NP Satan in Lit (was Re: No Country plausibility issues)

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I've read Blood Meridian and seen the movie of NCFOM.  Cormac seems to have an obsession with Evil (make that EVIL) stalking the earth.  It's irrelevant whether this EVIL is a stand-in for Satan or a cartoonish monster.  Cormac seems to feel that it's something we all have to face and reckon with.  For those of us who don't share this obsession (or share it only in small doses, say, after watching the Fox-network local nightly news), Cormac's books/film adaptations can come across as kind of pretentious.

I didn't hate BM, but it started to get old, particularly as it became clear that there would be neither plot nor character development.  I think it would have worked better cut down to an epic poem.  The beginning and end of the NCFOM movie seemed similarly bogged down in artsy pretentiousness (what Richard aptly refers to as corn pone philosophizing).  The middle section of the film was highly entertaining because the Coen brothers took over and left Cormac brooding in the dust.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mr Haney <bonhommie-man at live.com>


>> From: richardryan> doesn't have to sit through the sheriff's tedious corn pone> philosophizing.
>actually that was one of the things I liked about it...
>the thing that tied the book together for me, the idea of
>the guy aging out of the law-enforcer role, he (not the author, I'd say)
>opining of how the criminals these days are worse ever, more than he can handle,
>never saw such evil -- likeable enough guy, and the thing about his father
>gone ahead to light the way...
>the personal touch in a sense, those particular morning fires that his father lit
>being similar to the cases that the sheriff did solve during his career which is
>drawing to a close - 
> 
>> > My point is simply to acknowledge that it's> possible for the human and the monstrous to cohabit in a literary or> cinematic figure. >
> 
>when old Sugar comes a cropper in that car wreck, we see that what
>happened to Wells will eventually happen to him, as to every badass...
> > 3. What are these human/attractive elements of the Judge you folks> keep mentioning? I seem to have missed them, but I freely admit that I> find the enormous flashing "IMPORTANT SYMBOL" sign McCarthy has placed> over his head terribly distracting...> 
>I'm unqualified to thoroughly address this, since I couldn't finish the book (too much violence,
>too little to love, I thought) ...but that never stops me... the judge gives some speeches
>that are pretty intelligent, sets forth the view of war as the ultimate game (in a way that
>begs for equally intelligent refutation, which the only sign of in the book that I saw was the Mennonite 
>warning the Kid and his buddy(ies?) in that one town)  -- also he knows many languages
>and science & stuff...
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