I recant. Go deep dive and read up on the use of similes in fiction in the approximate timeframe the novel takes place during (1849-1850) especially the influences on the general timeframe of Romanticism, Victorian realism, and serialized novels. If you take that into account the number of similes he uses isn't that far off in verisimili…
I recant. Go deep dive and read up on the use of similes in fiction in the approximate timeframe the novel takes place during (1849-1850) especially the influences on the general timeframe of Romanticism, Victorian realism, and serialized novels. If you take that into account the number of similes he uses isn't that far off in verisimilitude compared to other books taken written in the same general timeframe.
My suggestion, we're using the ENTIRE wrong measuring stick here. McCarthy was anything BUT fastidious and detail oriented, well read, and whip smart... In his later years he liked to hang out at the Santa Fe Institute with people so smart they make geniuses look dumb by comparison.
I portend that he was writing a bloody satirical take on a western novel which could have been written in 1849-50 in a slightly exaggerated style and the point is being missed because he actually WAS that good.
To assume that McCarthy, who wrote the Road so stylistically, and was nothing if not an explosive prose stylist, wouldn't do something of this nature as formalist experimentation within the context of a work that is a period piece, is silly. I could absolutely see him doing it.
I recant. Go deep dive and read up on the use of similes in fiction in the approximate timeframe the novel takes place during (1849-1850) especially the influences on the general timeframe of Romanticism, Victorian realism, and serialized novels. If you take that into account the number of similes he uses isn't that far off in verisimilitude compared to other books taken written in the same general timeframe.
My suggestion, we're using the ENTIRE wrong measuring stick here. McCarthy was anything BUT fastidious and detail oriented, well read, and whip smart... In his later years he liked to hang out at the Santa Fe Institute with people so smart they make geniuses look dumb by comparison.
I portend that he was writing a bloody satirical take on a western novel which could have been written in 1849-50 in a slightly exaggerated style and the point is being missed because he actually WAS that good.
To assume that McCarthy, who wrote the Road so stylistically, and was nothing if not an explosive prose stylist, wouldn't do something of this nature as formalist experimentation within the context of a work that is a period piece, is silly. I could absolutely see him doing it.
I don't know how I have time to do all this shit either. (secret, I don't. I have horrible time management skills.)