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Went and skimmed through the thread and didn't see this posted yet. I knew Suttree was at least partially based in reality but I had no idea how much. Evidently, not only many of the locations were real but many of the characters as well, such as Billy Ray Callahan, with tombstones and newspaper articles to prove it. http://web.utk.edu/~wmorgan/Suttree/suttree.htm Check out "Sut's cemetery" for the various characters and facts about their lives.
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Feb 5, 2014 01:41
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Yeah, I found that link independently a long while back and was thoroughly impressed with it. I wonder if McCarthy ever took a floor buffer to the skull though. For real, if it's that autobiographical then the man has lived a charmed life. Frostwerks fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Feb 5, 2014 |
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Feb 5, 2014 03:16
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There goes my dream of having Philip Seymour Hoffman play Tobin. What an awful thing.
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Feb 5, 2014 03:23
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Screaming Cow posted:Went and skimmed through the thread and didn't see this posted yet. I knew Suttree was at least partially based in reality but I had no idea how much. Evidently, not only many of the locations were real but many of the characters as well, such as Billy Ray Callahan, with tombstones and newspaper articles to prove it. It's scary how much of Blood Meridian is real. Like Samuel Chamberlain is not a trustworthy historical source, but just the idea that Holden may have been a real person is terrifying. I mean he probably wasn't the Devil, but McCarthy didn't make him up completely either. Anyways, y'all like dark and beautiful poo poo right? Then you should be watching 'True Detective'
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Feb 5, 2014 03:37
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How much of the other two books in the border trilogy involve horses because I found All the Pretty Horses to be rather boring, after coming from Blood Meridian and The Road.
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Feb 5, 2014 09:40
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The Crossing is about Billy Parham's adventures in Mexico and while he rides a horse for all of it and one of the adventues consists of recovering some stolen horses, his character is far less crazy about them than John Grady. You get plenty of McCarthy's theories about wolves instead, at least in the first third. Cities of the Plain has John Grady as a protagonist again and while the main story is his doomed love for a Mexican prostitute he also works on a ranch with Billy while that's going on so you get plenty of horse taming, horse riding, horse buying and just general fawning and philosophizing over horses. Illinois Smith fucked around with this message at 11:08 on Feb 5, 2014 |
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Feb 5, 2014 10:55
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Frostwerks posted:Yeah, I found that link independently a long while back and was thoroughly impressed with it. I wonder if McCarthy ever took a floor buffer to the skull though. Mccarthy's skull looks like it was carved from granite, I think he could take it.
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Feb 5, 2014 12:10
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Khizan posted:Does anybody know how the audiobooks for McCarthy are? The Blood Meridian audiobook is more or less perfect. Definitely get it. The same reader also did Suttree recently, so that one should be good too.
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Feb 5, 2014 22:44
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quote:The judge smiled. The fool was no longer there but another man and this other man he could never see in his entirety but he seemed an artisan and a worker in metal. The judge enshadowed him where he crouched at his trade but he was a coldforger who worked with hammer and die, perhaps under some indictment and an exile from men's fires, hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be. It is this false moneyer with his gravers and burins who seeks favor with the judge and he is at contriving from cold slag brute in the crucible a face that will pass, an image that will render this residual specie current in the markets where men barter. Of this is the judge judge and the night does not end. --Blood Meridian What's going on in this quote (taken from the OP)? I have no memory of this passage and don't understand it. The judge is watching a moneyer producing counterfeit coins, but what is meant by "hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be"? Is the Judge about to kill and scalp (coinage) him? How is hammering symbolic of his own 'conjectural' destiny? I feel like I'm missing some crucial commentary. Similarly, what is meant by "Of this is the judge judge and the night does not end."? Also, this passage about John Glanton: quote:He watched the fire and if he saw portents there it was much the same to him. He would live to look upon the western sea and he was equal to whatever might follow for he was complete at every hour. Whether his history should run concomitant with men and nations, whether it should cease. He'd long forsworn all weighing of consequence and allowing as he did that men's destinies are ever given yet he usurped to contain within him all that he would ever be in the world and all that the world would be to him and be his charter written in the urstone itself he claimed agency and said so and he'd drive the remorseless sun on to its final endarkenment as if he'd ordered it all ages since, before there were paths anywhere, before there were men or suns to go upon them. All I've managed to glean after re-reading this passage an embarrassing number of times is that Glanton is almost personified as a force of nature (forever driving at the sun), as old as time, rather than a human being. I interpret this as McCarthy saying that men of violence, and thus violence, has been here since the beginning of time and that Glanton's existence is a continuation of that cycle. rest his guts fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Feb 11, 2014 |
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Feb 11, 2014 02:55
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Fly McCool posted:What's going on in this quote (taken from the OP)? I have no memory of this passage and don't understand it. The judge is watching a moneyer producing counterfeit coins, but what is meant by "hammering out like his own conjectural destiny all through the night of his becoming some coinage for a dawn that would not be"? Is the Judge about to kill and scalp (coinage) him? How is hammering symbolic of his own 'conjectural' destiny? I feel like I'm missing some crucial commentary. Similarly, what is meant by "Of this is the judge judge and the night does not end."? My guess is that he's implying that the moneyer is a forger of deceit, lies, illusion and the false beliefs and hopes that men hold in their hearts. This is a very shakey reading of it though and not one that I'm at all confident in. The best I can tell you for sure is that it's a hallucination/dream sequence and that it occurs in chapter 22 and I'm pretty sure that last line can be read as "It is this that Judge Holden is judge of and it is an endless eternal process".
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Feb 11, 2014 15:58
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McCarthy is open to interpretation, but as I see it:Fly McCool posted:judge quote The judge is drawn to lies and conceit ('false money') and exists outside of time ('the night that doesn't end') as he pursues them. quote:Glanton quote Glanton is a fatalist and believes in destiny. He cannot die until the moment he is fated to die, and is perfectly content in this finiteness ('complete at every hour'). His atrocities are therefore also fated and he can only pretend that he orders them ('he'd drive the remorseless sun on to its final endarkenment as if he'd ordered it all ages since'). He believes furthermore that because of this he will not/cannot face consequences for everything he and his gang does, and this conceit is why the judge is following Glanton around. The lies of men that give way to war; of this is the judge judge.
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Feb 11, 2014 18:20
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Jewmanji posted:There goes my dream of having Philip Seymour Hoffman play Tobin. What an awful thing. I always thought that Fred Gwynne would have made a good Judge Holden.
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Feb 11, 2014 20:20
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ShaqDiesel posted:I always thought that Fred Gwynne would have made a good Judge Holden. That's an interesting thought. I always pictured him being an enormous, hairless white Laurence Fishburne.
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Feb 12, 2014 00:42
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^^^ So white Laurence Fishburne then? Also, for some reason I think Rutger Hauer could pull it off. ShaqDiesel fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Feb 12, 2014 |
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Feb 12, 2014 23:14
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Eau de MacGowan posted:McCarthy is open to interpretation, but as I see it: Thanks, that makes sense.
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Feb 14, 2014 00:29
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I have another 4 months left living alone in a foreign, desolate, frozen country where no one speaks my language and I decided it would be a good time to reread The Road. Why did I think that was a good idea?
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Feb 21, 2014 11:28
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The solitude has given you wisdom.
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Feb 21, 2014 11:30
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Tequila Sunrise posted:I have another 4 months left living alone in a foreign, desolate, frozen country where no one speaks my language and I decided it would be a good time to reread The Road. Why did I think that was a good idea?
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Feb 21, 2014 22:58
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I didn't read it that way the first time but I found Sut's run-in with the poacher loving hilarious the second time around. You're lucky you didn't catch a bolt with your forehead, Charles!
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Mar 15, 2014 07:00
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Picking my way through Blood Meridian. I have to admire a man who writes the ramblings of 19th century rednecks in a way that gives them the same insight and heavy feel that the word of God has in the bible. drat.
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May 10, 2014 03:52
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Agean90 posted:Picking my way through Blood Meridian. Cormac McCarthy can find the philosophy in the least of humanity; that's why he's one of the greatest. But anyway, I would ask the people in this thread what they would recommend for someone who adores Blood Meridian as one of his all-time favorite novels, who was at the same time not very fond of Child of God. Should I check out Suttree? Outer Dark?
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May 24, 2014 20:17
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MantisToboggan posted:Cormac McCarthy can find the philosophy in the least of humanity; that's why he's one of the greatest. Have you read The Crossing? If not, do so.
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May 24, 2014 21:25
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Outer Dark is interesting but inferior to Blood Meridian. Worth reading but not if you're looking for something equally as beautiful and devastating as BM.
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May 24, 2014 22:13
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Blood Meridian is a book I could pick up anytime just to enjoy the prose. That said, my go to McCarthy reading is Suttree. The main character is an alcoholic, as am I; and it really resonates with me. It's funny, it's tragic, it's beautiful, it's chaotic and destructive, it contains some of the most amazing discussion of (I think) the existential nature of life and death that is so bleak you'll feel like you're reading The Road for awhile. But it's truly hilarious in places as well. I think you ought to begin it ASAP.
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May 24, 2014 22:31
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Dr. Faustus posted:Blood Meridian is a book I could pick up anytime just to enjoy the prose. Agreed. I think Blood Meridian is the more tightly written story but Suttree is the superior book. Also, it happened. Like for real, you can find the grave of Billy Ray Callahan in Knoxville. Cormac knew the guy. I think that's why it's so good. I think he wrote it for catharsis. Saying goodbye to all his old, dead friends. Seriously, the last 1/8th of a book is a bloodbath.
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May 25, 2014 04:08
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Basically whenever someone wonders what McCarthy book to pick up next the answer should be "have you read Suttree? Because you really should read Suttree, as soon as possible".
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May 25, 2014 12:19
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Screaming Cow posted:Went and skimmed through the thread and didn't see this posted yet. I knew Suttree was at least partially based in reality but I had no idea how much. Evidently, not only many of the locations were real but many of the characters as well, such as Billy Ray Callahan, with tombstones and newspaper articles to prove it. Thanks for this. I just finished Suttree and this is all really interesting to see. MantisToboggan posted:But anyway, I would ask the people in this thread what they would recommend for someone who adores Blood Meridian as one of his all-time favorite novels, who was at the same time not very fond of Child of God. Should I check out Suttree? Outer Dark? If you'll take suggestions outside McCarthy, I think it was worthwhile to go through some of the stuff Blood Meridian references--particularly Moby Dick. Blood Meridian seems to me his biggest attempt (at least from what I've read of him) to engage with larger literary traditions, and going through some of those classics made re-reading Blood Meridian a much more interesting experience. There are some lectures from a Yale literary course here and here that go into these influences in better detail. Though you should read Suttree, too.
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Jun 5, 2014 04:20
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Watched The Sunset Limited last night, which was great (although I don't think I would have liked it as much with any changes to the casting), especially the closing ten minutes. Haven't watched Child of God, The Road, or The Counselor yet, are any of them worth sitting through? Anyone read The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy or The McCarthy Society's collection of papers about Blood Meridian? I have Notes on Blood Meridian (which is okay) and really enjoyed the Yale lectures about it, but don't want to waste my time on boring or overly-projective theory. Tricerapowerbottom fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 00:00
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http://www.veritaspac.com/?p=1362
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Jul 13, 2014 08:43
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Screaming Cow posted:That's an interesting thought. I always pictured him being an enormous, hairless white Laurence Fishburne. Now I'm reading Judge quotes with Cowboy Curtis' voice
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Jul 13, 2014 10:08
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Franco on Wednesday Colbert talking about Child of God. Still don't know if I'm entirely on board.
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Jul 31, 2014 10:08
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Tricerapowerbottom posted:Watched The Sunset Limited last night, which was great (although I don't think I would have liked it as much with any changes to the casting), especially the closing ten minutes. Haven't watched Child of God, The Road, or The Counselor yet, are any of them worth sitting through? Over a month late, but if you're a McCarthy fan the Counselor is a good intellectual exercise. The Road is good but not great, but doesn't include a few things and adds some others. If you're a fan, neither are a waste of time.
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Jul 31, 2014 10:57
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So I did now watch the movie of the book, Child of God. Narratively it sticks very close to the book except the very end; more on that later To me, the book has always been a very dark, sober, real look at humanity. Who are we, how little separates us from animals. I have been in situations where the dark side of me had the luck of the draw and got to say its piece first. There are elements or moments in this movie that took me out of it, but as long as I could stay inside the world of the Lester of Franco & Haze, this movie very much brought the novel to life. Grimly funny at times, and shameful, it is accurate to the book and to humanity. I liked it, and I hated that I liked it. FWIW it annoyed me that Franco put himself in the movie. The role is tiny and it could have been anybody. As it was, his presence was a shade in the back of my mind, waiting to drop down fore my eyes and say here I am. As for the very end: In the book, as I recall, he explicitly dies. In the movie, he crawls out of the soil, onearmed, caked in mud, and mad, and runs laughing towards the horizon. Reborn, is the obvious symbolism, but I doubt he has changed. Carthag Tuek fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 01:08
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The trailer advertises a much lesser movie than what is
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Aug 30, 2014 01:16
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Ambrose Bierce posted:It is not intended to relate in detail the progress and incidents of that ghastly contest-a contests without vicissitudes, its alternations only different degrees of despair. Almost at the instant when Captain Coulter's gun blew its challenging cloud twelve answering clouds rolled upward from among the trees about the plantation house, a deep multiple report roared back like a broken echo, and thenceforth to the end the Federal cannoneers fought their hopeless battle in an atmosphere of living iron whose thoughts were lightnings and whose deeds were death. Man I still think Bierce is the quietest inspiration among McCarthy's influences. He has a similar if not a love then an appreciation for American tall tales and folk legends as well as including elements of horror both mundane and profound in his writings. Think the Judge's telling of the harnessmaker in the Alleghenies by the federal road, and the story of the rider who gets impaled through his eye with steel rebar under the CCC bridge in Suttreee.
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Oct 4, 2014 06:47
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Just started reading Suttree, and I have to say it's not nearly as funny as I was expecting, but it's still as wonderful as any other McCarthy I've read. One question though: is the switching between 3rd person omniscient and first person something that occurs through the book? Is first person supposed to be Suttree or some unknown narrator? I don't remember any of his other works playing with perspective like this (or tense, for that matter, which switches from past to present within the same paragraph).
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Oct 14, 2014 00:56
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Illinois Smith posted:Just got informed by a random Youtube link that James Franco has directed a Child of God adaptation that should be coming out soon. The teaser trailer is just Ballard looking at the camera for 30 seconds but I'm kinda hyped for this, even if Franco doesn't look anything like I pictured Ballard in my head. Oh well. Franco also did a half-hour test for a Blood Meridian film, if you're interested: http://www.vice.com/read/james-francos-blood-meridian-test-656 It's the sequence where Tobin recounts how Glanton met the Judge.
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Oct 14, 2014 15:15
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Blind Sally posted:Franco also did a half-hour test for a Blood Meridian film, if you're interested: http://www.vice.com/read/james-francos-blood-meridian-test-656 I always assumed Tobin would have an Irish accent.
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Oct 14, 2014 21:16
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Jewmanji posted:Just started reading Suttree, and I have to say it's not nearly as funny as I was expecting, but it's still as wonderful as any other McCarthy I've read. One question though: is the switching between 3rd person omniscient and first person something that occurs through the book? Is first person supposed to be Suttree or some unknown narrator? I don't remember any of his other works playing with perspective like this (or tense, for that matter, which switches from past to present within the same paragraph). I am about 3/4 of the way through it and I wouldn't expect much more humor. It has its moments, but on the whole I have found it to be a very somber, depressing affair. I almost get the feeling I got when reading The Jungle from it. After a certain point it just gets annoying having disaster after disaster happen to the main character. I didn't get hung up on the POV switches, but now I'm sure I will. Thanks for that. EDIT: I read this again and it looks like I was panning the book and I most certainly am not. It is a beautiful book. el_brio fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Oct 17, 2014 |
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Oct 17, 2014 16:23
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el_brio posted:I am about 3/4 of the way through it and I wouldn't expect much more humor. It has its moments, but on the whole I have found it to be a very somber, depressing affair. I almost get the feeling I got when reading The Jungle from it. After a certain point it just gets annoying having disaster after disaster happen to the main character. I didn't get hung up on the POV switches, but now I'm sure I will. Thanks for that. Hahaha oh boy are you loving in for it.
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Oct 20, 2014 00:49
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