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/lit/ - Literature

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15038354 No.15038354 [Reply] [Original]

The book should be clutched heavily during this "pandemic", what are your thoughts on this novel, discuss coherently

>> No.15038372

i like when kill each other and then kill each other and then the judge kill each other. i feel very deep about this yeehaw yahoo go get-em book.

>> No.15038399

The picture that McCarthy paints of the west in the Mid 19th century is almost as savage, brutal, and violent that you will probably ever read. The fact that the narrative revolves around a group of militia scalp hunters only adds to the violence. However, for all the sadistic violence, while reading this novel, you have that feeling that you are reading literature at it’s very best. McCarthy’s writing drips with descriptiveness, the landscape he depicts so bleak and desolate that you as the reader almost feel like escaping, never realizing that you can, by simply shutting the book, because McCarthy draws you in and has you hooked by your soul.

Even the protagonist who is simply referred to as “the kid” feels like part of the landscape. McCarthy never lets the reader get close to any character in the whole book. In fact, the characters feel like parts of the landscape, brutal vicious parts of a dead landscape, which to me, while reading, seemed to be like some surrealist Dali painting focusing on death. At most points in this book you feel as if you are in some surreal nightmare.

As this group of hunters make their way through this dead landscape, that is exactly how it feels, a black world devoid of life, and when life is found it is must be savagely destroyed before it savagely destroys you.

Many thoughts ran through my mind while reading this book, and I pondered on what McCarthy was trying to achieve. There is no question that this book is a classic, you realize this even after reading the first chapter, but what is McCarthy’s message? Is he giving the reader a depiction of what life in this era and area was really like? Is this an anti-western to dispel the Hollywood representation, or does this book go much deeper? Is it a look into our primal base level and what we are capable of in the wild with no law or consequences to inhibit our actions and instinct?

Unfortunately, I am simply not intelligent enough to fathom exactly what McCarthy’s message is, but the writing is simply stunning. Devoid of punctuation, at times poetic, but always stunningly descriptive. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the descriptive portrayal of this brutal world is what makes this book such a classic. It is the writing, not the characters, not the narrative, but the writing, which is so good, that it rises above the other elements of the book.

I feel that while I enjoyed the writing so much there is just too much of this novel that went over my head with just the one reading. Hopefully with further reading my understanding will improve and I will appreciate it even more, if that is possible. Wow this book is still resonating within my head.

>> No.15038439

>>15038399
idk about all that dude i just like them mean red niggers gettin massacred

>> No.15038582

>>15038354
Harold Bloom completely misunderstood this book. According to the blurb on the cover of my copy, he considered it to represent the concept of "regeneration through violence." What the fuck was he talking about? What regenerates? Violence in this book is literally meaningless reduction. It never produces one single thing. Arguably it produces a conscience in the kid but we all see how that ends, annihiliated in some country outhouse somewheres. Although, I think it goes beyond rape.

>> No.15038616

>>15038582
>regeneration through violence
>"Whats that even mean Mr Bloom"
>never explains what he meant

It's a good book thats incredibly violent but paints a picture of the American Old West in a way you might not think about it. I enjoyed it.

>> No.15038620

>>15038582
The blurb on the cover is by Michael Herr though

>> No.15038627

>>15038582
yeah bloom was an idiot. he is the definition of literary criticism disappearing up its own ass.

>> No.15038639

>>15038616
Huh? I love the book, I read it about once a year. I just think Bloom didnt get it.

>>15038620
Oh. Well, I choose to attribute that to Bloom.

>> No.15038652

It’s aight. Suttree was better.

>> No.15038672

>>15038652
very different books
suttree more personal
bm less personal

>> No.15038704

>>15038672

One can still be better than the other. I think you’d agree they’re both better than The Road. Don’t be that guy, you know the guy I’m talking about. The faggot guy.

>> No.15038727

>>15038704
Oh yes they're both better than the road. In fact I've read all of corncob's book other than Outer Dark and these two are the best. I have a feeling that over time I will probably agree Suttree is better but for now I have to put them on "equal but different" footing

>> No.15038979

Bump

>> No.15039020

Is this worth reading? I watched No Country For Old Men a couple of days ago, and figured I'd read one of his novels; it's either this one or The Road, any suggestions?

>> No.15039508
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15039508

Border trilogy is the best thing that Cormac McCarthy ever wrote. Not to say that Blood Meridian and Suttree are bad, Border trilogy is just the best one out of the lot.
Don't @ me.

>> No.15039634

>>15039508
Why is The Border Trilogy his best? (unironically interested in your take anon)

>> No.15040796
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15040796

My favorite bit is the Judge hand-drawing everything he finds then destroying the original, echoing Exodus 20:4, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth," or one would be as God is, which is precisely what the Judge is doing, or rather, denying/rejecting God's authority. Then there's, "Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent."

>> No.15040866

>>15038354
I'd go in depth about how I genuinely feel about this book, but I'm sure I'd be called a pseud or some other empty buzzword as my opinion doesn't exactly line up with the consensus among literary circles. I'll just say I didn't much care for it and leave it at that.

>> No.15040912

>>15039508

They’re good, damn good, underrated even come off a bit as YA books though.

>>15038727

I’ve read them all as well including Outter Dark

>>15039020

Yes it’s an amazing book and great read. Perfect time of year for it too if you’re in the states. I’d read All The Pretty Horses or The Road first though starting with an authors arguably best work kind of ruins the rest of his works for you, everything he’s written is well worth a read.

>> No.15041666

>>15038582
>What regenerates?
Maybe if the Kid grew up in a loving family he would have grown up a fine young man...instead he becomes consumed and possessed by evil as symbolized at the end of the novel.

>> No.15041676

>>15038627
Based Bloom hater. Absolutely no idea where the praise for him comes from.

>> No.15041685

>>15038354
Dropped it a page in because I got filtered by the way the sentences are written.

>> No.15041776

>>15038582
>Violence in this book is literally meaningless reduction. It never produces one single thing.

Don't you think it helped produce the United States of America?

>> No.15041974

>>15038399
This is what I also need grasp in order to fully appreciate McCarthy’s work; I just don’t know everything that is going on. And that’s okay because the writing is just that good. And it’s enough.

>> No.15041995

>>15039508
I would argue Cities of the Plain is the weakest and least necessary of the trilogy but I think all are important to understanding McCarthy’s work as a whole. As much as is possible anyway.

>> No.15042005

>>15041676
His dislike for Rowling, I imagine.

>> No.15042062

>>15038354
Found the writing intentionally hard to read and vague.

>> No.15042378

>>15042062
/thread
also its boring

>> No.15042939

Corncob "Yeehaw" McCrappy is a hack with ties to social engineering think tanks. An industry plant. To be avoided.

>> No.15042966

>>15042062
>vague
it's exactly the opposite. it's extremely detailed

>> No.15042973

>>15042939
>an industry plant who wrote in obscurity for 20 years

>> No.15043019

My Grandma stole my copy and now she's in quarantine so I can't get it back.

>> No.15043034

This book should not be interpreted, it resists it. It should be imagined like stories told around the campfire of a posse