[ SECRET POST #2739 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2739 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 021 secrets from Secret Submission Post #391.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Uugggghhhh haven't seent the movie but I hated this book so much. So unoriginal and, worse than that, unbelievably tedious. It's like, we get it, humanity is horrible and we brought this on ourselves. Did you really need to write a 300 page book where every page had that message and there was no nuance whatsoever? Really? Well, you did Cormac, congrats.

[(Anonymous)]

By the same token, you... didn't need to read it. Didn't any of the reviews tip you off that the book was a grimfest?

[(Anonymous)]

It sounds like what bothered ayrt is that tthey feel the book bashes them over the head with its message, not the fact that it's grim. Also, some people don't read book reviews - they may have been rec'd by a friend, or saw it on a shelf at the library and thought it looked interesting. In any case, the whole "oh didn't like it? Well you didn't have to read/watch it" argument is so ridiculous and defensive. People sometimes give things a try and wind up not liking them. That's that not illogical.

[ariakas]

...That isn't even the message, though, so it would be impossible to be "bashed over the head" with it o_O

It really does sound more like the OP found it too dark and violent and refused to read anything else into it because it upset them. McCarthy uses violence as a tool to underline our glorification of what should be abhorrent. We look at other post-apocalyptic survivors as action heroes, mowing down zombies with katanas and fighting true evil, placing ourselves in their shoes. In The Road, McCarthy shows us that no, more likely than not we'd be the man, struggling to survive and swiftly killed if we challenged roving bands of people willing to do violence by ourselves. He gives us true desperation and deprivation in place of an empty, rote empowerment fantasy.

He... pretty much always uses violence this way, actually. Blood Meridian is described as horrific and shocking, but all it really is is a cowboy fantasy written realistically. He makes what should be abhorrent truly abhorrent. And yes, it's painful to read. But he demonizes the violence-doers, always, every time. Not "humanity" as a whole.

[ariakas]

It's weird that you think the only message is that "humanity is horrible" when the protagonist himself is a moral figure who never loses his sense of purpose, the boy is innocent, and the ending is ambiguous but could easily be construed as deeply hopeful as not.

I think you're accusing the book of having "no nuance" because you missed the nuance, friend, not because it wasn't there. McCarthy isn't afraid of delving into the dark side of humanity, true (if you think this is bad, try Blood Meridian) but an unflinching look at cruelty, violence, and desperation =/= condemnation of humanity as whole.