tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post2795172659037364227..comments2023-03-31T15:26:47.448-07:00Comments on This World Like a Knife: McCarthyismDerek Nikitashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08119056203503877029noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-5303182730360045462014-05-28T08:21:39.481-07:002014-05-28T08:21:39.481-07:00Oh my god said the sergeant.Oh my god said the sergeant.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-65351837295308972932014-01-14T09:15:05.848-08:002014-01-14T09:15:05.848-08:00Mr. McCarthy is very good, but not near a genius a...Mr. McCarthy is very good, but not near a genius as Faulkner. Except for the amazing voice that he(McCarthy) have, all the style can be seen in Faulkner and Joyce. McCarthy are not doing anything new, not even in the "not use quotation marks" issue: others did before him. He have a great creativity and knowledge, though, and I admire him very much. I would like to see him on a list for a Nobel and then lose to a Brazilian writer(we don't have any winner here). Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-1108935170324395092013-07-04T20:40:47.063-07:002013-07-04T20:40:47.063-07:00Havint just this year dedicated myself to reading ...Havint just this year dedicated myself to reading McCarthy, at the ripe age of 55, it has had its intended effect of infecting my language, cadence and what-all. No apologies. I must anticipate this was part of the author's end-game; I am the better for it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-53851574340729063032013-03-13T06:13:37.769-07:002013-03-13T06:13:37.769-07:00McCarthy is the old testament God pretending to be...McCarthy is the old testament God pretending to be a writer.Nikesh Muralihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10321473140189863046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-12309364871441976742012-10-10T10:35:29.892-07:002012-10-10T10:35:29.892-07:00Brian, can you believe I read that piece and didn&...Brian, can you believe I read that piece and didn't even notice the link? Oops--but thanks for pointing it out.<br /><br />For first-time Ellroy, I'd recommend The Big Nowhere or American Tabloid.Derek Nikitashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08119056203503877029noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-42346676510581932452012-10-10T10:18:54.047-07:002012-10-10T10:18:54.047-07:00Definitely homage, but I got called out on it, and...Definitely homage, but I got called out on it, and it's since been tamed into something less jarring. The book itself is about answering sorrow with rage, and is thereby not very McCarthyesque, though at the sentence level the influence is there. Actually, it's more like <i>Suttree</i>, which I read more or less continuously, flipping back to page one as soon as I finish it.<br /><br />I have to say that your analysis of the <i>Blood Meridian</i> sentence is spot on, highlighting details from which I've quailed , e.g., the bloodstained wedding veil's provenance. Thanks for this, and I'm pleased the Slate article has brought some traffic to your piece.<br /><br />I've not read Ellroy, but will, now that you've mentioned him.Brian Panhuyzenhttp://brianpanhuyzen.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-909317017740382482012-10-10T09:18:16.786-07:002012-10-10T09:18:16.786-07:00Brian, I think your excerpt here is far less of a ...Brian, I think your excerpt here is far less of a pale imitation than a very many examples I've seen. There's a distinct voice, except for maybe the last sentence, but even there you're engaging in a fleeing homage, right? <br /><br />The author I love to read but have to be the most careful about borrowing from in James Ellroy. I want to finish the Underground USA trilogy, but I can't, because I'm writing!Derek Nikitashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08119056203503877029noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-62347325598942155262012-10-10T08:23:20.228-07:002012-10-10T08:23:20.228-07:00Heed the warning about the risk of reading McCarth...Heed the warning about the risk of reading McCarthy too close to writing. My novel THE SKY MANIFEST will be published next spring, and this sentence, since rewritten, caused one reader/writer/friend to recommend me for a poke in the eye:<br /><br />"He trod the flattened grass past games, stuffed toys crucified upon display racks, airgun balloon pop or toss a ring onto a jarneck or two dollar roulette spin on a clacking wheel. Stepped over cables fed by the chug of generators. Diesel oil, onion rings, French fries, cooked meat, trailers and vans with sidehatches propped to make awnings and beneath them curlyhaired matrons doling out hotdogs in foil, slim packs of mustard, relish, ketchup. Garbage cans overflowing with cardboard and styrofoam, the stubs of hotdog buns, fries in a slush of gravy, popcans, patrolled by a regiment of coldstunned yellowjackets. And then the rides, each some variant of spinning, toddler motorboats in a wooden trough of milky water, mini tractortrailers, motorcycles, gyring cupshaped buckets, tiny dragon rollercoaster, derelict carousel and the clangour of its battered calliope, its horses pistoning in their orbit, limbs frozen in jaunty poses, oblivious to their marred and peeling skins, and there the Ferris wheel, less substantial than it had appeared from the hilltop. Every ride he realized beginning and ending at the same point, as if an incrimination of leisure, nothing accomplished, no distance conquered, no work completed. The Conklin clown, his grinning, deadeyed countenance everywhere, like the ecclesiarch of some jocund cult."Brian Panhuyzenhttp://brianpanhuyzen.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-16071585299348446852012-10-09T09:33:53.948-07:002012-10-09T09:33:53.948-07:00The first time I read this I stopped, stared into ...The first time I read this I stopped, stared into space for a few minutes, then read it again. I must have looked at "death hilarious" 25 times before moving on, only to go back a few pages later and read it all again.Pablohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01487336996366191684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-75696145863569599812008-03-03T17:06:00.001-08:002008-03-03T17:06:00.001-08:00Oh, and awesome choice.Oh, and awesome choice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-87950132216482445182008-03-03T17:06:00.000-08:002008-03-03T17:06:00.000-08:00He doesn't capitalize 'christian'. At least not i...He doesn't capitalize 'christian'. At least not in my version.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520744590882489870.post-32630343092470984652008-01-22T11:46:00.000-08:002008-01-22T11:46:00.000-08:00I love that sentence, too. Yep.I love that sentence, too. Yep.S. Craig Renfroe Jr.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11506367995417078903noreply@blogger.com