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Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

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Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#41

Post by MikeBVaughn »

ajcp wrote: post #16
armitron wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a strong philosophical message in the works of McCarthy, but it's not explicit, you have to synthesize it. If you read his best works being totally oblivious to what he's really saying, then they'll feel like pointless exercises in sadism and cruelty. Blood Meridian is perhaps the easiest of his works to understand in that regard, since he's as far from deliberate occultation as he can possibly be. The philo…

-> If you read his best works being totally oblivious to what he's really saying If you have to be briefed on what an author is "really saying" outside of the story conveying it, what's the point? If you have to explain the joke it's not funny.

> If you have to be briefed on what an author is "really saying" outside of the story conveying it, what's the point?

What armitron said was, "it's not explicit, you have to synthesize it." The verb 'synthesize' implies the exact opposite of what you've construed them as saying.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#42

Post by beaned »

pringk02 wrote: post #28
ajcp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

-> If you read his best works being totally oblivious to what he's really saying If you have to be briefed on what an author is "really saying" outside of the story conveying it, what's the point? If you have to explain the joke it's not funny.

Being told something makes less of an impression than figuring it out. When an author explicitly states the theme of their work, there is nothing to think about or consider. Personally, I much prefer stuff that makes me do some of the legwork myself.

Yeah, this is a huge difference in, for example, 2 of Ayn Rand's books. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The first is a simpler story with fewer characters, and though their dialogue obviously matters, much of the message happens through their actions. The same is true for Atlas Shrugged, but it contains many more monologues that are really the author expressing her philosophy explicitly in words, and the story around them is much more just providing context. Both great (or terrible, if you hate her) books, but The Fountainhead is much more poetic for this reason.

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#43

Post by everybodyknows »

> ... a Texas Mennonite, who begs the soldiers not to march on to Mexico, saying ominously: “The wrath of God lies sleeping. […] Hell ain’t half full. Hear me. Ye carry war of a madman’s making onto a foreign land. Ye’ll wake more than the dogs.”

The "disordered Mennonite" further tells the irregulars "If ye cross yon river ye'll not cross it back".

This prophecy is delivered in a barroom at the border, one of three auguries of doom delivered by various elders the Kid happens upon. With these McCarthy repeatedly points the reader back to a long heritage of epic tragedy: Moby Dick, Macbeth, and The Iliad.

Any other obsessive re-reader out there care to recall the other two such episodes?

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#44

Post by asdasd213123 »

BMc2020 wrote: post #2

A book I have never read and never will. (I watched the Wendigoon 5 hour review of it so I know the plot though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu6STuj4njw edit: Downvotes? I will never watch A Serbian Film either, are you going to downvote me for that too?

[flagged]

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#45

Post by defen »

everybodyknows wrote: post #43

> ... a Texas Mennonite, who begs the soldiers not to march on to Mexico, saying ominously: “The wrath of God lies sleeping. […] Hell ain’t half full. Hear me. Ye carry war of a madman’s making onto a foreign land. Ye’ll wake more than the dogs.” The "disordered Mennonite" further tells the irregulars "If ye cross yon river ye'll not cross it back". This prophecy is delivered in a barroom at the border, one of three…

The disordered Mennonite recalls Elijah's prophecy in Moby Dick

Macbeth - I'm guessing you mean the Tarot divination scene where we hear an obscured version of Glanton's fate (echoes of the three witches)?

The Iliad - It's been a while since I read this one so I'm having trouble figuring it out. There's the hermit in chapter 2 but I don't recall him making any specific prophecies other than talking about man's capacity for evil ("Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine."), nor can I make a connection to the Iliad. One vague Iliad connection I can think of is that the wind saves Tobin and the kid when they're hiding from the judge, which vaguely recalls Calchas's prophecy of a favorable wind (although that required sacrificing Iphigenia which I don't think has any parallels in the novel)

Re: Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History

#46

Post by BMc2020 »

darkteflon wrote: post #37
BMc2020 wrote: post #2

A book I have never read and never will. (I watched the Wendigoon 5 hour review of it so I know the plot though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu6STuj4njw edit: Downvotes? I will never watch A Serbian Film either, are you going to downvote me for that too?

I thought the YT you linked was great, thanks. I don’t have the stomach for violence but have been curious about BM for ages so this was a great way to get a sense for what all the fuss was about. No substitute for reading it, I’m sure. But great on its own.

Thanks. 3.3 million views in 4 weeks for a book from 1985. Gives me hope people are thirsty for quality.
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