Reading/Saying Goodbye to Cormac McCarthy 9: RGBIB 354

[@unstopitable]

Farewell to the master.

[@excelsiorathletic]

Wait, this is a channel about book reviews? I was only here for the budgerigar antics. I can't believe someone wanted you to edit Dodo out of these.

[@Scottmbradfield]

If I could edit, I would edit my "reviews" out of the antics, and then we'd have some revenue! s

[@JP-vc1kq]

Scott! I’m so happy to come across your KZbin page. The History of Luninous Motion was a MAJOR novel for me when I read it in my early 20s. It was an example of coming across a book at exactly the right time so that it felt like it was reading me rather than the other way around. I was interested in film at the time and dreamed of making it into a movie. Then to my amazement someone else did! (it was okay although I felt the main character was miscast). Over the years I’ve read many of your short stories and novels (The People Who Watched Her Pass By was a later favourite) and have always enjoyed your unique voice. I am a longtime masterbather as well. I’ve been reading in the tub since my early teens. Glad to see a fellow soaker keeping the tradition alive and it’s a joy to hear you talk so naturally about fiction. Long live bath time! Joel P

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks for keeping my old books alive in a bathtub other than my own, Joel! It sounds like you have found your own way into the tub and we're always glad to meet a fellow bather! (I never saw the movie; I could barely stand to see what they did to my script for HISTORY, let alone set it in New Jersey!) Stay safe with the loofah! s

[@417wolfman]

I finished reading The Passenger right before he passed. God what a loss.

[@larrycarr4562]

Riveting review, I’ll be having nightmares of dodo uncaged and wielding a nail gun 😱. Rest in peace Mr. McCarthy.

[@bluewordsme2]

hahahahha.....omg, brilliant.....i believe that Dodo may in fact have been a descendant of one of The Judge's (Blood Meridian) birds.....or were they bats ;) .....rip Cormac

[@larrycarr4562]

@@bluewordsme2 Cormac will be missed… as Scott noted 2 books published in his last year, he never ceased.

[@bluewordsme2]

@@larrycarr4562 yes, right up to the end...i really loved the last two books...not perfect, but thrilling...hoping he left a drawer with more work....hope springs eternal ;)

[@Scottmbradfield]

Dodo is the nightmare from which I can never awake. Take care, Larry! s

[@tectorgorch8698]

Hope you do a Brian Moore extravaganza one of these days. I'm reading Judith Hearne right now, but I'd love hear your thoughts on The Mangan Inheritance and Black Robe. Don't rat me out but I found Blood Meridian to be way too repetitive and kind of tedious after a while.

[@Scottmbradfield]

We've done many episodes on Moore over the years and I think we talked about all of those you mention, all of which I love. We don't rat on fellow bathers but even if we did we couldn't rat on someone who found MERIDIAN a bit repetitive! If it's tedious, to he/she who bathes, it doesn't belong in the tub! Take care, Hector. s

[@chrisoleson9570]

As the sole proprietor and financial embezzler of the Osaka Branch of the Scott Bradfield Bathtomb Bathers, I would be greatly miffed if Dodo's punk rock approach to animal husbandry were excised. Keep on splashing, Mr. B.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Keep the Osaka branch running, Chris, and embezzle freely from all the money it generates (zip!) s

[@jackwalter5970]

I suggest you break down and read Passenger and Stella. They are well worth it!

[@excelsiorathletic]

I read this during this wet weekend. I very much enjoyed it until the last 40 pages as you said. It seemed an unnecessary add-on.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah it sort of Peters out, but great fun until then... it's almost like he wants to say something nice about the world after telling such a horrible story... Stay athletic in the bathtub, Excelsior!

[@bluewordsme2]

first of all, DO NOT EDIT these review, not ever...they're sui generis masterbathing....the only book reviews on book tube that is shot in the cruel light of day and with out pixels...other than my friend Marc Nash (a writer you should read Scott) reviews......and for McCarthy, i was heart-broke, or as McCarthy may have put it, but im putting it now: my heart was unstitched.....i've re-read Mccarthy everything since i first read All The Pretty Horses...and i usually read at least one book every year (usually a short one like Outer Darkness and a big one like Suttree or Blood Meridian)....and just this past year, I re-read everything before reading The Passenger and Stella Maris....i wont say anything about either other than I read them and consider them as 1 book, not 2, but more about that when you read....and the opening page of The Passenger is one of the great pieces of American writing I've read in the last 20 years...singular, and is just as beautiful and powerful (and a kind of kin) to the first chapter of Foster Wallace's Pale King....The Crossing, Suttree, Outer Darkness and Blood Meridian I would put down on any Greatest Of lists...and yes, No Country is fabulous...i also loved it as a quick read and cant-put-down-thrilled with some gorgeous insight into america and getting old...and of course, McCarthy's poetic nihilism....of all the great writers of his generation (Roth, Bellow, Cheever, DeLillo, Pynchon), he was the last to get noticed and yet, with Bellow and Pynchon, the one whose books will last forever....even with all the problems and annoyances.....thank you scott again for a fabulous read....and so nice to see Dodo back, spurs and all.....happy bathing....p.s. my wife doesnt people want to me risque either........Rest in Peace Cormac, you made my life, as a writer, as a reader and a person, so much richer than it would ever have been had we not been blessed by your work....and I will forever read and share your books with my students with joy and undying light......cheers, b

[@Scottmbradfield]

Thanks, Bob. Well Cormac had a good run anyway and we've still got the books! s

[@TheMaahhgret]

Scott, loved this, although I really don’t know why your bird had such strong feelings against this book…😂 Love your comparison to HP Lovecraft etc. I’ve only read Child of God in addition to No Country but he does seem more concerned with how his characters are now than how they became that way. You got me thinking about that. Looking forward to the next video.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah I had to pick up Dodo's opinion on the novel with a tissue... I think that's fair to say, there's something about McCarthy's characters that seems set in stone from the time they're born... but he is a a great read if you're in the right tub of reference! Stay save, Maahhgret!

[@davidhall8656]

I reread Blood meridian a few months back, and am enjoying the Passenger now. I'm not the biggest McCarthy booster out there, but have read maybe 6-7 of his books and I rarely hear No Country celebrated. It's one of his best for me. Great, hard boiled western dialogue interspersed with nihilistic violence and archaic Melville-like prose.

[@Scottmbradfield]

Yeah NO COUNTRY is probably the most unputdownable of his novels, except for maybe the last forty pages or so after Llewellyn (sp?) dies... There's a good poet named David Hall isn't there? Stay safe! s