Cormac McCarthy on Death & the Afterlife

What does Cormac McCarthy believe happens after death? Is Cormac McCarthy a Christian? Did Cormac McCarthy write about his death through his novels before it happened? We will answer all these questions today and more with this deep philosophical dive into Cormac McCarthy's views on death!
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📕 My favorite books on Cormac McCarthy 📘
Cormac McCarthy in Context: amzn.to/46GsEw3
A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy - amzn.to/3Rwz6Ba
Cormac McCarthy, Philosophy and the Physics of the Damned - amzn.to/3Ryw2Vs
Shreds of Matter: Cormac McCarthy and the Concept of Nature - amzn.to/3ZJL9gR

[@jartladder15]

I love that quote from the Orchard Keeper about the dead ancestors and at the end the image of the boy leaving it all behind if I'm remembering the story correctly. It's been years since I read that book but these words and moments just stick with me. I need to reacquire these books again but here's another Orchard Keeper quote I found on Goodreads: “Evening. The dead sheathed in the earth’s crust and turning the slow diurnal of the earth’s wheel, at peace with eclipse, asteroid, the dusty novae, their bones brindled with mold and the celled marrow going to frail stone, turning, their fingers laced with roots, at one with Tut and Agamemnon, with the seed and the unborn.”

[@WriteConscious]

Jesus, beautiful quote from The Orchard Keeper!

[@IanGamache]

Well said!

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks Ian!

[@RJGilman1967]

No. "Unimaginable?" No. He understands death in ONLY THE ACADEMIC SENSE, not even with a high intellectual sense. He is a materialist. And his writing is and will go into the cannons of other books of LIMITED GREAT IMPORTANCE LIKE THE BIBLE. Oh, he was into physics? What he couldn't branch out? Did he hear about Meta or Quantum? GTFO. Did he understand Godel's "Incompleteness theories" sounds like he should have. Did he wrestle with Cantor's Theorem? No, because he would have to be free from his past. The more I learn about a man who I think in most ways was the greatest American writer, the more I lose respect for his prowess. When he talks about having to meet "my mother again and start all of that all over," that's a pussy caveat. That's a weak man. Start what all over? Who ever made THAT something? Start all over? Uh, no. The only one portraying consciousness as limited is McCarthy. I could go on and on and on. I WOULD BET in the end he understood death better.

[@ShaneNull]

so many great death quotes: the counsellor -- the extinction of all reality is a concept no resignation can encompass

[@nounxyz]

“Every man’s death is a standing in for every other. And since death comes to all there is no way to abate the fear of it except to love that man who stands for us. We are not waiting for his history to be written. He passed here long ago. That man who is all men and who stands in the dock for us until our own time come and we must stand for him. Do you love him, that man? Will you honour the path he has taken? Will you listen to his tale?” Cities of the Plain

[@WriteConscious]

Beautiful quote!

[@johnalbert5786]

Who will write Cormacs biography?

[@penelopegreene]

Each generation will write and rewrite it, and argue about them...

[@WriteConscious]

I am! Already have over 10,000 words. But, mine is going to be the wild one with psychological reaches that piss everyone off! If you take the step of connecting his writing to his life it's a gold mine as potent as Hemingway. The McCarthy bro community is too lit bro to handle it though. I am expecting massive blow back especially if I am the first to release one lmao.

[@benlincoln7358]

@@WriteConsciousglad to hear that you’re not letting the reactionary fools keep you from your work. It definitely saddens me to think about cormac being forgotten about. Really like your line in the last video about Cormac writing true authentic characters when discussing the shit he most likely will get cancelled/edited(censored) for. Keep doing your thing, and fk the Reddit-bro groupthink circle jerk

[@danarmandstancu571]

@@WriteConscious I’d buy that book in a heartbeat!

[@WriteConscious]

I'm hoping some more stuff gets donated to the archive or his friends/family start spilling the beans more!

[@nathanbuck7572]

All Cormac all the time let's go

[@marcyfan-tz4wj]

good luck taking on additional rabbit holes. i've enjoyed each of the videos i've watched since he skipped town..

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks!!

[@Cosmos142857]

"He almost figued it out." Would be my epitaph. He new it was unmitigated terror, but he didn't know what to do or say about it, and he didn't seem to have any way of dealing with it. The ultimate struggle only to know, in the end, you lose.

[@WriteConscious]

Nice epitaph!

[@JoshKinniard]

Some excellent analyses. Curious: Haven't heard anyone mention it nor have I reread or researched since first reading, but I feel like I might have noticed a semantic trick toward the ending of The Passenger; perhaps used in the last few pages of both new works. Notice something similar by any chance?

[@WriteConscious]

Nope, enlighten us!

[@lionstandingII]

New subscriber to your channel.....Are you Christian?

[@WriteConscious]

Nope, are you?

[@lionstandingII]

@@WriteConscious Yep, I am.

[@TheHundredHeads]

Who could qualify for the greatest living author? I’m sure there’s loads of great international candidates, so who is the great English speaking author? Surely Pynchon died years ago, De Lillo is good but not like he used to be. Some, not me, might shout for Joyce Carol Oates. Even though I said no internationals, Murakami could be considered the ‘world novelist’. Brits like Ishiguro, Gaiman or Rushdie maybe deserve a shout. How about Chuck Palahniuk, John Franzen or Brett Easton Ellis? I don’t think any of these names (except Pynchon) really hit that legendary status of McCarthy who produced several canonical works in different decades. Straight up, my favourite living author might be James Ellroy, so I’m gonna say he is the greatest.

[@WriteConscious]

Ellroy is a great pick! De Lillo has had a bad couple decades, but some of his works are better than anything anyone else alive has written. Ishiguro and Murakami deserve a spot in the conversation for sure. Ishiguro unreliable narrator depth mastery is akin to McCarthy's best elements. Pynchon is probably dead. Gaiman hasn't written a proper novel since 2005 and a lot of his works don't hold up. Rushdie doesn't have the depth. Franzen isn't innovative enough. Chuck Palahniuk doesn't have strong enough prose to carry his works to masterpieces.

[@TheItFactorMMA]

I keep seeing people on this channel saying Thomas Pynchon is dead. There is no evidence to suggest this that im aware of. He is simply reclusive. If he dies it will likely be public knowledge.

[@AJPzaworld]

I hope McCarthy found the answers he desired in whatever afterlife was proven to be correct. For myself, on life and death, unlike McCarthy I hardly had much investment in religion or an afterlife beyond what I had when I was younger or for the sake of studying-pretty iconoclastic, zealotry and all, Christian and Catholic, all the jam. I just found the notion of God and an afterlife something I really just lost any kind of conviction or interest in, no real defining moment or sudden surge of scientism or whatever, but respected those who believe in it as they so please without harm or worry or want. Been a pretty stringent atheist (anti-theist I would say at this point) ever since. I just live like Cioran and Beckett, classic mentality of "If nothing we do matters, that all matters is what we do."

[@adampearson1541]

It’s been the same for me for something like the past decade: but when I think of something like a grand purpose, if could be ascertained, it usually comes from a place of being dissatisfied simply being. Like there has to be a greater purpose to justify not getting what I want from life, a thing that “truly matters” in contrast with the shallow things I want that don’t.

[@WriteConscious]

Great thoughts Adam and AJP!

[@voidhasbeenentered]

I just wanted to drop in and tell you that you are amazing, your heart driven approach is so engaging and you're such a smart and gifted speaker, I could listen to you talk about anything. I love how you weave so many interesting things into each video from psychedelics to your own personal journey as human. I relate to you on so many levels and that is such a testament to YOU and your openness and just bein' a real mother fucker. Every night when my fiancé and I are watching your videos I'm just like how the fuck do I become friends with this guy? I'm glad that you exist, thank you for your tireless work and although you make me feel like an idiot with your wealth of knowledge and curiosity, just know that you are massively appreciated. Amazing things on the way for you my dude.

[@michaelemswiller5434]

Love these videos man

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks brotha!

[@adampearson1541]

These videos are helping me cope with his death a lot. If anything his work has done for me it’s not just in acknowledging the transitory nature of life but seeing it in the everyday, which some might call morbid, but it truly helps dispense with junk values that I previously based my happiness on. I’d like to see you do a video where you elaborate more on why we shouldn’t want our ego to die. Especially as it pertains to things like desire. I’ve always seen the ego as a bottomless pit that desires more and more and cannot be fulfilled, but with the complete absence of one, what are you then left with? What does the ego or absence of ego look like in its ideal form? This is one area where I would imagine you have more of the answers than McCarthy.

[@Dapryor]

Damn, McCarthy’s fan base is smart. I love that post.

[@WriteConscious]

Yes, I will be making more videos on that at some point! Was going to release something on it before McCarthy died and I got thrown back into McCarthy land lol

[@leefer1955]

For those who search for C.M. insight "help" like ME, your vids are like water!! Thanks w.c.!

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks!