Friday, January 19, 2007

Dunce and Sensibility

Who do you think is the most sensible character in the book? And who
is the biggest dunce?
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7 comments:

Erin said...

Most sense: Jones

Biggest dunce: Mrs. Levy

But it's a close call.

10:22 AM, January 19, 2007
kc said...

Oh, I agree on Jones being the most sensible. Good call.

It's funny that you mention Mrs. Levy because as I was reading the book this time I had the distinct impression at several points that she was a lot like Ignatius. They both had "worldviews" (albeit quite muddled and self-serving). They were both prone to exaggeration and hyperbole of every sort, constantly inventing dramatic responses, coming up with schemes to improve the world or someone in it, always having "projects," always seeing the worst in certain people (Ignatius in his mother, who wasn't a bad person/ Mrs. Levy in her husband, who wasn't a bad person) and the best n other people who didn't necessarily deserve it (Lana Lee as the intellectual). They both had an unusual interest in Miss Trixie.

11:52 AM, January 19, 2007
Erin said...

Oh, that's excellent. I hadn't noticed those similarities.

3:57 PM, January 19, 2007
Ben said...

The epigraph hints that Ignatius is the only one who is not a dunce. I wonder whether this is to be taken seriously. Perhaps when you set aside his personality, Toole has the same opinions as Ignatius on important matters (how the world should work).

11:20 PM, January 19, 2007
george said...

I hadn't noticed those similarities either. It seemed Ignatius was the big exaggerator to try to make up for his own shortcomings and gather sympathy for himself. Mrs. Levy did it to get at Mr. Levy through their children.

11:40 PM, January 19, 2007
kc said...

Mrs. Levy also fetishizes certain objets, like her exercise board, and Ignatius does the same — his cap, the crosses.

1:08 AM, January 20, 2007
cl said...

Agreed, most sense, Jones.

I thought all of the characters, except Jones, were working with distorted worldviews, that that was the point. Either that or the author used that flaw as a device to explain away why various employers and other characters kept giving Ignatius an opportunity to wreak more havoc.

Mrs. Levy took a lot of the author's scathing hatred: "Mrs. Levy was a woman of interests and ideals. Over the years she had given herself freely to bridge, African violets, Susan and Sanda, golf, Miami, Fannie Hurst and Hemingway, correspondence courses, hairdressers, the sun, gourmet foods, ballroom dancing, and, in recent years, Miss Trixie."

Ouch! All he failed to mention was that exercise board.

12:20 PM, January 21, 2007

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