/lit/ - Literature

Michael Chabon argues that The Road is actually a horror novel.

ok better:

is it better or worse than Roadside Picnic & by how much?

I was quite upset after reading it, such a waste of time. Goddamn stupid dramatic science fiction shit.

On The Road is better than The Road

but I still think the are both shit

>>1366136
suck my massive metaphorical dick, you dumb fucking peon donkey

ok sounds like it's probably not my thing...

thx

It was OK, hardly a great work of literature. Certainly not as good as that reviewer seems to think; he just finds it so ' gut-wrenching' because he's a bitch.
That review also fails to take into account the fundamentals of human nature. Why can they never be comfortable or safe? Humanity naturally groups into civilisations. It would be a simple rebirth into different conditions.
McCarthy does not acknowledge or expand on this. It's supposed to be incredibly bleak but the future's bright. Even if he wanted it to be that melancholic and terrible, he failed; he let the boy live. Why?
It's a real shortcoming that I whistled for a cab and when it came near the licence plate said fresh and there was a dice in the mirror. If anything I could say that this cab was rare but I thought now forget it, yo homes to Bel-Air.

>>1366142

usually peeps who say things liek this are right. only talking from experience here no sarcasm.

>>1366146
win

>>1366146
>That review also fails to take into account the fundamentals of human nature.

this is the best criticism of a review of i've ever seen

'yeah, it's an okay review, but it didn't really answer any of my fundamental questions about human nature, so it sucked'

>>1366147
i'm not sure who you're saying is right

so, either fuck you, or thank you

Better than Kerouac.

I think nothing of throwing Kerouac's malarkey crap of a writing career on an open fire.

OP, I found it an absolutely worthwhile journey, if you can stand that "It's the journey, not the destination" style stories.

Overrated? Yeah, probably... But that doesn't mean it's not good.

>>1366152
Fundamentals are fundamental. Writing anything without considering the fundamentals relative to the answer is a waste of energy.

>>1366153
>>1366160 here
You just put a wrinkle in my brain. I almost got violent at the idea, but then thought "well, I suppose if there's anything I was going to compare to Kerouac, this is it..."

... I'm going to think about this. But, my initial thought is still "no."

>>1366142
u mad?

The book provided a world where humanity would not persevere and come out on top. It's like a big middle finger to the face pretty much. It is the end of life, the end of man. Something we cannot survive from, something with no hope, only a slow death with no hope. I don't know if he tried to imply a chance of hope at the very end, which I felt would completely negate everything he wrote which is an even bigger middle finger

>>1366203
What about the father talking about "the light" or whatever it was?

>>1366211
Er, "the fire," it was. It came to me when I hit enter.

>>1366203
Still doesn't make the book any good, and besides I believe Camus tackled that issue better in his novel "The Plague".

post apocalyptic my arse, take away one or two lines and this could be any really bad disaster zone in the world

>>1366236
thank you deep and edgy

they would have died months before they did.

To understand "The Road" fully, you need to have read "The End" by Beckett. You also need to have understood THAT. I am certain that most people posting in this thread have done neither.

tl;dr: this thread is full of dildoes

I didn't like it. The attempted style was pretentious, distracting dogshit and sucked the life out of everything else that was going on (which wasn't much to begin with).

>>1366272
or you can just watch the movie tho

Also, you need to have read and fully understood the Bible let's not forget that one along with a bunch of stupid absurdist shit

>>1366272
people make claims of this sort (to understand x, you need to have read y) all the time and it's always the worst kind of pretentious dickish bullshit

it is often true that reading something can contribute to a much deeper understanding of a text; it's nearly never the case that a text is absolutely meaningless without another text. you only say this because you want to believe that you have some kind of gnostic secret understanding of a text not avaiable to those who are not initiates

>>1366279
>>1366283
>>1366285

>>1366285
gnosis is real, you philistine--you really should not pretend that you are above learning and that you somehow naturally understand encoded information in a text without prior study, as arrogant as it is ignorant--but seriously, i doubt it matters with corHACK mccarthy.

>>1366285
I like how one can appreciate Vasko Popa's Quartz Pebble cycle without having to have read Miodrag Pavlovic's From a Stone to the World; or how one can appreciate the delicate majesty of a bridge without knowing the moment distribution method.

Amazing book for a time filled with shit

>>1366292

>>1366308

>To understand "The Road" fully, you need to have read "The End" by Beckett.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY

>>1366326

I LOLed and I posted what you're quoting.

Protip: I'm still right.

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pib9zv1dHcE

>>1366326
I love you.

>>1366352
I think you'll find I'm right because I am this whole argument.

>>1366298
That is a terrible fucking strawman, you dumb fucking slut.

Yes, knowledge and understanding of the world derived from experience, particularly from previous reading and other texts. That is a COMPLETELY different thing from saying "It is IMPOSSIBLE to understand this book without reading this other book." It's not like a fucking secret code, you asshole.

And CorHACK McCarthy? You are stupid. Seriously, you're dumb. I don't even LIKE McCarthy and I think that's dumb.

>>1366126
That's actually a hopeful interpretation because it's pretty clear that everyone's going to die.

At least in the Middle Ages plants could grow.

The Road was a...compelling read, I'll say. I didn't like the style that much, but I wanted to finish the story. It made me feel...something. Depressed, I guess. At the very least a bit "down." That's all I have to say about that.

>The Road was the most grayishly gray book I've ever read. The description of gray winter, the ways humans react in their various gray schemes for survival, the gray participation in a gray world where nobody will ever be any other color again. For those born into it, it will be all they know, maybe they’ll survive like gray peasants. The nightmare will be for those who knew something else. Reduced to the roles of gray-animal, gray scavenger, and gray, played out among the bones of a gray past, knowing you have no colors to see but gray, and everyone's gray, and nobody is ever coming to make it better,"

A much more accurate review, I think

>>1366566
I agree. And I'm the one who said it was compelling.

>>1366437
Jane, you ignorant slut...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/2306/saturday-night-live-point-counterpoint-lee-marvin-and-michelle-triola