Hello! I just wanted to share with this wonderful community my debut novella that I made in honor of McCarthy's legendary prose.

I tried picking apart the best parts of Faulkner, Camus, and McCarthy for curating the style of my current writing.

The name is There Comets Cry by Matthew D. Bala. Here's the universal book link if you're interested: https://books2read.com/u/3nkk7x

"And what happens then?

When?

After you're dead.

Don't nothin happen. You're dead.

You told me once you believed in God.

The old man waved his hand. Maybe, he said. I got no reason to think he believes in me"

It's corny and a little pretentious but the "I got no reason to think he believes in me" hits so good. It's such a good perspective within the conversation of religion, makes a really nice element in the vacuous nothing that the world around Suttree feels like to him. It's such a simple line and not even spoken by the main character, but it means so much to the theme that's common across Cormac's works; the relationship to God the world and its people have, that Suttree may have but lives/dies in spite of.

Does anyone see the resemblance of Foucault and the Judge? This might receive a censure from the moderator, but look at the photos of him online.

https://preview.redd.it/o8npuywcw98e1.png?width=979&format=png&auto=webp&s=dfec389f71aa7dcc0808fd30bde327ef8837d97f

Find this quote hard for me to understand...Anyone who has some discussions or idea which book does this quote come from?

Just finished Outer Dark. Overall really enjoyed it, however being honest there were points in this book where I guess I didn’t really appreciate what was going on, I’ll certainly have to come back to this story again in future.

But the hog scene? I was glued to the pages, that whole segment has to be one of the best pieces of fiction I’ve ever read. So dark and eery, like some sort of sacrifice, absolute masterpiece.

obviously mccarthy inspired so I figured this would be the place to post

"A thunderous rifle shot erupts and echoes like a monsoon through the desolate plain of rocks. He lies alone among the cowslips and sunshaded indiangrass, lowering the gun. He missed. The sky dictates to him the hour of the impending crepuscule in its golden black swirls of cummulus monument. A denomination of elk runs off beyond the rocks and the man exhales sharply. He rests his arms down in the dirt of hunters dead and nameless to the years. Their guideless heartbeats would bubble over the roots and shake the stones in a manner presenting like great symbolic footsteps pacing about the perimeter of the deepest hellpit broken forth within the magma. He drinks of a murky green bottle and then he stands and spits. The grass sways with the raising of those dead voices and with its rhythm forms distantly a resounding anvilhead, dark and shrouded. Blessed are those lonesome forgotten who form the aggregate below the border for the rain shall fall to them and they alone will feel it fall. The flowers could wilt right there against the tempest. The soil is wicked, the earth is impartial."

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. PS: whats up with this community? I asked for suggestions before Reading a book, Is that truly that weird ?

Hi everyone,

I'm about to start the third chapter of Blood Meridian (so please refrain from spoilers tyvm). I'm really enjoying the book but I wanted to ask: is there anything anyone would like to share, or recommend me to research, in terms of historical context I should be aware of?

I know I can read this without any prior knowledge but I'd love to get a better understanding of the years leading up to the setting of this book, important events that took place, characteristics of the books setting and so on.

Also for those who are wondering, this is a 1989 Picador Edition which was published in the UK. I was initially looking for the American Vintage Intl. Edition but that one is really difficult to find in this side of the pond.

Okay now I'm rambling but I'm curious...where are you all from?

Thank you everyone :)

I put on 'Scrooged' in the other room for the family and then im in the back of the house watching 'A christmas Story if Scrooge convinces each ghost its not worth living anymore and we are all in a forced prison camp on this world with no goodness or meaning.' I have to watch something happy now. Wow.

I will say though: It was incredibly well done and powerful. Im not sure what to think or what to say about it.

In Garry Wallace’s “Meeting McCarthy,” he shares a note Cormac made to him about how “our inability to see spiritual truth is the greater mystery.” Can anybody shed more light on what he may have meant by this and maybe an example of how it may have been expressed in one of his books?

What do you guys think the moral of the story is in blood meridian, or the main lesson? I see many people talk about how they can't come away with anything of value from such a brutal book, and that they think it left them with nothing. What do you guys take away?

Here are MY THOUGHTS, please share yours.

I took the biggest lesson from the dance at the end.

The judge represents evil, he knows everything, he has been everywhere, he has no bounds and is equally charming and terrifying. However, biggest of all, he is ALWAYS dancing. Evil is always here, it always persists.

We see that when the kid refuses to dance, he gets brutally murdered in a stall.

I took it as this, evil will always exist, it exists alongside human nature, the only way to keep it at bay is to DANCE. "Do not go gentle into that good night" and such, if you want the world to be better, you have to play ball, you have to spread good, you have to be a part of the dance with evil, you can't walk out on it.

Much like life, the dance is unpredictable, the judge described that himself with the bear being killed in the middle of the dance.

In life things happen we can't ever predict, but the only way we avoid evil taking over is if good men dance, and face the world head on, not bowing to evil hoping it will just go away.

I love the book but I struggle to really structure in my mind what the first part means for the story as a whole. What I got is: -The chaos works as a constrast for the peaceful moments of nature around the town later in the book. -It shows us Marion and the kid's father struggling with moder society and ultimately ending crashing down against eatch other. -The bar collapsing is a metaphor for american society coming into a dark and stale period after having a time of abundance. Playing into the lost paradise aspect of things. -And It shows us a degradation of society's morals maybe with Marion sleeping witht the girls they pick up Idk

Is there something else or something I got wrong?

I'm currently a high school senior applying to college and I was curious if anyone was aware of any US universities currently offering courses related to Cormac Mccarthy? Like anything specifically about either him as a person, his works as a whole, or a particular book such as Blood Meridian. I've seen courses on other authors such as George Orwell, and while I'm happy to continue reading his book on my own time, it'd be neat to see what schools have these opportunities.

I've been listening Richard Poe reading Blood Meridian again when a thought struck me. The preceeding passage, in short, is:)

"The boy look at one and then the other of the animals. As if he'd pick one to suit the Judge's character, such dogs existing somewhere perhaps."

I've read and listened to the book a few times and I am at a loss for what sort of canine companion could possibly suit the Judge's mien, real or fictional. I almost feel no domesticated animal would serve his personality, yet I also don't believe his ego would allow anything that would challenge his authority wild or otherwise.

Just what kind of dog does a man like Judge Holden match with?

This scene has been really bugging me. I half-swear I read it in a Cormac McCarthy novel, but I can't seem to find it again. Thank you!

I don’t even know if I’m describing this correctly, so sincere apologies to any and all grammarians on this sub.

I’ve noticed that - among his various stylistic quirks - McCarthy is fond of using regular, unmodified verbs as participial adjectives. Some examples:

“Across the river the lights of the lumber company lay foreshort and dismembered...” “A world beyond all fantasy, malevolent and tactile and dissociate...” “On their backs were vermiculate patterns...” “...malign and baleful shapes that reared like enormous androids...” “...Emaciate and blinking and with the wind among her rags...”

To me, the usage always feels archaic or biblical, but I don't actually know if there's any precedent for it. It's one of my favorite features of his writing, but I guess I'm not entirely sure why he does it or where he got it from. I've been scouring this sub and the internet trying to understand where he might have picked up this tendency, whether it's a gesture to a particular writer, form, era, etc. Has anyone else noticed this proclivity in his writing? I'm really curious to learn whether it was popular in older dialects of English to form adjectives like this, or whether this is just Cormac having fun and doing his thing.

I’m currently reading ‘My Confession’ for the first time, and while the book is interesting, it really isn’t what I was expecting. I’m about 2/3 of the way done with it at this point and I can definitely see where it inspired ‘Blood Meridian’ but I’m a little curious about the fact that Glanton has only appeared in it one time so far. I was expecting Glanton and the gang to play a much larger role throughout than they have up until this point. I suppose mainly what I’m wondering is if the Glanton Gang does become a focal point towards the end of the book, or if the book’s influence on BM is just looser than people make it out to be. If there really isn’t much about the Glanton Gang throughout the book, is there any other, more detailed accounts that you would suggest?

Thanks.

I'm a fan of McCarthy's writing. As soon as I finish one of his books, I'm thinking about his next book I want to read. Every experience has been more enjoyable, challenging and rewarding than the previous one. Until I started The Orchard Keeper.

I recently finished The Orchard Keeper and wanted to share some of my thoughts on it. Some of you who may have struggled with the book might find this helpful. I'm usually a pretty fast reader, normally finishing, even lengthy books, quite fast. The Orchard Keeper, a roughly 250 page book, took me almost 3 weeks to read. This book can't be read quickly. Many parts have to be read and re-read in order to even get the most basic understanding of what's going on.

The first part of the book doesn't make any sense. There is too much flowery prose. The references are obscure and disjointed. The vocabulary is difficult, even for a native speaker. Although, italics are used to denote the various points of view they jump around so much that it is difficult to get any particular perspective of the characters, locations or times. Generally, it was a very frustrating book to read. Or so that's what I thought.

Something happened with about 80 pages left to go. Just when I was ready to abandon the book, something I almost never do, something happened. Things started to fall in place. A plot developed. I started remembering the earlier references, the prose lightened up and I really started to enjoy the book. By the time I finished the book I had forgotten all of my previous frustrations and was ready to crown The Orchard Keeper as one of the best books, I've read in 2024.

I'm not sure if McCarthy did this intentionally. The danger of making a book too difficult and obtuse to read, is that it turns off a large portion of the reading audience. You can see how polished McCarthy became, in his later works. This novel is not that. This feels like a first novel, where he started to figure it out midway through writing it. I can only imagine the back and forth between McCarthy and his editor. I'm sure a lot of people started reading this book, put it down and never opened it again. I almost did. I hate to use the old cliche, but it ages like a fine wine. The further along you get, the better it gets.

I know I will benefit greatly from a re-reading of the whole novel, something I plan on doing. Knowing a summary of the book will probably make it less frustrating initially, but I feel like you lose some of the revelations (ah-ha moments and connections) later in the book. If you get frustrated reading this book, I would suggest slowing it down and enjoy ride without trying to figure it out too much. The story will be revealed by the end of the book.

Have you discovered the perfect large, bald man to play the judge? Do you feel compelled to share erotic watermelon images? Did AI produce a dark landscape that feels to you like McCarthy’s work? Do you want to joke around and poke fun at the tendency to share these things? All of this is welcome in this thread.

For the especially silly or absurd, check out r/cormacmccirclejerk.

My complete collection of McCarthy first editions. It took me about 6 years of cobbling it together between 2012 and 2018 through various online sellers (ABE, eBay, and Alibris). I was fortunate and did not have to pay top dollar for any of them. Always at the right place and at the right time, with motivated sellers. Also fortunate in that they are all great condition if not fine. Bonus: Blood Meridian is not a remainder, and NCFOM is signed on the tip-in page. Most people who see my collection in my home don't realize what they are looking at.. They'll just say, "nice books". Little do they know..

https://preview.redd.it/a6r3nnkazu7e1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16c9be39fd701456a9c3c9232d399c80efafe2d2

Non-remaindered BM

Signed NCFOM

These guys used to have an online forum...I assume this is dead and gone, right? I would love to have a scholarly work-up of r/cormacmccarthy from a tenured professor right now.