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Originally Posted by Levin
To SU's point, I agree that McCarthy's descriptions of the physical environment are remarkable in The Road. Only a few pages in I asked myself: how is he doing this? Why is the setting unmistakable and vivid?
So I listed the adjectives he used -- remarkably, there weren't that many, and they were all ordinary; none too showy or obscure. And he used the same ones over and over. "Gray." "Ash." "Dead." "Cold." "Dark."
If you have a singular vision, and know how to describe it with economy and familiarity, then that is worth a million words (or pictures).
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I love the opeing scene where he describes the dream with the monster by the lake in a cave, that looks up at him with those dull eyes like spiders' eggs.
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be.
—Paul Auster
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