Questions tagged [cormac-mccarthy]
For questions about the American novelist, playwright and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy (Charles McCarthy, born 1933) or about any of his literary works, such as books including All the Pretty Horses (1992) and No Country for Old Men (2005).
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In Cormac McCarthy's The Road, what indicators are there that the novel is a metaphor for environmental destruction?
The Road has been seen by some reviewers and critics as a warning about environmental destruction. The Guardian included it on a list of novels about climate change and environmentalist George Monbiot ...
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Approximate year in which Outer Dark is occurring?
The Wikipedia article indicates that it occurs at the turn of the 20th century and I think I recall that also from the cover of a copy I read.
There is remarkably little technology mentioned -- I do ...
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Primers in "Blood Meridian" — an unmentioned/overlooked detail?
This somewhat recapitulates my question about making gunpowder which was so brilliantly answered yesterday.
Basically, my question is, given that the gang in Blood Meridian certainly had primers, ...
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Does "Blood Meridian" accurately describe gunpowder manufacture?
In Blood Meridian (1985), Cormac McCarthy has the gang of "Indian fighters" surrounded and out of powder, so one of them manages to make it from scratch, making charcoal from wood, saltpeter ...
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Inconsistently generous/decent behavior of bad guys in Blood Meridian?
(Mild spoilers -- but why try to answer if you have not read the book?)
While there is no question that the gang indulges often in violence with minimal or
literally zero provocation (the puppy ...
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Truce of the burning tree -- how realistic?
Seems to me that in real life we have situations where predators suspend attacks -- best example I can think of is the "Cleaning Station" in the ocean: wrasses clean larger fish and everyone ...
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In Outer Dark, is the Tinker a good man?
He finds the infant and seems to want to take care of it. On the other hand, when we later encounter the child, it shows signs of grievous injury that it seems must have occurred (or probably) while ...
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In Blood Meridian, why does the judge call out the kid as being different?
Toward the end of Blood Meridian, Judge Holden says a curious thing to the kid when the two are hunting each other in the desert:
There's a flawed place in the fabric of your heart. Do you think I ...
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What's the significance of The Idiot in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian?
Toward the end of Blood Meridian, the gang encounters a man whose brother is so severely disabled that he is kept naked in a cage. Obviously, this character cannot speak and does not contribute to the ...
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What is the purpose of the surrealist content in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian?
The bleak violence of Blood Meridian is punctuated at intervals by various vignettes that have an air of surrealism, almost of black comedy. Some examples from memory include:
The "buffones"...
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Is Blevins in All the Pretty Horses the modern-day version of Blood Meridian's The Kid?
Both The Kid and Blevins are not evil but at the same time extremely dangerous young men (of roughly the same age) on their own due to the death of their fathers.
It seems pretty likely that if ...
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Why is Cormac McCarthy's prose so often described as "sparse"
It is not uncommon to hear the work of American author Cormac McCarthy described as "sparse", "terse", "spartan" or some other similar descriptor.
Some examples:
An extensive body of criticism ...
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Origin of "give a watermelon a pure fit" in "Blood Meridian"
On page 334 of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Elrod responds to the man’s assertion that the ears on his scapular were taken from Apaches by saying that the “Apaches would give a watermelon a pure ...
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Can absence of information be considered a stylistic choice?
In The Road by Cormac McCarthy the names of the man and the boy are never revealed. Would this technically be considered a stylistic choice of the author? I pulled up a definition and it says "Style ...
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How did they track Llewelyn Moss in "No Country for Old Men"?
How is Llewelyn Moss tracked by Chigurh and the Mexicans in No Country for Old Men? I'm asking several clarifying questions here, but I'm really just wondering what I missed about the tracking device(...
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Why did the police go to The Orchard Keeper?
In Cormac McCarthy's The Orchard Keeper, the eponymous old man is visited by the cops. They do not get a warm welcome.
Why did they go there at all, and why was the old man so hostile to them?
I ...
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What is the meaning of the epilogue in Blood Meridian?
Cormac McCarthy is famously tight-lipped as to his own interpretations of his work. Nevertheless, there are some clear themes in his novel Blood Meridian: human propensity to violence and the efforts ...
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