NP - The Leftovers

[David Morris]

Don't have HBO, so no Leftovers for me (unless my library has the DVD). But
it seems the title could be synonymous to P's Preterite.  And the "why"
questions you posit are at the show's core are pure GR ones also.

Re. the "so what?" of BM, I see a few of them (besides the beauty of the
horrific imagery).  First is the futility of resistance to the unstoppable
Evil (or is it just Nature?), and how humankind relates to that futility
(as well as the seeming existence of the occasional grace that allows
escape). Second is the seductive beauty and the subsequent intoxication,
and then manic possesion by that Evil, and that such Evil is so closely
associated with Power, probably its greatest seductive aspect.

That's enough for now, but I do think McCarthy is more than a gore-master.

David Morris

On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 12:28 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> I've been following the discussion on Cormac McCarthy - and have to weigh
> in as not being a fan. Admittedly, I've only read Blood Meridian and seen
> the movie version of No Country For Old Men, which may not be a
> representative sampling. But I read his primary theme as Evil, and Man's
> need to reckon with or otherwise atone for or own up to it. Yes, the
> language is poetic, but it doesn't send my brain into thought-provoking
> areas. If the Judge is a representation of the Evil That Men Do, well, at
> the end of it all, so what? [Pause, to get pelted with invective]
>
> I recently binge-watched the first two seasons (a third and final one is
> in the offing) of the HBO series, The Leftovers. And in some ways, it does
> a more interesting job of setting up a metaphor for Man reckoning with
> Death. The premise of the show is that, one day, 2% of the wor'd's
> population randomly disappears, and those left behind must make sense of
> it. Is it the Rapture, a punishment, a conspiracy or just a random,
> meaningless event? The point of the show is that there will never be an
> answer. A strange cult that arises seems (to me) to be a stand-in for
> organized religion.
>
> Anyone seen it?
>
> Laura
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20151217/9e6f2b49/attachment.html>