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Cormac McCarthy's personal library

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#101

Post by lanfeust6 »

burkaman wrote: post #96
lanfeust6 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kidding. Try to find an "overly masculine" book among Pulizer or Hugo nominees today. And people feign to wonder where the male readers have gone.

Don't really understand this comment, I'm looking at the latest Pulitzer and Hugo winners and seeing what sound like pretty classic masculine tropes. James is about a man who escapes from slavery, fends for himself in the wilderness, violently avenges his wife and daughter, etc. Alien Clay is about a man who rebels against an evil government, is sent to a prison camp in space, bangs his boss (a woman), starts another…

> if this is an issue I can't really believe awards have anything to do with it

That wasn't what I intended to convey. They're altogether not published to the same degree they were.

> I haven't heard this concern

do a search

> I don't feel like I'm having any trouble finding masculinity here.

What were the exact words I used? They're right there. Read them again.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#102

Post by jermberj »

pwillia7 wrote: post #88

> “I had two dreams about him after he died. I dont remember the first one all that well but it was about meetin him in town somewheres and he give me some money and I think I lost it. But the second one it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin through the mountains of a night. Goin through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and…

Gets me every time.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#104

Post by burkaman »

lanfeust6 wrote: post #101
burkaman wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't really understand this comment, I'm looking at the latest Pulitzer and Hugo winners and seeing what sound like pretty classic masculine tropes. James is about a man who escapes from slavery, fends for himself in the wilderness, violently avenges his wife and daughter, etc. Alien Clay is about a man who rebels against an evil government, is sent to a prison camp in space, bangs his boss (a woman), starts another…

> if this is an issue I can't really believe awards have anything to do with it That wasn't what I intended to convey. They're altogether not published to the same degree they were. > I haven't heard this concern do a search > I don't feel like I'm having any trouble finding masculinity here. What were the exact words I used? They're right there. Read them again.

You're right, I guess "overly masculine" is the core of what I didn't understand. I don't know what that means, and while I can imagine someone being disappointed if they couldn't find any books with masculine characters and themes (which I think we agree are not hard to find, even among award nominees), I can't imagine someone finding those but thinking "but these aren't overly masculine, that's what I want". If you have some examples other than Cormac McCarthy books I think it would help explain the concept.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#105

Post by chompychop »

noosphr wrote: post #61
currymj wrote: post #9

If you read his last two novels he was clearly well-informed about mathematics. However I have to assume that McCarthy didn't actually master all the material in the math books mentioned here, I think the reporter may be a little too credulous about that. I suspect he had the very common experience of buying a yellow book and being defeated in the first couple chapters.

> His books, many of which are annotated with margin comments, I'm not saying that he did, but this along with being the right age to have read How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler strongly suggest that he used that book to grasp a lot more of his books than most people can. That book gives you a very good strategy for reading books that are beyond you normally. In the three years since I've read it I've managed t…

Where can I read more about your research? Knowledge graphs interest me.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#106

Post by scarmig »

shawndrost wrote: post #100

I have loved Cormac's books since I was a child, but never read Larry McMurtry until recently. If you're in the same boat, I implore you to give one of the below a try. Lonesome Dove -- A great story about washed-up Texas Rangers with achingly beautiful writing. The Last Picture Show -- More tonally similar to Cormac's stories. Coming of age in a dusty Texas town. Leaving Cheyenne -- I have never in my life recommend…

If the revisionist Western appeals to you, I'd also recommend Oakley Hall's Warlock.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#107

Post by johnnienaked »

brennanpeterson wrote: post #51
username223 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Child of God?" You started at just about the darkest, least approachable place. Try "No Country for Old Men" or "All the Pretty Horses," both of which are far easier to read and contemplate.

Or The Crossing, which, at least for the first third is his sparest and best writing. At least, I prefer the marriage of the gothic sensibility and poetry with the classic western.

The first third ripped my heart out

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#108

Post by johnnienaked »

burkaman wrote: post #96
lanfeust6 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kidding. Try to find an "overly masculine" book among Pulizer or Hugo nominees today. And people feign to wonder where the male readers have gone.

Don't really understand this comment, I'm looking at the latest Pulitzer and Hugo winners and seeing what sound like pretty classic masculine tropes. James is about a man who escapes from slavery, fends for himself in the wilderness, violently avenges his wife and daughter, etc. Alien Clay is about a man who rebels against an evil government, is sent to a prison camp in space, bangs his boss (a woman), starts another…

Very common modern disease to associate a description of something with approval of its existence

Loathing the inevitability of McCarthy to get the same posthumous treatment as Kerouac did and with those benevolent and corrective blows kill pure art just a little bit more

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#109

Post by scarmig »

burkaman wrote: post #104
lanfeust6 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if this is an issue I can't really believe awards have anything to do with it That wasn't what I intended to convey. They're altogether not published to the same degree they were. > I haven't heard this concern do a search > I don't feel like I'm having any trouble finding masculinity here. What were the exact words I used? They're right there. Read them again.

You're right, I guess "overly masculine" is the core of what I didn't understand. I don't know what that means, and while I can imagine someone being disappointed if they couldn't find any books with masculine characters and themes (which I think we agree are not hard to find, even among award nominees), I can't imagine someone finding those but thinking "but these aren't overly masculine, that's what I want". If you…

Haven't read any of those Nebula/Hugo books, but there are shifts in style and emphasis that are very indicative of the author's gender. Not at all universal, but given a thousand words of writing, I bet I could identify the author's gender at 80% accuracy.

Interiority being a huge axis here.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#110

Post by t_serpico »

The answer stems from McCarthy’s deeply disparaging view of modern society, which he considered lost, divorced from nature, history and tradition and heading toward social collapse and apocalypse. “Cormac considered contemporary fiction a waste of time,” said Dennis, “because contemporary writers no longer have a legitimate culture to feed their souls.”
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