Blood Meridian And Cormac Mccarthy

One Critic’s Folly I must disagree with this critic’s review of Blood Meridian and Cormac McCarthy as a “nameless Hack” who “Makes no obvious effort to say anything”. I Can not trust the critique of a man who can not even spell the name of an author correctly, i.e. the way he spells “MacCarthy”. Of his entire critique of the novel, the only part that I can agree with is that it is “the most gritty, realistic varnished western of all time”, as it destroyed the classic depiction of the old western way of life. This critic believes McCarthy is too “obtuse”, using too much description to make scenes that seem overly unimportant have some sense of relevancy; however, he fails to realize that McCarthy purposely uses so much detail and imagery to insert a hidden meaning behind almost every scene. Using the same example that this critic believed to “made no obvious effort to say anything”, “The thunder moved up from the southwest…true geology was not stone but fear”, he obviously did not catch that McCarthy was stating the natural veil of evil that plagued the old west and all of its population and how it was the natural life blood of the land. This description of the environment sets in the mood of the novel and makes the actions of all the characters seem almost humane. Nothing here was examined by the critic enough to give him a clear understanding of how the novel was supposed to be read. I am surprised this critic did not comment on any specific parts or themes of the book and that he only talked about generalities. For example, religion played a major role in the novel and at one point Judge Holden proclaims “War is God”. Normally most authors would not be as bold as to set up controversial topics, especially religion, in such a way as it could insult or corrupt one’s own thoughts, beliefs,

Show More

Related Documents: Blood Meridian And Cormac Mccarthy

Sexism Exposed In Alice Walker's The Color Purple