Lecture on Cormac McCarthy's Outer Dark: Part 1

[@slave_to_cinema]

I read Outer Dark last year for the first time. For me the campfire scene near the end with the "triune" is for the most chilling writing Cormac ever wrote.

[@dm6801]

Yes! Finally dropped! I’ve read almost all of McCarthy and this book truly stands out as one that captures and wades in ‘mood’. Really just invokes a time-scene-atmosphere of the south at the turn of the century. Feels like I’m walking through a dream. That’s what McCarthy is known for, a terrible dream realized

[@VectorScape]

Rinthy is 19 if I remember correctly. She mentions it in somewhere in the middle of the book. I think to the old lady.

[@scriv95]

Finished this one last week, great read. Not my favorite but very essential. The discussion with your class here was excellent, lots of interesting responses.

[@jasonuerkvitz3756]

_Outer Dark_ is certainly one of my most favorite novels by McCarthy. I've thought about this for some time and I have to put _All the Pretty Horses_ first, followed by _Outer Dark_ then _The Road_ and then _Blood Meridian_ .
*_SPOILERS BELOW_*
I have to ask anyone who has read the novel what they think the actual sin is that is the cause of the Purgatorial trek of Culla and Rinthy.
I am not fully convinced, nor does the narrations specifically state that the baby in the novel is due to Culla and Rinthy having an incestuous relationship. A careful reading would find that the father of these two--one described clearly as a man, and the other as a younger girl--is absent, however aspects of his existence lingers in the beginning of the novel. One of which is a broken shotgun.
The shotgun is a critical concept as it is Promethean in nature, as well as representative of the hunter, the protector, the provider. The weapon is broken and Culla is unable to fix it. Not having any knowledge of the weapon's upkeep provides a clue to the state Culla finds himself in at the start of the novel.
Could he have used this weapon to kill the now absent father? Did the father rape the daughter? What is the initial sin that leads to the sequence of transgressions, the ill-fated plight of Culla who is inducted, courted, by the unholy Trinity?
I argue that the initial sin is the failing of the father in teaching Culla any skills, leaving him useless, and a blight and burden on normal society. He isn't viable for marriage without skills and without a job. He can't raise his sister's child, so he tries to sacrifice the baby to nature, the universe, yet even in this he is a failure. He's so disastrous, he can't stand being spoken to in a critical way that he steals from his initial employer. This theft leads to the squire's murder. He steals clothes from a dead man later and is chased from wherever he goes. In contrast, Rinthy is welcome as she is a symbol of fertility, her use is in propagation, where as Culla's use is lacking, and he instead preys in subtle, thieving ways on the towns he passes through.
He eats the unholy meat, perhaps the flesh of the child, or of some hapless person, and he is forced to relinquish the boots he is unworthy to wear, and is instead forced to wear the boots of the fool, boots wired closed, almost like shackles. He is so void of scruples, and humane reflex, he cannot reach for someone swept away by a stampede of swine. Nor is he cognizant enough to warn a blind man of his pending danger, even when the thought naturally occurs to him. His constant blunders lead to the murder of the tinkerer, an unskilled tradesman in his own right, and his ultimate state as a pariah from all that world that is civilized, incarcerating him to a land of darkness, to the outer darkness itself.
I argue that the outer darkness is the physical representation of the ignorance of one's existence if they are untrained, illiterate, unskilled, but instead a blundering, blind parasite on society. The original sin is not the implied incest, but instead the failing of the father to teach his son. A father is to pass the fire to the son, and the son is to bear that flame long after the father's passing. The Promethean symbol is impotent. All fire is commanded then by the leader of the unholy Trinity, and therefore, he is but a guest at its side, a fool, bound to stare hopelessly, fecklessly into its unwieldy light, ignorant to its mastery and the industry from its use.
In _No Country for Old Men_ Ed Tom laments that 18 year olds are too stupid and untrained, too unmotivated to get out and make something of themselves as he recollects that by 18 men of his time were married, working and starting a family. The Man from _The Road_ and Llewellyn of _No Country_ are the quintessential "skilled men." John Grady Cole is perhaps his most elegant of skilled men in that his mastery is of horses--the horse long considered the symbol of knighthood, of chivalry, of excellence, and of course one of the most beautiful animals on earth (in my opinion). The Kid, of _Blood Meridian_ , in contrast, is unskilled, illiterate, and only capable of killing as he is a crackshot--his fate is to end up raped, his soul consumed by the Judge.
You see, in McCarthy's entire corpus of work, he exalts skill above all things. It's as if he is contending with Nietzsche's ubermensch--dark versions of which are found in Judge Holden and Anton Chigurh--and arguing that the skilled man, who works his arts through the love of others, is the greatest representation of Man. Without it, a person is damned to barbarism, to cannibalism, damned to walk in line with the unholy Trinity, to dwell ceaseless in the outer dark.

[@TheMrTJWhite]

Currently reading Outer Dark, cannot wait to listen to this.

[@AmericanGwyn]

💥💥💥💥💥💥

[@PlayRoom44]

I haven’t reread these yet for the class yet teach. But I’m going to listen to your lectures on them anyway. Please and thank you for allowing us in your classes. Cormac🫀

[@michaeloporto5202]

Oh, my dude! I was trying to decide on what to read next from CM, The Road or Outer Dark. I went with The Road so I will have to come back! I appreciate all the content!

[@AmericanGwyn]

Thrilled you connected with it!

[@oneyedjohn]

Interesting serendipity, I just finished Outerdark a few weeks ago.
The same thing happened with you released your lectures in blood Meridian.

[@adamskorupskas2184]

In my college thesis on McCarthy I made similar points!

[@AmericanGwyn]

Killer!!

[@mastercharlesdiltardino8058]

As ive gotten older, hell has become closer and closer to making sense. Hell is certainly something we can experience in life, you could spend every free moment learning about the horrible fates that have befallen people and that would still just be the things that are known. There are thing happening in the dark corners of homes in your city that would make you sick. And any day, it could be your turn. There is no need for a hell after we die, all the suffering a person could ever ask for exists in this worldm that is the lessen that should be taught. Once you understand that, then you can begin to grasp why hell exists.

[@PlayRoom44]

Good stuff

[@Chaerley]

Rinthy says she's 19

[@Daddy_Bear_722]

These edgy atheist kids have me cracking up 😂

[@AmericanGwyn]

They keep me entertained.