Held at Jackson Hall next to Grace Episcopal Church - 11621 Ferdinand Street, St Francisville

Presented by Read Schuchardt, Associate Professor of Communication, Wheaton College.

Walker Percy’s “The Moviegoer” is about 30-year old Binx Bolling, a Southern New Orleans stock broker, trapped in the malaise of his life, aided and abetted in both comfort and misery by the movies.  J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye” is about 17-year old Holden Caulfield, a Yankee New York prep school drop-out, surrounded by fakes and phonies whom he despises. The two novels couldn’t be more different. But upon closer inspection, some remarkable synchronicities occur, providing a theory that is, if not derived by Percy’s authorial intention, at least significantly coincidental enough, and at enough key points both fictional and non-fictional, to bear further investigation.  Read’s talk will help you see both novels in a new light – that of each other – and both authors in new ways, both of which bear the hallmarks of being products of the media ecosystems of their times, and when viewed sequentially, Percy’s novel can be shown to demonstrate one possible future for Holden Caulfield’s metaphysical awakening when he’s all grown up…