“Game-faced, quietly wry, country recessive, he’s ever respectful and careful, as the ‘Old Man’ of Taoist China, Lao Tsu, advised men crossing a winter stream”(13).
After reading two of Cormac McCarthy’s novels, this quote and its passage make the reader reconsider Cormac McCarthy. Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles by Kenneth Lincoln is both a short biography of McCarthy’s life and lengthy descriptions of his books. The quote above is describing Cormac McCarthy’s appearance on Oprah. The description from this book about what occurred during the show was very surprising to me while reading. The books I read prior to this memoir showed a writing style that is very rough and pessimistic. In fact, McCarthy is known for this kind of rough and pessimistic writing style. There is no wasted time describing something irrelevant, McCarthy just goes straight to the point and gives the information to the reader in a matter-of-fact form. An example of this, from No Country for Old Men, is when the antagonist kills a bounty hunter. The antagonist shoots his shotgun, picks up the shell of the bullets, cleans it, and puts it in his pocket. This is basically the same amount of description that McCarthy gives, though he is much grimmer. This writing style, I believed while initially reading this passage, does not fit the description of the man described in the quote above. McCarthy is described as relaxed, happy, and slightly withdrawn. This is different than I pictured, which was a gruff man enjoys westerns. Now that I have finished this book and read the analyses of McCarthy’s stories, I can understand that the writing style does fit. The stories are much more than just westerns as I had originally thought. McCarthy is an author that sees the world and tells his view. He has the courage that most authors do not have by displaying the grimmer side of reality in his novels.
Connections:
Because the genre of Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles is non-fiction/biography there are so many connections to the real world. Also, something unique about this book is that this novel even describes the connections from McCarthy’s books to the real world. One connection that I find interesting is just Cormac McCarthy to reality. While reading the two novels by Cormac McCarthy, I thought he would have to be one of the most out-of-reality people that live on this earth. I was wrong. Cormac McCarthy just seems like a regular person, which was surprising to me, with a couple qualities that allow him to write the novels he writes. These qualities include courage and humility. I do not know if I could write such a bleak description of the human race, even if I thought it was true.
A second connection that I find is between McCarthy’s books, as described in this novel, and the real world. During the biography portion of this novel, the reader learns that McCarthy thinks the same of the Old West as others believe of some magical world described in Science Fiction or Fantasy novels. McCarthy’s stories are set in the Southwest. Though there is a physical connection to the real world through these settings, there is also a moral connection. Each of McCarthy’s stories has a moral value that is consistent throughout the book. These moral connections talk about human failings and hardships and what people can do to overcome them. Though it sometimes does not end well for the characters in the stories, these connections can easily teach readers extremely important values.
The last connection I found with this novel is with me personally. I have now realized that I can somehow connect with Cormac McCarthy. I have found that I am analytical, a quality that I now see in Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy views the world through a mind that thinks before it acts. It is obvious that McCarthy has developed the ideas that he has instilled within his novels. I believe that I too view the world and then think before I act. I do not like to be irrationally impulsive. Every one of McCarthy’s novels displays this kind of ideal and how it can fail or succeed. I just find it interesting that I can somehow connect with Cormac McCarthy and his books.
Visual Representation
The picture above is of Cormac McCarthy. I chose this picture for several reasons, the first being obvious; seeing as this novel is a biography there is no better way to depict the novel than a picture of the person who the book is about. The second reason why I chose this picture is because it shows McCarthy with a rough exterior, enhanced by the grayscale color. After reading Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles I see through this rough exterior. I find that McCarthy is much more analytical than when I first read his books. One last reason why I chose this picture is because it shows how McCarthy wants to be seen. It is very simple, and yet it shows a man that has so many dimensions to him. To someone who has not learned about Cormac McCarthy, this picture would be meaningless, just an older man in regular clothes. However, to a person who is learned about Cormac McCarthy, this picture shows so much more.
Questions:
1. Could you reveal your true thoughts on reality, even if they were somewhat bleak, to millions of people?
2. Should an author make it hard for a reader to understand the core moral of the story?
3. Should authors follow general grammatical conventions?
4. Should life be lived in the past, present, or future?
5. If you could, would you fix your mistakes?
Reflection:
Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles is one of the hardest novels I have ever had to read. It is dry and every twenty minutes felt like an hour. However, getting through the book was a whole other story. This book taught me many important things about an author I did not fully understand. After reading the first two books by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses I felt like I just could not handle the writing style. This book changed my outlook on McCarthy. I now find his books extremely insightful; in fact the two books I read by him are now a lot clearer to me and I consider them extremely well written novels. I still however hold by the fact that McCarthy should use quotes when characters speak, but the story and the moral of his books are much more important. I do suggest reading Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles for those unsure about Cormac McCarthy, however reading this book is extremely difficult. For me, it was definitely worth this dry novel to learn about Cormac McCarthy.
