Why Cormac McCarthy Wrote "The Road"

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Күн бұрын

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@ggm024 2 ай бұрын

Dude, this is the kind of content only a long-time deep reader of any author (in this case, McCarthy) can bring into the web. Thanks a lot!

@WriteConscious 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the support!

@sonofstarlet1242 6 ай бұрын

Just finished 'The Road' this morning. The last exchange between the man and his son was VERY emotional for me. I have an 8 year old daughter and man does having a kid deepen everything. Alas.. I guess we know what we're signing up for. Great video! Thanks for the interpretation. ✌🏼

@HuntersHunter 5 ай бұрын

When I was 12 I developed a chronic pain condition in my limbs that lasted 7 months and dozens of doctor visits/tests with no results. 4-5 months into it was feeling near my lowest, probably the closest to suicidal I’ve ever been from months of nonstop pain and very little sleep, and that’s when I read The Road. I don’t fully understand how but it was extremely cathartic, I think it was the only media that was meeting me where I was at the time. I certainly felt I was having my own personal apocalypse. The book is so bleak but full of heart at the same time, and it reminded me to be grateful for the lengths my parents were going for my condition. You talk in a DFW video about how literature is for reaching out and healing/growing people and it came back to me how much The Road affected me in that way.

@clemfarley7257 5 ай бұрын

Hunters. Thank you for sharing. Hope you’re better.

@zoobee 8 ай бұрын

that theory by the guy who read the road walking through Ireland with his own son is quite something. Quite brutal, but quite possibly has some truth in it. The contemplation of our own oblivion is so painful because we leave behind so much, unguarded, in a world of dangers.

@zoobee 8 ай бұрын

I really love your videos. You are a Cormac McCarthy partisan and you are a blessing to him to have an advocate in this media promoting and discussing his work, including entering the ring and fighting with other McCarthy advocates. I would be interested in seeing your views on other writers if you ever should get round to it, perhaps some interesting takes on any other works outside American literature. Keep up the great work.

@Armedwithamindtx Ай бұрын

50 Pages into the road right now

@MegaFount 8 ай бұрын

I wasn’t impressed with The Road because it is not that original in terms of the situation. There have been a lot of sci/fi novels and films that dealt with this scenario. Check out A Boy and his Dog,

@prehistoricturtlesaurus5309 7 ай бұрын

Ellisons story is absolutely nothing like the road. A boy and his dog is about an apocalyptic dystopia and animalism as a byproduct of chaos and the struggle to cling to technology for order. There's a future waiting to happen in it. It's comical and witty. It involves telepathy, coming of age; It's darkly humorous. The Road is about clinging to hope and love despite reason, about living a nightmare over and over. It's completely rooted in the bleak reality of a destroyed world waiting to become uninhabitable, dormant and basically reborn without humanity. I mean, what do they have in common aside from being post apocalyptic? It's like saying "the stand" is too alike "earth abides" because everyone but a few get sick.

@zoobee 8 ай бұрын

The Road is quite a novel. I think its a novel that resists definitive interpretation, like all great literary works, including Blood Meridian. But it is simple of narrative, and relatively short. A world of bleakness beyond bleakness, predatory, cannibalistic. But within, the father and the son, and the ending. He didn't end it with a bleakness beyond bleakness. It ends with the lights still low, the darkness still ever present, but the light not snuffed out.

@prehistoricturtlesaurus5309 7 ай бұрын

The ending was cheap in context to the book. I mean, there's not a kind soul to be found until a few minutes after the mans death, and then all of a sudden... ?!? All the bleakness and pointlessly going on. And in the end, what? The boy lives a life worth living? Not possible. Humanity is in its death gasps. Earth will abide, but these apes are done along with all the terra and fauna. The brave ending would have been to say, one day things will be this bleak and pointless, there is no benevolent God and this boy was never Jesus. Sometimes innocence and goodness is a pointless curse and hope is only relevant when there is something to hope for. The novel should have ended with the boy trying to kill himself but being too weak and sweet to be able to pull it off, all the while hearing the cannibals closing in. It's not nice, but at least it's authentic.

@brn141 7 ай бұрын

@@prehistoricturtlesaurus5309ending makes sense within the world and was continuously foreshadowed throughout the book.

@CINEMARTYR 8 ай бұрын

🔥🔥🔥

@WriteConscious 8 ай бұрын

Fire back to you and your great music brotha!

@ColtonDSemer 6 ай бұрын

....... Is this really what Cormac content creation is..... Crestfallen.

@larrylicavoli 8 ай бұрын

Look up what james ellroy said about the road. It's hilarious

@prehistoricturtlesaurus5309 7 ай бұрын

"The hyperbleak prose felt parodistic; I felt like I was reading a Mad magazine spoof of end-of-the-world books. The manuscript was “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy fails to employ quotation marks. Neither did William Faulkner, another cat I don’t dig." Lol, you're right. Thanks for that. Something about Faulkner (a top 10 for me, easily) being called "a cat I don't dig." Is absolutely grating and charming at the same time.

@watcherofthewest8597 8 ай бұрын

Intersting video and comments. What is a post modern gnostic? I know a little about the gnostics from the nag hamadi and its some intersting stuff. Seems gnosticism covers a lot of different types of a variety of early christian groups Are there groups today who are adherants or proponents of sone type of gnosticism?

@fairsaa7975 6 ай бұрын

From what I know, gnosticism seems to be the term adopted by the church when it's particular form gained the position of 'orthodoxy' and they needed to lump 'non-canonical' sects as an opponent, much like the vague term that is paganism. This is mostly just remembered from a channel called 'Genetically Modified Sceptic' but I generally trust him as he frequently gets scholars on his channel to research topics for him to talk about that would be too complicated to research fully as a non-expert, or interview them.

@excaliburknives3572 2 ай бұрын

Gnosticism is not a part of Christianity. It is a heretical offshoot.

@someokiedude9549 8 ай бұрын

I find The Road, along with No Country, is McCarthy not only at his most reflective, but also his most human. Then again, he was an old man by that point. That probably gives you a lot of time to reflect.

@antapeastronaut 8 ай бұрын

“… you’re not talking about the apocalypse, you’re talking about your personal apocalypse.”-John Hodgman This has to be tongue in cheek, because it’s always personal.

@toddjacksonpoetry 3 ай бұрын

That's a very impressive take. I finally popped my Cormac McCarthy cherry with "The Road" last month. It took exactly two pages to figure out he's Just That Damn Good. He's the writer Hemingway wished he was but wasn't, and had he read "The Road" he'd have shot himself sooner.

@Ernesto_the_Caffiend 8 ай бұрын

Danke fuer ihr unternehmen ian 💯

@Jamesfranco1825 4 ай бұрын

You are the man! That last part really hit home with me. I am a full-fledged Cormac fanatic, so I don’t know how I just found you, but I want to say that your stuff is truly inspirational. You are speaking the truth, and I love to hear it.

@Dapryor 8 ай бұрын

You should keep the new look. Looks good!

@WriteConscious 8 ай бұрын

Thanks brotha!

@Insight_Outlook 8 ай бұрын

This is my new favorite KZbin channel.

@gilbertgonzales915 4 ай бұрын

I come for your energy keeps me moving better

@thirdofhisname3 8 ай бұрын

This book is about the Father This book is about the Son This book is about the Fire they carry The Love they share as the abysmal monsters try to devour the Sacred Heart This book is about the Holy Spirit between them. Eyes to see, Ears to hear In the Beginning was The Word And The Word was with God And The Word was God He was in the beginning with God All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made In Him was life, and the life was the light of men And the light SHINES IN THE DARKNESS AND THE DARKNESS DID NOT COMPREHEND IT. JOHN 1:1-5 In Nomine Patras et Fili Spiritus Sanctus 🙏😔🙏

@WriteConscious 8 ай бұрын

It has nothing to do with Christianity (a religion McCarthy rejected his entire life) lol. But thanks for the poem and theology

@garethinkster 8 ай бұрын

@@WriteConscious I don't think you can accurately say that it has *nothing* to do with Christianity. He invokes the Bible, for instance in a few direct and more indirect ways throughout the book. The appeals to "God" and the boy's questions about "heaven" are certainly couched in it. Even if McCarthy wasn't explicitly trying to deal with these ideas, in the universe of the book, the "fire" that is "inside you" really does seem to follow from "God," as it were. I'm also a bit disappointed at the tone of your response to that viewer, if I'm honest. I've been really digging your videos for a week or so now, but "carrying the fire" doesn't really jive with hubristic dismissal of somebody who took the time to listen to your thoughts, you know? Thanks for putting the work into these videos, they're well done.

@thirdofhisname3 8 ай бұрын

@@WriteConscious Well...He wrote about it nonetheless, I don't give shit what you post modern gnostics say or whatever claims he said about his beliefs. You can go on and on about your "truth" all you like, but The Truth cut him down in the end and it will do the same to you. EVERY SINGLE BIT OF HIS WRITING WAS HIM WRESTLING WITH GOD, anyone with half a brain can see that. Good Travels, God be with you🙏😌🫣😱🤬🥸🤓🙈🙉🙊❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

@garethinkster 8 ай бұрын

@@thirdofhisname3 @writeconscious (in addition to my previous comment, to be fair, this response doesn't really nail the whole carrying the fire thing either, hahaha).

@thirdofhisname3 8 ай бұрын

@@garethinkster The Fire, the Burning Heart that shines at the center of the abyss. The Torch of Unquenchable Flame the Good Guys carry. Because the Good Guys carry HOPE AND CREATION. THE BOY PRAYS IN THE DARKNESS, HE IS THANKFUL, HE IS ETERNITY'S CHILD❤️‍🔥

@gabrielalfaia8154 8 ай бұрын

I love the term "logic bros". They are real. You say something like "It isn't a interesting though that X, Y and Z" and they instantly go "WHERE IS THE PAPER FOR THAT?! IF IT ISNT PRINTED ON A BOOK ITS NOT TRUE!!!". It's so annoying.