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jagstag posted:Most people might choose Blood Meridian instead but most of it just went over my head anyways and I really did not appreciate how it portrayed native americans as blood thirsty savages. Blood Meridian portrayed Native Americans in a number of ways. Many were victims of the protagonists, the Glanton Gang, who were notorious and violent scalp hunters. It's important to remember that the book takes place in Chihuahua state, during the what we know of as the Comanche-Mexican and Apache-Mexican Wars. The American government had been accused of arming the Comanche to attack Mexico, but in the case of the conflict with the Apache, the Mexican government had instigated the conflict. Regardless, the Chihuahua government offered a bounty of 100 pesos per scalp for each "hostile indian" killed and a lesser amount for women and children--yes, woman and children. Many Americans went south to get rich, the Glanton Gang included. Many other Native American nations also took part, including the Delaware (in fact, several Delaware travel with the protagonists of the book) and Shawnee. The Comanche and Apache attacks portrayed in the book had a historical basis and aren't presented in any particularly "blood thirsty" or "savage" way, at least no more than the violence created by the American characters. McCarthy presents violence simply as a fact of life. Besides, the Glanton Gang became particularly well-known because, aside from hunting Apache warriors, they often resorted to massacring rural Mexican citizens and other peaceful Native Americans wherever they found them in order to inflate their scalp counts. The Chihuahua government eventually put a bounty on the Glanton Gang! The Quechan/Yuma that killed off Glanton and most of his people at the end of the book were acting out of reprisal. Glanton and co. first murdered a group of Yuma who owned and operated a river ferry so they could take it over for themselves. Chief Caballo en Pelo led the attack and the Glanton Gang was effectively wiped off the face of the earth, to everyone's benefit, to be honest. EDIT: I thought The Road: The Movie was okay. It was a decent enough adaptation, but it was definitely a hollow imitation of the book. It was far more emotionally manipulative and that made it less enjoyable. Sally fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Jul 30, 2016 |
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Jul 30, 2016 01:46
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Antti posted:Well, that sure was horrifying. Although "aliens did it" kinda steals from the dread, a religiously induced, socially transmitted impulse that clicks in the heads of adult men would be even more unsettling. But it would drop out the clever parallel from the story which is effective in its own way. Although, if you accept that it isn't part of the epidemic, then the feckless institutional responses to the femicide epidemic (like the chilling missive from the Vatican) still have that weight - maybe this could have been averted with stronger, more egalitarian institutions. Agreed. I suppose you could see it as the wife going mad with fear or hunger and having hallucinations based on things she'd already heard about to try and justify the hosed-up-ed-ness of her situation. I'm not sure that's the intent, though. Aliens seems what the author is more likely leaning towards. Still, up to that point, that was a horrifying read.
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Jul 30, 2016 23:43
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Groovelord Neato posted:blindsight is the only piece of sci-fi media i can think of that has truly alien aliens and i love it for that reason. you also touched on the part i thought made the story weaker which was the whole vampire stuff - though i know why he put it in there i think the story would have been stronger if it had been a bit more straightforward with the crew and earth stuff. Lem's Solaris is good for really alien aliens. Just a great sci fi novel in general. Also, Mievielle's Embassytown. Though the one problem with this one is that the very end the aliens are suddenly much less alien and it kind of deflated the story. It's a great celebration of the metaphor though.
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Aug 23, 2016 14:21
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