/lit/ - Literature

It's hundreds of pages of desert landscape descriptions and then random violence.

It's pretty surreal at times, but not really "trippy". It's not really a book you have to be prepared for, so just go ahead. Start reading!

Also I hope you like dead babies

>>4723197
Heard the book tends to go into detail whilst the rape of young boys are concerned?

Sparse, spare prose. Violent. Tries to shock, works most of the time too.

>>4723211
eh not really, though it's strongly suggested

>>4723182
Yep. Have your dictionary/internet source at the ready, a lot of diction is pretty dense, especially when he starts talking about the plants and mountains and shit. And it might be useful to be able to read spanish, though not necessary because most of the spanish spoken in the book is not required for understanding (main character doesn't really know spanish and he is our lens)

100 pages in myself, so far it's like a slow-paced, gory Tom Sawyer

bretty good

>>4723217
Um, what? the prose is neither sparse nor spare, if anything it is lyrical, poetic and occasionally overwrought. Have you read the book?

>>4723269
Afterwards, what should I tackle next of the same caliber?

I'm currently reading Under The Skin, afterwards I'll begin reading BM.

Been holding it off for some time due to all the things I've heard about it. The diction seems like a pain though.

>>4723287
Yes, if you find it dense then you need to go back to the YA section.

>>4723298
Don't worry too much about the prose, it's not difficult at all once you've defined the words McCarthy seems to haul out of an infinite vocabulary. Also a lot of the words are understandable in context, but some require translation because he uses spanish words to refer to english buildings/structures/people, the identity of which is crucial to understand setting/circumstance.

Not sure what you mean by caliber. If you mean style, try Faulkner or Carver.

>>4723349
I don't think you even understand the meaning of spare or sparse when talking about literary style. Also, not once did I call his prose dense, it is just heavy with archaic language (done deliberately to dissociate from contemporary plain of existence)

>>4723182
pages upon pages of overly-descriptive environmental setting that deters you so much you forgot what was happening and also no puntuaction

>>4723370
Like my first time reading Twain, a lt of the slang made no sense to me. But BM is a tiny boo that is very violent and lots of slow, look at the scenery going on.

>>4723217
>>4723349
>>4723396

I don't think you've read the book. If you had said the Road was sparse, or No Country For Old Men was sparse, then your post would be more credible. The prose in Blood Meridian is no where near sparse. Please consult a dictionary before using words you obviously don't understand.

>>4723211

Not at all, it's implied, which makes it much more creepy.

>>4723182

Best book I have ever read, just finished reading it for my 3rd time.

Finished this awhile back, what do you guys think the judge represents?

>>4725608

eternal evil

>>4723488

>The prose in Blood Meridian is no where near sparse.

Not that guy, but are you high? It's pretty sparse. McCarthy only uses detail or gets poetic when it suits him. Anything he doesn't deem important is entirely glazed over. Sure, he loves to talk about how much being in the desert sucks, but beyond that everything is matter-of-fact and bare bones. I don't think he goes into real detail about a location other than the "desert" until the kid comes across the massacred town, which is like in the third or fourth chapter.