This is great, and Blood Meridian is my favorite book. Upon finishing it, I wrote myself a 13k word essay just to help myself understand it.
One element of McCarthy's prose that I don't see spoken of frequently is his use of core vocab adverbs (yes, those blighted adverbs) like here, there, these, etc. It's subtle and easy to overlook, but using orienting terms like these help position not only the subjective thing being looked at, but also the SUBJECT doing the observing. The narrator is free, but referring to "these mountains that reared along the horizon" vs simply "the mountains rearing on the horizon" grounds the reader where the character is. It makes their eyes yours, even when you might not realize it.
A very interesting article. No, I hadn't seen it. Thanks for reposting.
In a class, we were forced to read The Road, and after reading the first page, I knew. Cormac and I have nothing in common. Nada. Zilch. Nil. Nein. If a writer thinks he's wonderful because he's made something ugly, well, good on him. I was also forced to buy this goofy book, and when the movie was released, you know who didn't pay to see it. Barbarian that I am, I figure if a writer wants to be a poet, let him be one. If he wants to incorporate poetry into his story, let him do it. If he wants to make references to other writers and their imagery, fine with me if they give credit where it's due. But to force anyone to pay money to read McCarthy is a sin against nature and nature's God.
However, thank-you for introducing me to yet another word (polysyndeton) -- this one a $10.00 word that means 25 cents worth of run-on sentences. After all, MaCarthy is an Irishman, right? What's he doing writing like a German? :)
While in grad school (late 80’s), one of my sociology research classes was a project contracted by a do-gooder org. to explore the need for child abuse services in Temecula, CA. The 12 of us worked individually on different aspects —I interviewed “key informants”, such as judges, welfare workers, clergy, etc. At the conclusion of the project, we combined our efforts for the presentation. The prof was ecstatic. It read like one person had done the entire project. We were all excellent academic writers. And no sentence began with a pronoun.
Style matters. When it comes to objective information, its communication must be clear, precise, and concise. What about story-telling?
After reading your article, it seems to me that you’re saying the answer to that question is: it depends. When you re-wrote the Melville description of the bar, I think you captured the mood better than the longer Melville version. It seemed to me that the biggest flaw in ‘classic’ story-telling is the the author gets lost in the words, and forgets he IS telling a story. (So, get on with it!)
However, I can also see that, reading in the time of no visual/tech assistance, words were the only way to get people lost in new worlds. (Especially, if one lived in a place called Iowa and had never seen a whaling ship, a dock seedy bar, or a whale up close.) How an author reaches his audience is irrelevant as long as he does reach it.
As for Faulkner, his expertise,being on the losing side of a war, prepared him well to lay the foundation of Southern Gothic. Them damn Yankees wanted that dizzying feeling or triumph to last, and Faulkner gave them all they wanted by confirming their righteousness, their bias, and their fear the South might rise again. Why not let them wallow in the slow, agonizing death of a defeated culture?
What Faulkner couldn’t see, and I don’t fault him for this, is that he not only co-invented a genre by his style and content, but also laid the groundwork for an industry of grievance politics. (Ah find that immensely inner’estin’ ‘cause ah lives in a border state, and the War of Northern Aggression is still bein’ fought. Ah was raised up poor, mahself, but my Mama didn’t own but one slave: me.)
The above parenthetical sentence has a purpose. I like your Faulkner-inspired paragraph about the swimming hole. The sentence “My grandfather took a friend and me to the river, and it was his idea we go skinny dipping, leaving our britches on the deck and jumping into that cloudy water the same way we came splashing out of our mothers’ nether regions; and what a funny thought—now that I think it—she being his daughter and all; but all things circle round, and all things are made true in the fullness of time.” is so well-written as an example of what the essay is about, I was blown away.
I also found it a great example of tongue-in-cheek humor —whether you meant it to be one or not. First, there’s Gandfather urging young men to get naked with him to swim. (uhhh-huh.) Then there the POV of writer, that he, of unknown age, thinking about his origin — which immediately made me think of Gustave Courbet’s The Mother Of Us All, the up-close and personal display of mama’s ‘nether regions.’ (okay) What young man skinny-dipping DOESN’T think about that? No one, ever, and no one comes out “splashing,” conscious of his — playful side? I admit, I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
That left me with the conclusion that you’re right. Write enough and you’ll develop a style that breaks the rules of rhetoric, but can sell a lot of books and movies even if you’re a lousy writer, Stephen King.
The 80s were my jr high - college years, and until I left home for USC, I spent them in Orange County, but I'm originally from the south and after 20 years in California, returned to the south for another 20. The last few years, I've moved up around St Louis.
Very interesting. I’ve always thought there were some similarities between the way Melville describes Ahab and McCarthy describes Glanton. From Moby Dick: “Ahab’s eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin”.. and from Blood Meridian: “Glanton’s eyes in their dark sockets were burning centroids of murder”.
Moby Dick: “I’d strike the sun if it insulted me”
Blood Meridian: “…he’d drive the remorseless sun on to its final endarkenment as if he’d ordered it all ages since”
Also there might be some similarities between the white whale and the judge. Both are enormous, hairless mammals, unusually white, imbued with potentially supernatural qualities like omnipresence and invincibility, unusually aggressive. McCarthy was definitely influenced by Melville, both style and substance.
I know this is besides the point of your essay, but polysyndeton has been a favorite tool of mine for many years now. I began employing its use long before even knowing its name, having run across the device in the KJB and Tanakh during my early 20s (an era of hyper-religiousity, I admit). Always loved the visual power, mythic tone, and “biblical” scope polysyndeton brought to a piece of fiction, even if the story itself was a contained one.
Was it because they think the device is out of fashion or because they didn't think you were using it well? I wonder what the editor will say to me once my novel is ready for dev edits.
“His main character has just learned that his daughter is dead, and he makes the dreaded call to convey the news. As he waits for the call to connect, he imagines the signal traveling through the wires like some red-eyed beast, and I didn’t buy it.” — Now would I. I’ve been there, losing someone close to death. My brain is very active, constantly making the kind of thoughts described — but not that moment. My mind was stilled and emptied.
This is great, and Blood Meridian is my favorite book. Upon finishing it, I wrote myself a 13k word essay just to help myself understand it.
One element of McCarthy's prose that I don't see spoken of frequently is his use of core vocab adverbs (yes, those blighted adverbs) like here, there, these, etc. It's subtle and easy to overlook, but using orienting terms like these help position not only the subjective thing being looked at, but also the SUBJECT doing the observing. The narrator is free, but referring to "these mountains that reared along the horizon" vs simply "the mountains rearing on the horizon" grounds the reader where the character is. It makes their eyes yours, even when you might not realize it.
I love that insight!
A very interesting article. No, I hadn't seen it. Thanks for reposting.
In a class, we were forced to read The Road, and after reading the first page, I knew. Cormac and I have nothing in common. Nada. Zilch. Nil. Nein. If a writer thinks he's wonderful because he's made something ugly, well, good on him. I was also forced to buy this goofy book, and when the movie was released, you know who didn't pay to see it. Barbarian that I am, I figure if a writer wants to be a poet, let him be one. If he wants to incorporate poetry into his story, let him do it. If he wants to make references to other writers and their imagery, fine with me if they give credit where it's due. But to force anyone to pay money to read McCarthy is a sin against nature and nature's God.
However, thank-you for introducing me to yet another word (polysyndeton) -- this one a $10.00 word that means 25 cents worth of run-on sentences. After all, MaCarthy is an Irishman, right? What's he doing writing like a German? :)
lol. I think you may enjoy To Hell with William Faulkner, as it’s partially about whether style matters at all.
While in grad school (late 80’s), one of my sociology research classes was a project contracted by a do-gooder org. to explore the need for child abuse services in Temecula, CA. The 12 of us worked individually on different aspects —I interviewed “key informants”, such as judges, welfare workers, clergy, etc. At the conclusion of the project, we combined our efforts for the presentation. The prof was ecstatic. It read like one person had done the entire project. We were all excellent academic writers. And no sentence began with a pronoun.
Style matters. When it comes to objective information, its communication must be clear, precise, and concise. What about story-telling?
After reading your article, it seems to me that you’re saying the answer to that question is: it depends. When you re-wrote the Melville description of the bar, I think you captured the mood better than the longer Melville version. It seemed to me that the biggest flaw in ‘classic’ story-telling is the the author gets lost in the words, and forgets he IS telling a story. (So, get on with it!)
However, I can also see that, reading in the time of no visual/tech assistance, words were the only way to get people lost in new worlds. (Especially, if one lived in a place called Iowa and had never seen a whaling ship, a dock seedy bar, or a whale up close.) How an author reaches his audience is irrelevant as long as he does reach it.
As for Faulkner, his expertise,being on the losing side of a war, prepared him well to lay the foundation of Southern Gothic. Them damn Yankees wanted that dizzying feeling or triumph to last, and Faulkner gave them all they wanted by confirming their righteousness, their bias, and their fear the South might rise again. Why not let them wallow in the slow, agonizing death of a defeated culture?
What Faulkner couldn’t see, and I don’t fault him for this, is that he not only co-invented a genre by his style and content, but also laid the groundwork for an industry of grievance politics. (Ah find that immensely inner’estin’ ‘cause ah lives in a border state, and the War of Northern Aggression is still bein’ fought. Ah was raised up poor, mahself, but my Mama didn’t own but one slave: me.)
The above parenthetical sentence has a purpose. I like your Faulkner-inspired paragraph about the swimming hole. The sentence “My grandfather took a friend and me to the river, and it was his idea we go skinny dipping, leaving our britches on the deck and jumping into that cloudy water the same way we came splashing out of our mothers’ nether regions; and what a funny thought—now that I think it—she being his daughter and all; but all things circle round, and all things are made true in the fullness of time.” is so well-written as an example of what the essay is about, I was blown away.
I also found it a great example of tongue-in-cheek humor —whether you meant it to be one or not. First, there’s Gandfather urging young men to get naked with him to swim. (uhhh-huh.) Then there the POV of writer, that he, of unknown age, thinking about his origin — which immediately made me think of Gustave Courbet’s The Mother Of Us All, the up-close and personal display of mama’s ‘nether regions.’ (okay) What young man skinny-dipping DOESN’T think about that? No one, ever, and no one comes out “splashing,” conscious of his — playful side? I admit, I laughed, and laughed, and laughed.
That left me with the conclusion that you’re right. Write enough and you’ll develop a style that breaks the rules of rhetoric, but can sell a lot of books and movies even if you’re a lousy writer, Stephen King.
The 80s were my jr high - college years, and until I left home for USC, I spent them in Orange County, but I'm originally from the south and after 20 years in California, returned to the south for another 20. The last few years, I've moved up around St Louis.
I’m originally from San Diego, CA….but, for the last 25 years, I’ve lived in Missouri, Iowa and then finally Kentucky. Small world, eh?
Very interesting. I’ve always thought there were some similarities between the way Melville describes Ahab and McCarthy describes Glanton. From Moby Dick: “Ahab’s eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin”.. and from Blood Meridian: “Glanton’s eyes in their dark sockets were burning centroids of murder”.
Moby Dick: “I’d strike the sun if it insulted me”
Blood Meridian: “…he’d drive the remorseless sun on to its final endarkenment as if he’d ordered it all ages since”
Also there might be some similarities between the white whale and the judge. Both are enormous, hairless mammals, unusually white, imbued with potentially supernatural qualities like omnipresence and invincibility, unusually aggressive. McCarthy was definitely influenced by Melville, both style and substance.
Wonderful comparisons. I could hear Ahab's words coming from the Judge.
I know this is besides the point of your essay, but polysyndeton has been a favorite tool of mine for many years now. I began employing its use long before even knowing its name, having run across the device in the KJB and Tanakh during my early 20s (an era of hyper-religiousity, I admit). Always loved the visual power, mythic tone, and “biblical” scope polysyndeton brought to a piece of fiction, even if the story itself was a contained one.
My last editor kept convincing me to remove the extra conjunctions. Most likely, I didn't push it far enough to begin wirh.
Was it because they think the device is out of fashion or because they didn't think you were using it well? I wonder what the editor will say to me once my novel is ready for dev edits.
I think she just didn't like the sound of repeated ands
“His main character has just learned that his daughter is dead, and he makes the dreaded call to convey the news. As he waits for the call to connect, he imagines the signal traveling through the wires like some red-eyed beast, and I didn’t buy it.” — Now would I. I’ve been there, losing someone close to death. My brain is very active, constantly making the kind of thoughts described — but not that moment. My mind was stilled and emptied.