windovv at a symbol of a sword-like letler opener: "We both toward his fale, consciously or un- female power: Themoonlight seems gaze down at lhe letter opener. lhe consclously. by Kate. One is lhe ex palpable. a dense purê matrix..." sofl iron sword she has wilhdrawn change in which Kate says thal she (156-57). from lhe grasp of the helmeted will only be able to survive in mar figure on the Inkstand." In a phallic riage ifhe lells her whal to do. First, Binx. however, is not an easily recolleclion Binx noies that the lip appealing to his sense of mission moved. unmoved mover, so Kate of lhe sword was bent because as a and duty, she says she is "never too takes a more direcl approach: "I feel boy he had used il to try lo pry open awful. Lefsgo uployour roometle."' bad" when she is with him; lhen, a drawer. and he still worries lhat touching his own insecurity and There she tells him ofherdiscussion she suspects him. Hypnolized by reversing roles, she says that he is with her psychialrist about her her gestures. he cannol take his desire to have an affair, and calling "nultier" than she is. The poinl that eyes off the sword: "We watch the Binx is really sicker than Kate is Binx Whipple. she reports her sword as she lets it fali over the made throughout lhe book, and is. sexual fantasies sparked by reading fulcrum of her forefinger.... Then. so "a Frenchy version" of Tiílte lhe I believe, correct. Next. she reminds suddenly thal I almosl start. my Ioúer comics in which Tillie is taken aunt shealhes the sword and places him of his marriage proposal and by Whipple in the laundry room. successfully provokes his jealousy her hand on lhe desk. Turning il Later when Binx tries lo explain his by saying thal Sam has also over. she flexes her fingers and sexual failure wilh Kale to his imag studies lhe nails...."IfKate has been proposed. Then. she suddenly shifts ined Rory Calhoun. he admils: her tone to a hard-boiled Brelt Ash- learning some of her gestures from "Theirulh is 1was frightened half to her stepmolher. as Binx earlier sug- ley style. and she risks ali by forcing dealh by her bold (not really bold. him to defend the notion thal lhey gested. she has a powerful model to nor whorish bold bul theorish bold) imitate (174-76). could make a successful marriage: carrying on." So while on the sur- "'Can'l you see lhat for us it is much face. it may seem lhal Kate Is pul- When a limp Binx leaves this too late for such ingenious litlle ting herself in his control. she ac meeting. he meeis a Kale who is =♦ schemes?'" Binx notes thal hervoice

Gesture and Style in The Moviegoer 35 "as brisk as a stewardess" flylng claim of dependency. he had so fiercely rejected earlier. high as she tells him "You're stupid including living in "one of the very stupid stupid.... I heard it ali. you In this relationship dependence sholgun coltages done over by my poor stupid bastard" (180). She is mutual, and Kale knows Binxwell cousin Nell" (187). Bul even thal directs him to go home and wail for enough to undersland his lerm "sholgun." which evokes the her. which he dutlfully does. But precarious psychic stale. She is al image ofa manmanyingagainst his ways in danger of having him drift when she does not arrive in fifly will. reminds the authorial reader away into his dreams of lhe search. minutes, he panics and Iries to call thal Binx's final siluation was not Sharon. When her roommate says Inlo sleep, or Into total psychic exaclly his idea. He is like Miles withdrawal. Just as she had devised she is out wilh her fiancé. he makes Coverdale in The Blííhedale a play in Brando slyle for the room strategies to gel his attention before romance, who lhought he was in love mate. Only when he sees Kate's "stiff marriage. so she must constantly with lhe girlish Priscilla but was little Plymoulh" — a carmore filling defamiliarize herself lo hold his in actually entranced by the more Binx's puritan nature than his MG terest and keep lhe marriage alive. sexually Ihrealening Zenobia. On In this final scene Percy has Kate — does Binx regain composure. Friday. Binx lhoughl he was in love Then, for the first lime, he accepts give a small demonstration of her wilh Sharon. bul by Wednesday he continued use of cinemalic ges the idea that he will many Kate by was engaged to Kate. announcing thal she is "my own tures. She has Binx pick a cape fiancé, Kate Cutrer (183). In case lhe Jasmin wilh which she lhen strikes As in ali novéis wilh unreliable symbolism of Emily's sword and lhe a pose. She tells him to picture her narralors. the authorial reader is name Cutrer which Kate and Emily in a very particular way: "Tm going privileged to view the narrator's share is lost on the reader. Percy lo sil next towindowon the lake side world in a larger frame than he can earlier had Binx meei a knife sales- and pul the capejasmin in mylap.. .. himself perceive. In thal larger man who exhibils what Binx refers And you'll be thinking of me in just world. it is Kate who saves Binx. and to as his "cutter." It is significam lhat way?" (190-91) in so doing perhaps also saves her self. For Kale and Emily recognize that Binx did nol tell his aunt that By having him Ihink of her in lhal he is their while hope for any he was going to many Kale, since this defamiliarized and highly par future the Culrer family and the that would have made ali the dif ticular image of her — not a vague South may have. Binx is a Quentln ference in her altitude toward lheir image of a wife — she forces herself trip together to Chicago. Kate upon his imaginalion. just as she Compson who lives because Kate rebukes him for the oversight. and had done wilh her anlic poses holds his attention. Bylearninghis secrel language of moviegoing. and again calls him an "idiot." While he during their courtship. In the final using the gestures and techniques wants to attribulehissilenceto sloic image of The moviegoer, as an heroism, 11 is more likely that, as of communication of lhe cinema — entranced Binx watches her. Kale such as shifts in tone.cuis. framing. perhaps wary-eyed Kale suspecls. frames herself as in a scene from a he still had not accepted lhe movie: Twenty feel away she lurns and posing—she makes herselfinlo a character in the movie he wishes proposalofmarriage as genuine. To around. 'Mr. Klostermann? Mr. seal the matter, Kate immedialely Kloslermann.' I walch her walk his life to be. Playacting as Ophelia. tells her aunt herself who is then toward St. Charles, cape jasmine Julielte, Eva Marie Saint. a Russian soon reconciled to him. as Emily held against her cheek. until my Natasia. Belle Davis. and Tillie should be since he is going to do brothers and sisters call out behind Toiler, she gives him the experience everything she wished. me" (191). ofthe heightened reality. as he calls il. of the movies thal he longed for Theotherscene lhat might sug- The reasons for the ambiguity in his life. Just as her aunt has the gest that Kate is as weak and de ofthe endingoiThe moviegoer, then. power lo scare the wits out of Binx pendem in their relationship as she is thal for Binx's narrative audience In a way lhat he confesses to find pretends to be is the final one in the lhe ending presenls onlyone side of "nol altogelher unpleasant." Kale Epilogue in which she tells him that a more complex situation that Percy keeps herselfin his mind so that his she cannot go downtown wilhout has inscribed in the lext indirectly documenl. as he calls the book. is knowing that he is thinking about for his authorial audience. Binx on lhe conscious levei an account of her constantly. This is a curious believes lhal he has made inde his search for the meaning of life situation. because he has just ex- pendem and conscious choices. amidsl modern malaise and plained that withinthe past yearshe grounded in his reading of everydayness. but is on the uncon went on her own on a lark lo hear Kierkegaard. to move from lhe aes- scious levei a record of how people Marian Anderson perform In Dallas thelicto the moral and the religious may learn from arl how to survive —certainly a much bolder trip than stage of spiritual development. He everydayness and creale interest a streetcarride downtown. Butclose believes lhat he has accepted and meaning for one another. _) reading of the scene suggests responsibilily to take care of Kate another possible motive for her and to embrace ali ofthe values that

36 Revista de Estudos Germânicos NOTES

1 The moviegoer (New York. 1961). Ali references are lo this edilion.

2 Ofthe several existing volumes of interviews with Percy. the most useful for this essay was Lewis A. Lawson andViclorA. Kramer. |eds.] Convcrsalions with Waücer Percy(Jackson, Miss.. 1985).

3 Oflhe recent sludies of Percy's lifeand Ihought, I found lhe following most helpful: Jerome Taylor. In search of self:life. dealh and Walker Percy (Cambridge. Mass.. 1986): essays by Harold Bloom and Tony Tanner in Walker Percy. ed. Harold Bloom (NewYork. 1986); William Rodney Allen. Waücer Percy: a Southern wayfarer (Jackson. Miss.. 1986); JackTharoe. Walker Percy(Boston. 1983) and the colleclions he edited. WaücerPercy.- art and ethics. (Jackson. Miss.. 1980): Panthea Reid Broughlon. Theart of Walker Percy: stratagems for being (Balon Rouge. 1979); Mary K. Sweeny. WaücerPercy and the modem world (Chicago. 1987); Martin Luschei. The sovereign wayfarer: Walker Percy's diagnosis ofthe malaise (Baton Rouge. 1972); John Edward Hardy. Theficlion of Walker Percy (Urbana. 1987); Robert Coles, Walker Percy: an American search (Boston. 1978: Patrícia Lewis Poleal. WaücerPercy and lhe old modemage: refleclions on language argumenl. and the telling of slories (Baton Rouge. 1985).

4 Lawson and Kramer. Conversatiotxs with WalkerPercy. p. 278.

Gesiure and Style in TheMoviegoer 57