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Cormac McCarthy's personal library

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Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#91

Post by voidhorse »

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? What does this accomplish? Seems like the only thing it could possibly do is to try and make you and me feel better about our own inadequacies, without proof.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#92

Post by cgh »

username223 wrote: post #34
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.

If you think "Blood Meridian" is dark, try "Child of God." I'm a huge McCarthy fan, but "Blood Meridian" is tough to appreciate. "The Road," "No Country for Old Men," and "All the Pretty Horses" are his most readable works; try them, then decide how much farther you want to go.

Child of God and The Crossing are two of my favourites by him.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#93

Post by f30e3dfed1c9 »

username223 wrote: post #34
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.

If you think "Blood Meridian" is dark, try "Child of God." I'm a huge McCarthy fan, but "Blood Meridian" is tough to appreciate. "The Road," "No Country for Old Men," and "All the Pretty Horses" are his most readable works; try them, then decide how much farther you want to go.

I think Blood Meridian is his best book by far. The first time I read it, when I got to the end, I didn't even get up from my chair, just went right back to the beginning and started reading it again.

I also like the border trilogy: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. Sort of surprisingly, never actually read No Country for Old Men although I've seen the movie three or four times.

I think The Road is overrated.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#94

Post by IncreasePosts »

ryanar wrote: post #86

Fascinating article. As I was reading it, particularly the part about his son John saying his father was very loving and was there for him, but also saying he did not like to be interrupted during his work or reading, and would say "Go away! I am reading!" immediately made me think he was quite narcissistic. His work was more important than even his own son. Later on his brother Dennis confirmed my suspicions that Mc…

There's nothing wrong with having boundaries. Anyways, the quote goes on:

"But he was a great father, always there for me, and I learned so much from him. We would have these long conversations about science and history and music, and whatever else, and he was the funniest person I’ve ever met, just a natural comedian.” "

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#95

Post by virgil_disgr4ce »

octygen wrote: post #5
lomase wrote: post #3

The Road is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. I could not stop reading it, but at the same time I hated how it made me feel. I stoped reading novels for years after finishing it.

The Road is my favorite fathering book ever. I have recommended it to all my dad friends. Audiobook is excellent too.

I read The Road long before I became a father and part of me is, I guess, afraid to read it again now that I have two kids—perhaps because I remember how devastating it was then and suspecting it would be 100x that now. But I do intend to reread it sooner or later.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#96

Post by burkaman »

lanfeust6 wrote: post #89
dyauspitr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is overly masculine a bad thing? Makes me want to read it even more.

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 rebellion, etc. I haven't read these books so maybe the descriptions are misleading, but I don't feel like I'm having any trouble finding masculinity here.

On the other hand I (a man) have read Blood Meridian, and while I loved it, anyone who reads it and thinks "fuck yeah these are real men" is a psycopath. Nobody should want to be associated with those characters (or the real people that inspired them) in any way.

> people feign to wonder where the male readers have gone

I haven't heard this concern, but if this is an issue I can't really believe awards have anything to do with it. Nobody is saying "yeah I used to like books but Hugo nominees these last few years weren't to my taste, so I just stopped reading". At least in my experience the average person doesn't really care about media awards, they are mostly for industry insiders and a small subset of major enthusiasts.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#97

Post by f30e3dfed1c9 »

ryanar wrote: post #86

Fascinating article. As I was reading it, particularly the part about his son John saying his father was very loving and was there for him, but also saying he did not like to be interrupted during his work or reading, and would say "Go away! I am reading!" immediately made me think he was quite narcissistic. His work was more important than even his own son. Later on his brother Dennis confirmed my suspicions that Mc…

What's wrong with dying with four people around your bed? Do you think that's too few or something?

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#98

Post by wahnfrieden »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #39
JKCalhoun wrote: post #4

"McCarthy’s detractors, meanwhile, found his writing overly mannered, his characters overly masculine, and accused him of relishing the violence he wrote about so vividly." Yeah, maybe his detractors were on to something. I haven't even started "The Road" because of its reputation. I have only read "Child of God" and wondered why someone might write about the worst among us. But then I'm not a fan of Quentin Tarantin…

I have a theory that everyone has a different level of detachment vs self-insertion when consuming a fictional narrative. Those more self-insertive probably shouldn't read his books.

It's a media literacy issue. It's good to read challenging works to grow your understanding. I think the self-insertive tendency comes from consuming works oriented toward it with typical hero/villain structures

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#99

Post by Barrin92 »

idoubtit wrote: post #71
wewxjfq wrote: post #53

> They were guessing it contained upwards of 20,000 volumes. By comparison, Ernest Hemingway, considered a voracious book collector, left behind a personal library of 9,000. Reminds me: I once read a listicle about famous people with large personal libraries. Most were writers and had collections in the lower thousands, a few reached into the tens of thousands. The person with by far the most books was Karl Lagerfeld…

Among the famous writers that I know through their writings, I'd expect Jorge Luis Borges and Umberto Eco to have read many thousands of books, because that wide culture was a major element of their fictions. The later did have 50,000 books at home, but the former became blind and probably didn't own many books. With simple math, reading 2 books each week leads to at most 7,000 over a lifetime. If Denny McCarthy's gu…

Funny that you bring up Borges and Eco. Eco when commenting on his library, I can't remember if in an essay or lecture, referred to it as an 'anti-library', pointing out that one of the most important skills a reader can possess is to be able to talk about books one hasn't read. As in Borges Library of Babel most people will be doomed to only read very little of what is in existence.

He thought his huge library should be taken as a research tool and sign of 'conscious ignorance' of the vast things you don't know, rather than taking a consumer mindset to it, which you see a lot of people do when they brag about how many books they've read.

Re: Cormac McCarthy's personal library

#100

Post by shawndrost »

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 recommended a romance novel until this moment. I'm literally crying as I write this, remembering the closing scene.

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