Part Two, Chapter 1

I get a strange joy out of reading those passages which are derogatory and/or politically incorrect. As Binx's private thoughts form the narrative of this novel, we are treated to gems he would have censored if he knew he was being watched:

"From the sleaziest house in the sleaziest town, from the loins of redneck pa and rockface ma spring these lovelies, these rosy-cheeked Anglo-Saxon lovelies, by the million. They are commoner than sparrows, and like sparrows they are at home in the streets, in the parks, on doorsteps. No one marvels at them; no one holds them dear. They flush out of their nests first thing and alight in the cities to stay, and no one misses them. ...But I marvel at them; I miss them; I hold them dear."

Am I a sparrow? I always found sparrows interesting, hopping about and watching their surroundings with their beady eyes. Not quite sure why....but I digress.

Poor Walter. Yet, not as poor as Binx ... I admit. At least Walter has some idea of what he wants (Kate); Binx just has some vague search. I don't know what he's searching for. I don't think even he knows what it is he is pursuing.

Kate wants to be kicked out of the house and forced to stand on her own. I can relate: she feels sheltered, protected ... but part of her can't sever her ties to her family, and she will never leave the nest until it falls out from beneath her.

The word "love" is tossed around so nonchalantly in this narrative. He is in "love" with Sharon and every other secretary that has come before her. His description of her is full of phrases so natural to our narrator ... but to me his style is borderline insulting:

"...her arms come out of the armholes as tenderly as a little girl's. But when she puts her hand to her hair, you see that it is quite an arm."


"...it is this very crowding of the cheekbone into the eye socket, narrowing the eye into a squint-eyed almost Chinese treacherousness, which is so ugly in him [Sharon's father] and so beautiful in her."

In the 1960s, China was shifting to a communist state. It is possible that Sharon's father was unattractive to Binx because he resembled a man of Chinese ancestry ... a group of people in ill repute among U.S. citizens.

"I have been as aloof and correct as a Nazi officer in occupied Paris."

What an ironic statement - ironic, yes, but only "correct" in the officer's own mind. The response of an outsider looking in on the officer runs parallel to that of a reader looking in on Binx's behavior.

"My Sharon should not read this kind of stuff [Peyton Place]."

My Sharon? I really scorn the thought that anyone can be the property of someone else. Nor is one person entitled to guide another's pursuits; I suppose I am a bit of an isolationist in this case. Though I do not think it wrong to vocalize one's opinions in an attempt to persuade another to alter their actions. However, it is ultimately a person's decision to make for himself.

And then when Binx derides himself for reading Arabia Deserta, having only read "fundamental" books in the past - War and Peace, A Study of History, What is Life?, The Universe as I See It, The Expanding Universe, The Chemistry of Life.

For everyone's benefit, I have included a brief description of each book, courtesy of Wikipedia:

• Peyton Place follows the lives of three women—lonely and repressed Constance MacKenzie; her illegitimate daughter Allison' and her employee Selena Cross, a girl from "across the tracks," or as it is called in the book, "from the shacks." The novel describes how they come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings in a small New England town.
  
  
• War and Peace tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, marriage, age, and death.
  
  
• A Study of History is a twelve volume magnum opus which traces the birth, growth and decay of some 21 to 23 major civilizations in the world.
  
  
• What is Life?is a non-fiction book on science for the lay reader written by physicist Erwin Schrödinger.
  
  
• The Universe as I See It is actually titled The World as I See It. It is a collection of essays, articles and letters that reveal the other side of the Albert Einstein: the advocate of a world of peace and mutual helpfulness.
  
  
• The Expanding Universe applies the theory of relativity to astronomy.
  
  
• The Chemistry of Life provides a clear and authoritative introduction to the world of biochemistry.

• Arabia Deserta details a man's travels through Saudi Arabia.
  

I will end with these lines, which left me wondering what caused the change in Binx's life.

"During those years I stood outside the universe and sought to understand it. ...Before, I wandered as a diversion. Now I wander seriously and sit and read as a diversion."