"The Road", by Cormac McCarthy

gampy · Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:08 pm Post subject: "The Road", by Cormac McCarthy

Anyone read this?

I am about half way throught the book. Wow. Just wow.

Doomer porn, indeed.

EDIT: While the book is not about peak oil, it does posit a scenario of what the total breakdown of life on the planet might look like.

The author never mentions how the "world went away", but I don't think it's nuclear war. I am thinking more along the lines of a large comet, or supervolcano.

snowshoegal · Tar Sands Joined: Oct 24, 2006 Posts: 99 Location: Canada

Hi Gampy,

I've read it, total doomer porn. I really appreciated that McCarthy did not specifically explain what caused the devastation scenario, leaving you to your own conclusions about it politically, environmentally, etc.

His stark, unrelenting descriptions of the gray landscape are haunting as hell. I found myself looking up from the pages and being momentarily shocked at the colours around me. The light, the green of the trees, and the sounds of the birds outside almost seemed like a dream.

Half way through, eh? It's only just begun... Wink

roccman

Yep - read it...hardest easy read I ever came across,

nella · Tar Sands Joined: May 11, 2007 Posts: 57

I read it and it was hard to put it down.

I_Like_Plants

I probably ought to go to Barns'n'Borders this weekend and read it. This store is cool - they really don't care if you read books all day, they have a coffee shop and make it up on coffee and buns, and even though I really hate buying books, I do end up buying them once in a while there.

gampy

Well I finished it, and oh boy, did I cry at the end. A really good cry. Not a sad cry.

What a great book. I think this story kind of transcends the doomer, or post-apocalyptic stereotype.

It's a book about good and evil, in my mind. And Father and Sons.

While it is riveting, and powerful, vis-a-vis the descriptions of the landscape, and other people the two main characters meet, I think this story speaks to the inherent goodness (and evil) in people, sans conditioning, and experience.

The boy is born into that world, but he is the guide post and inspiration for the father, who tries his best to be a "good guy".

The father has seen so much evil and selfishness, and baseness, but it's the boy who keeps him "carrying the fire".

God, this man is such a fabulous writer. I need to read his other books. His descriptive abilities, and way with language are so amazing, and original.

Hemingway did something great, and similar, with "The Old Man and the Sea", but McCarthy takes that simple, concise, and ultimately profound language, and style, and makes this simple, but profound story so much more uplifting. In the end.

I was so disheartened, and depressed reading this until the end. Then it all became clear. I had a good cry at the end, but I feel so blessed having read it. Mankind is not completely lost yet.

Edit:

I think I read somewhere that Mr. McCarthy found the germ for this story while on a cross country bus trip with his own son. Man. I am not a father, but I can only imagine how a Father or Mother might feel reading this.

gampy

kochevnik · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 20, 2004 Posts: 881

Great writer. Great book.

McCarthy evidently has a YOUNG son - maybe even younger than the one in the book. Also having a young son, I think this is why this book was so hard to read. It's way way beyond doomer porn tho.
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"People are just bastards - bastard covered bastards with bastard filling."

I_Like_Plants

I'm glad this thread got bumped. I still need to read this thing.

SeasonOfPain

I bought the hardcover about 6 months ago, but still haven't gotten around to reading it yet (I have a stack of books about four feet high that I want to read). Now the paperback is #13 in Amazon's bestseller list.

Anyone else find it interesting that the public loves apocalyptic fiction, but doesn't want to hear about unhappy scenarios that might actually happen? Not that this is anything new, just interesting...

strider3700

In general I don't think the public likes apocalyptic fiction. The road is super popular because Oprah pimped it a couple of weeks ago.
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shame on us, doomed from the start
god have mercy on our dirty little hearts

gampy

TheDude

Look at all those Jericho fans sending in hundreds of pounds of nuts to CBS. People want their doom. Oprah wants doom. Oprah gave everyone in the audience a CFL bulb recently. Lewis Black pointed out that she'd given everyone a new car the year before...people want cognitive dissonance as well.
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Cogito, ergo non satis bibivi
C'mon man, who're you gonna believe?

hermit · Heavy Crude Joined: May 13, 2008 Posts: 184

I just finished the road. It was well written, but as uncomfortable as eating glass.

I see no value for doomers to read this book. It is neither motivational, instructional, or even escapist. That being said, I'm glad Oprah has promoted it.... I really hope it makes people think twice about all of the nuclear bombs we've been building.

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2510 Location: ^NNE^

My mother gave me this book after she had finished it for her book club.

I was very glad to get hold of it finally.

It's one of the worse pieces of crap I've ever read.

It has one tone--dismal--and it trots out every apocalyptic cliche one can think of, including the requisite toasted baby carcass.

In fact, one might call "The Road" apocalyptic swill punctuated with crappy father/son heart-to-heart sentimentality.

It simply floors me that this book was so popular. The intellectual capacity of the reading public is apparently zero.

I particularly liked the part where the daddy and boy just happened to stumble upon a fallout shelter, full of old-fashioned canned foods!

Would that they had missed this cache and died. We would have been spared the rest of the "story."
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"By the time individuals discover that remaining resources will not be adequate for the next generation, the next generation has already been born. " David Price