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The book’s great. What were people disappointed about? Yeah. The chapters with the kid were tedious, but tedious in an intentional dream logic sort of way. Plus I’m a sucker for crude puns and malapropisms. And am I crazy, or is it pretty much explicitly the case that The Kid is Bobby and Alicia’s child?
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Nov 9, 2022 02:11
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Jewmanji posted:Are you basing that on the fact that they both have visions of The Kid? It’s an interesting thought but I don’t know if that fact alone is very persuasive. That scene is when everything fell into place but it's there throughout. He's a manifestation of what kept the two from consummating their love: that innate fear/revulsion towards physical deformity, which founds the taboo around incest. So basically he's the product of their love. He literally exists because of it. And in that sense the Kid is their kid. Reread his scenes as an abandoned son traveling across dimensions to torment/connect with his parents. Still puzzled over the scene with the little wooden man. Who is Crandall? quote:For me, the main failing was that Bobby just didn’t feel like a fully coherent character to me. The disparate parts of his history didn’t gel in my mind. Math whiz? Son of a major inventor? Incestuous? Race car driver? Deep sea diver? It was all just a bit much for me, even if you posit that the book isn’t strictly literal. I don't know, I just enjoyed reading it. Western's incoherence felt relatable to me. The whole thing was incoherent in a "lots of ideas McCarthy had over the decades knit together as a sort of farewell to the world" and I'm just grateful it exists. I did know an Alicia who pronounced her name that way. Don't know what's up with that. I haven't read Suttree yet. I tried years ago and bounced off for whatever reason. That, Outer Dark, and No Country are the only McCarthy novels I have yet to read.
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Nov 9, 2022 04:21
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Boco_T posted:I really loved Cormac spends 5 pages letting you know how convinced he is about a JFK assassination conspiracy. Haha! Yes! The whole time I was just like what the hell Cormac. Then again it's 100% something a psychic PI would spend 5 pages talking about. I don't think enough people are pointing out just how wacky this book is. It felt like I was reading Pynchon at times. Anyone catch the part where Long John plays poker with William Burroughs? Jewmanji posted:That’s an interesting take on it, thanks. I think I was investing too much in the thalidomide reference and thought maybe he was a manifestation of children born with deformities because of parental exposure to radiation. Though I guess that’s not incompatible with your take. That too, absolutely. I also think it's worth pondering, is Alicia some kind of mutant?
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Nov 9, 2022 15:34
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Jewmanji posted:But the narrator isn’t a teenager either. It’s partially omniscient third person. In the fact the character you’re thinking of isn’t even a teenager. John Grady Cole not a teenager? Also, for what it’s worth, All The Pretty Horses did not amaze me either, but the Border Trilogy as a whole turned out one of the most deeply moving reading experiences of my life.
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Dec 27, 2022 15:45
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