Hungry Jack
Trail Wise!
Living and dying in 3/4 time...
Posts: 3,809
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Post by Hungry Jack on Jun 8, 2017 19:04:02 GMT -8
Any Cormac McCarthy fans around here? I have read The Road, No Country, The Crossing, All the Pretty Horses.
McCarthy is a godless SOB, but his work is compelling. And the settings of his border trilogy in west Texas always grab my interest.
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swiftdream
Trail Wise!
the Great Southwest Unbound
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Post by swiftdream on Jun 8, 2017 19:17:27 GMT -8
I've read those too. Just finished Child of God a few weeks ago. The main character is unhinged to say the least and some parts were discussting but hard to look away from. It is dark but that seems to be what he does. Never a Strawberry Shortcake happy ending.
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Post by Lamebeaver on Jun 9, 2017 3:43:31 GMT -8
The only one I've read is No Country. I like the way he writes, but I thought the story was weird.
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jazzmom
Trail Wise!
a.k.a. TigerFan
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Post by jazzmom on Jun 9, 2017 6:44:02 GMT -8
I'm a fan. I read the trilogy first -- All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain -- and have also read Blood Meridian and The Road. Actually haven't read No Country For Old Men but it's on my list. I loved All The Pretty Horses, not as dark as the others.
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Post by hikerjer on Jun 9, 2017 12:56:06 GMT -8
I'm a real fan of McCarthy. Loved the Border Trilogy. I've read No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridan as well but not The Road. I'm rather scared to read that one.
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Deborah
Trail Wise!
Yes, that's me.
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Post by Deborah on Jun 9, 2017 13:26:44 GMT -8
I seem to remember a movie "No country for old men". And maybe "All the pretty horses" too.
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Post by autumnmist on Jun 9, 2017 15:46:20 GMT -8
Haven't read any of his works and probably won't while the national political situation is so unsettling. I need to read happy, lighthearted books.
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Hungry Jack
Trail Wise!
Living and dying in 3/4 time...
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Post by Hungry Jack on Jun 9, 2017 16:39:18 GMT -8
I'm a real fan of McCarthy. Loved the Border Trilogy. I've read No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridan as well but not The Road. I'm rather scared to read that one. Yes, The Road is not pleasant. It is pretty dark, and very allegorical. I am sure there is more packed into The Road that could I ever hope to understand, but it seems to me that McCarthy is stating that life is an illusory state that masks a state of chaos and destruction that is man's destiny. The illusion man strives to uphold is the semblance of order and civility--cities, laws, commerce, school boards, etc. These things control the fear of what will happen when the whole thing unravels, as has happened in the man's life. The road is the central metaphor of this illusion. It represents an order, structure, and belief in tomorrow that does not exist. The voyage south is the last shred of the illusion that the man clings to, that there is a future worth pursuing. But there is no other thing left to do. There is a paragraph on page 28 that essentially blurts all of this out. McCarthy also seems to be arguing that death is not actual physical expiration itself, but death for man is the fear of dying. The fear of the illusion spiraling into chaos. The fear of death drives the man to survive, but he also knows that he is not living and will never live. He knows that the stories he tells the boy of "good guys" and "bad guys" are just part of the illusion of order that once was his life. He is compelled to try to preserve what he once knew. That is what man does, and McCarthy says it is futile and fruitless. I struggle with the meaning of the boy. Is he a Christ figure? I think like Christ he does not have the fear of death because he has known only the chaos of life after the nuclear Apocalypse. He has never lived the Illusion, only seen its shattered remnants, and he does not want to learn the fear that drives the world around him. If you accept this premise in McCarthy, No Country for Old Men comes into focus. I think McCarthy is stating that there is no afterlife or hope of salvation, and that as man ages and his faculties decline in a raw, brutal world where might is right, man seeks comfort and salvation in a belief in the after life and a benevolent and loving God. TL Jones pretty much says this in the last scene when he describes his dream, in which he is riding at night in the desert, and his father is with him, wordlessly passing him by, so he can go ahead and set a fire to provide light and comfort. Then Jones says starkly, "Then I woke up." Anton Chugr is the reaper, the inevitable march of death. When Chugr marches into the drug store after the explosion he creates, no one sees him. He is a spirit, a force of death. The film shows various characters trying to bargain with death, but death cannot be avoided. Anyhoo, that's $.02 or $.03 on this dark and heavy subject that McCarthy has devoted his life to.
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Post by hikerjer on Jun 9, 2017 18:46:02 GMT -8
Anyhoo, that's $.02 or $.03 on this dark and heavy subject that McCarthy has devoted his life to. I'd say that's more than 2 cents worth. At least a quarter's worth. Thanks for the great analysis, but I'm still reluctant to read The Road. Maybe in happier times.
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Post by markweth on Jun 9, 2017 20:09:40 GMT -8
I've read "No Country for Old Men", "The Orchard Keeper", "Outer Dark". "Child of God", "The Stonemason" , "All the Pretty Horses", "Blood Meridian" and "The Road". Still need to read the rest of the Border Trilogy and "Sutree" amongst others. I've always been particularly impressed by McCarthy's landscape descriptions . . . from the Southern Appalachians to the Southwest, McCarthy seems to nail it every time. Hungry Jack's commentary above is spot on. Glad to see this author brought up on a backpacking forum. Here is a picture a few summers ago of "Blood Meridian" during evening reading at a lake in the Bitterroot Mountains:
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Post by hikerjer on Jun 11, 2017 18:37:56 GMT -8
I've always been particularly impressed by McCarthy's landscape descriptions For me, too, that's one of McCarthys' greatest strengths. He gives you a tremendous feel for the land. It's as big a part of the story as the characters.
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