There is an occasion in the Korean War when the main character in "The Moviegoer" by Walker Percy is on the ground and in peril.

He promises himself that if he gets out of the situation alive, he will start on the search.

He gets out alive, goes home, and forgets the search.

Years pass, and one day when he empties his pockets at the end of a calm day in his calm life, he looks at the contens of his pockets like he's never seen the objects before.

"They looked both unfamiliar and at the same time full of clues." He knows it's time to start the search.

"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 s 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."

One thing he disagrees with about movies is that they often amount to the people in them being in a different situation at the end, and showing every sign of being ready to sink into this new everydayness. He's looking for way to live a no to that. He wants to stay in permanent awe of the little.