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Cormac McCarthy's personal library

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#131

Post by knodi123 »

nylonstrung wrote: post #66
layman51 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that wasn't Cormac McCarthy's stand-in because the Judge character is like some type of supernatural violent being.

The only "self-insert" he's done is the main character of Suttree which is semi-autobiographical The judge is an incarnation of evil and a pedophile so I don't think that's his Mary sue

> The judge is an incarnation of evil and a pedophile so I don't think that's his Mary sue

Although... he did rather famously have a thing for underage girls...

https://medium.com/belover/cormac-mccarthy-was-a-pedophile-a...

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#132

Post by cxr »

noosphr wrote: post #115
chompychop wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Drop me a line on my profiles email. I'm playing around with using hyperlinks in pdfs to get around how much the www sucks for posting serious research with serious working code. Caveat emptor: I'm first working on getting the basic groundwork out, like a pipeline that shows what you need to do to extract a scanned pdf in a quality that tesseract can actually get text out of.

> I'm first working on getting the basic groundwork out, like a pipeline that shows what you need to do to extract a scanned pdf in a quality that tesseract can actually get text out of.

Sounds like TBL's contribution doesn't suck so much after all.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#133

Post by BrenBarn »

justupvoting wrote: post #73
BrenBarn wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ending is definitely the most optimistic part of the book, but on balance I think the overall picture is still excruciatingly bleak. It gives me the impression that any optimism of the part of the characters is likely unwarranted. They're still doomed.

The point is that everyone is doomed (even if you imagine we can survive the civilization-murdering tools we've cobbled up, we can't outrun physics), but that even at our most vulnerable , since the book occurs during a period directly after Armageddon, it is possible for some goodness in us to persist. I don't want to spoil, but the optimism isn't for the characters, it's for we the reader, and the species. The thim…

Yes, but I wouldn't call that optimistic. It's just an epsilon away from 100% pessimism.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#134

Post by anl00000007 »

ctrlp wrote: post #129
ojosilva wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Do you think we’re going to die?” “No.” “We’re not?” “No.” “Why not?” “Because we’re carrying the fire.” “What fire?” “The fire inside. Goodness. That’s what we’re carrying.”

Not trying to piss on the fire but that's almost exactly the kind of thing I'm unable to enjoy. I guess I wonder "Who speaks like that?" It's wooden and affected to my ear. It comes across as needlessly obtuse. I'm not saying it's exceptional for that style, but to me it reads like so many YA fantasy novels from my youth, or maybe a /r/ for aspiring writers. If I'm being asked to work so hard to elucidate the symboli…

I don't think you've anything to apologize for.

I really liked the long run on sentence about the horses you pasted in. It's lyrical and preachy, maybe a little breathless. It drones and twirls like dervish

I found it broke down In my head Into verses Alternating Between a few And several syllables each And lo! I heard it sung By Bono By Jim Morrison By Johnny Cash and David Byrne Each having His own band Accompaniment Alike unto his kind.

I can't really represent it as I experienced it. But the prose really lent itself to some of the more epic pop music in my head.

It was a minute of cinema piped directly into my mind. Quite a treat. Thank you for dereferencing them!

Having said all that, it's still a cheap shot of dopamine that leans heavily on this reader to pick and layer his own poisons for effect.

I'd dare say another reader more skilled in poetry might be able to dice it into various meters and recite to different types of music.

Werner Herzog's voice, pronunciation, and pacing are fun to use to read these

Kermit the frog? Hilarious!

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#135

Post by cxr »

ctrlp wrote: post #129
ojosilva wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Do you think we’re going to die?” “No.” “We’re not?” “No.” “Why not?” “Because we’re carrying the fire.” “What fire?” “The fire inside. Goodness. That’s what we’re carrying.”

Not trying to piss on the fire but that's almost exactly the kind of thing I'm unable to enjoy. I guess I wonder "Who speaks like that?" It's wooden and affected to my ear. It comes across as needlessly obtuse. I'm not saying it's exceptional for that style, but to me it reads like so many YA fantasy novels from my youth, or maybe a /r/ for aspiring writers. If I'm being asked to work so hard to elucidate the symboli…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Reader%27s_Manifesto>

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#136

Post by privong »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #120
sharkweek wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% His worldview seemed to be that humans as a species are extremely violent and capable of the most inhumane acts and we’re hanging on by a thread. Some of his writing often covered what just a slight altering of our societal moral compass might look like. Probably my favorite author of all time, him or maybe Delilo.

Instead, in my world-view most humans want to be kind. (And I don’t carry a gun everywhere like McCarthy either, ha ha.)

@sharweek said > Some of his writing often covered what just a slight altering of our societal moral compass might look like.

@JKCalhoun > in my world-view most humans want to be kind.

These two views aren't necessarily in conflict. Individuals can overwhelmingly want to be kind but still be in a system where society pushes them to behave to the contrary.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#139

Post by currymj »

voidhorse wrote: post #91
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.

> However I have to assume that McCarthy didn't actually master all the material in the math books mentioned here Why? And what exactly would mastery look like? Regardless, McCarthy didn't make his mark as a mathematician so his private ability to understand doesn't matter. Why take the opportunity to make a negative assumption and diminish the possibility that he had mastered an understanding in his private life? Wh…

I don't think it diminishes him.

"Stella Maris" is a great novel that could only be written by someone who was very knowledgeable about math. As far as art that engages deeply with math and science, I don't know of anything comparable. Most artists would focus only on the human drama of discovery, without being able to engage with the subject matter.

However, I would consider "mastery" of a math textbook to be you have worked through almost all the chapters, can do a reasonable chunk of the exercises, and could TA the course without too much trouble.

While I don't know for sure, I doubt McCarthy achieved that level of understanding for all the yellow books he owned. I think buying a math textbook on an interesting topic and then not making it very far is a very common and human experience.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#140

Post by UncleOxidant »

ycombinete wrote: post #55
groos wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After reading the Road, I started on Blood Meridian and could not continue, swearing never to read McCarthy again. The man's soul was just too dark.

Yes. There’s something cruel there, or perhaps simply resigned, to reflecting the most brutal aspects of humanity in their most casual, logical, and inherent expression ([0] spoiler). You certainly never shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen at any moment. I have read The Road and All the Pretty Horses . I won’t read any of the others. AtPH has less horror than The Road , for what it’s worth. I…

The Road was the first of his books I read. I read his last two books The Passenger and Stella Maris shortly after he passed. Both contained interesting thoughts on philosophy, science, mathematics. Of the two, I think Stella Maris was better - it's kind of a deep dive into genius and the madness that often accompanies it.

Agree on Steinbeck. Less cruel and more hopeful. My favorite American author. It would have been very interesting to be a fly on the wall in a discussion between an aged Steinbeck and a young McCarthy - one of those questions where if you could have two authors talk to each other over a beer and sit in on the conversation.

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