🚀 I would love to help you understand McCarthy’s novels better in my Cormac McCarthy course & book club. On my Substack, you can access the Blood Meridian For Writers Course and McCarthy’s unreleased interview. Click here to join: writeconscious.substack.com 📖Explore over 200 of McCarthy’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/e20249... 👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious.com 📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious 📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619... 🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com 🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious
Interesting thoughts. I've always just kinda felt like McCarthy has a certain cynicism as to how progress not only creates good things, but also creates new avenues for misdeeds and wrongdoing. Then again, having lived as long as he has, I guess that's only natural. Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men make for interesting counterpoints. Blood Meridian shows us a past that's very brutal and violent in an open and direct way, while No Country for Old Men shows us a world that has progressed, but is still plagued by many of the same problems, albeit in different ways. The point being, people don't really change, (or if they do they do so *very* slowly), but the ways in which they can pursue evil are much more numerous. The scene in Blood Meridian when the Judge buys the puppies from the Mexican kid and immediately kills them I think is meant to illustrate how he foresees that brute force will eventually be supplanted by economics, and so he seeks to destroy the very logical fabric of such a transaction. And in The Passenger, the conversation that the lawyer has with Bobby about the potential advent of digital currency shows how McCarthy sees that even economics itself can/will be refined even further to control people even more; (and I think readers would do very well to heed that section). The atom bomb is yet another way that progress has enabled even greater destruction, and I love the simple logic he uses in Stella Maris to explain how nukes *will* be used one day: because people don't make things not to use them, and because war demands the use of weapons, and not using said weapons would be illogical. The one recurrent theme that I've taken from all his works is that the world is 99% shit, but that 1% of goodness that does exist is worth fighting for. And I think he's done that the best way anyone could, through his art.
Thank you for this, I didn't read that trilogy with the Crossing. Am in the middle of Suttree and the Passenger( I stopped Suttree to read the new one). I too am holding on to the positive connecting the internet provides...maybe to prove information demands to be free...like a tsunami. And I am older and have had to surrender to this technology, regardless, like even if I rent a car! Crazy. But here we are, fasten your seat belts. It is important to acknowledge the truth of violence existing.
What I found interesting and have a understanding with I've noticed is that none of my family wanted to be on township committee or Senate etc. They were asked by the town. We have been farming on Greenwich NJ since the 1600's. People that want to be politicians and run around lick boots and kissing ass scare me. Especially in NJ. South Jersey is a different, well, was a different world. My family's patriarchs have all been involved in with the grange, freeholders, Congress or in my dad's case who was farming about 1000 acres for several years was a very loved and respected man. His father overshadowed him die to his support from Kennedy. My dad was too young and busy raising 3 children and starting a farm. Hardest working man I've ever seen. One night when I was about 4, all these trucks some in the yard. They were the local folks and they asked him to run. They were all republican,yet my dad a Democrat. They didn't care. He ran , won and was mayor or deputy mayor when he had a large crop. The point is I've always believed that the best politicians are the ones asked by the people. Not the professional garbage we have and have had some ...I guess Kennedy era. Locally is more my concern. Like those Western films in which one town there's churches and hatchet faced gossip whores while their husbands are either spineless or constantly making out of town deliveries. Generally to the next town with the brothels, casinos, that special house with all the secrets of the orient( opium dens) and just wild and fun. So local politics are where it all begins. I've never heard other township committee men suggest cleaning up the town since there were several preteens. So my dad took a piece of land and built a ballfield,started a league. Had game nights and hay rides. Stuff to give people ann option. The towns on a large river so every year the FBI would raid the marina and discover weed or coke. The mob was dug in everywhere. The neighboring pious town was a klan riddled nightmare. David Duke even spoke there. Their leaders were all professional politicians. Not from the town. Now my dad passed. 45 years on that committee. Musta known everyone in Trenton. He had heart and rose to the occasion as did the others asked to run as well. The new mayor was a silver spoon money grubber that inherited a ton of money and just wanted to play. The town asked him so he reluctantly ran and won. He resigned once my dad died since he knew my dad would have chewed him out. So as although I believe the best politicians aren't usually political in nature. Like my dad and the lineage of Hancocks that helped run the town. It's not failsafe, however I'll take a reliant hard worker over some crappy pro with one hand sharing yours and his other in the till. Sorry for the length. I grew up political. So I'm very aware of the hustles.
Dude recording a video of himself swinging a steel club around his head in his apartment to upload to TikTok: "It's important that we mimic what our primal ancestors were doing thousands of years ago."
you know, I think tolkien had a direct response to this gritty grim approach, both in his words and in his art, LoTR is the anti gritty fantasy, but if you're paying attention, you'll notice that the LotR story is very dark, it's the stories of the Silmarillion that had this world that overflows with life feeling, where there's endless amount of energy, unlike LoTR where everybody seems tired and hopeless.
High up in the Norwegian Jotun-mountains live I, where abide ye trolls. Bears hunt I with hands bare, and devour I them. Internet have I not. By wits alone go I online to inspect your channel.
🚀 I would love to help you understand McCarthy’s novels better in my Cormac McCarthy course & book club. On my Substack, you can access the Blood Meridian For Writers Course and McCarthy’s unreleased interview. Click here to join: writeconscious.substack.com
📖Explore over 200 of McCarthy’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books
Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/e20249...
👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious.com
📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious
📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619...
🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com
🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ
Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious
Interesting thoughts. I've always just kinda felt like McCarthy has a certain cynicism as to how progress not only creates good things, but also creates new avenues for misdeeds and wrongdoing. Then again, having lived as long as he has, I guess that's only natural. Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men make for interesting counterpoints. Blood Meridian shows us a past that's very brutal and violent in an open and direct way, while No Country for Old Men shows us a world that has progressed, but is still plagued by many of the same problems, albeit in different ways. The point being, people don't really change, (or if they do they do so *very* slowly), but the ways in which they can pursue evil are much more numerous. The scene in Blood Meridian when the Judge buys the puppies from the Mexican kid and immediately kills them I think is meant to illustrate how he foresees that brute force will eventually be supplanted by economics, and so he seeks to destroy the very logical fabric of such a transaction. And in The Passenger, the conversation that the lawyer has with Bobby about the potential advent of digital currency shows how McCarthy sees that even economics itself can/will be refined even further to control people even more; (and I think readers would do very well to heed that section). The atom bomb is yet another way that progress has enabled even greater destruction, and I love the simple logic he uses in Stella Maris to explain how nukes *will* be used one day: because people don't make things not to use them, and because war demands the use of weapons, and not using said weapons would be illogical. The one recurrent theme that I've taken from all his works is that the world is 99% shit, but that 1% of goodness that does exist is worth fighting for. And I think he's done that the best way anyone could, through his art.
Great comment! Lots of cool stuff I missed. The economic scene in THe Passenger was very interesting and foretelling.
I swing clubs, maces and kettlebells. And I read voraciously. In the noble pantheon of worthy Gods, McCarthy stands high amongst them...
Lol! Let's go!
Great video. I feel very “lost in the cobwebs” so to speak and am looking for my own ways to meaningfully contribute. Havent found it yet
Thanks!! Exactly. Doesn't matter if you find it now. It only matters if you find it during your lifetime. You have decades to figure it out!
Thank you for this, I didn't read that trilogy with the Crossing. Am in the middle of Suttree and the Passenger( I stopped Suttree to read the new one). I too am holding on to the positive connecting the internet provides...maybe to prove information demands to be free...like a tsunami. And I am older and have had to surrender to this technology, regardless, like even if I rent a car! Crazy. But here we are, fasten your seat belts. It is important to acknowledge the truth of violence existing.
What I found interesting and have a understanding with I've noticed is that none of my family wanted to be on township committee or Senate etc. They were asked by the town. We have been farming on Greenwich NJ since the 1600's.
People that want to be politicians and run around lick boots and kissing ass scare me. Especially in NJ. South Jersey is a different, well, was a different world. My family's patriarchs have all been involved in with the grange, freeholders, Congress or in my dad's case who was farming about 1000 acres for several years was a very loved and respected man. His father overshadowed him die to his support from Kennedy. My dad was too young and busy raising 3 children and starting a farm. Hardest working man I've ever seen.
One night when I was about 4, all these trucks some in the yard. They were the local folks and they asked him to run. They were all republican,yet my dad a Democrat. They didn't care. He ran , won and was mayor or deputy mayor when he had a large crop. The point is I've always believed that the best politicians are the ones asked by the people. Not the professional garbage we have and have had some ...I guess Kennedy era. Locally is more my concern. Like those Western films in which one town there's churches and hatchet faced gossip whores while their husbands are either spineless or constantly making out of town deliveries. Generally to the next town with the brothels, casinos, that special house with all the secrets of the orient( opium dens) and just wild and fun. So local politics are where it all begins. I've never heard other township committee men suggest cleaning up the town since there were several preteens. So my dad took a piece of land and built a ballfield,started a league. Had game nights and hay rides. Stuff to give people ann option. The towns on a large river so every year the FBI would raid the marina and discover weed or coke. The mob was dug in everywhere. The neighboring pious town was a klan riddled nightmare. David Duke even spoke there. Their leaders were all professional politicians. Not from the town. Now my dad passed. 45 years on that committee. Musta known everyone in Trenton. He had heart and rose to the occasion as did the others asked to run as well. The new mayor was a silver spoon money grubber that inherited a ton of money and just wanted to play. The town asked him so he reluctantly ran and won. He resigned once my dad died since he knew my dad would have chewed him out. So as although I believe the best politicians aren't usually political in nature. Like my dad and the lineage of Hancocks that helped run the town. It's not failsafe, however I'll take a reliant hard worker over some crappy pro with one hand sharing yours and his other in the till.
Sorry for the length. I grew up political. So I'm very aware of the hustles.
Wow! Spell check mauled that comment. I hope you see my point.
Dude recording a video of himself swinging a steel club around his head in his apartment to upload to TikTok:
"It's important that we mimic what our primal ancestors were doing thousands of years ago."
Lmao
you know, I think tolkien had a direct response to this gritty grim approach, both in his words and in his art, LoTR is the anti gritty fantasy, but if you're paying attention, you'll notice that the LotR story is very dark, it's the stories of the Silmarillion that had this world that overflows with life feeling, where there's endless amount of energy, unlike LoTR where everybody seems tired and hopeless.
High up in the Norwegian Jotun-mountains live I, where abide ye trolls. Bears hunt I with hands bare, and devour I them. Internet have I not. By wits alone go I online to inspect your channel.