Walker Percy, 1916-1990, was an American "Philosophical Novelist." He published approximately six novels and three works of non-fiction. He comes from a tradition of people who are outside of society looking in. The Walker Percy project notes that "Nearly all Percy’s books are filled with keen, witty insights into the banality of late 20th –century society, and therefore they challenge the reader on several levels at once, even as he or she is entertained by the often humorous situations that the novelist’s characters find themselves in." He saw traces of the enlightenment project, i.e., to name and categorize everything, in the modern culture. He felt that this was an inadequate method to use in describing the mystery of humanity.
Percy gives us a unique perspective. He is a Christian Existentialist, though such a lavel is more likely to obscure his identity than to reveal it. He was born to an affluent family which, though monetarily well-off, seems to have been plagued with bad luck. Depression and despair haunted the Percy’s. Walker’s father was an attorney who committed suicide. After this tragic event, Walker moved to Mississippi where he encountered similar misfortune.
He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where, ironic to our discussion of The Moviegoer, he went to the movies a lot. He later attended Columbia Medical school, where he pursued special interests in pathology and psychiatry. He never practiced medicine, however, because at the age of twenty-six he contracted tuberculosis. He had been used to the scientific method, but this convalescence forced him to spend time in self-reflection. He read philosophical and literary works while confined to a sanitarium. He found that he had an interest in the Existentialist concern for the alienation of the modern individual.
Later, Percy’s uncle passed away and he inherited a good sum of money. This did not make him rich, but allowed him to spend his time writing. In the biography given by the Walker Percy Project we find that ". . .nearly all of his novels are concerned with individuals who are on a ‘search’ for a more ‘authentic’ existence beyond the limited meaning given their lives by a techno-scientific culture. His first novel, The Moviegoer (1961), is one such treatment of character of a protagonist seeking to move beyond the ‘everydayness’ of his life, and the novel won wide-spread acclaim when it received the National Book Award the following year."
Stephen Williams, a Presbyterian minister with an interest in philosophy, had proposed that we discuss how literature can serve as a practical medium through which philosophical thought can be expressed. Specifically,
We looked at Walker Percy’s novel, The Moviegoer. As many of us had not had the opportunity to read this work prior to the meeting, Williams gave an interesting brief introduction to the author and to this novel.
The Moviegoer describes Binx, the main character, who is a self-absorbed person from a privileged background. He serves in the Korean War and then comes back to America, primarily just "floating around." He seems to be more observing life than participating in it. During this time, he begins his "search." Although if asked most people would say that they are searching for happiness, Binx’s search is uncomfortable. Happiness is not the main focus of this character.
For Percy, it seems that there are two states of being—"everydayness" and "searching." What pulls one out of everydayness in his novels seems to be some traumatic event. Binx, for example, had suffered a near-death experience in the war. But where Percy seems to imply that some event shakes one to begin the search, several of us thought that a traumatic event often has the opposite effect, or sometimes has no effect at all. We also wondered if Percy thinks that there must be some major event to act as a catalyst, or whether one could simply make such a transition. Percy said that "The search is what everyone would undertake if he were not sunk in everydayness." If we are lost in the mundanity of our lives, is it possible to just realize this and overcome it?
What does it imply about one’s character or identity to be on a search? Well, first we have to ask what it means to be on a search. The object of the search is never revealed in The Moviegoer. Is it God? Truth? Self? Perhaps the object is not specified because until one has found the answer, one does not know. Is it possible to find the answer, or is the search a perpetual activity which in itself defines us?
Before the search can begin it must somehow become a possibility. It is not a possibility for everyone; for example, children are able to see the world with a newness which our familiarity with life often prevents us from exercising. Yet this child’s vision is characterized by the Lockian immediate sensation, which does not include intellectual interpretation of experiences.
How do you know when you are on a search? One way is that you are interpreting things rather than simply accepting them. You are looking for reality to be constantly refreshed and are always asking what everything means. You are aware of the mystery that surrounds us. You are able to see the particularity of things rather than looking at everything, as science does, as an instance of a universal.
Everydayness implies acceptance of what you are told to see rather than seeing things through your own eyes. This is, for example, why television commercials work. We are influenced by our cultures to become a part of everydayness. As Percy noted about the traces of the Enlightenment project in our culture, society names and categorizes us in such a way as to cover up or suppress our personhood. In The Moviegoer, those characters who are in everydayness embrace their way of life, and somehow do not realize that they are caught in it. This is reminiscent of the Kierkegaardian "Despair": those who are really in despair do not know it.
Is this novel Percy’s sly way of rejecting empiricism? We agreed that it is not, but perhaps he is implying that if the scientific-minded thought about it, they would see that what they are leaving out of the explanation of the world is the self or spirit that is doing the explaining. What is left over is the self. Binx is using his senses and his power of observation and analysis; the scientific method does have a use for Percy, but it is inadequate as an only method or tool in the search for the self. He seems to be trying to incorporate empiricism into the discovery of humanness or into a spiritualism.
What is the metaphor of "The Moviegoer"? Williams suggested that one thing it implies is someone who sees everything and commits to nothing. It also implies living vicariously and confirming one’s identity through watching others. Is that what modern life is reduced to—escape and role-playing? Getting your sense of self from the reactions of other people is the ultimate conformity.
Also, what does consumerism imply about individualism? People believe that they "need" things which are popularized by movies, television, and other media. Is this kind of conformity unique to America? It seems that it began that way, but the ideals, or anti-ideals, are spreading. Consumerism is Kierkegaardian aestheticism, a state of being in which one perpetually attempts to fill a spiritual void with material objects, but is unaware of this despair.
Do we all think the same way even though we think different thoughts? We may have the same rules for thinking, as Immanuel Kant asserts, yet we are not all living the same way. The ways in which we view the world are unique.
I challenge you to find such quotes and defend them as philosophical expressions. Please be prepared to summarize the context from which you extracted your example as some may not be familiar with it.
Also, be prepared to defend not only the philosophical content inherent in your quote, but also how the medium from which quote is derived impacts the meaning. Does your quote maintain it’s meaning in a greeting card, a novel, and a movie?
What gems of philosophical thought can you cull from the media and informational explosion that has flooded the modern western world? Can you find the most obscure/weirdest source of a philosophical thought?
Good Hunting!
Dr. Ann Hartle will share a lecture with us on her most recent book, Self Knowledge inthe Age of Theory. The lecture will be held at 12:15 in Ashmore Hall Audiroium on Thursday, April 9, 1998. We will also sponsor a luncheon after the lecture, at 1:30 in the Faculty Lounge in MCC, during which we can talk with Hartle about her topic.
Dr. Hartle is a Professor of Philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta. She studied Philosophy at St. Francis College and received her Ph.D from the City University of New York. Her publications include The Modern Self in Rousseau's Confessions: A reply to St. Augustine and Death and the Disinterested Spectator: An Inquiry into the Nature of Philosophy. She has done research in the areas of the nature of Philosophy and philosophical anthropology and specializes in teaching Medieval Philosophy. Her honors include being a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, 1982-83.
This event is sponsored by The Philosophical Debate
Group of Armstrong Atlantic State University. For more information
about this or other PDG events, contact Dr. Erik Nordenhaug in the Department
of Languages, Literature, and Dramatic Arts, 921-7322, or through e-mail.
Guidelines:
Deadline for Submissions is March 17, 1998
Judging will take place in the first week of Spring Quarter, 1998
Don't Forget About the Calliope!!
The Calliope is Armstrong Atlantic State University's award winning Art and Literary publication. They are currently accepting art, prose, and poetry submissions for the 1998 edition.
Submissions can be dropped off at any of the boxes located in theWriting Center, the entrance way to Lane Library, the Cafeteria, and the Fine Arts Building (located by the main office). Art submissions can be dropped off in the Writing Center (Gamble Hall 109). Students are encouraged to submit copies rather than originals of all forms of work.
All submissions must include the student's name, phone number, and address.
Deadline for Submissions is March 16, 1997
Reminder. . .
The Philosopher's Stone
publishes poetry, too!
Submissions to The Philosopher's Stone may address any philosophical issue, compare philosophical ideas, propose new topics for discussion, or address any previous newsletter article and/or topic. Submissions do not have to be related to the current topic of discussion. Please try to limit works to about 500 words, as we have limited space. Also, please include your name and phone number so that we can contact you if we have any questions.
Drop your submissions in The Thought Box, located in the Writing Center,
Gamble Hall 109.
Ends. . .And New Beginnings. . .
Serving as the chair of The Philosophical Debate Group and as the editor of The Philosopher's Stone has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I will always be proud to have had such a unique priviledge. But now the time has come for me to move on: if all goes as planned, i will be graduating this quarter. As i move on toward graduate school, i leave open the positions of Chair and Editor for PDG.
We are interested in finding
someone who is self-motivated and interested in the success of PDG.
The only requirement is that nominees must be at least part-time students
of AASU. If you are interested in finding out more about what this
position entails, contact Dr.
Erik Nordenhaug, faculty advisor for The Philosophical Debate Group.