You know how I say, how Pep Guardiola says, you need enemies? To tell your team from their team, the good guys from the bad guys. To tell good from evil. In a morally monochromatic world you couldn't tell.
Implicit in that saying, so obvious that it need not be made explicit, is that you have friends. That the only meaning to evil is the contrast. That is theodicy. No one but a child thinks there are only friends in the world, only nice people like Mom and Dad, only goodness, and she soon learns that it is not good to hit Johnny, nor for Johnny to pull her hair and why does she think that in the first place? Because she does not yet know the distinction between good and evil. There is, in fact, a presumption in the law that children younger than a certain age do not know the distinction between telling the truth, good, and telling a lie, bad. Evil provides "teachable moments."
See, this is the thing about Cormac: There is no contrast;
"The problem with a novel like “No Country for Old Men” is that it cannot give violence any depth, context, or even reality...the writing makes the violence routine... And McCarthy’s idea…of life’s evil is limited, and literal: it is only ever of physical violence.”
there is no evil because no good, turning the saying, and theodicy, on their heads; the world is a monochrome, and that, black-and male! Johnny wakes up every day to do the everyday business of hitting and pulling hair. “The kid” wakes up every day to pull scalps off heads; and there are no teachable moments: when he’s done his day’s work the kid “moves on.” Violence is the norm, it is the routine, and there are no consequences. McCarthy’s characters don’t know the difference between right and wrong.
"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed."
HOW MUCH BLOODSHED HAS THERE BEEN IN YOUR LIFE, CORMAC?
"McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island..."
Implicit in that saying, so obvious that it need not be made explicit, is that you have friends. That the only meaning to evil is the contrast. That is theodicy. No one but a child thinks there are only friends in the world, only nice people like Mom and Dad, only goodness, and she soon learns that it is not good to hit Johnny, nor for Johnny to pull her hair and why does she think that in the first place? Because she does not yet know the distinction between good and evil. There is, in fact, a presumption in the law that children younger than a certain age do not know the distinction between telling the truth, good, and telling a lie, bad. Evil provides "teachable moments."
See, this is the thing about Cormac: There is no contrast;
"The problem with a novel like “No Country for Old Men” is that it cannot give violence any depth, context, or even reality...the writing makes the violence routine... And McCarthy’s idea…of life’s evil is limited, and literal: it is only ever of physical violence.”
there is no evil because no good, turning the saying, and theodicy, on their heads; the world is a monochrome, and that, black-and male! Johnny wakes up every day to do the everyday business of hitting and pulling hair. “The kid” wakes up every day to pull scalps off heads; and there are no teachable moments: when he’s done his day’s work the kid “moves on.” Violence is the norm, it is the routine, and there are no consequences. McCarthy’s characters don’t know the difference between right and wrong.
"There's no such thing as life without bloodshed."
HOW MUCH BLOODSHED HAS THERE BEEN IN YOUR LIFE, CORMAC?
"McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy
Rhode Island? And you are the champion of the Southern Gothic genre? Was it at least southern Rhode Island?
"The oldest son of an eminent lawyer, formerly with the Tennessee Valley Authority, McCarthy is Charles Jr., with five brothers and sisters...It seems to have been a comfortable upbringing that bears no resemblance to the wretched lives of his characters. The large white house of his youth had acreage and woods nearby, and was staffed with maids. "We were considered rich..."
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/mccarthy-venom.html
That is the way it is, that is the way it has always been, that is the way it will always be:
"I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous."
“Death is the major issue in the world. For you, for me, for all of us. It just is. To not be able to talk about it is very odd."
"Not be able to talk about it?" You're not able to talk about it? That's ALL you talk about.
His list of those whom he calls the "good writers" -- Melville, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner -- precludes anyone who doesn't "deal with issues of life and death." Proust and Henry James don't make the cut. "I don't understand them," he says. "To me, that's not literature. A lot of writers who are considered good I consider strange."
"The oldest son of an eminent lawyer, formerly with the Tennessee Valley Authority, McCarthy is Charles Jr., with five brothers and sisters...It seems to have been a comfortable upbringing that bears no resemblance to the wretched lives of his characters. The large white house of his youth had acreage and woods nearby, and was staffed with maids. "We were considered rich..."
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/mccarthy-venom.html
That is the way it is, that is the way it has always been, that is the way it will always be:
"I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous."
“Death is the major issue in the world. For you, for me, for all of us. It just is. To not be able to talk about it is very odd."
"Not be able to talk about it?" You're not able to talk about it? That's ALL you talk about.
His list of those whom he calls the "good writers" -- Melville, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner -- precludes anyone who doesn't "deal with issues of life and death." Proust and Henry James don't make the cut. "I don't understand them," he says. "To me, that's not literature. A lot of writers who are considered good I consider strange."
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/mccarthy-venom.html“McCarthy is a colossally
gifted writer, certainly one of the greatest observers of landscape.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/07/25/red-planet
He is. It is as if Adolph Hitler or Hermann Goering or Adolph Eichmann had been colossally gifted writers.
That's why Cormac is in the trash.
gifted writer, certainly one of the greatest observers of landscape.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/07/25/red-planet
He is. It is as if Adolph Hitler or Hermann Goering or Adolph Eichmann had been colossally gifted writers.
That's why Cormac is in the trash.
