McCarthy's apocalyptic, dark novel was recently reviewed at Ash Tree. The review was thoughtful and intelligent, but I couldn't help but notice that my reaction to the book was superficially similar (the reader is often shocked and horrified) but ultimately quite different. While quite unpleasant, I see The Road as a deeply valid and troubling reaction to life in current times.
I guess it's true that McCarthy has a lot of dark themes, but the sense I get is that he's writing about this stuff because he can't do otherwise. You also have to admit that the "dark side" is very present in current American politics, not to mention in other parts of the world strongly affected by our politics (for example Iraq). To try to avoid horrifying things in our current world is both hopeless and unintelligent.
What I'm trying to say is, The Road is not just a novel with "horror movie" themes. It has more to tell us, and we shouldn't avoid it because of it's darkness. It was in any case a quite unpleasant read, though in my opinion a required one. Please read the review and tell me what you think!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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1 comments:
Hey, thanks for the mention and thanks for the link. I’ll return it. I have no doubt that these are horrible times. The new Al-qaida report makes that clear. I just don’t like prose or film that wallows in fear. The Road is definitely more multi-layered than a movie about torture, but its effect was the same on me.
Daniel Pinchbeck(Breaking Open the Head, 2012) says it better than me:
“I hate The Road phenomenon - why so much gloating in this death-world scenario rather than banding together to change things right now, today, while there is still time? When will the "literary elite" stop being such enthusiastic consumers and purveyors of aestheticized degradation?”
I see The Road as being similar to the terror alert system. Certainly, the novel’s a reflection of the zeitgeist. But that zeitgeist is totally unhealthy.
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