Great post Jacob, you gave words to the vague ideas I have of Cormac’s writing. It always seems so strangely sculptural in composition and yet it works so well in defining hidden character motivations. I recently read Child of God because I wanted to know how he dealt with the subject matter of the book. And what came through was a motivation that was not only sexual but one of scavenger thriftiness. And I was like bowled over by his naturalistic method of describing our human animal weirdness.
Thanks again. So glad I stumbled upon your Substack!
Thank you Henri! I think I clarified to myself what I enjoy so much about McCarthy's writing in this post too. My ideas on his style were much more vague before I committed to exploring them in this essay.
Strangely sculptural is a great way of describing it. I do feel an incredibly deliberate hand behind every sentence he writes. He is one of those writers whose style is so pronounced and purposeful that it becomes part of the substance.
Child of God is actually one of the McCarthy books that I still haven't read. I will definitely get to it at some point, and I'm glad to hear it bowled you over.
I was forwarded here by the repost on Orbis Tertius. Great read! I explored some themes of Bergson and McCarthy in a couple of essays recently, if you’re interested: https://tmfow.substack.com/p/experience-and-immersion
Great post Jacob, you gave words to the vague ideas I have of Cormac’s writing. It always seems so strangely sculptural in composition and yet it works so well in defining hidden character motivations. I recently read Child of God because I wanted to know how he dealt with the subject matter of the book. And what came through was a motivation that was not only sexual but one of scavenger thriftiness. And I was like bowled over by his naturalistic method of describing our human animal weirdness.
Thanks again. So glad I stumbled upon your Substack!
Thank you Henri! I think I clarified to myself what I enjoy so much about McCarthy's writing in this post too. My ideas on his style were much more vague before I committed to exploring them in this essay.
Strangely sculptural is a great way of describing it. I do feel an incredibly deliberate hand behind every sentence he writes. He is one of those writers whose style is so pronounced and purposeful that it becomes part of the substance.
Child of God is actually one of the McCarthy books that I still haven't read. I will definitely get to it at some point, and I'm glad to hear it bowled you over.
Thank you for the support!
I was forwarded here by the repost on Orbis Tertius. Great read! I explored some themes of Bergson and McCarthy in a couple of essays recently, if you’re interested: https://tmfow.substack.com/p/experience-and-immersion
https://tmfow.substack.com/p/the-plurality-of-experience
See in particular the section Freedom in the latter
Thank you! I will absolutely give those a read.
Thank you very much.