Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread (MOT)
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Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, which won the National Book Award in 1961, is the story of Binx Bolling--a listless, spiritually lost stock broker in New Orleans in search of personal redemption. Adrift in a world he can't relate to, he finds meaning and respite in movies, at least until he starts his "search."
Growing up, I saw exactly one movie before I went away to college--The Yearling. Going that first time to the movie theatre was a strange and moving experience, even if the movie made me cry almost as much as the book did. Leaving the darkness of The Bijou through the side door into the bright afternoon sun light, I was momentarily taken by the magic of it all. Movies can, in certain circumstances, remove us from our everydayness (as Binx would call it) and allow a transcendence of self to the realms of hope and potential and even love.
In my youth, I never had much of an opportunity to go to the movies and to this day I rarely do. The one exception to this habit is when my son wants to see a movie, eat a bucket of popcorn and a box of snowcaps, and experience the big screen. Still, his personal best for sticking with a film is about 40 minutes before he asks to leave (it was Toy Story), but I keep trying because I am hoping that one day he will be gripped by that singular experience of movie going and feel that connection that Binx sought so ardently and I found once in that afternoon matinee light when I was 10.
And I am happy to report that we shall make another attempt--and this is the movie he has picked out, Guardians of the Galaxy. Judging from the trailer, we might even set a new personal best.
The theme song is a classic, written by Mark James and first recorded by B.J Thomas in 1969 (accompanied by an electric sitar, or all things). But I prefer the 1974 cover by Blue Swede.
Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair. What's on your mind this morning?