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This is my first McCarthy. Maybe a bad first choice but oh well. Can’t say I’m too in love so far. The western sections are good enough, but the italicized sections feel like a bit of a slog. Not feeling like they’re adding much at this point. It’s like a bad Pynchon riff. In chapter one, someone staying at the seven seas dies, presumably of suicide? Anyone able to parse what the method was? They say he “took the pipe”, and someone references they could smell the gasoline and that his doors were all taped up. Almost sounds like carbon monoxide, but not sure how that could be done in an apartment. It was a brief scene, but feels like it should be substantial. Wondering if anyone took something else had a different read on it?
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Dec 21, 2022 04:36
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King Carnivore posted:He killed the pilot light opened up the burners on the stove and ate the gas. As you said, it mentions him sealing beneath the door. The death isn’t made out to be big deal because what’s another wino suicide in New Orleans? Gotcha, this makes sense. I guess it serves to show how physically and mentally haunted by his Alicia's death and suicide Western is. He is so immersed in mourning he ends up literally living and sleeping in an apartment in which there was a recent suicide. The hallucinatory passages are so Pynchon-esque I am convinced it's intentional. The puns, alliteration, sight gags, music numbers, and vaudeville tropes are all uncannily Pynchon. There's just no way he is unaware of how on the nose this impersonation of the other old, great, living, American writer is. The thematic content of the book more generally too, the obsession with mathematics, non-linearity, fate, all echoes Pynchon's career themes, though less blatantly and directly. It seems odd to me a writer of McCarthy's stature would so directly reference a contemporary in this way, in what may be his final work. I'm having a hard time reconciling that. It's so blatant it goes beyond mere reference into the realm of omage for me. Again, seems like kind of an odd thing to do in what might be his ultimate work. hobbez fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Dec 21, 2022 |
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Dec 21, 2022 21:36
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Jewmanji posted:Is there a particular Pynchon it reminds you of? Or a best example? Both against the day and gravity's rainbow have many random, impromptu vaudeville acts. Puns, alliteration, and nonsense are generally rife throughout. Maybe later I'll grab my copies and find some specific examples to chew on.
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Dec 21, 2022 23:43
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Professor Shark posted:Man, I waited for this book to come out forever and it just doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. I guess I really wanted something similar to NCFOM? If you've liked him in the past idk I'd give it a shot. I'm halfway through and it's really growing on me. Really enjoying how the story of this family, and specifically Bobby and Alicia's relationship, slowly unfolds. McCarthy really shows, no telling done here at all. The themes slowly reveal themselves and just simmer. They always come back around and get examined from another angle. This line really stopped me in my tracks: quote:“Grief is the stuff of life. A life without grief is no life at all. But regret is a prison. Some part of you which you deeply value lies forever impaled at a crossroads you can no longer find and never forget.”  That's some good poo poo.We'll see if it stays this way but I'm good and hooked right now! At the very least I'm super excited to dig into his other work now, having only read the road in college and which I can't say I remember much about. hobbez fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Dec 28, 2022 |
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Dec 28, 2022 05:15
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Fun Times! posted:I thought The Passenger was pretty indulgent. It seems McCarthy wanted to write about cars, science and...JFK conspiracy? Idk man, I can't begrudge him after all he's given us. In between the semi-random conversations between Western and his buddies, there are many beautiful philosophical passages about death and grief. McCarthy has a way of being a mystery man while also writing deeply personal works. The Passenger is probably one of the saddest and most direct portrayals of grief, loss, isolation, and the indifference of the universe/god that I've ever read. Being 89, at that point in your life, you have seen like 95% of the most important people to you in life live and die. The universe and life can probably seem like a pretty cold, indifferent place at that point. I think in many ways this what McCarthy is expressing in The Passenger, and I feel a little obligated to oblige the man some indulgence because of that. Personally, I think the JFK stuff and other derailments are fun. I guess overall I liked The Passenger significantly more than the thread on the whole. If this is C-tier McCarthy I am just so fuckin pumped to get into his S-tier stuff! Blood meridian has sky rocketed up the reading list
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Jan 17, 2023 18:32
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 13:29 |
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Fun Times! posted:You read The Passenger first? poo poo well yeah you're in for a treat then. I read the road back in college but I can't say it left much of an impression on me.
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Jan 17, 2023 21:22
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