September / Comic Novel Reading: A Confederacy of Dunces

[lugdunum]

Or is the author pulling the wool of Ignatius' eyes to to speak, and is the joke truly on him? Are we suppose to sympathize with his plight? Or laugh behind his back at his foolish notion of himself?

For now I'd tend to laugh... What do you say?

[Dark Muse]

Yes, I cannot help but to feel there is some parody behind the so called "Confederacy of Dunces" and that Toole takes the idea satirically rather than literally.

[Dark Muse]

I just have to say I love Ignatius' new and improved filing system......throwing the files away everyday in the wastebasket, that cracked me up!

[Scheherazade]

I agree that we are not expected to feel sorry for Iggy; the book is a satirical work (bordering a farce at times) on many self-important people we come across every single day:

A thousand dollars? He will not get a cent. We shall have him prosecuted immediately. Contact out attorneys, Mother."

Love the scene in which Iggy tries to sit on the little stool!

[AuntShecky]

This book has a terribly sad history of how it finally came to be published. It never would have been published if Toole's mother hadn't brought the ms to the attention of Walker Percy. (You could read about this on the web.)

I don't know what to make of this story because the book itself makes me believe that it is autobiographical and that Ignatius stands in for Toole himself. He is made fun of relentlessly, so I don't think that Toole took himself seriously.

It is wildly funny, slapsticky, full of one-liners worthy of Groucho. I thought the best aspect of the book was the quasi lady friend, the perpetual student from New York. She keeps sending Ignatius scathing letters, beginning with the salutation "Sirs" upbraiding him up and down for his habits and lack of social activism, as well as intimating that he is suffering from certain Freudian hang-ups. But she always signs them
impersonally-- "M. Minkoff."

The continuing manifesto that Ignatius writes is
quite funny, also; full of a quasi-religious, reactionary philosophy muddled with self-righteousness.

[Dark Muse]

I have quite surprised by the account that Ignatius gave of the factory and the workers within his journal of a working boy, and while it can be seen just how out of touch with reality he is, and some of his ideas and views are quite misguided, it seemed to be that he genuinely wished to do what was in the best interests of the factory workers (though his own ideas of what are in one's best interests might differ from what most would think)

Considering how self-involved he has proved himself to be and how much focus he puts upon his own sufferings and little concern he is in the habit of showing towards others, it was an almost likely moment for him in his express of his concerns for their low wages and working conditions and his efforts to try and present himself as likeable to them, as well his attempts to relate to them, however skewed those efforts may have been.

Though on can predict that whatever changes he tried to make to improve the factory will prove to be quite comical and speak further of his general incompetence, he actually does seem to have his heart in the right place for once.

[Scheherazade]

...he actually does seem to have his heart in the right place for once.

I strongly disagree with this interpretation of his intentions. From the very start, he had very little sincere interest in the e workers' situation. He starts his campaign both to outdo his ex-girlfriend M (hence the insistence on filming the rebellion) and also to trick the workers into getting rid of Mr G, who has been getting on his nerves (sooner or later the fact that he has been throwing the files away will be discovered).

The first person narrative is always very tricky but we especially need to be careful with Iggy because he does have a way with words.

Does anyone else feel that Iggy is nothing but an overgrown child? His clothes (the hat and the loose trousers), the Mickey Mouse watch, his obsession with junk food, his revenges (throwing things at the cars)... It all reminds me of a boy of 10-11 (and he is not sexually active either). He lack maturity of a grown up.

Am I the only one who found the dog scene at the beginning disturbing?

[Dark Muse]

Yes I just finished reading the part, he did end up turning the whole thing to be about himself, which was not a surprise, and quite expectedly the whole thing ended up in quite a comical disaster.

I agree in his behavior he is just an overgrown child, as particularly seen when he did end up loosing his job and had to go back home, and his mother is insisting that he has to go back out and get work again.

Though I think he blew his chance with Levy Pants, I don't think he will find another place to work which would be so lenient with his slacking, as Levy himself did not even really care what went on in the company.

Oh yeah the dog incident was a bit strange to say the very least of it.

And OMG just thinking about his sheets made me shudder.

[Scheherazade]

All his writings and so-called projects remind me of a child's as well... A child with a very active imagination (a Walter Mitty character?). He signed his letter to his Prof as "Zorro"!

Love it that Miss Trixie keeps calling him "Gloria".

[Dark Muse]

A part of me was currious to find out what the response would be to the letter he wrote for Levy Pants I cannot remeber the person/company he sent the letter to, but it was about the pants that were too short.

I wonder if we ever well get to find out.

[Dark Muse]

I find it interesting how Mrs. Levy seems to be a mirror of Ignatius. She has the same child like manner about her, in the way in which she argues and talks to her husband lacks maturity, and they seem to have a very similar sort of personality.

She is equally as out of touch with reality, and yet has the same idea that she in fact knows truly what is better for everyone else, and makes rather misguided attempts to help others that ultimately are truly more about her than those whom she claims to try to be helping.

Though we never see her out of her house, she is always trying to tell her husband how he should run his business and what to do about his employees, while her interest in his business seems to be purely materialistic and she seems concerned only for her own personal status.

As Ignatius all she really does it sit around the house and complain, and just like his mother, Mr. Levy seems to more or less indulge and unable his wife, but giving in to her in the head, or simply just ignoring her, letting her have her way. I do find the scenes between the two of them quite comical.

On another note, after having just read the hot dog incident, I am curious, do you think that Ignatius is one of those who comes to believe his own lies? And convinces himself that his version of the truth, is indeed what actually happened?

[Dark Muse]

I wonder about the need Ignatius seems to have for exposing himself to the very things which seem to give him the most irritation. The fact that he always goes to the movies only to complain about them, and the scene in which he was watching some dance show I think it was, only to be offended by it, and his continued correspondence with Myrna.

Does he actually gain some form of pleasure from being in a constant state of agitation, does putting himself in positions in which he feels "put upon" or wronged in someway actually make him feel "heroic" does he just feed upon that negative attention.

It seems he is a person who is incapable of ever truly being content, because making himself discontent is the only thing that satisfies him.

[AuntShecky]

Does he actually gain some form of pleasure from being in a constant state of agitation, does putting himself in positions in which he feels "put upon" or wronged in someway actually make him feel "heroic" does he just feed upon that negative attention.

I think you're on to something here, not merely with the specific character of Ignatius, but as an aspect of the American collective psyche: that we don't fully feel alive until we're "riled up." Nothing gets our attention as much as making our boil boil.

Hence, the appeal(?) for so-called "reality" shows on television in which viewers tune in just to watch people make fools of themselves over contestants whom "they love to hate." Schadenfreude may be America's guilty pleasure. And such active outrage is precisely what the Media feeds off: all the coverage about notorious criminals, scandals, celebrities behaving badly. (If not that, then it's fear-mongering: unemployment, the health care system and ways to fix it, swine flu, etc.) Everytime I turn on the idiot box it's as if it's asking me: "Aren't you mad?" or "Are we scared yet?"

[lugdunum]

I totally agree with you about the fact that I. is an overgrown child, I would even say an overgrown brat.... The way he locks himself up in his room and won't let his mother in... and when he punctures Caruso's tires or throws an ink bottle at his car...

About his work at the factory, it's clear that it's only about himself and putting himself forward. He constantly thinks that he is way above everybody else... the supposedly"revolutionary" filing system, the "good" way of dealing with complaints from customers, how to speak to factory workers... and then it turns out that he doesn't have a clue... (though the little dance he performed in the factory was really funny ).

I really liked Ms. Trixie.... she made me laugh a few times, particularly as someone said, when she keeps calling him "Gloria" and then when she kneels under the cross.... and also when I. tries to sit on the little stool and falls over and she tries to lift him up and ends up falling on the floor herself and falls asleep....

It seems to me that I. keeps starting new projects which he thinks he will succesfully complete and will be praised for but at the end of the day he's just not good at anything (except maybe with words). To me this guy is a complete failure and yet he's so full of himself.... I must admit that he kinda pisses me off most of the time... And OMG, just picturing him sitting in his room with his night shirt and his donuts or whatever he's eating, his pencil in his ear.. it just grosses me out sooo much... And yet at times I find him funny and almost likeable.... I don't know it's kind of confusing....

I'll keep on reading because I think I'm way behind you guys... Funny book though... I'm having a really good time... Are you?

[Dark Muse]

I think you're on to something here, not merely with the specific character of Ignatius, but as an aspect of the American collective psyche: that we don't fully feel alive until we're "riled up." Nothing gets our attention as much as making our boil boil.

You make a very good point. I do think that Toole is making a statement in regards to American culture and society in general, as All of the characters within the book can be seen about complaining about something and acting put upon, or offended, in someway. Yet they are all in situations which they put themselves in, and remain inactive in doing anything to change it. They all seem to glory in their own suffering by one way or another.

While it is easy to feel sorry for Iggy's mother, he is in his 30's, she could just as well kick him out of the house and stop supporting him, instead of having to constantly put up with him, and the way in which when she is out with her friends, she just seems to look for trouble for herself in only talking about the woe's of her son, and than not really wanting to meet "the old man" but always trying to find some flaw, or something wrong.

And the character of Jones' constantly complaining about his job while he still works there, though her claims that he has no choice because he is afraid of being arrested as a vagrant, but it seems he would be able to try and find another means of work and in the long wrong it doesn't seem like he has it that bad at the bar really.

And then the situation between Mrs. Levy and Mr. Levy.

The book is filled with characters that seem to subject themselves to problems that they do have within their power to avoid or try to correct, but they all seem to feed in someway from their misery and discontent.