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Thread: RIP Cormac Mc Carthy (1933- 20230

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    RIP Cormac Mc Carthy (1933- 2023)

    Last edited by Danik 2016; 06-13-2023 at 04:26 PM.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Sorry to hear... never read him, but did watch the movie adaptation for No Country for Old Men. RIP.

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Another side of Cormac Mc Carthy:
    https://nautil.us/the-kekul-problem-236574/
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Ya know, I was sort of haphazardly reading my news feed today when a. New Yorker article about Cormack McCarthy came up. It was by another writer— Ed Caesar. So I was reading along, enjoying the piece, not realizing it was an obituary. Ed wrote mainly about the border trilogy and his insights about it and how it influenced his his own writing and his life. I suppose if I’d’ve read the full header that said - postscript - it would’ve clued me in.

    RIP Cormack McCarthy

    https://www.newyorker.com/culture/po...rrative-wisdom
    Uhhhh...

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    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    Interesting, SFI article, Danik
    Uhhhh...

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    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Both fascinating articles

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    The article about language was posted in another forum.I myself have only watched the film No Country for Old Men.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    I thought this was good. It’s from a review of his latest books, The Passenger and Stella Maris, by Graeme Wood in The Atlantic. It speaks to the language as well as the style of Cormac McCarthy:

    “The weirdness of McCarthy’s style is hard to overstate. He abjures quotation marks and most commas and apostrophes, so even his text looks denuded and desertlike, with the remaining punctuation sprouting intermittently, like creosote bushes. (I once compared an uncorrected proof of Blood Meridian with the finished book. I found that he’d struck just a couple of commas from the final text. That amused me: Looks good, McCarthy must have decided. But still too much punctuation.) his language is archaic. Characters speak untranslated Spanish and, in The Passenger, a bit of German. The omniscient narrator makes no concession to readers unfamiliar with 19th-century saddlery, obscure geographical terminology, and desert botany.

    The narration therefore registers as omniscient in both a literary and theological sense—a voice of a merciless God, speaking in tones and language meant for his own purposes and not for ours. …”
    Uhhhh...

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    You must have read my mind. I think you are the only active user who read Mc Carthy and I hoped you would find a good citation by him or about him.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    I haven’t read all of his books or for that matter his latest two books — The Passenger and Stella Maris. I bought them both in a boxed set as soon as they were published, but I was waiting for the right time to read them…probably the dead of winter. I gotta be in the right mental place to read McCarthy, and it doesn’t come around too often.

    Anyway one of the things I like about his writing is the omniscient narrator that Graeme Wood described as — “a voice of a merciless God, speaking in tones and language meant for his own purposes and not for ours.” I took it another way. I took it as McCarthy respecting his readers. He didn’t feel the need to explain to us “19th century saddlery, obscure geographical terminology, and desert botany.” He just laid it out there and expected us to do the homework. McCarthy’s fans don’t want to be spoon fed.

    Here’s a link to the full review by Graeme Wood:

    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...review/672234/
    Uhhhh...

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    Registered User bounty's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Danik 2016 View Post
    You must have read my mind. I think you are the only active user who read Mc Carthy and I hoped you would find a good citation by him or about him.
    haven't peeked at the rest of the thread, just this post. I read no country for old men some years ago. I don't remember enough to say exactly why not, but I didn't like McCarthy's writing style and based on that, probably wouldn't read another of his books.

    im also reminded from some years ago---there was a poster on the forum who seemed to be incredibly well-read and really good when it came to literary criticism (he was also insufferable, obnoxious and insulting and got banned); he was a huge fan and if I remember rightly, thought blood meridian was fantastic. I think sometimes it shows up on "books to read" lists.

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    In another forum someone commented about the complexity or his language. "Mc Carthy's fans don't want to be spoon fed is a good answer."
    Last edited by Danik 2016; 06-29-2023 at 08:26 AM.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    I didn't read him at all, Bounty . I don't like so much violence but he seems to be one of US' greatest authors.
    Last edited by Danik 2016; 06-29-2023 at 08:27 AM.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    running amok Sancho's Avatar
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    No doubt about it, Danik, there’s a lot of violence in McCarthy’s books, Blood Meridian in particular, extreme violence, but never gratuitous violence. Harold Bloom said it took him three tries to finish Blood Meridian due to the violence. Then he decided it was part of the Western Literary Canon. Many readers find the violence to be too much. Blood Meridian was the first of his books I read. An army buddy of mine gave it to me with his highest recommendation. Knowing this guy, I think he liked it because of the violence.
    Uhhhh...

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    When I read Faulkner, I thought I had reached the maximum of violence possible, Sancho, but I was wrong. Here in Brazil we have one novel about th drug traffic in a community of Rio de Janeiro, today canonical, that was later made into a film, that´s year's Brazilian indication for the Oscar. Perhaps you know it: It´s Cidade de Deus (City of God) by Paulo Lins. I started reading it, but when I came to a killing scene involving a baby I felt I had enough.
    That doesn´t hinder these books being canonical. Sadly this kind of violence is very present in both our countries.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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