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Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47029 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
4/5 wrote:
I was thinking of reading Cormac McCarthy for the first time. Should I? Where do people recommend starting?
All the Pretty Horses Blood Meridian The Road No Country For Old Men
All four of these are masterful. The first two are much more verbose; the latter two are very sparse. I would rank them in that order as far as the enjoyment I got out of them, but YMMV.
ATPH is his lightest, most "upbeat" (relatively speaking) Blood Meridian is really dark, but also really fun The Road is BLEAK No Country is a ripping good yarn
I was thinking of reading Cormac McCarthy for the first time. Should I? Where do people recommend starting?
All the Pretty Horses Blood Meridian The Road No Country For Old Men
All four of these are masterful. The first two are much more verbose; the latter two are very sparse. I would rank them in that order as far as the enjoyment I got out of them, but YMMV.
ATPH is his lightest, most "upbeat" (relatively speaking) Blood Meridian is really dark, but also really fun The Road is BLEAK No Country is a ripping good yarn
Nice. Thanks for the response.
_________________ "I want to see the whole picture--as nearly as I can. I don't want to put on the blinders of 'good and bad,' and limit my vision."-- In Dubious Battle
I was thinking of reading Cormac McCarthy for the first time. Should I? Where do people recommend starting?
All the Pretty Horses Blood Meridian The Road No Country For Old Men
All four of these are masterful. The first two are much more verbose; the latter two are very sparse. I would rank them in that order as far as the enjoyment I got out of them, but YMMV.
ATPH is his lightest, most "upbeat" (relatively speaking) Blood Meridian is really dark, but also really fun The Road is BLEAK No Country is a ripping good yarn
Nice. Thanks for the response.
The Road is completely brilliant.
Blood Meridian is completely impossible. And dudes way smarter than me have abandoned it several times before finally "getting" it and finishing it. I got about 100 pages in and had to bail. Maybe some day I'll revisit.
I haven't read anything else by him because he's kind of an insufferable wang and I got better things to do and limited time to waste. But the two new ones he just dropped seem interesting and I'm thinking about picking those up.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 1:53 pm Posts: 10255 Location: in the air tonight
I failed at reading Blood Meridian at least two or three times over the course of ten years before finally succeeding a couple years ago. I was 100 pages in and realized I had no idea what was going on. After finally getting through it, I can definitely say it is worth it. It's a beautiful book, unique, sticks with me.
An enigma of a man shaped hole in the wall between reality and the soul of the devil.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:13 pm Posts: 39764 Location: 6000 feet beyond man and time.
4/5 wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:
4/5 wrote:
I was thinking of reading Cormac McCarthy for the first time. Should I? Where do people recommend starting?
All the Pretty Horses Blood Meridian The Road No Country For Old Men
All four of these are masterful. The first two are much more verbose; the latter two are very sparse. I would rank them in that order as far as the enjoyment I got out of them, but YMMV.
ATPH is his lightest, most "upbeat" (relatively speaking) Blood Meridian is really dark, but also really fun The Road is BLEAK No Country is a ripping good yarn
Nice. Thanks for the response.
That's a pretty good order. I'm not the biggest fan of No Country, because some of the dialogue is unbearable. But it's fine. The Passenger is a weird one, but I like it. It covers a lot of the area I grew up in, and has the second funniest character in fiction (the first is Harrogate from Suttree).
I was thinking of reading Cormac McCarthy for the first time. Should I? Where do people recommend starting?
All the Pretty Horses Blood Meridian The Road No Country For Old Men
All four of these are masterful. The first two are much more verbose; the latter two are very sparse. I would rank them in that order as far as the enjoyment I got out of them, but YMMV.
ATPH is his lightest, most "upbeat" (relatively speaking) Blood Meridian is really dark, but also really fun The Road is BLEAK No Country is a ripping good yarn
Nice. Thanks for the response.
That's a pretty good order. I'm not the biggest fan of No Country, because some of the dialogue is unbearable. But it's fine. The Passenger is a weird one, but I like it. It covers a lot of the area I grew up in, and has the second funniest character in fiction (the first is Harrogate from Suttree).
I'm halfway through The Passenger, is this funny person
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47029 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
BurtReynolds wrote:
From what I remember (And i kinda blitzed through it), Australia will starve to death (and have to deal with Asian disintegration).
Japan has no resources and hostile countries between it and those resources.
Canada is just The US, Jr., so they'll be fine. Mexico might be, too. Maybe Argentina.
France and Turkey will be ok.
BTW, how much of a scam is green tech?
I had a totally different takeaway from the first bold one: Backed by US military projections, Japan will become the primary source of capital for the Pacific Islands, creating a unified manufacturing front that handles everything from raw input purchasing to low-value-through-high-value add as you move up the island chain.
The second bold part was something else. Has pretty much upended a lot of my thinking. CA currently has enough renewable energy to power the whole state for a full minute.
Agreed of everything else, mostly. I think Australia is looking good except for the food thing. But they'll have enough economic flex to procure the food they need.
An enigma of a man shaped hole in the wall between reality and the soul of the devil.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:13 pm Posts: 39764 Location: 6000 feet beyond man and time.
A lot of the book hinges on demographic collapse. I'm not expert enough to comment, but it seems like it could be overblown. I've heard for decades about how Japan is about to collapse, but they're still here.
Plus, for all I know countries will start growing humans in vats at some point.
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47029 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
BurtReynolds wrote:
A lot of the book hinges on demographic collapse. I'm not expert enough to comment, but it seems like it could be overblown. I've heard for decades about how Japan is about to collapse, but they're still here.
Plus, for all I know countries will start growing humans in vats at some point.
Joined: Tue September 24, 2013 5:56 pm Posts: 47029 Location: In the oatmeal aisle wearing a Shellac shirt
The one criticism I'd give the book is that if the demographic collapse will be so widespread, wouldn't demand for all the resources, good, and services similarly plummet? It seems a lot of his projections are based on current/historic demand.
An enigma of a man shaped hole in the wall between reality and the soul of the devil.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:13 pm Posts: 39764 Location: 6000 feet beyond man and time.
Yeah. Birthrates are definitely cratering, and it's not good, but I just wonder if it's really as apocalyptic as everyone says it is (outside of maybe Korea and Japan). Plus, it seems like the countries that could survive it would be in great shape once they get over the hump.
Increasing access to childcare seems like the wrong way to go. The point should be to find time for parents to actually raise and enjoy their children. They'd have to upend their whole culture to do that I guess.
_________________ "I want to see the whole picture--as nearly as I can. I don't want to put on the blinders of 'good and bad,' and limit my vision."-- In Dubious Battle
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 1:53 pm Posts: 10255 Location: in the air tonight
I've only read All the Pretty Horses in that trilogy, not sure why I never made my way into the others. Wilkerson is another obvious lacuna. I must rectify both
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