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I just finished the Border Trilogy and I am running out of Cormack to read. I am sad.
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Oct 9, 2012 00:27
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| # ? May 3, 2024 15:22 |
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Thank god he just sold a script to, I believe, Ridley Scott. (It involves the southern border and drugs, so it's possible it'll be alright)
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Oct 9, 2012 06:15
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Just a heads up for anyone who isn't aware, but the two stories McCarthy wrote in college (A Drowning Incident and Wake for Susan) are available as an e-book on Amazon now. For some bizarre reason the cover appears to be a 3-d rendering of two Mario Bros. piranha plants, but it's kind of cool nonetheless. Pretty short and to be honest neither story is very good, but it's pretty amazing to see how much his prose and storytelling improved between those and Orchard Keeper, which was, what, 5 years? And of course it's nice to able to say you've honestly read everything he's published.
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Nov 15, 2012 00:51
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Honey Badger posted:Just a heads up for anyone who isn't aware, but the two stories McCarthy wrote in college (A Drowning Incident and Wake for Susan) are available as an e-book on Amazon now. For some bizarre reason the cover appears to be a 3-d rendering of two Mario Bros. piranha plants, but it's kind of cool nonetheless. Pretty short and to be honest neither story is very good, but it's pretty amazing to see how much his prose and storytelling improved between those and Orchard Keeper, which was, what, 5 years? The biggest shock to me was that one of them has QUOTATION MARKS!?
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Nov 16, 2012 04:43
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Boco_T posted:You can also read them for free here, go to "The Phoenix - 2010 Spring 50th Anniversary Edition" at the bottom and get the PDF. Whatever else I can say about McCarthy, the man learned how to pare things down. I mean, you can see his talent in these short stories, no argument there, but it's like he sat down one day and decided to knife away every single thing that he could. Including punctuation.
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Nov 16, 2012 17:05
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Interesting articles on McCarthy's process. I definitely recommend the audiobook of Blood Meridian available on audible, but if you are using it as background to working out or driving or something else, realize that sometimes you will have to stop what you are doing and just listen. My favorite Judge quote: quote:The judge smiled. Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is nobler than work. He knows too that the worth or merit of a game is not inherent in the game itself but rather in the value of that which is put at hazard. Games of chance require a wager to have meaning at all. Games of sport involve the skill and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in themselves sufficient stake because they inhere in the worth of the principals and define them. But the trial of chance or trial of worth all games aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.
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Nov 16, 2012 17:36
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Nice job OP. I read Blood Meridian for the first time this year. I honestly don't know how I missed it up until this point. I found the book completely engrossing. Shortly after reading the book, a friend had pointed me towards those Yale youtube videos. Although I found the information interesting (especially the stuff about the real Glanton gang) Did anyone else find the links she made somewhat tenuous? Specifically I thought that comparing Toadvine (who burns down a hotel shortly after we meet him) and Starbuck somewhat of a stretch of the imagination. Also, although the comparisons to Satan's narrative are certainly apt in reference to The Judge, I found them to be somewhat lukewarm in support of her hypothesis about the book and McCarthy in general. Granted, I may be completely out of my depth here ( I am not a literature major by any stretch of the imagination). Just wondering if any goons thought the same. The Judge posted:"Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." E: formatting.
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Dec 5, 2012 05:22
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What would you all recommend if I'm looking for similar writing styles to McCarthy? I heard William Faulkner mentioned, anyone else?
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Dec 6, 2012 04:39
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Skellen posted:What would you all recommend if I'm looking for similar writing styles to McCarthy? I heard William Faulkner mentioned, anyone else? Tom Franklin, though his use of violence gets a little pornographic from time to time - and I don't use that word lightly, or ever. I'm thinking of Smonk in particular. But Hell At the Breech could almost be mistaken for a McCarthy novel in some ways, and Poachers is an excellent short story collection.
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Dec 6, 2012 04:51
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Just finished Blood Meridian, my first exposure to McCarthy (outside of the movies made from his books) and holy poo poo, talk about a tour de force. I've only felt that way after reading something twice in my life. After reading Ellis' American Psycho, and Moore's comic opus From Hell. I don't have my copy in front of me, but can someone provide a translation of the German phrase that's in the header for the last chapter? I was expecting the German guy (I think he was German) from earlier in the book to show up when I saw that phrase, but nope. And there's mention of a bee swarm or something in the header too which also doesn't happen. There are the mountains and mountains of Buffalo skulls/ribs though, maybe it was an allusion to that, otherwise I have no idea. My roommate's reading it now, after I get it back from him, I'm going to probably do another read-through, after I finish my next Cormac book (All The Pretty Horses).
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Dec 8, 2012 06:51
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"You must sleep but I must dance"
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Dec 8, 2012 13:54
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Until the post on the previous page, I had assumed the same thing about the epilogue to Blood Meridian. That the character is laying the foundation for a fence, because what else could he be doing? But it actually just says the man is making "holes in the ground" which "run[s] to the rim of the visible ground" before explaining that the followers of this man see all of these holes filled with fire as a verification and cause at once.
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Dec 10, 2012 18:25
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I got in trouble with my girlfriend when I was reading her a passage of Blood Meridian on a plane bound to Shanghai filled with Asian people. The passage went something along the lines of "He went to the west coast where he saw yellow men who spoke a language that sounded like a cat's meow". I also cried at the part near the end of the book where a poor dancing bear was shot and keeps dancing harder while he's dying which shows that he's been beaten before when he wasn't dancing good enough. That poor bear! 
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Dec 11, 2012 06:31
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ruddiger posted:I don't have my copy in front of me, but can someone provide a translation of the German phrase that's in the header for the last chapter? I was expecting the German guy (I think he was German) from earlier in the book to show up when I saw that phrase, but nope. And there's mention of a bee swarm or something in the header too which also doesn't happen. There are the mountains and mountains of Buffalo skulls/ribs though, maybe it was an allusion to that, otherwise I have no idea. My roommate's reading it now, after I get it back from him, I'm going to probably do another read-through, after I finish my next Cormac book (All The Pretty Horses). Are you talking about the remaining crazy German brother (some sort of pilgrim I believe)? Or the Prussian Jew, Speyer? In either case neither are present in the last chapter, but there is mention of a Tyrolean, who would probably be speaking German, although I can't remember if he is the proprietor or the saloon or not. I mention ownership of the saloon because I think it's important. Of the men in the book, the named or not, emphasis is made often on where they are from and what they possess. e: Haven't found it yet, but maybe the swarms are referring to the carrion swarms that would be everywhere around the tanning grounds? It's interesting that he meets the old buffalo hunter before killing the young bone picker however. Has to be some thematic reasoning for it the work's too well done to be an innocuous detail. Frostwerks fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Dec 12, 2012 |
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Dec 12, 2012 04:44
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I forgot to mention that it's the formal/plural you when I translated above, though I'm not really certain of its significance. I suppose it's in reference to the Judge (he dances while we sleep/die), but as to why it's in German I don't know. For reference, it says "Sie mssen schlafen aber Ich muss tanzen."
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Dec 13, 2012 00:15
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Oh I meant the whole header. I'm curious about the swarms and I've loaned my copy out.
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Dec 13, 2012 02:04
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Right. I have the book here, The Tyrolean (or rather, "an old man in a tyrolean costume") is the bear's owner. The position in the header makes me think that it's probably the bar that is the beehive. It's "... Fort Griffin The Beehive A stageshow ..." He arrives in Fort Griffin, enters the saloon, then sees the tyrolean walk the floor and his bear dancing on stage. Also Beehive is title-cased or whatever, as if a name, stageshow is not. Don't poke the beehive.
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Dec 13, 2012 10:33
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gently caress goonsTom Ripley posted:I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road in an airport, and left it there. I don't know why it gets so much praise. The characters might as well have been walking on the beach and commenting on seagulls the entire novel.
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Dec 16, 2012 06:50
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My dad thought it was a metaphor for salmon spawning, so
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Dec 16, 2012 06:59
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Fat Cormac posted:gently caress goons You quoted a nine-months old post for the sole purpose of getting angry about it in public. Just pointing that out.
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Dec 16, 2012 16:29
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Oxxidation posted:You quoted a nine-months old post for the sole purpose of getting angry about it in public. Huh, I didn't realize how old it was. It's actually 2 years and 9 months old!
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Dec 16, 2012 18:18
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I'm reading The Road right now and I just got to the part where they find the big old house with a hatch locked by a padlock. I had to put it down for a bit because it's too intense. And I can see what's coming
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Dec 18, 2012 05:00
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I'm about 120 pages into Blood Meridian. This is the first McCarthy book I have ever read and I am trying really hard not to spoil the ending for myself. I have had some difficulty reading it, but some of his imagery is so engrossing, and I find myself absorbed in a period that I really wasn't interested in.
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Dec 23, 2012 17:43
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I read The Road and just finished All the Pretty Horses. You know how you get that feeling, like you're looking for the book you want to read, a kind of writing that satisfies that want to see the world cast in the right way? This is the writing I was waiting for. I really wish I had read it earlier in life, but I'm glad I read it now when I can really appreciate the plot and the craft. The craft of it all is what I like best.You hear the voices of the characters in your head, and I never needed quotation marks to know who was talking, he writes dialogue so well. The way McCarthy can describe just the right details, even the smallest detail in such a way that it leads to a perfect understanding that needs no translation, like it just pops into your head and you know it. It takes my breath away, even the rhythm of his sentences, the choice of words; every 10 pages he'd describe the sky or some steps on the ground that would literally steal my breath with how good it is. The images in my head aren't like reading a book, but like memories. And the way he describes emotions, even the tiniest ones that you're so familiar with that you forget you even feel, captures just the right instance and you just feel it, he just nails describing the bits that make you feel the humanity of the characters. Example from All the Pretty Horses: quote:Ah, they said. Que bueno. And after and for a long time to come he'd have reason to evoke the recollection of those smiles and to reflect upon the good will which provoked them for it had the power to protect and to confer honor and to strengthen resolve and it had power to heal men and to bring them to safety long after all other resources were exhausted. Seriously, this poo poo is so good that I want to weep. I'll be reading Blood Meridan next, probably, but I'll most likely also buy a physical copy of All the Pretty Horses so I can mark it up and really study it and try to improve my own writing.
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Dec 25, 2012 02:09
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I'd recommend you read The Crossing next instead of Blood Meridian. It's Pretty Horses' successor and has a roughly similar structure, though it's way darker.
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Dec 25, 2012 04:34
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Thanks for the suggestion! Just looked it up and now I see it's part of a trilogy. Guess I know what I'm getting myself for Christmas  I'm kinda surprised I'm so excited, it's not the most light-hearted reading.
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Dec 25, 2012 04:43
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I guess this goes here: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/realistic-nacogdoches-stroker.php
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Dec 28, 2012 23:40
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So, Blood Meridian was really awesome. I don't know where to go from here.
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Dec 29, 2012 01:39
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RebBrownies posted:So, Blood Meridian was really awesome. I don't know where to go from here. I'd go straight to The Border Trilogy, were I you. There's a great Everyman's Library edition that features a real manly Cormac on front. His arms are folded and everything. It's a bit unwieldy and intimidating but I wouldn't have my McCarthy any other way.
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Dec 29, 2012 02:07
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RebBrownies posted:So, Blood Meridian was really awesome. I don't know where to go from here. Then No Country for Old Men or The Road, depending on how bummed out you want to be. For maximum bummage, get The Road.
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Dec 29, 2012 05:11
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Dr. Faustus posted:I'd go straight to Suttree This is the correct answer because it is his best work. edit: And Harrogate is goddamn hilarious
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Dec 29, 2012 07:40
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Dr. Faustus posted:I'd go straight to Suttree and Child of God, then The Border Trilogy. I have The Road and maybe this is the time of year to be bummed. I'll definitely keep my out for the manly editions of The Border Trilogy. Thanks everyone!
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Dec 29, 2012 19:07
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Dr. Faustus posted:I'd go straight to Suttree and Child of God, then The Border Trilogy. Yeah, this is also good advice, probably better than mine. My personal reading order was the opposite, and after reading the 1000 pages of relentless heart-rending beauty contained in the The Border Trilogy, I found Child of God that much more  . That book is just messed. But you can't really go wrong. Personally, I'm saving Suttree for last, as I hear it's his best from a few sources.
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Dec 30, 2012 03:46
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Just read Sunset Limited, it was loving awesome. I'm actually planning on directing it at school now for my directing project. All thanks to Blood Meridian.
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Dec 31, 2012 22:01
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Just wanted you to know that HBO made a movie of The Sunset Limited starring Samuel L Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones as Black and White and I thought it was pretty great. Tommy Lee Jones directed it and he was very faithful to the source material.
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Jan 2, 2013 03:47
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After seeing Tommy Lee Jones in No Country For Old Men, and reading Blood Meridian and The Sunset Limited, I feel that as an actor he is very suited for any adaptations of McCarty's work. I'll definitely check out the film!
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Jan 3, 2013 03:16
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The only McCarthy book I've read is "The Road", but I loved it. What should come next? I have a weakness for Westerns, but I'm guessing I'd like most/all of his bibliography.
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Jan 9, 2013 00:13
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Pancakes by Mail posted:The only McCarthy book I've read is "The Road", but I loved it. What should come next? I have a weakness for Westerns, but I'm guessing I'd like most/all of his bibliography. Do you want more philosophically weighty writing? Go for Blood Meridian or the Sunset Limited. Do you want more traditionally Western material and/or more straightforward plot-focused storytelling? Go for the Border Trilogy.
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Jan 9, 2013 00:50
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Pancakes by Mail posted:The only McCarthy book I've read is "The Road", but I loved it. What should come next? I have a weakness for Westerns, but I'm guessing I'd like most/all of his bibliography. Blood Meridian's my favorite novel so I'll go to my grave recommending it but it drags at times and it's easy to lose the thread of the plot in the language, characters, and descriptions. But, like The Road, it's a beautiful and haunting book. On the other hand, The Border Trilogy is a lot more straight forward plot-wise, like The Road, but in some regards less of a Western as it takes place in the mid twentieth century.
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Jan 9, 2013 04:56
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I own Blood Meridian, The Road, and Child of God in print. I got a Kindle paperwhite and have this idea in my head that I'll slowly replace my bookshelf with electronic copies ... can any of you that have read/seen the Kindle editions comment as to their quality? Is this a bad idea in general?
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Jan 9, 2013 20:58
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