Cormac McCarthy, I Think
Much of what I read is chosen because a) it's good in some significant way, and b) I think it contains something significant I can learn. About writing, I mean; otherwise I'd still be stuck in the encyclopedia. But plans in life tend to be untidy and so, of course, is this. Especially when I run into someone like Cormac McCarthy.
I read his "Border Trilogy," which includes All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. Loved 'em, especially Horses which won a National Book Award. The dialog is amazing. Not only does it read true in the unique voices of each character but the way that he defines his characters through the words of the people they interact with is pure brilliance. You don't really know that John Grady Cole has a rare gift with horses until another character, almost in an aside to another, says something about it, in such a way, as to be truth and revelatory at the same time.
I have Suttree packed away with the rest of my library but in an effort to get all I can from McCarthy's work, I picked up his classic (especially according to Harold Bloom) and his recent Pulitzer Prize winning The Road (I had to make sure I could still get a copy without the "Oprah's Book Club" seal). With great anticipation I began Blood Meridian. With great disappointment, I write these words: I don't think I like it.
In the four books I've read so far, McCarthy does some things in each that may blur the line between "style" and "formula," albeit one his own. In each book he'll have characters tell stories to other characters that seem only to illustrated a broad philosophy either of the character or possibly the author, and that have only tangential value to the plot. These stories run for a few thousand words so if they're detours, they're major ones.
Another thing he does is he writes whole conversations in Spanish and without any attempt whatsoever to indicate, in English, just what the hell folks are saying. I don't know Spanish and I don't feel like I'm reading the entire book. I did look up some of the words and phrases used in Horses but it's not something I found enjoyable.
Lastly he writes his dialog with absolutely no punctuation whatsoever, including quotation marks. I'm not sure of the point. Most of the time you can do without it but many times you have to re-read the words several times to make sure what is dialog and what is not, and often even to discern who is speaking. Like the translations, it takes me out of the book and I can't think that's a good thing.
Blood Meridian is a violent book and when I say that know that it is an understatement. It's so violent and often sadistic that I found myself sometimes dreading reading on when I knew a conflict of some sort was about to occur. The books theme may be redemption through violence and if that is accurate, there is much redemption here.
But here's the real problem I had with the book: too often I didn't know what the hell he was trying to say. My brain may be too small to cope with the elevated usage or my imagination too stunted to follow on the heights necessary to his soaring text.
On page 195 of my Vintage International trade paperback edition, there's a sentence that reads:
"The muleteers benched out in a swag on the trail where the precipice was almost negotiable and they rode and fell crashing down through the scrub juniper and pine in a confusion of cries while the horsemen herded the lag mules off after them and rode wildly down the rock trail like men themselves at the mercy of something terrible."
"Benched out in a swag?" I simply cannot picture in my mind what these guys were doing; I don't get it. The rest of the sentence is clear enough that I get the gist of what's going on but again, the uncertainty takes me out of the book. Bad thing.
On page 229 we have a sentence that clearly overmatches my little brain:
"Horseblood or any blood a tremor ran that perilous architecture and the ponies stood rigid and quivering in the reddened sunrise and the desert under them hummed like a snaredrum."
It doesn't matter how many times I read it, I can't make sense of it. Is it my poor comprehension of the language? Is it a poor use of the language? Is it so stylistic and my imagination so stunted or rigid that I simply cannot grasp his meaning?
If Meridian had been my first McCarthy, it would have been my last. I can take the side stories, the lack of punctuation, and even the Spanish dialog, but I've got to at least be able to understand the passages written in English. He uses far fewer run on sentences in the Border Trilogy as in Meridian; did that become his rule or is it his exception? I guess I'll find out in The Road. Bottom line, All The Pretty Horses belongs on your shelf, perhaps next to Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, because it is truly a beautiful book. Especially if you can read Espanol. When McCarthy's sentences stay to a more conventional format, the words evoke imagery and a style that reminds me strongly of James Lee Burke. That, at least, is a very good thing.
As for Blood Meridian, I'm open to anyone's interpretations of the words that have so confounded me. Apparently I'm not alone as there are a number of published reader's guide to the book. I'm just not sure what it says about a contemporary novel when it needs such things to make it understandable.
I read his "Border Trilogy," which includes All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. Loved 'em, especially Horses which won a National Book Award. The dialog is amazing. Not only does it read true in the unique voices of each character but the way that he defines his characters through the words of the people they interact with is pure brilliance. You don't really know that John Grady Cole has a rare gift with horses until another character, almost in an aside to another, says something about it, in such a way, as to be truth and revelatory at the same time.
I have Suttree packed away with the rest of my library but in an effort to get all I can from McCarthy's work, I picked up his classic (especially according to Harold Bloom) and his recent Pulitzer Prize winning The Road (I had to make sure I could still get a copy without the "Oprah's Book Club" seal). With great anticipation I began Blood Meridian. With great disappointment, I write these words: I don't think I like it.
In the four books I've read so far, McCarthy does some things in each that may blur the line between "style" and "formula," albeit one his own. In each book he'll have characters tell stories to other characters that seem only to illustrated a broad philosophy either of the character or possibly the author, and that have only tangential value to the plot. These stories run for a few thousand words so if they're detours, they're major ones.
Another thing he does is he writes whole conversations in Spanish and without any attempt whatsoever to indicate, in English, just what the hell folks are saying. I don't know Spanish and I don't feel like I'm reading the entire book. I did look up some of the words and phrases used in Horses but it's not something I found enjoyable.
Lastly he writes his dialog with absolutely no punctuation whatsoever, including quotation marks. I'm not sure of the point. Most of the time you can do without it but many times you have to re-read the words several times to make sure what is dialog and what is not, and often even to discern who is speaking. Like the translations, it takes me out of the book and I can't think that's a good thing.
Blood Meridian is a violent book and when I say that know that it is an understatement. It's so violent and often sadistic that I found myself sometimes dreading reading on when I knew a conflict of some sort was about to occur. The books theme may be redemption through violence and if that is accurate, there is much redemption here.
But here's the real problem I had with the book: too often I didn't know what the hell he was trying to say. My brain may be too small to cope with the elevated usage or my imagination too stunted to follow on the heights necessary to his soaring text.
On page 195 of my Vintage International trade paperback edition, there's a sentence that reads:
"The muleteers benched out in a swag on the trail where the precipice was almost negotiable and they rode and fell crashing down through the scrub juniper and pine in a confusion of cries while the horsemen herded the lag mules off after them and rode wildly down the rock trail like men themselves at the mercy of something terrible."
"Benched out in a swag?" I simply cannot picture in my mind what these guys were doing; I don't get it. The rest of the sentence is clear enough that I get the gist of what's going on but again, the uncertainty takes me out of the book. Bad thing.
On page 229 we have a sentence that clearly overmatches my little brain:
"Horseblood or any blood a tremor ran that perilous architecture and the ponies stood rigid and quivering in the reddened sunrise and the desert under them hummed like a snaredrum."
It doesn't matter how many times I read it, I can't make sense of it. Is it my poor comprehension of the language? Is it a poor use of the language? Is it so stylistic and my imagination so stunted or rigid that I simply cannot grasp his meaning?
If Meridian had been my first McCarthy, it would have been my last. I can take the side stories, the lack of punctuation, and even the Spanish dialog, but I've got to at least be able to understand the passages written in English. He uses far fewer run on sentences in the Border Trilogy as in Meridian; did that become his rule or is it his exception? I guess I'll find out in The Road. Bottom line, All The Pretty Horses belongs on your shelf, perhaps next to Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, because it is truly a beautiful book. Especially if you can read Espanol. When McCarthy's sentences stay to a more conventional format, the words evoke imagery and a style that reminds me strongly of James Lee Burke. That, at least, is a very good thing.
As for Blood Meridian, I'm open to anyone's interpretations of the words that have so confounded me. Apparently I'm not alone as there are a number of published reader's guide to the book. I'm just not sure what it says about a contemporary novel when it needs such things to make it understandable.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 10:25 PM
2 Comments:
"The muleteers benched out in a swag on the trail where the precipice was almost negotiable and they rode and fell crashing down through the scrub juniper and pine in a confusion of cries while the horsemen herded the lag mules off after them and rode wildly down the rock trail like men themselves at the mercy of something terrible."
The mule drivers spread out in a depression in the terrain near a drop-off. They went down the steep slope making a lot of noise, crashing through the brushy trees. Horsemen (other muledrivers?) chased the stray mules along with them. They went dangerously fast.
What the heck that bit about "like men themselves at the mercy" is supposed to mean without commas, I have no idea.
"Horseblood or any blood a tremor ran that perilous architecture and the ponies stood rigid and quivering in the reddened sunrise and the desert under them hummed like a snaredrum."
Perhaps some context would help with this one? If that "Horseblood or any blood" wasn't included the sentence almost makes sense as poetry. Almost. At best, without context, I'd guess it means that the horses were excited by something and were on the verge of a fight-or-flight experience.
Perhaps you could risk using the U.S. postal service one more time and print out a bunch of commas on a piece of paper and mail them to the author along with a little post it that says, "Did you lose these?"
The first translation actually helps, and I appreciate it. But again, the bit at the end of the original is so arcane that it obscures what was written previously. And this is the more accessible of the two quoted passages.
As for the second, the answer is no, context would not help one bit. This passage is splotch out of the blue; if it weren't and larger chunks were written like this, I fear the book may be indecipherable.
That being said, I provided the page numbers so that if anyone feels they want to view the sentence in context, it would be easy to fine.
Good luck, sir. Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
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