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Archaea · 12-03-2007, 04:26 PM

I'm having trouble with his voice. I haven't finished the Road, which I generally like, but find his writing difficult to hold on to.

SeattleUte · 12-03-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Archaea

I'm having trouble with his voice. I haven't finished the Road, which I generally like, but find his writing difficult to hold on to.

You've got to picture the writer in your mind's eye. Some ancient bard dressed in rags or a cowl bent over a parchment by the light of a sputtering taper scratching out an epic, and outside all desolation. Does the Bible use quotation marks? Not that I recall in the King James Bible. McCarthy's seminal influences are the King James Bible, Moby Dick, and Faulkner. I think Blood Meridian is also influenced by The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, though I've never read anyone else express that view. Tolkein and McCarthy aren't as far apart as you might think.

SeattleUte · 12-03-2007, 05:03 PM

Watching the film Downfall (which is very close to historical accounts) I noted Hitler say such things as, "Pity is for losers; charity, pity are decadant concepts introduced by Christianity; humans are apes, and need to behave like the apes only more so." (I'm paraphrasing.) McCarthy's works explore this dark perspective or dimension of human nature that Hitler believed was its real substance. Blood Meridian is his classic exploration of this. In this sense, Joseph Conrad is also an influence on McCarthy.

There is also common ground with Homer, Dante, Tolkein, and Beowulf.

There is also a lot of gnosticism in Blood Meridian as the Judge ruminates on good and evil and God's place in the cosmos.

12-03-2007, 04:26 PM	#11
Archaea Assistant to the Regional Manager Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: The Orgasmatron Posts: 24,338	I'm having trouble with his voice. I haven't finished the Road, which I generally like, but find his writing difficult to hold on to. __________________ Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα

12-03-2007, 05:03 PM	#13
SeattleUte fairlds.org Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 10,665	Watching the film Downfall (which is very close to historical accounts) I noted Hitler say such things as, "Pity is for losers; charity, pity are decadant concepts introduced by Christianity; humans are apes, and need to behave like the apes only more so." (I'm paraphrasing.) McCarthy's works explore this dark perspective or dimension of human nature that Hitler believed was its real substance. Blood Meridian is his classic exploration of this. In this sense, Joseph Conrad is also an influence on McCarthy. There is also common ground with Homer, Dante, Tolkein, and Beowulf. There is also a lot of gnosticism in Blood Meridian as the Judge ruminates on good and evil and God's place in the cosmos. __________________ Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster Last edited by SeattleUte; 12-03-2007 at 05:21 PM.