Cormac McCarthy on Why Modern Literature Sucks

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How does Cormac McCarthy feel about modern literature? In today's video, we will hear McCarthy talk about why writers can no longer write like Dostoevsky and Herman Melville. He will also talk about the evolving audience of readers and why they can't handle indulgent books.

[@WriteConscious]

🚀 I would love to help you understand McCarthy’s novels better in my Cormac McCarthy course & book club. On my Substack, you can access the Blood Meridian For Writers Course and McCarthy’s unreleased interview. Click here to join: writeconscious.substack.com 📖Explore over 200 of McCarthy’s favorite books in my free guide to his favorite books Access here: writeconscious.ck.page/e20249... 👕Want to REP some McCarthy streetwear? Go here! writeconscious.com 📚Want to WRITE better? Join my free writing school: www.skool.com/writeconscious 📕My Best Books of All-Time List: writeconscious.ck.page/355619... 🔥Want to READ my wife’s fire poetry? Go here: marigoldeclipse.substack.com 🤔My Favorite Cormac McCarthy Novel: amzn.to/3TVdzCQ Insta: instagram.com/writeconscious

[@matthewgallant3622]

He’s 100% right. It’s hard for me to talk to a lot of book readers because they just read things like Harry Potter or Stephen King and it’s always the same titles. I just read Karamazov and it was life changing. It shook my soul.

[@mathisgolik3636]

Truly an excellent piece of art. It's been a year and a half since I read it and I still think about it daily

[@samuelallen8945]

starving artist here (photographer) - it's something you have to come to terms with, truly...make some money to live and focus on your art. I eat lentils and pasta for 90% of my meals. It's not fun, but id rather create and follow what I NEED TO DO then sit at a desk working for someone else....

[@penelopegreene]

@@samuelallen8945 *Throws a sack of White Castle Sliders at you!* 👍

[@edwardlecore141]

It's a hard decision, I was a starving artist, (writer) for years, and though I got a lot done, I was miserable, and it became impossible in the end. Now I have a full time job, writing is just for the weekends, and it is frustrating how slow my progress is, but at least I have a better handle on my life. Now I just have to find the time to actually get published on top of the writing.

[@penelopegreene]

@@samuelallen8945 Look, you can go back and forth on your art, however, there's a fly in THAT ointment. Everything is being accelerated, and what was once easy to do, when you're younger and work is sufficient, and full of slack moments so you can collect your thoughts, are disappearing. It is becoming more difficult in time. So your art is at the twin mercies of arthritis and "the speed-up", a victim of Necro-Capitalism

[@Johnmrobinson-vb5vd]

I do like pasta

[@tonyaxelsson4625]

What's your IG bro?

[@JLauthor]

Damn, I really needed to hear he only sold a couple hundred copies of Blood Meridian. Released my second novel this week and it's doing nowhere near as good as my first. If Cormac released a novel to crickets, it puts things in perspective.

[@JLauthor]

@@mattfranco23 Mycelia. It's a neo-gothic horror set during a medical psilocybin study. My first novel was a balls to the wall post apocalyptic novel, this one is slower, more character focused.

[@wrathofatlantis2316]

​@@JLauthor More details? I cannot find it.

[@melaniegrace7707]

Yes please post the full authors name and maybe a link to where we can find it I would love to check it out!!

[@rafaelgabrielgarlinidal-bo9496]

​@@JLauthor help us to find your books man, do you have any link to your Amazon?

[@alexiacerwinskipierce8114]

There are no authors publishing books that you have to take a course to understand. Whether that's a good or a bad thing, I guess it depends on who you ask. Me personally, I prefer not to have to take a course to understand a book. Like all art, either I get it or I don't, some of it moves me and some of it doesn't. It's all subjective and highly personal.

[@alexiacerwinskipierce8114]

@guilhermem4996 I didn't say they didn't exist, just that they aren't as common in publishing now. We haven't seen the likes of a Dostoyevski or a James Joyce in years. But leave it to some random person on the internet to have to point out that people are wrong. Whatever floats your boat dude.

[@alexiacerwinskipierce8114]

@guilhermem4996 I never said books shouldn't require deeper knowledge. Just that our enjoyment of them is purely subjective. To each their own. Having a deeper knowledge allows one to have a better understanding and appreciation for a work of art, whether it be a work of literature or classical music. But not everyone wants to have a deeper knowledge of everything. We are all allowed to pick and choose. It is all very personal on what one enjoys or wants to expand their knowledge on. I love to learn about many things my husband finds completely uninteresting and vice versa. It does not make either of us right or wrong.... I really feel the need to point out. How arrogant must you be to say something like "your point of view is wrong." It's a point of view. You can agree with it or not. Because someone sees things differently from you does not make them wrong. If we all thought the same, life would be so absurdly boring, wouldn't it? I love A healthy debate, I love to hear others' points of view, but your opinion is purely that-an opinion. Just as mine is.

[@alexiacerwinskipierce8114]

@guilhermem4996 Opinions, point of views, are like assholes, we all have one 🤣🤣🤣

[@michaelpeters1644]

Art, real art, not the superficial, false kind that predominates today, needs work. The reader needs to actually make an effort, not just be a passive recipient. So, to read The Brothers Karamazov, The Rainbow, Moby Dick, requires application. And most people, even those whom we would expect more from, book readers, can't be bothered.

[@mt1745]

I got sucked into a black hole on my phone and stopped reading about 7 years ago. All the short form video content ruined my ability to focus for more than a few seconds. Actively working on putting down the gadgets and returning to novels. I am a bit shocked by the quality of 4-5/5 star books on the market right now thought. The quality just isn’t there and I am not enjoying this year’s “best books” like I did in the past. It feels like something important is missing from literature and I was wondering what happened. I am not connecting with what I am reading like I used to. I wanted to talk to someone about this so I found your talk very interesting. With AI knocking on our doors, I am afraid that we are loosing something that will be very hard to claw back. I didn’t even notice how my brain was changing and I worry for younger people who didn’t have access to a world where things were different won’t know what they are missing out on.

[@johnryan3913]

I can totally relate. I read Proust when I was around 20 and frequently wept as I did. Could I read that now? I'm going to try but I am in far more dire circumstances trying to survive, as are most people.

[@mt1745]

@@johnryan3913 it has been ages since a book brought me to tears. I miss that depth of connection and feeling in novels. I also miss being able to sit still and mindfully give a masterpiece my full attention. Loosing this part of myself over the years, against my wishes and without awareness, troubles me. I feel like I need to lock my phone/ipad/computer up and carefully control how much of an influence I allow them to exert on me. Thank god for my local library 📚 and free books.

[@MrUndersolo]

Who seriously thinks Kaur or Hanna are influential? They are trendy, and about as deep as a puddle. Good writers write, and time is the best judge of what will last. And please don't forget that Shakespeare wrote for an audience and wanted to get paid for what he did. Is he someone we consider untalented and selling out? Sorry, but I have heard these arguments too many times (almost every five or ten years) to really take them seriously. I like certain books that I know may not be classics, but I am still reading. Things will work themselves out...

[@AJPzaworld]

I’d prefer to die like Gaddis and Stoner rather than be like Kaur. Passion and pathos, bb, all I invest into for my craft. I love McCarthy, and yeah, we can say he sold out-which he did, most definitely-but he still stands leagues and shoulders over the mass populace of authors. Nobody like him, even then, I would consider these works indulgent, especially Stella Marris and The Passenger. Post modern and possessive of a more lax lexicon compared to Suttree, nothing maximalist as he used to, but it’s wondrous and filled with the chrome mosaic of his soul. Beautifully detailed and orchestrated, leitmotifs uncompromised and beautifully conducted.

[@TJCarpenter]

I've attempted to do this: write an unindulgent novel that speaks to a person's soul. That humanity in print everyone wants. But it has problems I'm now faced with from a traditional publishing perspective: it's too long, 116,000 words, not the 90,000 maximum they cite as an industry standard for literary fiction; it has themes in it that have unpublishable stigma around it (like suicide); and, even though it technically has a traditional story arc, it's structured in a non-traditional, or postmodern way, which hides this. I'm stuck with a dilemma... whether or not to pursue a traditional path or to self-publish. And watching this, and contemplating Bernhard and Gaddis and Wallace and Pynchon; their writing and lives, I have this eeking feeling writing, in becoming so accessible, is now as much of a hobby market as it is an "audience capture" market. Meaning, art has become hobby, and this is now an industry to exploit, people with money and time and a desire much more to "be a writer, than to write," to quote Gaddis. And this is what we see on KZbin: writing is good for you. It's healthy. Good for your brain. Even better, read and write, and write by hand, make sure to meditate and write by hand! I'm not pointing fingers, I promise. But this is my read on it. It's as much a market of readers as writers, now, and that means to a capitalist, they are equal and indistinguishable. Marketing beats merit in a capitalist system.

[@carihislop161]

Don't be discouraged by the difficulty of the mountain you have to climb - figure out what you need to do then start climbing. If you've written a literary novel and you want to be traditionally published start by trying to find an agent. If you can't find an agent who believes in your work - self-publish and let your story start hunting for readers. And keep writing! Don't worry about the number of pages - your readers (the people your story was written for) won't care if the story is short or long. If no market exists create one. One of my new favourite authors, Beth Brower, is writing a 24-book series (The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion). She's finished book 7. When it's finished it will be at least a million words long. Each diary unfolds over three months. It's set in the 1880s. If I was a publisher and someone tried to pitch this to me I wouldn't even read the first paragraph before saying, "Next!" But she's got a brilliant main character and it's funny and poignant and I hope Brower doesn't die before she finishes the story. Along with each volume, she's also using Substack so readers willing to pay a monthly fee get more content about Emma's world (other characters' points of view or episodes that don't make it into Emma's journal etc). She's making a living selling her stories. There is a publishing company selling her books on paper which I suspect it's her own publishing company. I won't be surprised if by the time she finishes all 24 books she's picked up by a major Trad company because she's good and she'll have all those 'readers' who haven't yet bought paperback copies. Yes, the avalanche of slush churned out by people who want to say they've written a book is vast, but if your story is good it will stand out. People will tell their friends about it. I rarely read horror, but I came across this book by Chris Lynch called "Welcome to Neverbury" - a book of short horror stories set in or around Neverbury a made-up English village. It's brilliant. It's funny and horrible and I hope he writes more. I've told people about it. 'How Neverbury' has become a catchphrase in my home (I live in an English village). Don't get bogged down in what-ifs, your readers are waiting.

[@mcr1redpearl]

@@carihislop161 one of the best replies to a youtube comment i've read. awesome xx

[@bart-v]

Contemporary music has exactly the same problem. Impossible to be a Schoenberg, Babbitt or Boulez nowadays without starving.

[@jamban_lover]

schoenberg is shit tho

[@arekkrolak6320]

I don't think Ludovico Einaudi is starving, it is just a question of being sufficiently good and there is only a handful of those in each period

[@IKMTIrr]

​@@arekkrolak6320there were only a few back then too

[@arturoblackmore9728]

@@arekkrolak6320 Ludovico Einaudi don't make the type of contemporary music that @bart-v was referring to.

[@haree8047]

it’s chill bro just listen black midi

I know I’m young but literature is my life. I love reading and writing and I know I’m no perfect author, I don’t think of myself as an author just yet but I’m at a loss of words from my sleepiness. I can’t stop, my entire days consists of reading and writing, and when I’m at work I’m thinking about reading and writing.

[@northwestpsychfest7329]

Keep going

[@RiverheadSkate]

This made me think of Rimbaud for some reason. Keep goin kid

[@bhanuvedantam2413]

How old are you? Your passion is admirable. If you've posted your stuff anywhere, share some links.

@@bhanuvedantam2413 I’m 23.

@@bhanuvedantam2413 Sorry I didn’t answer your other questions. I had a shitty day at work and wasn’t thinking straight. But no I don’t have anything posted. Honestly I don’t want to publish anything until I’m at least 26 or 27, I just feel like I should have a bit more wisdom before I ever decide to publish. Though I let certain family members and friends read my manuscripts.

[@QEsposito510]

Hit us with that DEMON DOG my man. He absolutely rips the tits off of any contemporary novelist who feels obligated to pass through bureaucratic sensitivity readers. Books like American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand or White Jazz will blow the minds of anyone who willingly subscribes to 2020s political sensibilities.

[@WriteConscious]

Agreed. Ellroy is one of the top living authors!

[@MyEnemy]

​@@WriteConscious Absolutely.

[@northwestpsychfest7329]

@@MyEnemy On point sir.

[@LongSurreal]

Novels are no longer the cultural zeitgeist, the medium no longer attracts the most talented and creative minds of a generation. As our society evolves artists will always create moving works telling the stories of their time as It changes around them. This generation will produce great works but won't be found in books, just as the the best sword fighters who ever lived have already died so to the novelist

[@johnryan3913]

Well I certainly don't see it coming from TV, or Hollywood. Breaking Bad was the first sign of how decadent and pretentious that medium has become. In the 60s and 70s music was the great art form. Now apart from some interesting hip-hop I just don't hear it. The Rolling Stones changed and challenged me as much as any American writer of recent decades.

[@TheGoodMD]

Dude the lighting is super dope. Also I’m loving these Cormac shirts. Can’t wait to start rocking them on stage!

[@CotySchwabe]

I’m glad your channel got recommended to me. As a Cormac fan myself, it’s crazy that if even when one of the greatest writers of our time is willing to shift, then we ourselves must also do so to find an audience.

[@dapperduckquack]

would love to have you explain why you think Kendrick Lamar is an industry plant when the man has been releasing music since 2003; a truly baffling take of yours. not to mention a lot of his modern albums are lyrically complex and rewarding on multiple listens.

[@sms3cb]

Came here to see if someone defended that. Just wanted to add you can be popular and one of the greatest ever at your craft. Which Kendrick is. Bad take for sure

[@esaibalderas]

he didn’t win a pulitzer for nothing!!

[@TheSpecsShow]

Yeah, not clued up on Kendrick, and Ian has an invigorating outlook, but I can't help but find that he gets a bit hyperbolic on occasion

[@MarkMorrison-y5u]

Agreed. I was with him, thought he thrives on absolutes a bit much, but then he said that about Kendrick who is so antithetical to an "industry plant." The reason I'm such a Kendrick fan is he is the most Literary artist out and does what this guy credits to the great authors. I'm assuming he just has never actually listened to anything beyond a few of his hits.

[@captainnolan5062]

People still read 'Moby Dick' and 'War and Peace' and enjoy them. People also read the works by Dickens, Austen, and other 'classic' books and enjoy those as well. Why worry about what future readers will or won't like? It is beyond your control anyway. Samuel Johnson said: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Arguably 'Dune' by Frank Herbert is the greatest 'desert novel' of all time. NB: Many of us do not enjoy Post-Modernist literature.

[@WriteConscious]

This video is about writing books like Moby Dick. Not about people who still enjoy the classics.

[@captainnolan5062]

@@WriteConscious You made the point that people nowadays can't read books like Moby Dick; so it does seem to be a bit about reading.

[@joshuagonzalez1474]

@@captainnolan5062 saying that there are still people who enjoying reading that classics (a category of which I would like to think I am a part) doesn’t contradict that there is a general trend, especially with my generations (millenial/gen z) towards a lack of literacy, critical thinking and the attention span required to read backwards even just a few decades into our literary past.

[@captainnolan5062]

I completely agree that there is "a general trend, especially with my generations (millennial/gen z) towards a lack of literacy, critical thinking and the attention span required to read backwards even just a few decades into our literary past."

[@samantaluna3870]

The thing is Modern Literature doesn't suck. People just don't look under the surface. I've gotten my mind blown by certain books in a philosophical way, but those books are in genres that many people don't read, like transgressive or weird fiction.

[@northwestpsychfest7329]

Blood Meridian certainly changed my life as did The Sun Also Rises, The Sheltering Sky and On The Road. I don't say that lightly; I've read a lot of literature and having a novel change your life is a rare and beautiful thing. The Sun Also Rises hit me so hard, I threw it across the room after a finished it. The ending killed me.

[@tzirufim]

I agree, Ian. I hated literature in school too. It was DFW's prose and persona that made me want to read more of the greats. Now I'm stoked reading Dostojewskij, Mann, Kafka and others.

[@khadimndiaye7730]

Are you German? If so I’d recommend you to read Kleist and of course Goethe as well :)

[@tzirufim]

@@khadimndiaye7730 Austrian so close enough ;) thank you for the recommendation.

[@edwardlecore141]

Very depressing situation for those of us that can only write massive epics. Currently working on my 12th novel, none of them published as I worry that the moment I try to go beyond beta readers, reality will come crashing down. I would rather keep the belief these stories will mean something to the world one day.

[@light1908]

Also, I’m enjoying the background mix up, it looks like you have a lovely home.

[@breakout4347]

Literature is becoming more and more priceless! One day its like searching a needle in a haystack to find real art in literature.

[@zwahkmuchoney4584]

I just write the kinds of book that I would want to read and self-publish them for my own collection.

[@Writingsfromred]

I've been binging your channel the past few days ever since I stumbled across it. Many of your points I feel the same way and finally now I'm not alone. How the MFA ruined the novel, tick tockifcation of the modern poetry landscape, and forced representation in writing are just a few of the things ruining books being published. Keep up the awesome videos.

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks for the support brotha! Expanding to new authors starting in the next couple weeks and excited to have you on board

[@CINEMARTYR]

Baller thumbnail

[@SuperMattChapman]

Amen to that. I've had sooooo many people attack me for saying how pretentious Milk & Honey is

[@paulchironi7902]

May Cormac say to you, my friend: "See the child." Keep up the great work!

[@sabatheus]

I love what you're saying and I love your passion! Keep fighting at the soul level, brother!

[@ethan6840]

This guy’s videos and opinions are very good, something I really don’t find often (according to my own state of opinion)

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks brotha!

[@adrianstumpp5883]

Blood Meridian is the only novel I ever felt compelled to reach the end and then turn back to the page 1 and read it again. This was before No Country for Old Man had been published. Anyway, this was a very hipster-ish thing to say, but I couldn't help myself.

[@WriteConscious]

Lol, no worries brotha. It's just that good.

[@fuzonzord9301]

The irony is that nowadays Blood Meridian is spreading through social media memes. That book is so memable.

[@cyberburnzy]

Man you are on fire in this video. I ended up listening to Blood Meridian on Spotify which maybe made it easier to work through. All the Pretty Horses maybe a "sell out" but it still is well crafted and has some depth to it. I mean compare it to Hondo by Louis L'Amour which has a main character that is basically a cliche, make believe, 1950's demigod cowboy. A while back you mentioned that McCarthy admired William Faulkner. I read Light in August and was blown away.

[@johnryan3913]

Read Sanctuary next!

[@scooter9617]

Any encounters with poetry or writing of Blaise cendrars?,

[@johnryan3913]

Great writer, read him when I was in my late teens. Do you know Celine?

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

What’s Vollmann’s unpublished million word unpublished novel? I have heard a little about How Are You? and A Table for Fortune but not that they are that long.

[@gravitysrandom5612]

Might be a stretch but he might have meant the Seven Dreams series as a whole (although Volumes 4 and 7 haven't been released yet)

[@jasonlamotte5598]

Go, man, go! I appreciate your perspective and passion, and agree with you about the importance of language and soul. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[@WriteConscious]

Thanks brotha!

[@King-jn9is]

Genuinely, curious, but what do you mean when you say Austin Butler isn't an actor?

[@TheSpecsShow]

He means he doesn't like him 🙄

[@bluehipstahnelms3684]

I've rellished McCarthys books over the years as a means to escape into dreamworlds that would fascinate me to live in for a time. He found a formula that at least for me allows an escape that lasts longer than a dream, a movie, a nightmare.

[@OutWest-BibleStudy]

You can be a great creator and not have it destroy your life. Louis L'Amour is perhaps the greatest western (cowboy western) novelist of all time. He was great because he basically lived his novels. He was raised in North Dakota, worked in mines and on ranches, and fought in WW2. BUT he was also happily married with kids. I do agree with the sentiment that great writing can only come from those who've truly experienced life. But destroying your life is not a pre requisite

[@WriteConscious]

For sure! Wendell Berry is another good example

[@HPLov3craft]

Im not sure if this struggle to sell is something new, i do hear of dostoievski wife celebrating the fact that she sold 3000 copies of his books, moby dick being forgotten in his time and found out a LOOOONG time after, and im sure i could find lots of more examples of great writers being only discovered after death or decades at least. Another thing that hinders writers are that some dont adapt to the times and uses the tools that they have nowadays to their advantage (internet), because here's the thing, in other times some books were written more like the manga industry works today, they released a chapter of their book in x time, so some of the HUGES books of the era didnt feel like that at the beginning because it would come to the public one chapter at a time, it took a whole less commitment to follow a big book in a chapter by chapter base than it would be dropping a big tome out of nowhere (you really can see this in dickens novels, a lot of his writing are indulgent BECAUSE ppl love the story so much as he was writing), nowadays it aint like that at all, most writers that take their work as art or as a craft, that want to write something that will be seem as classic in a few generations, dont try to use the internet as a tool to build their public (AND wants to drop a brick of 800+ pages for others to read), i mean, if you have to write for free for a few years to get ppl to know you, work on your craft (because lets be real, just because you wrote something doesnt mean that it will be good, its a skill that you have to develop as any other) AND you eventually can get connections with ppl that you respect that can give you feedback on what its working and what isnt is a invaluable tool that we have nowadays, good writers have to start using it.

[@williamwenholz3407]

Do you have any contemporary 21st century writer recommendations? In your opinion, who shows promise-taking style and theme into account.

[@WriteConscious]

William T. Vollmann

[@cactusjorge]

@@WriteConscious What's your favorite book of his or what would you recommend starting with?

[@arthurthegreatandpowerful3841]

Every artist wants to pretend that they make art for the sake of art. But they’re liars as all artists are). They do it for an audience. We are instinctually selfish people. We want people to see what we’ve created. It’s not a bad thing to appeal to a wider audience. You want to continue appealing to 13 people around the world? Be my guest. I’ll write for millions.

[@gumstonks]

Good analysis. In this society riddled with the two big bad "C" words (Comfort and convenience), the masses don't prime themselves for individuation. I'm not as keen on the "soul searching", but I do believe in psychological discovery. One day I'll be finishing a book tackling the dystopian concepts of our modern world and show how Orwell's "1984" and Huxley's "Brave New World" look a whole lot less like fiction in my own distinctive world that draws inspiration from them as well as the real world. Loads of people haven't been "punched in the face", so to speak.

[@mrmhj9925]

I always remember it took me some time to get used to writers like HP Lovecraft and now Cormac McCarthy and after reading, it’s just some of best writing I’ve ever read. I always read old stories, especially from Robert E Howard and Poe as well. Great stuff. I think the most easiest writer I’ve read that isn’t modern, is Tolkien and be wrote some of the greatest stories ever written.

[@TheSpecsShow]

Lovecraft's prose is misery to slog through, and I say that as someone with prior interest and patience for his work. He couldn't finish a story meaningfully either, but yes, he's still important

[@assemhendawi5469]

I am sorry This take is full of false information and non coherent conjectures. 1. Blood Meridian was released in 1992, before there were barely any internet and definitely before social media and attention economy. So saying that Mccarthy sold out to adapt to the audience is the non existant attention economy is non sensical. 2. The length of Blood Meridian is about 360 pages. A lot of best sellers today either fiction or non fiction are still selling millions of copies within that median range. 3. Cormac Mccarthy is notorious for being an introverted writer who declined most opportunities for public appearances of any sort, that doesn't help you become a bestseller at the time, ironically if you go through the numbers you'll find that after a few movie adaptations and his ideas and craft being explored in the age of social media the sales of Cormac Mccarthy are exponentially higher the last 15 years than it was at the time of his publishing. So actually it was social media that gave a wider platform for his work to be engaged with from people similar to you. 4. Most importantly! The biggest barrier with Blood Meridian isn't it's length, or subject matter, it's the very hard work you have to do to access the richness of this novel that is written in an old fashion language that makes no sense to most people nowadays. I've read tons of book and I literally had to read Blood Meridian with a dictionary next to me. And going through a page of Blood Meridian to a lot of people it's the equivalent of studying a philosophy text lol. So yeah that's definitely one thing that has to do with style, aesthetic and poetic choices that McCarthy made for his own world. Now I'm not saying that everything said here is wrong but the arguments you're making through Blood Meridian or the likes are just plain wrong

[@WriteConscious]

Lmao, you don't know anything. You just wrote that BM was released in 1992? You've never researched how McCarthy and his publisher deliberately wrote a more accessible book with All the Pretty Horses and conducted an extreme marketing campaign to build a persona around McCarthy (that wasn't true) to sell more books. Social media had nothing to do with McCarthy's success. He sold 192,000 copies of All the Pretty Horses in six months, and the rest of his back catalog skyrocketed in sales. I have 10+ videos on this subject.

[@assemhendawi5469]

@@WriteConscious Sorry I got confused with All the pretty horses release date. it was 1985. I am aware with that shift yes they took in all the pretty horses, and the large campaign, and if it proves anything it proves that BM was one tough SOB to read through. Social Media has a lot to do with Blood Meridian resurged popularity , the last two years alone BM sales might have crossed all of its lifetime value

[@ElGranPedrito]

Melville struggled to survive for a long time. It's not that NOW if you write Moby Dick nobody would care. It's more like, whenever in time you write Moby Dick, there is a chance nobody cares for a while. If you have a vision for something great and a good dose of self-sacrifice, then write your 1000 pages book and throw it at the void. Maybe someone will pick it up and it will be read. Don't overthink it if nobody does.

[@michaeldinubila7404]

Love the channel, but totally disagree with you very respectfully on everything that you’re saying here. First of all every age has their problems that will be reflected by art. You can’t judge the past by today’s historical context. Second, the people who were reading the 800 page novels when they were written, were mostly upper class and not having transformative experiences when they were those works. Maybe some did, not many. The world would be a better place if everyone fully understood the messages of the great novelists. Moby Dick was completely ignored when it was written. Third, the act of creation, for any artist is the point. if the point is fame or to transform peoples lives, you are writing to fulfill some narcissistic egotistical void. If you want to change peoples lives go and be a politician. Starting out to write something that transforms people’s lives is bound to fail because no two lives are the same. Create art that is true to yourself first. Great books are great books. No matter when they were written by who. What a person thinks is a great book is up to them, not a core of literary elites. just do your best to be the best you can be, and the rest is out of our control.

[@TheSpecsShow]

Thank you 😊

[@JNTX2008]

What is the name of the novel that changed your view on immigration?

[@dennissmith9435]

Superb informative and honest content as always.Thanks Ian

[@iammraat3059]

Where can one learn about sentence structure?

[@MrUndersolo]

The library.

[@WriteConscious]

skool.com/writeconscious

[@nestorcsamacho6328]

Fernanda Melchor, Mónica Ojeda, Brenda Navarro, Samanta Schweblin, Agustina Bazterrica. That's just naming a few great latinoamerican authors in the spanish lenguage, most of them already translated to several to english. I'm sure if some other spanish speaking person reads this could mention much more people but I focus on women because there are women in the cover of the video. Maybe you people could focus on them and people from other parts of the world, like africa or Asia instead of keep complaning on the mainstream books that are obviusly not written for you. Modern Literature doesn't suck, the market and options avaliable on your country and on your lenguage just go on a differnt path and you should try to read other things and let the books you hate just be. I assure you once you take out your prejudice and star focusing on the thinks you like, you'll be able to enjoy more books than the ones you already like. Sorry for the bad english if so, not my native lenguage.

[@RiverheadSkate]

Thank you for the work you do.

[@light1908]

I know you always say we need to write for our audience, but I’d love to hear you further wrestle with the concept of “audience capture,” and how this capture truly sucks, despite it often being necessary to pander to for mere survival.

[@davidjamesmclean6325]

If book length is a problem then why are fantasy books so long now. I read empire of the vampire. It's nearly a 1000 pages. Brandon Sanderson can't write a book under 1000 pages and these guys have sold millions of copies. People read to be entertained and for escapism. Thrillers and police procedurals are popular because they are like roller-coasters where people can experiance danger and thrills in a safe space of a novel with a cathartic revolution. There are and always will be a group of readers who want to be challenged when they read something more high brow, dealing with life and societies complexities. Also unlike other centuries we live in a time were people are bombarded with media content 24/7 which is designed using algorithms to hold our attention. Yet tik tok books and book tube channels are thriving with creators promoting their latest favorite book.

[@TheSpecsShow]

It's actually the opposite that's the problem, books are often longer than necessary

[@time8871]

Good video. I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Where we disagree is how you seem to label 'conspiracy theory' content as all one thing. I think much of the classic literature and philosophic works are basically conspiratorial in nature but it is generally presented in a more nuanced, wholistic and circumspect way relative to certain books that deal with biased or poorly researched conspiracies. Sometimes it is not even more circumspect. "Everything the state says is a lie, and everything it has, it has stolen." - Nietzsche. By your logic I guess this is just shallow, level 1 Nietzsche? "Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses." - Plato. How about this Plato quote? Thoughts? You made the caveat for Christianity you should have done the same for conspiratorial content. To present it as one thing as you have here is just lazy thinking. It is also something that is frustrating for people whose thinking tends to the conspiratorial. That for so long the truth is right out in the open in front of people's faces and it is generally ignored.

[@kevinreily2529]

Our social media attention span has gone from 12 minutes down to 5 in one decade. Shrinking.

[@faisalsalik5595]

you're comparing 2 different views, from a readers perspective and as a writer perspective reading a book most people who read wants to to be entertained and gain some knowledge while doing so while a writer looks for the message of the book and the writing construction then comparing it to the other great writers you mentioned i read both classics from many OGs and others and modern books but mostly sapphic and i appreciate them both

[@Weltgeist97]

It was an interesting sight to see how practically everyone graduating with an MFA was younger than me. Not by much, but enough to see that they’ve only been in school and not experienced much of life

[@briannewman9285]

This guy is wrong about modern readers not having the attention span of people in the past. They have a different kind of attention span. Maybe a single novel will no longer be 900 pages, but Harry Potter, when taking all the novels together, was substantially longer than that.

[@andrewwindermere2425]

Harry Potter was written for children. It's the equivalent of a happy meal. Sure, readers today breeze right through it. But I'm much less impressed by someone who ate McDonald's for 2 weeks straight rather than eating steamed kale for 2 weeks straight.

[@MrBulbasaurlover]

Harry Potter was one of the mystery books McCarthy was referring to.

[@briannewman9285]

@@andrewwindermere2425 That kind of elitist attitude is problematic in my opinion. Nobody is going to expect children to read McCarthy. Hell, I confess that I struggle with it. What is significant is that children read long books, which helps establish a good habit. Also, we're talking about children here. For some of them (depending on age), reading books like Harry Potter might be just as challenging as you and I reading McCarthy.

[@andrewwindermere2425]

@briannewman9285 who said anything about children reading McCarthy? You're either building a strawman or seriously misinterpreting my response. Adults reading the entire Harry Potter series is not the same as adults reading Cormac McCarthy in regards to attention span. One is significantly more dense and takes more to digest than the other. Hence my metaphor.

[@jackpreacher6178]

Thumbnail killed me

[@noelt5257]

Currently reading Ceremony by Leslie, appreciate the shout out

[@mrnegative48]

being deep is fine but it still has to be entertaining, these days you consume media and it's just full of woke agendas and plot holes

[@dougparsley9022]

Hey Ian. What's the book called that the guy you knew wrote? I'd be curious to read it. I'm so meta about cultural things!

[@Clubsandwich2]

I do disagree with Kendrick Lamar. He is truly a genius.

[@Artistic_Escape350]

Yeah that’s where he lost me.

[@johnryan3913]

A genius? Don't see it.

[@Clubsandwich2]

@@johnryan3913 im telling you, he’s objectively wrong

[@Gtoceanvibes]

Finished my novel, read no country , then went back to my novel and completely went through my dialogue again

[@MrMojoRisin13]

Based on the content of these videos--which no doubt reflect the current attitudes of both the reading public and the publishing industry--I don't see why anyone should have an urge to write. That is, unless that urge is simply a desire to write for one's self. All of this is quite discouraging.

[@tectorgorch8698]

Wow. That was a great rant. I read almost zero contemporary lit. but thank Gawd for NYRB, Penguin and Oxford classics and all the random beat up books in the sidewalk free little libraries all over town. Right now my guys are Platonov and Shalamov. Maybe we should name an award after Joe Stalin for inspiring so much great literature.

[@TJCarpenter]

Vollmann: We're slowly destroying the planet through pollution and deforestation. Also Vollmann: [writes a million-word novel.]

[@TheSpecsShow]

Lol

[@carrion-vj1yz]

What are your thoughts on writers like Clive Barker?

[@TheSpecsShow]

I find that he is a genuine visionary in terms of content, but the prose is simply serviceable. I read 'In the hills, the cities' recently, what an incredible concept

[@DuckHunterX]

how do i pay you to read my book?

[@kentjensen4504]

This video needs a Marvel movies style sky beam churning in the background.

[@WriteConscious]

lol

[@Clockwork.Lemon854]

Have you read William Gaddis?

[@arekkrolak6320]

Olga Tokarczuk wrote 800 pages Books of Jacob and got Noble prize, so there are still good long books being written, maybe just not in the area that Cormac McCarthy was interested in

[@blah914]

old men have always been complaining about The Youth Today, and We Did It Better. Greek philosophers were complaining about the same thing. it's a Canon event with every generation. The youth will never live up to expectations.

[@candide1065]

Long doesn't mean good. Tokarczuk is a really bad example of a good writer.

[@candide1065]

@@blah914 sexist

[@leek58]

How is Kendrick Lamar an industry plant? I’m just curious lol I’ve never heard that before.

[@ALLAHFRNDLY]

i don’t think he was being serious lol

[@xaviercopeland2789]

Maybe this is just a different gender thing, but adult fantasy and sci-fi is full of huge books like “Way of Kings” or “The Will of the Many” are huge books and very popular.

[@borgstod]

Mystery...a cat appeared then disappeared upon the piano!

[@exvandalz8095]

Cormack McCarthy?... nah... he can't even distinguish between 'in the road ' and 'on the road'.. how can someone be in The road?

[@samlazar1053]

I love his No country for old man. Literally described Nihilism cam2 to America

[@patrickwrites]

Liking the setting

[@deadviny]

What is soul level?

[@Beekeeper8011]

To sum up: The average writer sucks because they are an NPC.

[@TheSpecsShow]

You may just be an editor

[@penelopegreene]

Blood Meridian, I got to say, IS at least AMONG the greatest of all time. Perhaps THE. But that's my American perspective coming out, of course. You can learn a lot about North American Cultural history from it, and understand why we are all such bloody minded fools, particularly for cash.

[@johnryan3913]

Already knew that from the last five hundred years of great writers. Read Celine's Rigadoon, or Proust, or Jane Bowles. They changed my life. BM simply depressed me.

[@penelopegreene]

@@johnryan3913 Maybe America's history should make us depressed, if we embrace the truth. Already read some of what you advise. I think about my madeleines daily! 😁

[@johnryan3913]

@@penelopegreene 😊. What's been going on recently makes BM more relevant than ever, since reality has become SO depressing and unavoidable to sentient beings!

[@penelopegreene]

@@johnryan3913 I could've turned away from it, if it wasn't for the bizarrely beautiful environment that McCarthy describes. Almost psychedelic, yet infinitely cruel.

[@johnryan3913]

@@penelopegreene Yes, true...Maybe when my life is in better shape I'll give it another shot...

[@AlFrBu]

Except contemporary literature does not suck.

[@_elifilen]

Great video. Not sure if you already brought this topic, but I want to have your opinion regarding web novel, and their impact on modern literature. I'm talking especially about the eastern writers and their web novels of hundreds of thousands of words.

[@dreyri2736]

Every time I see that picture, I swear his hat gets bigger.

[@NOPE.S.P.]

If you want your mind to be blown apart like a pudding under the detonating force of an Ayahuasca A-Bomb... Try "Vitruvia 144". It's a semi-ergotic, Menippean satire that explores and transcends the end of reality.

[@LordDragon419]

Bruh who didn’t finish Blood Meridian? I couldn’t put it down. Riveting.

[@MarkMorrison-y5u]

Who says Everett and Whithead? Lol What about Murnane or Alexander Theroux? Or Fose, Knausgaard, Krasznahorkai, jon kalman steffanson and so many more? Or are you talking strictly about North America?

[@domenicomiletti7366]

Write intense, mind-blowing short stories

[@yashnigam6]

To quote the great Cormac McCarthy: “I ain’t got time for bird sex, I got to fly!”

[@genghisgalahad8465]

Call Me Maybe is superior to Call Me Ishmael.

[@WriteConscious]

here is my book, read me maybe

[@genghisgalahad8465]

@@WriteConscious 🐳 🤣 👍!

[@NOBLEFILMS1987]

THERE IS NO MORE INDULGENT BOOK THAN THE HOLY BIBLE!

[@tyata.1999]

I think marketing is the key

[@khadimndiaye7730]

Man!!! Just bought Everett‘s James, and now you tell me it’s shit :(

[@WriteConscious]

Didn't say that! He writes good novels.

[@khadimndiaye7730]

@@WriteConscious Sorry, I exaggerated! 😅 What do you say about Bolano, never did this name came up in one of your videos, did it?

[@andreadaleyutronebel5894]

This guy puts down Christians but praises Dostoevsky, a profoundly Christian writer.

[@WriteConscious]

Until the 20th century most people in the West didn't have a choice...

[@berserker1877]

Mark Twain is the goat buddy. Bow down Cormac.

[@EricKay_Scifi]

"Actually, I wrote my thesis on life experience" -- MFA'er

[@liamtjia4503]

What is your cat called and why is it called Billy Ray

[@johnnygonzales3267]

His writing sucks. Don't take my word for it. Start blood meridian. The prose stutters. there no character to hear about, not even a location. So that stuttering prose with no meaning is all you have. AGAIN, don't take my word for it.

[@WriteConscious]

Lmao. We don't take your word on it Johnny.

[@nyxcole9879]

You're 100 percent correct Johnny ❤

[@noahlawing7252]

I know you’re correct but this is not what I want to hear 😂

[@benjaminhuntergreen7142]

that Outer Dark shirt goes hard