Art & Identity in New Orleans

As a self-proclaimed expert film watcher, I expect so much more from the protagonist whom I thought I could relate to. Instead, Percy’s Binx Bolling was irritating and uninteresting, a do-nothing, and I wasn’t won over by his frequent jaunts to a movie theater. Initially, I expected to have that constant pull from reality on a whim to connect it to a movie, maybe even possibly disappearing into the characters. However, he did not do such a thing but continued to be annoying and exasperating. In class, we discussed briefly how Walker Percy made a conscious decision to make Binx an “antihero” or nonhero so the character’s lack of participatory status could grow on the reader. The idea is that in the end readers would step back and reflect on the ‘search’ or acknowledge that they too settled for a 9am-5pm routine giving up the mission of finding their own code. Binx, to me, is the embodiment of how many people end up– as an outlier. He consistently shows disdain towards the fabulous New Orleans living. Yet, chooses to live in Gentilly as if it’s superior to other New Orleans neighborhoods. He has gone about having a respectable degree and career, and living a prescribed life, from pledging a top fraternity to passionate participation in Mardi Gras every year, joining a “krewe ” of reputable locals with a float, parade, and ball. As he stated in the book

“I can’t stand the old-world atmosphere of the French Quarter or the genteel charm of the Garden District,” Binx declares. So much for tourists in New Orleans! He resides on the long-running street Elysian Fields, but as far from downtown as possible. He’s rented a basement apartment in an anonymous middle-class neighborhood called (a fictitious name) Gentilly. Binx is proud that “one would never guess it was part of New Orleans.”

Almost as if he’s acting as an extra in his own movie. A movie called Life, sorta meta in a way. Binx does what extras do on movie sets; judge others, do what’s asked of them, and be as hidden as possible as to not take attention away from the ‘main characters’. It’s like the mission was to become the ‘main character’ in his life which he sort of does during his excursions with Kate or times when he’s actually enjoying himself. However, in the end (to me) he is now fully accepting his role as the back seat driver of his life by doing what his aunt requested of him in the beginning and marrying which in itself physically traps him in a role where he probably won’t leave. 

He chose to be mundane but rises to the occasion as high as he can in regard to those who ask of him at times. Life is full of disappointments and in the end, everydayness is inescapable. You become engulfed in the routine that eventually becomes you. Thus, the moviegoer and never the movie star.