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 Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:38 pm
My senior year in high school, I had to read All The Pretty Horses. A few days ago, I finished The Road. While I had a little trouble with ATPH, analyzing it turned out to be a pleasure, and The Road very nearly brought me to tears.
I have Child of God, though I haven't picked it up, and No Country for Old Men, yet another one that I haven't read yet. I'll get to them, but I'm curious about what other people think about him. I've had a lot of people really detest him because of his writing style, but it's almost made him endearing to me. redface
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 6:34 am
I'm sorry, but Cormac McCarthy is one of the authors that I simply cannot stand. I read The Road, and hated it. Whereas you are obviously entitled to love it, as is anyone else, I just really didn't understand why people hold it so highly.
I had the book recommended to me over 10 times on another site I regularly use, and so in the end I gave in, bought it and read it. Here are my main problems with it:
1. It has no speech marks, so this makes it difficult to tell if something is dialogue or not, especially with the sometimes conversational tone of the narrative. Also, when you could tell something was dialogue, if it was a long conversation, it was easy to lose track of who was speaking, due to the lack of grammatical markings.
2. There were no chapters. It was just one solid piece of writing, and was not broken up enough. It didn't flow properly and there was no real sense of time in the novel. Whether or not we were meant to have a sense of time passing in the novel or whether it was purposely written in this way, I have no idea, but I just didn't get it.
3. There didn't seem to be much of a plot at all, for nearly half of the book they were literally just walking along a road with a couple of blankets in a trolley, sleeping in the trees and then doing it all over again the next day. Then they come across an army vehicle, and then wait for it to go and carry on again down the road. There just wasn't enough to it to keep me properly engaged.
This really does seem to be a Marmite book to me. I've spoken to people on forums on 2 other sites, and there seems to have been a mixed reaction there as well. What made you love it so much?
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:46 am
Vogue Muffin___x I'm sorry, but Cormac McCarthy is one of the authors that I simply cannot stand. I read The Road, and hated it. Whereas you are obviously entitled to love it, as is anyone else, I just really didn't understand why people hold it so highly. I had the book recommended to me over 10 times on another site I regularly use, and so in the end I gave in, bought it and read it. Here are my main problems with it: 1. It has no speech marks, so this makes it difficult to tell if something is dialogue or not, especially with the sometimes conversational tone of the narrative. Also, when you could tell something was dialogue, if it was a long conversation, it was easy to lose track of who was speaking, due to the lack of grammatical markings. 2. There were no chapters. It was just one solid piece of writing, and was not broken up enough. It didn't flow properly and there was no real sense of time in the novel. Whether or not we were meant to have a sense of time passing in the novel or whether it was purposely written in this way, I have no idea, but I just didn't get it. 3. There didn't seem to be much of a plot at all, for nearly half of the book they were literally just walking along a road with a couple of blankets in a trolley, sleeping in the trees and then doing it all over again the next day. Then they come across an army vehicle, and then wait for it to go and carry on again down the road. There just wasn't enough to it to keep me properly engaged. This really does seem to be a Marmite book to me. I've spoken to people on forums on 2 other sites, and there seems to have been a mixed reaction there as well. What made you love it so much? A lot of the things you hated about it really made it stand out to me. 1. The lack of grammatical markings to denigrate conversation gave the story a sort of stream-of-consciousness feel. As time passed and days blended together in the featureless wasteland, so did the interactions between father and son, become something instinctive, like thought. 2. Do you think that things were broken up much for the characters? The purpose of a good book is to draw you in to the setting and really feel for the people there. By blending everything together in a seamless narrative, it leaves the reader wandering through the wasteland without hope of finding escape, just as the father and son do. 3. This one was your best point, I think. The lack of a real plot in terms of their immediate surroundings is pretty noticeable, and it can be a little trying at times, but it still contributes to the overall purpose of the book, and ties in with the first two points. This isn't the story of their daring escape from such and such or their epic quest for so and so. The plot lies in the interactions between father and son, and the brief flashbacks to the time spent with the mother. The world is an empty, lonely place now, and the only thing that breaks the monotony of the waste is each other. Of course, it is definitely a love it or hate it sort of thing (and I had to look up Marmite, which we do not have in the U.S.), so I can understand that a lot of people dislike it. As far as the movie is concerned, I think it will unfortunately depart from the book a lot, because as a movie, even one who loves the book would have to acknowledge it would suck. Honestly, I think it should not be translated into a movie, because either it would lose its appeal and be a boring movie, or they have to depart too much from the spirit of the book to make it work (which I presume they did). There are plenty of action-packed post-apocalyptic books that are good enough to be movies without spoiling one that is specifically NOT action packed.
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:04 am
fatal_GRACE Vogue Muffin___x I'm sorry, but Cormac McCarthy is one of the authors that I simply cannot stand. I read The Road, and hated it. Whereas you are obviously entitled to love it, as is anyone else, I just really didn't understand why people hold it so highly. I had the book recommended to me over 10 times on another site I regularly use, and so in the end I gave in, bought it and read it. Here are my main problems with it: 1. It has no speech marks, so this makes it difficult to tell if something is dialogue or not, especially with the sometimes conversational tone of the narrative. Also, when you could tell something was dialogue, if it was a long conversation, it was easy to lose track of who was speaking, due to the lack of grammatical markings. 2. There were no chapters. It was just one solid piece of writing, and was not broken up enough. It didn't flow properly and there was no real sense of time in the novel. Whether or not we were meant to have a sense of time passing in the novel or whether it was purposely written in this way, I have no idea, but I just didn't get it. 3. There didn't seem to be much of a plot at all, for nearly half of the book they were literally just walking along a road with a couple of blankets in a trolley, sleeping in the trees and then doing it all over again the next day. Then they come across an army vehicle, and then wait for it to go and carry on again down the road. There just wasn't enough to it to keep me properly engaged. This really does seem to be a Marmite book to me. I've spoken to people on forums on 2 other sites, and there seems to have been a mixed reaction there as well. What made you love it so much? A lot of the things you hated about it really made it stand out to me. 1. The lack of grammatical markings to denigrate conversation gave the story a sort of stream-of-consciousness feel. As time passed and days blended together in the featureless wasteland, so did the interactions between father and son, become something instinctive, like thought. 2. Do you think that things were broken up much for the characters? The purpose of a good book is to draw you in to the setting and really feel for the people there. By blending everything together in a seamless narrative, it leaves the reader wandering through the wasteland without hope of finding escape, just as the father and son do. 3. This one was your best point, I think. The lack of a real plot in terms of their immediate surroundings is pretty noticeable, and it can be a little trying at times, but it still contributes to the overall purpose of the book, and ties in with the first two points. This isn't the story of their daring escape from such and such or their epic quest for so and so. The plot lies in the interactions between father and son, and the brief flashbacks to the time spent with the mother. The world is an empty, lonely place now, and the only thing that breaks the monotony of the waste is each other. Of course, it is definitely a love it or hate it sort of thing (and I had to look up Marmite, which we do not have in the U.S.), so I can understand that a lot of people dislike it. As far as the movie is concerned, I think it will unfortunately depart from the book a lot, because as a movie, even one who loves the book would have to acknowledge it would suck. Honestly, I think it should not be translated into a movie, because either it would lose its appeal and be a boring movie, or they have to depart too much from the spirit of the book to make it work (which I presume they did). There are plenty of action-packed post-apocalyptic books that are good enough to be movies without spoiling one that is specifically NOT action packed. So I suppose that the features that make it a bad book for one person, are the same things that make it so effective for another. It's really good to see a different way of thinking about the points I've made, it's very interesting. Thank you for replying in such a way to my post. We are on the same wave length about the movie, I think either way, it won't be all that good when comparing it to the book, or in how well it keeps the audience's attention. When I heard about the movie, I couldn't understand how they were going to make it, so I guess it should be interesting to see what they've done, at least. And as an after note, I thought it was very funny that you had to look up Marmite. It didn't even cross my mind that Americans may not even have heard of Marmite. I suppose it's a bit like the Australian's Vegemite, although I've never tried that. Kudos to you Fatal Grace!!
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:29 am
Vogue Muffin___x So I suppose that the features that make it a bad book for one person, are the same things that make it so effective for another. It's really good to see a different way of thinking about the points I've made, it's very interesting. Thank you for replying in such a way to my post. We are on the same wave length about the movie, I think either way, it won't be all that good when comparing it to the book, or in how well it keeps the audience's attention. When I heard about the movie, I couldn't understand how they were going to make it, so I guess it should be interesting to see what they've done, at least. And as an after note, I thought it was very funny that you had to look up Marmite. It didn't even cross my mind that Americans may not even have heard of Marmite. I suppose it's a bit like the Australian's Vegemite, although I've never tried that. Kudos to you Fatal Grace!! Discussions like this are exactly why I joined the guild in the first place! If everybody loved every book the same amount (or hated it the same amount... Twilight) then talking about books would be little more than one big circle jerk. It is great to talk to people with opposing views on literature simply to find out why. I love to discuss books with people, and maybe even bring them around to my way of thinking from time to time. Thanks for building a guild that foments such an interesting discussion in the first place.
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:01 am
Djavlepik Vogue Muffin___x So I suppose that the features that make it a bad book for one person, are the same things that make it so effective for another. It's really good to see a different way of thinking about the points I've made, it's very interesting. Thank you for replying in such a way to my post. We are on the same wave length about the movie, I think either way, it won't be all that good when comparing it to the book, or in how well it keeps the audience's attention. When I heard about the movie, I couldn't understand how they were going to make it, so I guess it should be interesting to see what they've done, at least. And as an after note, I thought it was very funny that you had to look up Marmite. It didn't even cross my mind that Americans may not even have heard of Marmite. I suppose it's a bit like the Australian's Vegemite, although I've never tried that. Kudos to you Fatal Grace!! Discussions like this are exactly why I joined the guild in the first place! If everybody loved every book the same amount (or hated it the same amount... Twilight) then talking about books would be little more than one big circle jerk. It is great to talk to people with opposing views on literature simply to find out why. I love to discuss books with people, and maybe even bring them around to my way of thinking from time to time. Thanks for building a guild that foments such an interesting discussion in the first place. That's what I like to discuss as well, it wouldn't be the same if everyone loved or loathed the same books. There would be no real point to discuss properly. I'm glad you're enjoying the guild!
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:52 pm
I think it's interesting that neither of you really felt that there was a plot to The Road. I'm curious, then, to know what it is that both of you feel classifies a plot. Yes, most books' plots are cut and dry (fight the evil, save the girl, end of book), but I don't feel that all books need to have a plot that's perfectly clear from start to finish.
For the record, I think that the books' plot was more... beyond the point of a plot itself.
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Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:29 am
Alucards Little Pet I think it's interesting that neither of you really felt that there was a plot to The Road. I'm curious, then, to know what it is that both of you feel classifies a plot. Yes, most books' plots are cut and dry (fight the evil, save the girl, end of book), but I don't feel that all books need to have a plot that's perfectly clear from start to finish.
For the record, I think that the books' plot was more... beyond the point of a plot itself. I never said there wasn't a plot, just that it was more subtle than most, and that it was more internal between the characters than external in their surroundings.
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Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:25 am
Djavlepik Alucards Little Pet I think it's interesting that neither of you really felt that there was a plot to The Road. I'm curious, then, to know what it is that both of you feel classifies a plot. Yes, most books' plots are cut and dry (fight the evil, save the girl, end of book), but I don't feel that all books need to have a plot that's perfectly clear from start to finish.
For the record, I think that the books' plot was more... beyond the point of a plot itself. I never said there was a plot, just that it was more subtle than most, and that it was more internal between the characters than external in their surroundings.
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