Where do I start with Mr. Charles "Cormac" McCarthy? Is he even worth reading?

>Only 2 of 8 replies even mention a book.
Man, I think Veeky Forums might be the worst board on all of Veeky Forums.

If you like Westerns or Americana then Blood Meridian is nice. The Road is fairly popular if you want to start with something more mainstream. The problem with him is that if you've read one of his books, you've read them all. They're all essentially the same thing in a different setting, down to the theme, message, and prose of the book. He's very distinctive, but perhaps a bit TOO distinctive. It's like how you only need to hear two seconds of a song to know it's Red Hot Chili Peppers or how you can tell from a movie trailer if something is directed by Michael Bay or Shyamalan. If you pick one and he's not for you, don't bother trying to force yourself through a second book.

faggot nerds
good job lads

CORNCOB
O
R
N
C
O
B

BOIS
O
I
S

>meme
>The first time I read Blood Meridian, I was so appalled that while I was held, I gave up after about 60 pages. I don’t think I was feeling very well then anyway; my health was going through a bad time, and it was more than I could take. But it intrigued me, because there was no question about the quality of the writing, which is stunning. So I went back a second time, and I got, I don’t remember… 140, 150 pages, and then, I think it was the Judge who got me. He was beginning to give me nightmares just as he gives the kid nightmares. And then the third time, it went off like a shot. I went straight through it and was exhilarated. I said, “My God! This reminds me of Thomas Pynchon at his best, or Nathanael West.” It was the greatest single book since Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.
>we have four living writers in America who have, in one way or another, touched what I would call the sublime. They are McCarthy, of course, with Blood Meridian; Philip Roth, particularly with two extraordinary novels, the very savage Sabbath’s Theater and American Pastoral, which I mentioned before; Don DeLillo’s Underworld, which is a little long for what it does but nevertheless is the culmination of what Don can do; and, of course, the mysterious figure of Mr. Pynchon.

Why does Bloom like As I Lay Dying so much? It's one of Faulkner's weaker novels imo

don't underestimate Veeky Forums's ability to trivialize the esteemed.

I liked Outer Dark. I hear good things about Suttree and The Crossing. Blood Meridian is the obvious read, but if you don't like it up until the Kid joins the gang then you probably won't like it at all. It runs pretty linear throughout.
I personally like the Road, despite Veeky Forums's aversion to popularity. He wrote it for his son, so it's not the same as the rest.

summer

I like his writing but to be honest he does mention mexican food a lot.

I wonder if they held a ritual in the eraly 60's where Faulkner passed the sacred corncob to McCarthy

why do people associate McCarthy with corncobs? I can understand not liking him but what do corncobs have to do with it?

Blood Meridian and The Road are usual fare, although Veeky Forums seems more divisive about The Road. It's either McCarthy's opus or his weakest novel to date. The story isn't very eventful, but I gather it's appreciated more for its atmosphere.

Nabokov, who had never read a book by Faulkner, called him "a writer of corncobby chronicles." And so a bunch of undergrads on this board decided to carry Nabokov's torch and poke fun at a similar author they haven't read.

>if u dn't lik tis buk u hvnt reddit
You tortilla fucking piece of shit.

HANG

YOUR

SELF

CORN

COB

Out of curiosity, could anyone ever have actual discussion about books on Veeky Forums or has it always been nothing but meme-spouting, substanceless garbage where no one ever actually explains why they think what they think?

The latter

DAVID FOSTER WALLAAAAAAAACE

The books must either be rather obscure so that few have read it or a straight up classic from the 19th century or prior. If its not either of these things, the chances of actual discussion occurring is minimal. Bonus memes if the author is still alive or Harold Bloom liked him.

The first book I ever read of his was "The Road" and couldn't put it down. I then tried "No Country For Old Men", "All the Pretty Horses" and "Child of God". Of the three, "Child of God" was the only one that came remotely close to how awesome I felt "The Road" was.

Read Child of God or Blood Meridian first, then read The Border Trilogy, if you've liked what you've read so far read Suttree, after that is up 2 you

Here comes the shitposting.

You're on an anonymous vietnamese shadow puppet drama message board. Why the hell would you come here for serious literary discussion?

>corny mccorncob threads

It's the cycle of this board. You can't just discuss a random book and expect replies because people won't have read it or not remember it well enough to say anything meaningful. So Gass, Corncob, Pessoa, Gaddis, Larkin spamming will get everyone to read their books and in a few months time we will be able to talk about them together.

you're retarded

most of the yecarthy posters have read corncob man and realized he's drivel

corncob posting is my favourite meme

i laugh every time

This. Memes aside, he's painfully derivative of Faulkner and Melville. I post about his corn qualities because I think it's the most blunt way to keep newcomers from falling victim to his retarded folksy prose.

>nabokov
>ceasar
>cornmac

what's it with this board and corn? literally the most obsessed a board has been about a grain since fit and oats

I'm literally eating a can of corn at 5:20 in the morning because of this thread

Here's an idea: Maybe put down actual criticisms to try and start a discussion instead of just spouting out a fountain of shit that makes people regret even coming to the board?

people have tried before but yecarthy posters refuse to engage with it and usually ignore it or do the "5deep3u you just dont get it" defense. sometimes the "you obviously haven't read it" argument too.

it's pointless. corncobs are shoved way too far up their asses

>it's an oprah winfrey's book club thread

Corncobbyists are seriously the worst fucking posters on Veeky Forums because of this.

>le strategic corncobber deflection

yawn.

*spits* ah reckon dis here thread done gun teh shit *rides into sunset*

Corncobbyists are those who actually enjoy the """""literature"""""" of corncob tortillas "dirt & spitting" yecarthy desu mi familia

GOOD GOOD AMERICAN WRITER

youtube.com/watch?v=blnnQMEAfo8

I keep alive the flame of shitpostspast

It didnt used to be this bad, at least not for mccarthy

i dont know what happened

Dislike him. Writer of corncobby chronicles. To consider them masterpieces is an absurd delusion. A nonentity, means absolutely nothing to me.

*spits*

>le ' i'm too good for proper punctuation' hick hack

> HAHAHA CORNCOBYECARTHYTORTILLLLLAZ xD
>holds up spork

I always took The Road as more than just the story. I don't get why people get so weird about it

Indeed, that is how mccarthy writea

Worth it, but only if you're not an absolute faggot who cares about 'style and prose' alone. His works are dull and boring if you read them like poetry. You need to finish each chapter, put down the book, and think about what you read. They're more of bedtime reads. You need to think about the events to understand what he's trying to get across.

His books capture many aspects of human nature that we generally try to ignore and avoid. How are many well-adjusted members of society capable of feeling no remorse for committing grievous crimes? Why do we idolize outlaws and gangsters when most of them are scumbags we'd avoid in real life?

I've only read Blood Meridian and No Country for Old Men so far (haven't watched the film). I'd start off with BM, since its a good introduction to his brutally pragmatic view of our brutal animalistic natures. NCfOM compares several archetypes - the wise old Sheriff, the misguided thief, the sociopathic hitman, and others.

Just don't read it at one go and absorb everything. The beauty in his work is that while it portrays violence, the violence isn't excessive, glorified, or unrealistic. It's real stuff that happens everyday, in the office, battlefield, playground, home, and everywhere you see.

The fallout with The Road is interesting; this board near-unanimously loved it in the early 2010-2011 days.

>The beauty in his work is that while it portrays violence, the violence isn't excessive, glorified, or unrealistic. It's real stuff that happens everyday
This.
People often try to cheapen his work with "shock value" without understanding the difference between writing something to shock people and writing about something that people find shocking.

Dislike him.

The point that McCarthy makes in his works is that we are capable of exponentially more evil than we can fathom, let alone consciously admit. That's what shocks most 'decent' people.

How could nice Janet from next door fuck 20 guys in college alone, marry the guy she met in her senior year, pop out 2 kids by the time she's 25, divorce him by 35, and fuck 35 more guys until she hits menopause? How could nice Robbie who worked at the local grocery store call an airstrike that levels an entire village in Afghanistan? Both of these individuals are scumbags with an outer veneer of well-adjustedness. McCarthy would argue 'because they can'.

Ultimately, each and every one of us are capable of the worst horrors if we know that we can get away with them. Our consciences are simply rationalizations to help us forget that we are following external rules. Once we know that we don't have to follow these rules, we become demonic.

>samefagging this hard

What a hilariously unbalanced pair of examples you gave. No wonder first world sensibility is in the shitter when slutting around is held in the same esteem as bombing a village.

Pa. Why are eggs breakfast?

What.

You can put bacon on lunch.

Ye.

But if you put eggs on stuff it becomes breakfast?

The man spat and said the eggs are not for this world or from this world they come from the chicken but the chicken knows it not.

He wiped his chin and spat.

>61 posts
>30 ips
literally more than half of the answers in this thread is samefagging by that bald cuck

If you think this--one of the oldest themes in literature--is very deep or original, you would probably benefit from more reading. That doesn't make McCarthy's writing bad, to be sure; what makes it bad is the gore depicted in sparse ("biblical") language, which serves to make it more shocking. That's what he does and it ain't that clever after a while. A few philosophical quips here, then a bit of slashing. Now the cosmic, now the mundane. That's his shtick. It's not that bad as some make it to be, especially if you're a novice reader (which doesn't mean idiot or "pleb", so don't get too defensive about it) but it fails to impress and feels gimmicky after a while.

Veeky Forums was a pretty slow board before but then Veeky Forums was made and sometime we had shitposters from /mu/ stick around.

Anyone got the original video of the guy in the car yelling "DAVID FOSTER WALLACE" at people?

sounds more like the same 2 - 3 yecarthy fags samefagging it up

protip most people who've read a lot and have some semblance of taste realize yecarthy is a corncobber.

what does it mean to be a corncobber? Is it that he writes provincial literature with a definite time, place, and context? If so, Joyce is a corncobber

I've got you senpai.
youtube.com/watch?v=sXvAd7COpJY

If the internet gets wiped out and we're allowed to save only one video, I'm saving that one.

Just some dumb shit Nabocock made up

The level of assdamage in these posts belies your garbage taste. Try reading something besides meme books, kiddo

kek

WHAT DO CORNCOBS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING

Not entirely true. I loved All the Pretty Horses but disliked The Road even though I read The Road about a year earlier.

literally me

What would you recommend I read in the same genre/ category?