/lit/ - Literature

>>4615138
there is no moral. Too deep for you.

>>4615138
What is the moral of life?

>>4615172
Is this just morality?

I don't know. I think it was mostly just prose poetry and stylistic posturing. For all its rambling nature, Suttree had much more of a definite moral, and it was stated damn well.

I think it's a shame that Blood Meridian is the book lauded as his magnum opus and being taught at universities.

don't skin injuns

like, the sky and shit

The more we categorize the world the further we move from the sort of Apophatic God Cormac probably believes in. Essentially this:
>>4615339
Even the Judge couldn't find words when the men were riding under the big blue infinite sky. Still, we keep sinking fence posts and dividing up the world and sketching things in books and destroying the original object and striking the fire out of the rock that God put there.

>>4615352
>Even the Judge couldn't find words when the men were riding under the big blue infinite sky. Still, we keep sinking fence posts and dividing up the world and sketching things in books and destroying the original object and striking the fire out of the rock that God put there.

Wonderfully succinct summary

>>4615352
Something like this. There is what is and what you do about it. He does not leave room for moral order.

>looking for morals in fiction
>21st century

>>4615138
Faggot with existential crisis is killing people so he wont die.

What was the moral of the Road.

Kill your father so you have chance to survive?

>>4615352
“I don't believe in God. Can you understand that? Look around you man. Cant you see? The clamor and din of those in torment has to be the sound most pleasing to his ear. And I loathe these discussions. The argument of the village atheist whose single passion is to revile endlessly that which he denies the existence of in the first place. Your fellowship is a fellowship of pain and nothing more. And if that pain were actually collective instead of simply reiterative then the sheer weight of it would drag the world from the walls of the universe and send it crashing and burning through whatever night it might yet be capable of engendering until it was not even ash. And justice? Brotherhood? Eternal life? Good god, man. Show me a religion that prepares one for death. For nothingness. There's a church I might enter. Yours prepares one only for more life. For dreams and illusions and lies. If you could banish the fear of death from men's hearts they wouldnt live a day. Who would want this nightmare if not for fear of the next? The shadow of the axe hangs over every joy. Every road ends in death. Or worse. Every friendship. Every love. Torment, betrayal, loss, suffering, pain, age, indignity, and hideous lingering illness. All with a single conclusion. For you and for every one and everything that you have chosen to care for. There's the true brotherhood. The true fellowship. And everyone is a member for life. You tell me that my brother is my salvation? My salvation? Well then damn him. Damn him in every shape and form and guise. Do I see myself in him? Yes. I do. And what I see sickens me. Do you understand me? Can you understand me?”

>>4615138
The moral of the story is that dancing always prevails. Non-dancing boys should be terminated especially after sinning in the eyes of some judgmental faggot.

Also, holes in ground.

>>4615138
That is a terrible cover for Blood Meridian.

>>4615671

You muthafucking cunt. I haven't read this yet and you spoilered it.

>>4615352

So basically Cormac's an idiot Continental who gets butthurt when anyone tries to say anything meaningful. Gotcha.

>>4615315
I agree Suttree is so much better, one of my favorite books.

>>4615315
Briefly stated, what's Suttree's moral?

>>4615880
>implying Analytics is going anywhere meaningful
>implying we should give a shit about Analytics
>2014

>>4615869
It's shit anyway.

>>4615880
>>4616563
Only place where philosophy actually 'went' and 'did' was science and that's it.

>>4616563
Well, where's continental phil going?

>>4616593
Philosophy went to science and died.

>>4616593
for coffee

>>4616593
for coffee

>>4616593
History.

(There's a reason people tell you to start with the Greeks)

(Hint: It's already there)

Humans at their core are savages

>>4615138
That humanity is violent and no matter how much we try to hide it or run away from it it will always come back. Because the violence never sleeps and it will never die.

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

>>4615138

No moral.

Finally it has a decent cover though.

>>4615315

>Shame

Always has to be a contrarian...

>>4617185
>covers following cormacs description of desert arent good
what

>>4615493

There is no moral order possible - Judge Holden gives a great speech about the human construction of morals.

>>4615671

What the fuck is with you looking for morals in every book, that is a bit pre-school. Can a novel not just be about a human experience without preaching morals?

>>4615856

It's great, it's the contents of the Judges bag...

Style over substance

>>4617212

you're such an idiot.

>>4617214
HOW ELSE COULD I EXPLAIN BLOOD MERIDIAN TO MY DAUGHTER

>>4615725

FUCK

I love this guy!

>>4617217

women shouldnt be reading in the first place

>>4617207
I think the cover gives a false sentimental impression of The Judge's character when the protagonist is The Kid. The cover would make some reader think too much about what's on the cover.

>>4617240

I think an intelligent reader once started would work out what the judge is like. It's way better than this cover.

>>4617291
I'm referring to readers who don't know literature nor critical theory and are unable to discern the differences between the text and the cover's first impression. The cover you have shown is less distracting than the cover in OP's image.

Also, this cover is the best cover.

>>4617323

That cover is shit.

The original one is best then the new one. You obviously have shit taste in art.

>>4617328
You don't have the credentials to make this statement with dignified truth, you pleb.

You obviously need to read more books.

>>4617336
le patrician face

>>4617336

shu up robert hughes you old fart! you got done told!

>>4617323

I still consider this the best of the covers I've seen.

>>4617323

Eh, I generally hate photograph covers. And those editions especially are really glossy and over saturated, doesn't fit McCarthy at all.

The green one with the lone rider art is my favirote.

Best cover coming through

How come every Blood Merridian thread devolves into shitty discussions like best cover or what happened to the kid at the end?

>>4617389

Because there are only a few significant scenes already discussed at length and predictable in the course of direction they'll take, and the other routes of conversation are about the writing--either you love it and understand it reflects the terrain or you hate it and consider it a pompous indulgence--and how this is his only good book, or that actually it's his most overrated book, and that anyway McCarthy is only famous because Bloom made him famous which is why some people now shit on him.

And so on. Everything we could say on Blood Meridian, as the community we presently are, has been said.

>>4617374

would have been better with just the green picture as the whole cover.

I think the scene in chapter 9 with the apache riders reflected upside down on the setting sun would make a good cover

>>4617397

There are so many good quotes, I especially like the one about parallax right now.

"For this will to deceive that is in things luminous may manifest itself likewise in retrospect and so by sleight of some fixed part of a journey already accomplished may also post men to fraudulent destinies."

>>4617504
I like a lot of the quotes, some I think are weakened by being far too verbose.

>>4617407

I pictured a Dali painting like this

>>4617407

great pic btw

>>4615138
Humanity in all its entirety can be characterized by survival and entertainment. Virtuous traits are an illusion, the evolutionary development of empathy was a selfish necessity to ensure our survival. Humanity's secondary concern is to be entertained. Achieving the ultimate entertainment (war) is our purpose.

>>4617517
>the evolutionary development of empathy was a selfish necessity to ensure our survival.

Do you have a quote from the Judge that supports that?

>>4617534
Nope I made it up

>>4617506

Hmm I think it leaves them open to more than one interpretation

>>4617544

You're full of shit then, there are plenty of scenes of empathy in the book, even displayed by the judge, when he buys the puppies off the boy for far more than they're worth, (though he drowns them) or when he save the idiot from drowning. Morality is not empathy.

>>4617558
>there are plenty of scenes of empathy in the book, even displayed by the judge, when he buys the puppies off the boy for far more than they're worth, (though he drowns them)

Is this an act of empathy. The fact that he throws them off the bridge mere moments later suggests that he was in search of morbid entertainment and above market price is always fair for such entertainment

>>4617558
I didn't say that empathy doesn't exist in fact I clearly said the opposite.

we are animals

a wolf doesnt have right or wrong

he just is and he finds food to eat and makes babies and dies

>>4617563

yes, he didn't have empathy for the animals because they were mere animals, and the moment he through them into the river was a different moment, from when he gave a gold coin to the poor child for them.

>>4617579

No, sorry, idiots think like this.

>>4617142
I only read it a few months ago but I feel like I need to read it again

>>4617586

I have just finished it last week, third time reading it. It's the best book I have ever read.

>>4617592
It was tough for me as an Australian on the coast.

>>4617596
?

bump

Has McCarthy ever written a novel that doesn't have a bleak and pessimistic outlook on human nature?

I don't think there's anything wrong with his general outlook, just curious if has done anything optimistic that looks at the more positive aspects of humanity.

>>4617619
australians can't read

>>4617672
>I don't think there's anything wrong with his general outlook, just curious if has done anything optimistic that looks at the more positive aspects of humanity.

The Road

>>4617678
I don't know about that. Still very bleak and critical of humanity.

>>4617684

Until the end and primarily it's the setting, the relationship between the man and his son is very tender, and shows goodness in the worst of times.

>>4617672
from what i've read bm is his only really pessimistic book. the rest are bleakly optimistic and humanistic

>>4617684
cormac mccarthy isn't always bleak. the road has something hopeful at the end.

>>4617706

And the father/son relationship throughout is very optimistic.

Let's not underestimate such a talent to only have one point of view in all of his novels.

...and then I woke up