cormac mccarthy

I don't think I've ever wholly liked any of his books. Maybe The Road. He does that thing which Hemingway does which is dial up his "macho philosophizing" meter too far. I remember when I first read Blood Meridian back in the day I was both blown away by it, but also doing some frequent eye rolls.

That said, he is a fantastically economical writer. As a stylist, I would teach him in any class without hesitation.

I can't believe we were almost gay dads back in 2009 zaphod! How time flies...

And, what you said:

  Quote

i think he's pretty full of himself though... i read an interview with him where he said something along the lines of "the only writers that matter are the ones that wrote about death". such a ridiculous attitude to take.

the road is ok but his whole james joyce combiningwords, no punctuation gimmick is distracting. his novels are relentlessly gloomy and he cannot write female characters at all.

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

  On 6/20/2012 at 5:24 AM, zaphod said:

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

lol

All I've read is Child of God. I loved it! Highly recommended. It's dark and depraved in a way that is so over-the-top that it feels like fantasy.

  On 6/20/2012 at 5:24 AM, zaphod said:

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

wow indeed. That's what I'm talking about, it's very hard to take him seriously as a writer after something like that...

I've read the Border Trilogy, No Country, Blood Merdian, The Road and The Sunset Limited. I enjoyed them all to various degrees, but then I suppose I'm slightly misanthropic and generally bleak of mind in a lot of ways. His philosophising - Sunset Ltd aside - does grate at times. It's been a while since I read The Crossing but isn't there a section in that where the main character meets an old guy in a hut and McCarthy takes the opportunity to go on and on and on?

never heard of Sunset Limited, i'll have to look it up.

the philosophizing is just kinda part of his thing. i don't mind it usually, and enjoy it sometimes. it works really well on occasion i'd say. but that's just preferences really.

yeah, an old blind spanish guy, who used to be a priest (but i may be getting confused on the priest part). and yes he gets really philosophical in that section, and goes on for a while...luckily the dialogue is English though, so it's not mostly lost on me. it's a pretty big scene in the book, i'm gonna pay close attention to it on the next read of it....i feel there may be some hints McCarthy is dropping in there.

  On 6/20/2012 at 7:47 AM, usagi said:

I've read Blood Meridian, The Road, and No Country. I'm a fan of his raw and real style. if you think about situation posited in The Road, it's literally some of the bleakest, most hopeless, end-of-the-line shit you could picture. it made me happy, weirdly, to read about the struggle to retain humanity in the most extreme of situations.

 

and ghosty, No Country the film really is close to No Country the book, agreed. a very tight adaptation.

 

  On 3/26/2009 at 4:59 PM, k h o v said:

i've read The Road & The crossing while enjoying Earth latest albums

 

it was a really pleasant surprise to discover that many of the track names (all, I think?) from Earth's Hex are phrases taken out of Blood Meridian.

 

"land of some other order"

"tethered to the polestar"

"the dire and ever circling wolves"

there's a Bird Eater song that uses a quote from one of the Border Trilogy books. they're a metal band though, and all their stuff is about like, death and the desert, so that's no surprise.

  On 6/20/2012 at 3:49 AM, zaphod said:

no i love the crossing. i was a little hard on him in this thread. i fucking love that book. i know pbn loves it too.

okay, glad it's not just me. i was just amazed when i saw this thread and no one gushed about it.

  On 6/20/2012 at 4:27 AM, ghOsty said:

I loved reading The Road, and No Country For Old Men, was a great movie (I'm told it stayed very true to the book)... I've been meaning to read Blood Meridian at somepoint but I've got a lot of other books I'm in the middle of to finish first, I tend to slowly read multiple books at once.

i do that with lots of books too, but i generally read non-fiction so it's not too bad. some stuff like McCarthy i think needs a bit more focus though. to me, at least.

  On 6/20/2012 at 5:24 AM, zaphod said:

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

lol wait is that real? that's a lot of commas for him if it is.

  On 6/20/2012 at 9:01 AM, lumpenprol said:

  On 6/20/2012 at 5:24 AM, zaphod said:

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

wow indeed. That's what I'm talking about, it's very hard to take him seriously as a writer after something like that...

lol he didn't really write that. good to know i can troll as cormac mccarthy though.

haha, nice.

Yeah I think the crossing was my favorite. loved the stuff with the wolf. hated the rest of the book though after the wolf. (pretty sure that was the crossing, i get the border crossing books mixed up). i should reread the first half at least.

sunset limited was a very quick read. interesting so easy to recommend but not essential. never saw the adaptation, infact did that ever come out? samual jackson was supposed to be in it.

i swear i heard that these days he's writing screenplays instead of novels but wikipedia disagrees. i'm sure there was a film where he wrote it and it seemed unlikely. maybe another cormac mccarthy..?

I like suttree ok but it made me want to read another author oddly enough. interesting character study but not much going on

  On 6/20/2012 at 5:24 AM, zaphod said:

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

/thread

Indeed, well played zaphod...and good thread, would read again.

I agree with lumpy about The Road being the only book I might have generally liked from start to finish. Don't you find that the rest of his published works suffer too much from...Manly Stuff Arch Reactionary Conservatism? Maybe I'll appreciate him more when I'm 60.

The Road is the complete opposite to Blood Meridian. One is about what is not written, the other is about what's been written about!

You have an extreme case of minimalism, and on the other side it's almost magical realism. But both are brutal.

  On 6/20/2012 at 5:24 AM, zaphod said:

i might teach him as an example of a stylist you should not emulate. for example, here's cormac writing about a guy sneezing: "he expelled the putrid galimaufry of all his old selves, like some elder god creating in his image that which he cannot identify but can only destroy, within the phlegm the child the father of the man."

Same thing happening in the Road :

"Papa"

"What my son?"

"Is sneezing ok?"

"..."

"..."

"Yes, and we're gonna be ok too".

  On 6/20/2012 at 6:29 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

Yeah I think the crossing was my favorite. loved the stuff with the wolf. hated the rest of the book though after the wolf. (pretty sure that was the crossing, i get the border crossing books mixed up). i should reread the first half at least.

 

sunset limited was a very quick read. interesting so easy to recommend but not essential. never saw the adaptation, infact did that ever come out? samual jackson was supposed to be in it.

 

i swear i heard that these days he's writing screenplays instead of novels but wikipedia disagrees. i'm sure there was a film where he wrote it and it seemed unlikely. maybe another cormac mccarthy..?

oh, Sunset is a play. i've not yet delved into the plays of authors i enjoy. just not too interesting too me generally. maybe one day.

the first 1/3 of The Crossing centering on the wolf is just...immaculate. it's just wonderful in and of itself. and to me it's strong enough to pull you into the story and along with the character, and it lets McCarthy do all the crazy shit in the story that comes afterwards.

just checked Wikipedia, it says he's writing a novel set in 1980's New Orleans, and features a female central character. i'm quite curious to read this, hopefully it'll be out soon enough.