Tags
Alaska, Ben Kingsley, Elegy, Lost, Penelope Cruz, Restless, Search, The Moviegoer, Walker Percy, Woods
But things have suddenly changed. My peaceful existence in Gentilly has been complicated. This morning, for the first time in years, there occurred to me the possibility of a search.
From: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (pg. 10)
Today, I am restless and confused. I slept well last night. Too well. But when I woke up this morning, something was not right. Nothing has radically changed in the last few days. Perhaps what I sense is not a change but an absence. The whole thing is confusing. But when this experience comes over me, all I want to do is leave civilization and go get lost out in the woods somewhere and be alone.
I remembered the first time the search occurred to me. I came to myself under a chindolea bush. Everything is upside-down for me, as I shall explain later. What are generally considered to be the best times are for me the worst times, and that worst of times was one of the best. […] There awoke in me an immense curiosity. I was onto something. I vowed that if I ever got out of this fix, I would pursue the search. Naturally, as soon as I recovered and got home, I forgot all about it.
From: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (pgs. 10-11)
The other night I watched the movie, “Elegy” starring Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley. I found the film very disturbing and beautiful. The film was filled with the riches of human life. But I was greatly put-off (and fascinated) by Ben Kingsley’s character: David Kepesh.
The plot revolves around an older university professor (age 62), David, who becomes romantically involved with Penelope Cruz’s character, Consuela (age 24). I was disturbed on two levels. First, I was annoyed that David could not get out of the 1960’s. Why is it that human beings seem to get trapped in time? Second, David is a 62-year-old man with incredible loneliness and no desire to go out and get lost in the woods. Why are people so incredibly needy? I have more thoughts on the film, but these are still being examined and refined.
However, last night, I watched “Wipeout” on TV, and then changed the channel to PBS and watched “Alone in the Wilderness,” a documentary about the life of Richard Proenneke who lived as a solitary in the wilderness of Alaska. As I watched I kept thinking, “Now here is a guy who understood his need to go and get lost in the woods.”
And so today, I am restless…
But this morning when I got up, I dressed as usual and began as usual to put my belongings into my pockets: wallet, notebook (for writing down occasional thoughts), pencil, keys, handkerchief, pocket slide rule (for calculating percentage returns on principal). They looked both unfamiliar and at the same time full of clues. I stood in the center of the room and gazed at the little pile, sighting through a hole made by thumb and forefinger. What was unfamiliar about them was that I could see them. They might have belonged to someone else. A man can look at this little pile on his bureau for thirty years and never once see it. It is as invisible as his own hand. Once I saw it, however, the search became possible.
From: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (pg. 11)