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The Road by Cormac McCarthy - awesome book
tomselleck69:
--- Quote from: Shadows Collide on 20 Feb 2008, 04:06 ---Well, I just thought this was an internet discussion thread, so I abandoned all intellectual formalities. And basically McCarthy is one of those authors whose fans could never handle real criticism, because they've finally found a book they like and they will defend it to the death.
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For a time I was one of these people. I once read an LJ entry that claimed Blood Meridian was not all that and a bag of chips, and it made me SO DAMNED ANGRY. I caught myself halfway through typing out a response that was all sarcasm/no rebuttal, realizing that it is awful to be that offended by what books people like or dislike... I think I have been okay since.
Alternate ending: I am absolute shit at defending things I like, so ambivalence is much easier to maintain than self-righteousness (as good as it may feel).
Johnny C:
--- Quote from: n0t_r0bert_b0yle!! on 14 Feb 2008, 14:22 ---That is in fact one of the reasons I like him
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Have you read his non-fiction collection? Some fantastic pieces in there, but the best one deals with the Oprah debacle. Great read.
McCarthy's prose is spartan and electric, and I can see why people wouldn't like it. His style is tremendously polarizing.
I haven't read The Road yet, but I've read Child of God and about half of Blood Meridian, both of which are fantastic. The despair serves a purpose in those books, underpinning certain elements of the human condition. Child of God, for example, cleverly references gentrification, how dehumanizing that process is and how it can drive already dangerous people to unspeakable things.
Inlander:
--- Quote from: n0t_r0bert_b0yle!! on 14 Feb 2008, 14:22 ---That is in fact one of the reasons I like him
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Funny, because it's one of the reasons why I think he might just be an unbearably pretentious wanker. Whatever you think of Oprah, she seems to genuinely delight in foisting books she loves upon her audience. She did it with the Corrections, and Franzen kicked up some almighty fuss about it. Basically, it seemed to me that his argument boiled down to saying that Oprah viewers were beneath him and his writing. Fuck that. Reading is not and should never be an elite activity reserved for the chosen few in the "right" audience.
Shadows Collide:
I got pretty heated there; the Road just disappointed me, maybe I was expecting too much of it. To tell you the truth, I don't read heaps of books, so when I do I get very passionate about them.
I don't want to make any enemies here! :lol:
Johnny C:
Harry, his issue stemmed from two things. One, they wanted to print the Oprah's Book Club logo right on the cover instead of as a sticker; as a result, he'd be permanently identified with Oprah. Starry-eyed though it may be, he wanted the book to succeed on its own merits, not because it had Oprah's name on it. Secondly, his experience as an Oprah author felt hollow and forced. They were making him out to be something he wasn't and having him do and say things that built a false image of himself. I don't think it's about the Oprah audience being beneath him, it's about wanting the book to speak for itself.
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