A Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980; eleven years after the author's suicide. (Toole took his own life in 1969 — partially as a result of his professional failure as a novelist; Simon & Schuster rejected a finished draft of "Dunces" in 1964.) The book was published through the efforts of the writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a revealing foreword) and Toole's mother, quickly becoming a cult classic. Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. It is an important part of the 'modern canon' of Southern literature.

The title derives from the book's epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." (Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting)

The story is set in the city of New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, an intelligent but slothful man still living with his mother in Uptown New Orleans, who, because of family circumstances, must set out to get a job for the first time in his life at age thirty. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters.

Major characters

Ignatius J. Reilly

Ignatius is something of a modern Don Quixote — eccentric and creative, sometimes to the point of delusion.

He disdains modernity, particularly pop culture. The disdain becomes his obsession: he goes to movies in order to mock their inanity and express his outrage with the contemporary world's lack of "theology and geometry." He prefers the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, especially that of Boethius.

Throughout the novel, Ignatius exhibits what would today be considered symptoms of depression. He operates under the mindset that he does not belong in the world and that his numerous failings are the work of some higher power. He continually refers to the goddess Fortuna as having spun him downwards on her wheel of luck. This type of thought may be akin to the psychological idea of "external locus of control" in which the subject believes that he is more or less powerless to alter the circumstances of his life through his own actions. Additionally, Ignatius shows the traits of an addictive personality in his inability to eat in moderation and regular bouts of chronic sexual self-fulfillment (he becomes sexually aroused by thoughts of his deceased dog and when he is lifted into the air by four Black factory workers). His mockery of obscene images is portrayed as a defensive posture to hide their titillating effect on him. In addition, he exhibits bizarre aversions, for example to Greyhound Scenicruiser buses, the bi-level coaches used by the company at the time for its longer routes. He speaks of the horror he feels even just knowing that they are hurtling about in the night.

Myrna Minkoff

Myrna "The Minx" is a Jewish beatnik from New York City whom Ignatius met while she was in college in New Orleans. Their political, social, religious, and personal orientations could hardly be more different, but Myrna and Ignatius have a fascination with each other. For most of the novel she is seen only in the regular correspondence which the two keep up since her return to New York. Officially, they both deplore everything the other stands for. Though probably neither of them would admit it, their correspondence indicates that, though separated by half a continent, many of their actions are taken with the intention of impressing the other.

Irene Reilly

Mrs. Reilly is Ignatius's long-widowed mother. She is fond of drinking cheap wine and is occasionally tipsy, although Ignatius describes her as a raving, abusive drunk.

Other characters

Santa Battaglia is Mrs. Reilly's new best friend and aunt of Officer Mancuso. She wants to get Ignatius out of the way so she can fix up his mother with a potential new husband.
Claude Robichaux is said potential new husband--an old man constantly on the lookout for any "Communiss" ^* (Communists) that might infiltrate America, and who takes an interest in protecting Irene.
Angelo Mancuso is an inept police officer, the nephew of Santa Battaglia. The sergeant in charge is angry with him, and he must somehow make a major bust in order to not be kicked off the force.
Lana Lee runs a downscale French Quarter strip club, the "Night Of Joy." She employs Darlene and Jones and runs an illegal pornographic photo ring on the side.
George is Lana's high-school-aged partner in the pornography ring.
Darlene is the "Night Of Joy's" goodhearted but none-too-bright stripper who has a pet cockatoo.
Burma Jones is the porter/janitor for the "Night Of Joy" who resentfully holds on to his job only because the police will arrest him for vagrancy if he does not (an indignity not uncommon for African Americans in the U.S. South in the Jim Crow era).
Mr. Clyde is the owner of Paradise Vendors, a frustrated old man tired of his Hot Dog Vendor Buisness
Gus Levy runs Levy Pants, a family business in Bywater whose best days seem long behind it. He prefers to visit Levy Pants as little as possible.
Mrs. Levy is Gus Levy's wife. Having taken (and failed) a correspondence course in psychology, she attempts to apply psychoanalytic principles to her husband and Miss Trixie. She also specializes in making her husband's life miserable.
Miss Trixie is an aged clerk at the Levy Pants office who suffers from senile dementia. Mrs. Levy thinks she's doing a good deed by keeping Miss Trixie employed, although Miss Trixie would rather retire.
Mr. Gonzalez is the Levy Pants office manager.
Dorian Greene is a flamboyant French Quarter homosexual who puts on elaborate parties for the counterculture. Ignatius tries to recruit him and his "sodomite friends" to infiltrate the army and thus "take down worldwide government".
Frieda Club, Betty Bumper, and Liz Steele are a trio of aggressive lesbians who run afoul of Ignatius, and who figure aggressively in the climactic French Quarter brawl.

Notes

The book is famous for its rich depiction of New Orleans and the type of dialogue spoken there. Many locals and writers think that it is the best and most accurate depiction of the city in a work of fiction. Not all locals are enamored with it, however; some New Orleanians think it portrays the city and its inhabitants in an unfavorable light.

The city described in the novel differs in some ways from the actual New Orleans. The first chapter mentions the sun setting over the Mississippi River at the foot of Canal Street. As this direction is to the south-east, this is clearly impossible in our world. Possibly this is a joke by Toole related to the fact that the area across the river is known as the "West Bank," despite the fact that because of the twists of the river it is actually to the south or east from parts of central New Orleans. Such details are not likely to be noticed by people who are not familiar with New Orleans.

A bronze statue of Ignatius J. Reilly can be found under the clock at the Chateau Sonesta Hotel in the 800 block of Canal Street, New Orleans, the former site of the D.H. Holmes Department Store. The statue mimics the opening scene: Ignatius waits for his mother under the D.H. Holmes clock, clutching a Werlein's shopping bag, dressed in a hunting cap, flannel shirt, baggy pants and scarf, 'studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste.' The statue is modeled on New Orleans actor John "Spud" McConnell, who portrayed Ignatius in a stage version of the novel.

John Kennedy Toole's only other novel is The Neon Bible, written when he was 16 and also published posthumously.

The structure of the book mirrors the structure of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy (Ignatius's favorite book; a copy of it is a central plot device) in several ways. The book is divided into chapters, each of which is divided into a varying number of subchapters. Key parts of some chapters are outside of the main narrative; in Consolation these take the form of a prosimeter, while in Confederacy they take the form of journal entries by Ignatius or letters between himself and Myrna.

Film adaptations

Given the book's cult status, there have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film, although these efforts appeared to be as "cursed" as were the efforts to publish the book in the first place. At various times, John Belushi, John Candy, and Chris Farley were touted for the lead. All of these actors died tragically young. A version scheduled for release in 2005 starring Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Ignatius's mother halted production in 2004.

At one point, British performer and writer Stephen Fry was commissioned to adapt Toole's book for the screen. ^*

External links

1980 novels | New Orleans culture | American novels | Comedy novels

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