“All movies smell of a neighborhood and a season: I saw All Quiet on the Western Front, one of my first, in Arcola, Mississippi, in August of 1941, and the noble deeds were done, not merely fittingly but inevitably, in the thick singing darkness of Delta summer and in the fragrance of cottonseed meal.”
This passage in the first full paragraph of section three was really interesting to me because it shows the level at which Binx watches, experiences, and remembers the movies. He sees them more intensely than others do and holds onto them. To him, it’s not just about enjoying a film. To him, it’s a way to escape the everydayness and normality of his life.
I think that that he also may like having a routine thrill he can go and see at the movies, so that he is not stuck in the despair, as he calls it.
Movies seem to be Binx’s true and only comfort in life. He has so many memories of everything he saw, smelt, and heard while watching said movies. I think this sense of “Escapism” from reality is like a warm hug for him. I wonder what his comfort would have been without movies?