Thank you to both of you WildCityWoman (how wild are you?) and Barbara for your comments.
Thank you to both of you WildCityWoman (how wild are you?
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
It's been awhile since I read The Road but I see the lack of punctuation mentioned as a negative thing. For me at least, it was something that pulled me along even more rapidly and I found myself reading at a faster pace not wanting to put the book down even for a moment, as though if I did the prose would run away and I wouldn't be able to catch up.
lugdunum wrote:
No, I like that. The man was consistent in his teaching the boy survival was the most important thing even to squelching their compassion, but the boy had a deep seated goodness about him that would not give in even to his father. The boy had strength.Could this be a road to redemption for humanity? Ok, I admit that this might be going a bit too far. But the man would be the dead humanity and with him a child representing the "good" side of that humanity: compassion, generosity ... and at the end of the book only the good remains. Just a suggestion, I'm probably being carried away.
(...)Originally Posted by barbara0207
Good point Barbara.The cause of the disaster is not fully explained because it is not necessary to the story. McCarthy just needed this setting - and he doesn't really care how it came about and whether everything is plausible.
According to McCarthy himself this is what this story is about... the father/son relationship (hence the dedication of the book to his son).So at last I could take it for what it is, in my opinion - the (certainly metaphorical) story of the relationship of father and son and its development on the background of a - both physically and socially - bleak and hostile environment. How does this hostility with its cold, starvation, violence and social instability affect this relationship and the characters' humanity? Can people survive in this situation and keep their minds sane and their love and humanity intact?
Interesting idea Sancho.Sancho
Now I’ll play Monday morning psychologist: this is Cormac McCarthy’s soul laid bare. He is an old man with a young son and a young wife and a couple of exes. He had some very lean years while he was in his prime and trying to write for a living but now he’s a rich, old, angry white-man with bones in his wake. He knows that marriages fail but that blood is forever.
Thanks for the information, lugdunum. I didn't know that.
O schaurig ists übers Moor zu gehn,
wenn es wimmelt vom Heiderauche,
sich wie Phantome die Dünste drehn
und die Ranke häkelt am Strauche.
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797 - 1843) (see avatar) Der Knabe im Moor/The Lad in the Moor
I have nothing more specific to add about the book, but I don't think I should have read it before exploring Blood Meridian, because The Road simply soured me on McCarthy as a great American author, sorry. To me he fails as a master of minimalist ambiguity.
I've read worse novels, of course--but I expected much more on the basis of this man's reputation, which for me has been damaged. He just didn't do anything interesting with the post-apocalyptic vision so that the story stands out significantly.
If Virgil is right, and McCarthy is *playing off* Doris Lessing, he fails to challenge the vision of her work in any major way, failed to challenge me in any major way, in point of fact.
I totally agree on this. McCarthy didn't even explain what happened to the world. He didn't aim at the causes, but rather at the response of the two charatcers invovled as you stated.
I'm the patron saint of the denial,
With an angel face and a taste for suicidal.
Thanks for supporting my view, Nossa.
O schaurig ists übers Moor zu gehn,
wenn es wimmelt vom Heiderauche,
sich wie Phantome die Dünste drehn
und die Ranke häkelt am Strauche.
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1797 - 1843) (see avatar) Der Knabe im Moor/The Lad in the Moor
Alack,I don't want to buy books for I have inadequate amount of money.Finding it at the library is troublesome.I am too depressed for not reading the book requested.
Although I agree with Barbara on the classic definition of a dystopian tale, I still don't think this absolves McCarthy from a mild case of laziness. No, he did not have to spell out that the US was nuked--this isn't what I mean--but he could have had some tighter control on the back story, how it related to the full blown cannibalism which pushes back against the father and son, why being off road was better, as the boy learns when rescued.
Lessing is just as ambiguous in Survivor, but the difference is, her end of civilization thread is credible; McCarthy's isn't. He has enough in the setting to toy with the reader, but that isn't enough for The Road to transcend anything, to make it a great fiction.
I suppose I am being picky, but if Blood Meridian is now in most critics top one hundred list, McCarthy's love song for his kid might have been just as ambitious.
I still think that the story was basically and more importantly about the father and his son and how their love got them so far in a journey that many people wouldn't have survived half of it. I don't know if the story would have been better or worse if McCarthy gave more background information, but I never found myself wondering what happened to the world. That's not the point here. Maybe the 'wretched world' setting is a symbol to any kind of problems and crises one could face in life. I think this story is primarily about the relationship of the father and son. I know there are more interpretations to it, but this is the basic idea as I understood it.
I'm the patron saint of the denial,
With an angel face and a taste for suicidal.
Another possibility I mentioned at the very beginning, was that The Road is McCarthy's attempt at epic poetry within a minimalist prose structure. If that's the case then I'll have to revaluate--but as I mentioned way back when, I have kept my copy and I'm not putting it back up for sale.
I am also not rereading it soon, as I have other things I want to get to.
I know nothing about Epic Poetry(except what I've just read on Wiki after reading Jozanny's post
).
I read The Road "as it came", and really liked it.
I also tend to think that the book was more about the father/son relationship and everything Nossa and Barbara have already said.
I personally didn't pay too much attention too what had happened before the story until I read someone's post on this thread.
But then again, I've only read it once and as Virgil (if I'm not mistaken) said, the second reading was not as good as the first.
Maybe when I do re-read it (and I will), I'll come back to this thread I'll be dissing C. McCarthy and his book(Although I doubt it). t might be interesting to read other McCarthy book(s) between both readings like Blood Meridian or No Country for old men....
Currently reading:
The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky
Here's a link to a little discussion I had with Barbara about The Road. There's also Barbara's thorough review of the book. I hope this is useful to anyone who read/will read the book.
http://www.online-literature.com/for...379#post615379
I'm the patron saint of the denial,
With an angel face and a taste for suicidal.
Well, I read The Road after the group did and love it...
But...
did you know they're making a movie? I think they'll have to flesh it out some but, hmmm, Viggo Mortensen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/
Want to know what I think about books? Check out https://biisbooks.wordpress.com/
.did you know they're making a movie? I think they'll have to flesh it out some but, hmmm, Viggo Mortensen
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/
I loved the book and I have said this before but it still keeps me up at night. Even if I didn't love the book Viggo is enough of a reason for me to watch it.
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