'The search' is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in
the everydayness of his own life. This morning, for example, I felt
as if I had come to myself on a strange island. And what does such
a castaway do? Why, he pokes around the neighborhood and he doesn't
miss a trick. To become aware of the possibility of the search is
to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.
The movies are onto the search, but they screw it up.
-- Walker Percy. The Moviegoer. (17-19)