tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661117100748148070.post4764806651270117409..comments2024-02-20T15:12:28.660-08:00Comments on A Time-Travelling Apocalypse: A review of Cormac McCarthy's Blood MeridianGraham Clementshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06430135062211828206noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661117100748148070.post-20296236193772321652014-04-06T17:05:02.201-07:002014-04-06T17:05:02.201-07:00Hi Tom,
Your thoughts on the landscape being the...Hi Tom, <br /><br />Your thoughts on the landscape being the principal character are interesting. McCarthy certainly spends a lot of time describing it. Don't know about it being a hero though. Perhaps a mentor, that shapes the behaviour of the gang. <br /><br />Graham. Graham Clementshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06430135062211828206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8661117100748148070.post-41008716255714816512014-04-06T16:50:26.508-07:002014-04-06T16:50:26.508-07:00Hi, Graham.
I read 'Blood Meridian' in the...Hi, Graham.<br />I read 'Blood Meridian' in the 90s when it came out. It had a salutary effect on my thinking on writing. I rate it among the five best novels I've ever read. The reason is the language (a geological language akin to the power of 'Moby Dick'), the intensity (that language somehow internalises the landscape ie. the landscape is the principal character). I would argue the book does have a hero and that hero is landscape. It is so powerfully presented that we know it outranks the pestilent humans that scuttle across it. It's a long bow, but perhaps this is one of the great environmental novels. Tom Floodhttp://www.manuscripts.com.aunoreply@blogger.com