Master of Petersburg

[Michael F]

Cormac isn't one of the "Enlightened" Modern intellectuals, and I don't
think Pynchon is either; both loathe and eschew the tools that "push" us
forward into Modernity.  McCarthy falls into the category of Ancient
thinkers more than he does Modern(Bacon, Spinoza and so forth), as a matter
of fact I think he's out to dispute mane of the Modern philosophical
concepts.  Yes, he believes that evil is as ever present as the air we
breath, and of course the Modern, "Enlightened" Humanity departments, and
readers, can't grasp this; because of course they have all the answers as to
how the world can be "saved".  The only fiction writer of the Modern era
that I would be able to compare him to would be Conrad(who is of course,
against the author's stated intentions, read for political reasons on our
institutions).
Please, read McCarthy's "Knoxville Fiction" it is much better than his
post-Blood Meridian pieces.  It's not surprising that Hollywood want no
parts of his Knoxville fiction, I can't fail to mention that there's no one
in Hollywood who could read his earlier fiction.  I shouldn't be too hasty,
The Road has as much philosophical insight as his earlier works do.  Don't
start off with NCFOM or the Border Trilogy.

Mike

On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Thomas Eckhardt <
thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:

> Laura and David,
>
> thanks for your comments on Cormac McCarthy. I will give him a try as soon
> as I have finished "Against the Day" (which may yet take a while).
>
> David, I hope you are in a safe place.
>
> Thomas
>
>
>
> kelber at mindspring.com schrieb:
>
>> I've jumped in and started reading Master of Petersburg.  I needed an
>> antidote to The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolano, which I gave myself
>> permission to stop reading halfway through.  That book struck me as an
>> emotionally arid ego trip.  I'm only 50 pages into Master.  I was a little
>> put off at first by the, not pretentious, but overly literary writing style.
>>  I kind of have a horror of books that can be described as "well crafted" -
>> heavy on style, weak on content.  I'm not far enough along to decide whether
>> Master falls into that category.
>>
>> I wouldn't describe Cormac M. as pretentious (I've only read Blood
>> Meridian, and I've seen the movie of No Country for Old Men, so I'm no great
>> authority).  But his apparent obsession (EVIL is afoot and it's something we
>> all have to reckon with) isn't one I share.
>>
>> Laura
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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