NP, but a bit of prose poetry...

[Mark Sacha]

Kai, your remarks about Tarot are how I feel about a lot of content in his
novels, not excepting the biblical, which is so heavy but I would say
nowhere evangelical. Come to think of it, it's also how I feel about a lot
of Pynchon, especially the magic and the pseudoscience in M&D and ATD.
They're part of how we've historically defined ourselves and in that sense
not to be dismissed. Our present-day identities, subscriptions, and
anxieties just new layers of sedimentation.

On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 5:37 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

>
> On 17.12.2015 16:20, Ian Livingston wrote:
>
> McCarthy writes about Man in the world. I think Suttree is a perfect case
> in point. Man is dispossessed and sterile, his sex is fruitless (even with
> watermelons) and his copulations are with a form of Woman who no longer is
> in the living world. I think the sterility of Man in his competitive
> commitment to violently wresting gratification from an unknown, barely
> guessed-at Other, that Man must hate in his ignorance, is representative of
> all the sex McCarthy needs. Man fucks the world. Blood Meridian is, yeah,
> genius; and, yes, it all comes back to the Whale as it is in the postmodern
> world. There is a wonderful study, developed from a diss, I think,
> evaluating BM in part as a Tarot reading. Ah, yes, Notes on Blood Meridian,
> by John Sepich. Highly recommended.
>
> http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3143478-notes-on-blood-meridian
>
>
>
> https://everywhereleonine.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/on-tarot-in-blood-meridian/
>
> The Tarot reading takes place in chapter VII.
>
> "Bueno, said the juggler. Bueno. He admonished caution with a forefinger
> to his thin lips and took the card and held it aloft and turned with it.
> The card popped once sharply. He looked at the company seated about the
> fire. They were smoking, they were watching. He made a slow sweep before
> him with the card outheld. It bore the picture of a fool in harlequin and a
> cat. El tonto, he called." (Vintage edition, p. 92)
>
> Like Pynchon, McCarthy seems not so much to believe or invest into Tarot
> yet to use its archetypal potential for spicing his novel with urpictures
> of experience.
>
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 6:40 AM, Mark Sacha <msacha1121 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> If you're interested in the topic, have the time, and have access to a
>> copy (the latter two are big ifs), Vollmann's unabridged Rising Up and
>> Rising Down is, I think, the de facto modern text on it. It's split up into
>> two major sections - the first is analytical/theoretical and the latter is
>> essentially an unedited compendium of his journalism, which are included as
>> case studies. Only (haha) the first five volumes are really essential to
>> the book. Since it's Vollmann we're talking about here, it's really
>> thorough, although political in ways people won't always agree with and a
>> little inconsistent in tone and quality. But I was blown away by it.
>>
>> I got mine from a library since copies run upward of $1000.
>> https://www.worldcat.org/title/rising-up-and-rising-down/oclc/53820538&referer=brief_results
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 9:12 AM, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Been curious about Vollman for a bit
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thursday, December 17, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Now you have Vollman to read. A MAJOR subject, as we know.
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 8:12 AM, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > I am nearing the end of another book on violence, not nearly as epic
>>>> or
>>>> > beautiful as BM but another perspective, psychological and discrete.
>>>> I have
>>>> > read Ballardian landscapes described as "quantal" and I think it is
>>>> perfect
>>>> > description.
>>>> >
>>>> > I think I am organically crafting some imaginary course on violence
>>>> in my
>>>> > head. Started with the Spanish film Tesis by Ameñabar,
>>>> Baader-Meinhoff by
>>>> > Delillo (it's a short story in the New Yorker, not necessarily
>>>> violent but
>>>> > terrorism and trauma) then Blood Meridian and now High Rise by
>>>> Ballard.
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Thursday, December 17, 2015, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >> OMG that is so obvious! And the whole time reading it I am
>>>> constructing
>>>> >> wild theories as to why the man is hairless. Represents his
>>>> supernatural
>>>> >> otherworldliness, a skin suited for a different terrain, Yada yada
>>>> yada
>>>> >> can't believe I didn't consider the freaking whale itself.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> I'm going to have to buy a copy because there is a lot I want to go
>>>> back
>>>> >> to. Got mine from the library
>>>> >>
>>>> >> And Mark that home alone bit is hilarious. Spot on.
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> On Wednesday, December 16, 2015, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> I'm sure it is no accident the Moby Dick is so evoked by BM.  The
>>>> Judge
>>>> >>> is the whale.
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> David Morris
>>>> >>>
>>>> >>> On Wednesday, December 16, 2015, Perry Noid <coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
>>>> >>> wrote:
>>>> >>>>
>>>> >>>> Moby Dick was at the front of my mind throughout. Instead of man
>>>> hunting
>>>> >>>> a whale, and everything that represents, man is hunting man. I'm
>>>> sure u all
>>>> >>>> have dissected this one like an injun scalp but since I haven't
>>>> really
>>>> >>>> discussed it with anyone I'll say this in passing to get it out. I
>>>> think the
>>>> >>>> lack of sex scenes was certainly indicative of something because
>>>> we know sex
>>>> >>>> occurs in the book. And I would like to know what anyone thinks of
>>>> the
>>>> >>>> idiot, his cage and his chain to the judge and why the judge
>>>> rescues him.
>>>> >>>> One of the rare appearances of the fairer sex is when he is
>>>> liberated from
>>>> >>>> his cage. And just a random thought: when reading the passage
>>>> where the
>>>> >>>> judge is walking around with the idiot on the chain my mind seemed
>>>> to conjur
>>>> >>>> Dracula and Renfield. Was wondering what you smarter folk took
>>>> from that
>>>> >>>> whole interaction.
>>>> >>>>
>>>> >>>> On Wednesday, December 16, 2015, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >>>>> Yes, page 247.
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >>>>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2015 at 8:26 AM, Perry Noid <
>>>> coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
>>>> >>>>> wrote:
>>>> >>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>> I just finished reading that for the first time last week. Had
>>>> read
>>>> >>>>>> the Road and No Country, was underwhelmed, and was not expecting
>>>> to be wowed
>>>> >>>>>> like I was with Blood Meridian. I was expecting it to be another
>>>> over
>>>> >>>>>> praised novel that did not meet expectations but it far exceeded
>>>> mine.
>>>> >>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>> That *is* Blood Meridian right?
>>>> >>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>> On Wednesday, December 16, 2015, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >>>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>>> ...They rode on. The horses trudged sullenly the alien ground
>>>> and the
>>>> >>>>>>> round earth rolled beneath them silently milling the greater
>>>> void wherein
>>>> >>>>>>> they were contained. In the neuter austerity of that terrain
>>>> all phenomena
>>>> >>>>>>> were bequeathed a strange equality and no one thing nor spider
>>>> nor stone nor
>>>> >>>>>>> blade of grass could put forth claim to precedence. The very
>>>> clarity of
>>>> >>>>>>> these articles belied their familiarity, for the eye predicates
>>>> the whole on
>>>> >>>>>>> some feature or part and here was nothing more luminous than
>>>> another and
>>>> >>>>>>> nothing more enshadowed and in the optical democracy of such
>>>> landscapes all
>>>> >>>>>>> preference is made whimsical and a man and a rock become
>>>> endowed with
>>>> >>>>>>> unguessed kinship.
>>>> >>>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>>> I'm sure some of you will recognize this...
>>>> >>>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>>> --
>>>> >>>>>>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>> >>>>>>>
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >>>>> --
>>>> >>>>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>> >>>>>
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
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