The Moviegoer - Walker Percy BOOK REVIEW

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[@PenixderGallier]

"its not the loss of authenticity, its the loss of our ability to recognize it, that is the fundamental 21st century existential issue" dang dawg coming out swinging.

[@captainhardon]

"itd be great if ai could recreate old actors" no it really wouldn't.

[@christianman73]

In college, I took a class on the work of Walker Percy. We covered all of his novels, and some of his philosophical writings, and discussed them at some length. It was a challenging, and for me, truly life-changing, class, and I don't use the word "life-changing" lightly. Many thanks to Dr. Tom Woods for offering that class! Prior to it, I had never even heard of Walker Percy. After it, my view of many things had been forever changed. Percy is incredible!

[@coopaloopmex]

More than just a Southern Writer, Walker Percy was a Catholic Southern Writer and threads this into his works, which heightens this existentialism, especially in The Moviegoer. Not overtly Catholic like Thomas Aquinas, but more like Graham Greene or Evelyn Waugh. I have read and re-read this a few times over the years, and it never gets old (unlike the malaise!)

[@Jbirdsprings]

In regards to" extreme events to punctures the normality we live in:"caused me to reflect on another southern writer,Percy Sledge. He wrote Helmet for a Pillow but the struggle to write it was most interesting . He fought in the Pacific,came back to the states, obtained his PhD and taught for 20 years. It took him 2 decades to describe the complete and utter horror of war. 20 years of writing notes, talking to old comrades, reading others accounts of the war until he finally wrote his own. Thanks for this profound and insightful view of Percy.

[@BCBell-fj2ht]

"The search!" This man put words to something I've done for years. I must read this one.

[@BlueDusk95]

Talk about a coincidence: I've just heard of Walker Percy from a quote by Baudrillard, and I'm just beginning to read his 1975 essay called The Message in the Bottle. The Movigoer is on my stack too, but I'm a really slow fiction reader.

[@marinellamaccagni6951]

I've been having this book sitting on my shelf for years. Maybe it's time to read it! Thanks for your brillant review.

[@angelorossowrites]

Another gem of a review my man.

[@FlintSL]

I always get excited when I see you've uploaded a new video Cliff. Sounds like you really loved this one, Percy sounds like a true wordsmith

[@TheSalMaris]

Perhaps James Purdy should be on your list of Southern writers to read.

[@zenape619]

Made friends with a lawyer who edited some of Percy's stories. Beautiful writing. He saw where the south was going before I was born.

[@cormacgreene8505]

Father Robert Lauder reviews the book in “the Catholic Novel”. The moviegoer, in my mind talks about the three levels of being Kierkegaard talks about. Binks by the end books moves beyond living a sensualists life, and moves into a state of deeper being, largely because of the death of his brother, and Kate’s wild instability. He evolves, and kind of man’s up

[@roydunn2865]

I already love the part you read about being 98% behind. I feel that way every time I pick up a book that is centuries old and I have to say this has existed this whole time.

[@nyq9064]

Every book you recommend and I read becomes one of my all time favorite book. Thank you, keep up the good work.

[@LiterateTexan]

I loved Stoner, of course, so this will definitely be towards the top of my list. This was a great video. My only complaint is that I never win the drawing.

[@theologywanderer]

Lancelot is another Percy novel I would highly recommend.

[@MorganInForm]

Thank you for helping articulate what I've been feeling since reading this book.

[@jimlivengood3962]

Excellent review as always, CLS. Percy is one of my favorites. I first started with "Thanatos Syndrome" (his last novel) in the 80s and rapidly proceeded to gobble them up. His novels have worn, beaten places of honour on my shelves. "Love in the Ruins" and "Thanatos" feature the same MC, a Dr. Thomas More, psychiatrist. They have more action, along with weighty ponderings and sensorial detail.

[@evelynmayton470]

Superb book, equally superb review.

[@squishyam]

i keep encountering these titles in used bookstores right after watching your reviews of them, first the Satyricon, then Graham Greene and now this! looking forward to reading it after finishing the like 5 other books i'm reading rn

[@roastbeefy0weefy]

13:36 I recommend "Galveston" by Nic Pizzolatto. It's very sensorial and of course is set in the gulf coast

[@Calcprof]

Walker Percy is awesome.

[@shubhaghosh]

Thanks. Walker Percy is a hero of mine and The Moviegoer a guidebook, one for the search I guess. Have you done A Confederacy of Dunces? Percy promoted it for publication after O'Toole died.

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Thank you very much for the super support Shubha, no I haven’t done Confederacy yet. It’s in the shelf. Very interesting that Percy promoted it, I’ll check it out, thanks!

[@shubhaghosh]

@@BetterThanFoodBookReviews Fun story about how O’Toole’s mother got Percy to read the manuscript. There is a doc about O’Toole on KZbin worth checking out

[@ellelala39]

Thanks for clarifying this novel, Cliff. I didn't get it when I read it.

[@andreeadobre3190]

I just got back into reading this month, all thanks to watching your channel, thanks man! Cup of Rage, Agua Viva, Story of the Eye, now Sex & Rage, loving it.

[@bentilbury2002]

Currently reading Stoner (thanks to your recommendation), and enjoying it - so maybe I'll check this out as well 👍

[@AlencarFaulkner]

To quote from one of my favourite films: "I mean, Jesus. What is it with you Catholics?"

[@basserman]

If you wanna read about Authenticity check out the behemoth “The Recognitions”.

[@AleksandarBloom]

he did, and it was very unauthentic.

[@tomgoodchild4719]

Nice shot of the Tampa Theater

[@robertgarland3625]

Great review, Cliff!

[@PenixderGallier]

you can manufacture events of being close to death. its why extreme sports started to manifest in the 2nd half of the last century. I used to skateboard for over 22 years, so I know that it exists. I also know that nothing can replace it and life gets even more dull once you are too old to do your sport.

[@Cheryl-qx3dd]

Hi, i have only just found your page, and im glad i did. You're so interesting 😊 thankyou

[@genevievechaput2552]

Hello, cest le retour de la moustache!!!! Merci pour la vidéo 😊

[@RasmusKarlJensen]

If you don’t speak French, what are you going to do if Anéantir (Houellebecq’s latest novel) never gets translated?

[@jacobmatthes3701]

Picador September 2024

[@helpyourcattodrive]

0:37 I just listened to this on audible …

[@jamescareyyatesIII]

Thanatos Syndrome is Percy's best novel. All his novels are excellent.

[@joejs7659]

You should check out bitter moon by Pascal Bruckner, a very sordid but also elegant portrayal of marital rot, and also the lust for bringing healthy, well-to-do folk into the pot of suffering where one boils and seeks fellowship in the sweaty mess. Not for everybody, but I really enjoyed it. The movie is also great.

[@rubensilva_]

I have read this book twice and having read almost all those books listed in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century, I would rate this book in the top ten of those. It is beautifully written and devastatingly sad. Binx does find great joys in life (those secretaries) but he also finds that these great joys, or adventures, are always just fleeting moments in time and so, naturally, he wonders if anything good experienced, endures. In another direction his mother pushes him to greatness of purpose as our society typically defines greatness but he finds such an endeavor dubious--he maintains that he wouldn't even be happy if he made a breakthrough scientific discovery that would be beneficial to humankind (and make him world famous). So we can can see that Binx is in pursuit of something that is quite elusive and indefinable. And as far as spirituality goes, he is certainly not looking for religious answers in the traditional sense. So I have come to the conclusion that Binx (Walker Percy, really) believes that there is nothing substantial or even insubstantial as in a worldview that a true seeker can grasp onto and ride into the sunset and live happily ever after. I think that if everyone took Binx's pointed but doomed journey of self-discovery then they would see more clearly into their own lives and not be so confident in their own cherished beliefs that their given culture hands to them. What we are all grounded in (our laws, customs, beliefs, practices) is quite dubious. Only when you understand that, can you start to become an authentic self. But even if you can begin, there is no ending point to it all as life goes on and on. So, yeah, this book is really sad when you realize that you cannot wrap your arms around the world in which you live and come to terms with it in a satisfying sense. In the end, Binx does do the right thing and decides to take in the troubled Kate even though they both know that he probably can't really help her troubled life but he is the best suited to do so. This is how the book ends and we all know that Binx is really in for it. That is how our lives are--we are in for it.

[@cormacgreene8505]

Like your analysis,but see it quite differently. I think Binx in the end gravitates towards a theistic perspective. It’s interesting that Mr Percy grew up as a secular humanist, and converted to Catholicism as an adult.

[@christianman73]

@@cormacgreene8505 I share your view of the book and don't see Binx's journey of self-discovery as "doomed" (in the words of the OP above, to which you were replying) at all. There is definitely a certain darkness in "The Moviegoer," but there is also beauty, humor, and hope. Every time I return to the book, I see the conclusion as a hopeful one, and that hope is not rooted in any cynical notion of rejecting all accepted beliefs and worldviews (as if anyone can really, truly, live out such a deeply radical, and self-contradictory, notion).

[@cormacgreene8505]

@@christianman73 Absolutely. Walker Percy was a Catholic, who converted as an adult. He probably read Kierkegaard , and understood his three levels of being. It’s really nice hearing from such a thoughtful person as you are.

[@christianman73]

@@cormacgreene8505 Thank you for the kind words. Likewise! 🙂Percy definitely read Kierkegaard. His influence on Percy's thought and work was examined (among many other topics) in a university class that I took many years ago. Percy was familiar and conversant with the work of many serious thinkers, including Kierkegaard. Walker Percy was *decidedly not* a cynical nihilist who thought that *all* accepted beliefs and worldviews are dubious, supposedly, and that they should all be seen through, and discarded. Discarded for what? That very notion is self-contradictory, and he, being a Catholic convert, did not hold such a view of life. Thanks for the reply!

[@cormacgreene8505]

@@christianman73 Good analysis Brother. Thanks 🙏

[@jamiewalkerdine3705]

I read this book during my Kierkegaard phase, I'm going to be honest it never really clicked with me. But I like your review!

[@inchjoe]

A brilliant review

[@ubik2388]

Another excellent review.

[@jayarrington240]

Another fascinating choice. I will check this one out's well. Thanks.

[@reaganwiles_art]

Camus also almost died of TB. A Happy Death, an early novel, is concerned with his invalidism. Great Shelby Foote, historian and novelist, Percy's best friend was recorded by C-Span and others, avail. on You-Tube. Excellent stuff. He speaks frequently of Percy.

[@deanmoriarty5883]

Thanks so much for your excellent reviews. I would love to see a review of Peter Matthiessen’s Shadow Country. Shadow Country is a brilliant southern epic. A semi-fictional work telling the story of Edgar “Bloody” Watson, a devilish sugar cane farmer in the Everglades of Florida at the turn of the twentieth century.

[@Liisa3139]

You lost me in the ramblings of the beginning where this and that reminded of this and that book or character X was much like character Y in...I can't handle many characters at the same time. Not even in film, because I'm fairly face blind; handicapped that way and also with a poor short term memory. But then you got on the book itself and on existential search. Cliff, you are getting better and better at this. Maybe the rambling was intentional? To demonstrate the confusion as we do the search? My search began 30 years ago when I read Kierkegaard, John of Cross, orthodox church fathers, Theresa of Avila and other religious thinkers from different eras. I did not grow up in a religious home; I just wanted to find out if religious thinkers were dumb or stupid like claimed atheists seemed to believe they were. I found that the religious searchers were interesting to read (not difficult or boring). Then I wanted to know what prayer is. I mean, what does it mean to pray and how do you do it. I found the idea of so many people praying beautiful, but couldn't personally get what words to use or find a fitting prayer mindset. I wanted to learn to pray. I finally settled with the simplest possible prayer, the Jesus prayer. I also figured that prayer can't be just about the right words, it can be wordless. So, I started practicing prayer - not expecting an answer. To me an answer is not the proof that prayer is "working" or done right. Impossible to explain what I was after - just kind of like that prayer was Prayer, not just some autopilot mumbling or train of thought. After 30 years of practice I'm finally feeling that I'm arriving at real prayer, that I'm really in it. It has become natural and nourishing and meaningful. I have found my way of praying and being in prayer. I'm still not much of a Bible reader (barely read it at all; just a snippet now and then, randomly) and I don't go to church except to light a candle a couple of times a year. But my inner existential life feels very different from when I started my prayer journey. I have a new understanding of things and my compassion for people is growing. Humility does not feel like just giving up before people with stronger will. Existence is deeply fascinating, and terrifying, but also joyful. I guess I have always been more on the joyful side than in terror. Now, as I approach old age, I get the suicidal thinking better. Like if the world turns into a global North Korea run by AI, then I might well choose not to live any more. But at the same time I have more and more strength to observe difficult things happening and choosing to go on observing and trying to handle life however difficult it might be. It may be damn hard, but it is interesting none the less.

[@00czen00]

Hey man, are you going to review new Houellebecq book Annihilate? It is powerful 💫

[@SabrinaHawk]

This novel has germ on my want to buy list for five years- it seems like a polarizing read, I have ten friends on goodreads who have read it and all are 4/5 stars or 1/0 star ratings

[@drainel9707]

Repetition is Kierkegaards concept. He wrote a whole book about it

[@Chapolin242]

Punk rock helps with the acknowledge of authenticity

[@jimlivengood3962]

Oh, yes, Cary Grant. Brilliant.

[@mbiriviri]

Rereading this book after probably 40 years… Stunning and it was good to find your “review”…. But oh how I wish you would slow down a bit - - it always feels like you’re rushing through as quickly as you can…. (Maybe it’s the coffee :-)) definitely felt jarring in the context of this novel… Oh I see it’s the editing as well… there’s no space between the cuts, not even normal conversational…

[@19AKS58]

As always, a superb review. BTW, Walker Percy is responsible for bringing "A Confederacy of Dunces" to light - a great vignette. Would you be interested in reviewing that book?

[@AshleyGraetz]

21st existential problem is that expectations has surpassed need....

[@jamesgwarrior1981]

Made mistake of reading this and Djuanna Barnes “Nightwood” at the same time, so now I have to reread…also… 🤔 I may have to repurchase….

[@shayanhaseeb1185]

is nobody gonna talk about the brothers karamazov sitting calmly behind cliff on the top shelf?!

[@porondeandajao]

It kind remind me of The Who's Song "The Seeker"

[@jldowland]

just in time for my birthday...

[@Longleke.]

Great review! And it was surprising, at the end of this video, to even hear the name “Neil Gaiman” leave your mouth. What are the odds we might get an American Gods review someday?? Or maybe Sandman if you wanted to do something really unexpected for the Better Than Food channel. Gaiman’s an interesting case study because his reputation exists in a limbo between “Serious Author for Pretentious Lit Bros Who Self-Consciously Think They’ve Outgrown the Fantasy/SciFi Books of Their Childhood” and “Tumblr Goth Girl Daddy and IP Licensing Cash Cow Who Writes The Occasional Queer Baiting Dr. Who Episode or Some Such Visual Media but Not Novels, No - Anything But Novels”.

[@bobcabot]

normally i would write this:.............! but i know the connotation can be ambiguous - but i say it anyway in hope you know the way to Fritz: good boy...

[@clivebroadhead4857]

The suicide question works well in American culture. Having easy access to annihilation does not recommend itself as a pre requisite of living unless that's what gun culture is all about. 'Give me convenience or give death' never rang truer.

[@michaelstahlberg9392]

Walker Percy was a close friend to Shelby Foote. Check out interview with Foote.

[@benp4877]

Yeah, that’s mentioned in the video.

[@cormacgreene8505]

@@benp4877Shelby and Walker sought out William Faulkner, and hung out with him

[@bobhopper609]

15:47 God damnit.

[@samprentice9454]

the discussion of illness making writers out of people reminds me of bataille on van gogh

[@samprentice9454]

in both ways

[@kagisomogalagadi3026]

Love your channel cliff...all the way From Africa...read a lot of books you have recommended ie the loser Thomas Bernhard

[@keatonthecretin3080]

Damn, Cary Grant as Binx Bolling has a sort of Rock Hudson in Seconds vibe that's going to haunt me bc it's actually too good to be true, it isn't. Better than my imagined Herzog Blood Meridian with Kinski as Glanton and Bruno S. as the Kid.

[@johnradovich8809]

Jeez, this certainly caught my eye!

[@jldowland]

❤

[@MatthewSparkman-bc9gq]

Was his father william Percy

[@user-qz5nj1dq5y]

we would like to see your goodreads account

[@PatchyTheFox]

Are you a fan of RUN DMC?

[@painbow6528]

One of the most profoundly forgettable books I've ever read.

[@user-pu3th9hr2w]

Love in the ruins is also a true gem. Extremely funny, sad, hopeful and intelligent at the same time.

[@KanwarAnand]

two mins in - what is he even talking about?

[@troyvinson2655]

Ha ha "Casual Racism"

[@vincentandlolav5183]

I'm sorry, but Percy is nowhere near as good an author as Camus. Percy makes the fatal mistake of assuming that his own run-of-the-mill depression is somehow profound and interesting. This book bored me to tears.