IGX

Mentioned elsewhere, but I am starting to read Southern literature. Turd gave some good pointers on Flannery O'Connor. Now I am looking McCarthy and not just due to the films based on his stuff. Came across this quote today and decided to start reading him sooner rather than later:

“So everything is necessary. Every least thing. This is the hard lesson. Nothing can be dispensed with. Nothing despised. Because the seams are hid from us, you see. The joinery. The way in which the world is made. We have no way to know what could be taken away. What omitted. We have no way to tell what might stand and what might fall.”
— Cormac McCarthy - The Crossing

From what I recall in threads below a lot of you guys are fans. And good starting point? If approaching him in some structured manner?

Thanks.

Blood Meridian

I read Blood Meridian years ago. I remember nothing about it but thought it was enjoyable.

That tells me I think of it as overrated.

Fat Cat wrote:Blood Meridian

Yes, although it can be hard to follow if you read it in an on-again/off-again basis. All the Pretty Horses is where I started-- that whole trilogy is good. All of his novels post Blood Meridian are worth your time.

Other enjoyable southern litrature--
All the Kings Men
Huck Finn (if you haven't read this as an adult-- you need to)
Wake For the Living
The Moviegoer

often Overrated,and often an acquired taste

The Road - great, depressing, and easy to read.
Blood Meridian - good, dark, hard to read, and I don't know if I actually liked it.
All the Pretty Horses - first of the Border Trilogy, good, not as dark, easy to read, not too depressing, and my second favorite of the bunch.
No Country for Old Men - great, not too depressing, moderately easy read, my favorite of the bunch.

The Border Trilogy - All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain.

I want to read the other two books. I also want to pick up his earlier work but I've got so much shit to read right now it is crazy. So maybe later this year.

Thanks. Just wondering if there was a sensible place to start. Whether they are "good" isn't too important, just have some thoughts on Southern Lit. and trying to survey it.

Flannery O'Conner is fantastic. McCarthy is also Catholic?

Anything outside of Twain (and I have read nearly everything word published of his), I probably haven't looked at.

Start with "All The Pretty Horses" and that trilogy.

Go to Blood Meridian, then NCOM.

Save The Road for last.

Shafpocalypse Now wrote:Start with "All The Pretty Horses" and that trilogy.

Go to Blood Meridian, then NCOM.

Save The Road for last.

I can't disagree with this.

T200 wrote:I read Blood Meridian years ago. I remember nothing about it but thought it was enjoyable.

That tells me I think of it as overrated.

I have never made it past page 2 in a McCarthy book. Used to spew hate toward him, now just think maybe I'm not in the right place to absorb his stuff.

I can't help but think it's pretentious horseshit. But I love A Fan's Notes by Fred Exley, which is also pretentious and almost certainly horseshit. I'll give Cormac another try at some point.

I have a hard time liking McCarthy's stuff. Some is there for me, some is not.

Can't do McCarthy.

Thomas Wolfe is worth digging into if you haven't. I've read "Look Homeward" a couple times. Tom Wolfe too. I really dug 'A Man in Full', though critics panned it some.

McCarthy has a whimsical poetic style not found too often in contemporary literature. I'm not a huge fan of that style of writing, though he pulls it off without the stench of a try hard, making it more enjoyable than his like-styled predecessors.

I enjoy his shit, and he is clearly an insightful person...which makes it worth it for me to slog through some of his heavier prose.


"That night I thought long and not without despair about what must
become of me.  I wanted very much to be a person of value and I had
to ask myself how this could be possible if there were not something
like a soul or like a spirit that is in the life of the person and
which could endure any misfortune and yet be no less for it.  If one
were to be a person of value, that value could not be a condition
subject to the hazards of fortune.  It had to be a quality that could
not change.  No matter what.  Long before morning I knew that what I
was seeking to discover was a thing I'd always known.  That all
courage was a form of constancy.  That it was always himself that the
coward abandoned first.  After this, all of the coward's other
betrayals came easily."

I've only read the Road. How different are his other works.

Can't do McCarthy.

No. I had the unfortunate experience of meeting him. A walking ,talking PRICK.

tough old man wrote: No. I had the unfortunate experience of meeting him. A walking ,talking PRICK.

Yeah but that's true of 99% of authors. It would be preferable to burn every book in creation to having to extensively interact with authors.

T200 wrote:

tough old man wrote: No. I had the unfortunate experience of meeting him. A walking ,talking PRICK.

Yeah but that's true of 99% of authors. It would be preferable to burn every book in creation to having to extensively interact with authors.

So how many times have you met Cahill?

Another must read author for a fan of Southern literature, though I must warn he's extremely difficult to read and follow, is William Faulkner. I most highly recommend The Sound and the Fury. I have only read The Road by McCarthy but I have All the Pretty Horses, just haven't found the time to read it. The Road was quite good, though. I've always heard Blood Meridian is his best.

Norman U. Senchbau wrote: So how many times have you met Cahill?

None but I did buy 2 of his books at a thrift store once. I haven't read them yet but they look interesting.

I met Loren D. Estleman down by Detroit once, he seemed ok, but a bit arrogant.

I agree, if you meet someone and they are a cock, you don't want anything to do with them anymore, like Anselmo from Pantera. After I met him I couldn't listen to Pantera for a good 2 years without thinking about how I wanted to smash his face in.

So how many times have you met Cahill?

I believe I get to meet him in the fall. He is presenting at the Visiting Author workshop here.
I like his work though.

LOL who the fuck is his agent? Booking him into Rockford? WTF

Norman U. Senchbau wrote:Thanks. Just wondering if there was a sensible place to start. Whether they are "good" isn't too important, just have some thoughts on Southern Lit. and trying to survey it.

Flannery O'Conner is fantastic. McCarthy is also Catholic?

Anything outside of Twain (and I have read nearly everything word published of his), I probably haven't looked at.

I heard he was, but don't know if he still is.

IMO a good place to start on Southern Lit is with I'll Take My Stand by the Vanderbilt Agrarians. Nice readable collection of essays by some serious writers and poets. Gives some nice perspective about the situation with dealing with the Civil War, Reconstruction, slavery, and segretation-- worth reading even though you won't agree with their perspective.

Faulkner's very good, but overall Robert Penn Warren is more indispensable IMO. Tate's Ode to the Confederate Dead is a good short read-- google it.

LOL who the fuck is his agent? Booking him into Rockford? WTF

Me. Or it was my suggestion anyway. They have always had poets and "meaningful" writers that turn out crap I wouldnt read and my wife finally asked for suggestions.

edit:Not that he isnt a serious writer, I meant.. well the last authors book was about family incest and emotional struggles.

It is awesome that you now wield enough e-power to summon professional authors to lowly Rockford. You should be elected to city council IMO (if you factor in your TRX cert you should be a shoe-in).