tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post7863851003772005959..comments2023-10-21T07:44:20.549-04:00Comments on The Existence Machine: Follow up on Cormac McCarthyRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-23631971571978459312007-04-03T14:21:00.000-04:002007-04-03T14:21:00.000-04:00Richard-Excellent thoughts. Thanks for considering...Richard-<BR/>Excellent thoughts. Thanks for considering mine!<BR/><BR/>I'd actually say I don't think McCarthy is a "genre" writer but that he takes a genre and then sort of wrestles it all-around. A poor comparison, but think of Wes Anderson. All of his movies might look like genre pictures (crime, schoolboy rebellion, family drama, Moby Dick-esqe adventure) but I don't think most would call him that.<BR/><BR/>McCarthy in 'The Road' and in his previous novel 'No Country for Old Men' writes a novel that LOOKS like a novel the so-called "average" reader would enjoy (and maybe they will), makes it easier to read by simplifying his prose style, and then sort of sends you on some weirder, crazier version of what you expected. <BR/><BR/>And, in reference to my good-to-poor comment...For me, I find McCarthy's good and poor parts inextricably connected. His writing is incredibly sincere, laughably sincere at times but I find that refreshing and one of many ways to bypass a novel being "smart" which I am personally not interested in.<BR/><BR/>As for reading for story, I don't exactly do that with McCarthy as in, I think the story in McCarthy's work, the events that play-out often signify the meaning. That's probably true in all novels to some extent but I'm grasping towards something here...McCarthy through dialogue and action often moves towards humanistic ideas and statements without overwhelming a reader.<BR/><BR/>'No Country...' it seems to be,is a novel about Reagan and Reagan's super-questionable solutions to "the drug war". I'm simplifying my point on 'NCFOM' but I'm trying to keep this kind of short...<BR/>In a lot of ways, its hard not to read an Apocalypse novel written in 2006 as being about the president and the "current political climate". But, to read either of these novels the reader does not HAVE to understand this or even agree with it because he also gives you an insightful, well-wrought, and sympathetic portrayal of nearly everyone in the novels.<BR/><BR/>I think McCarthy was probably inspired by a lot of "popular fiction" writers as well as Faulkner and Melville. My knowledge and experience with pulp writers and popular fiction is scant because I'm an elitist, but some of what I have read, while not always up to par writing-wise, makes up for it through insight and a personal message or point. I've read the crime fiction of Donald Goines quite a bit and while he's not a great writer, he's certainly saying a lot about race, crime, drugs, etc...brandonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05331746353766612879noreply@blogger.com