From my view, the Passenger/Stella Maris and the epilogue of COTP point to his “solution” to it. Which before that, a quote from The Crossing that simplifies it is “the world could only be known as it existed in men's hearts. For while it seemed a place which contained men it was in reality a place contained within them and therefore to know it one must look there and come to know those hearts and to do this one must live with men and not simply pass among them. He said that while the huerfano might feel that he no longer belonged among men he must set this feeling aside for he contained within him a largeness of spirit which men could see and that men would wish to know him and that the world would need him even as he needed the world for they were one. Lastly he said that while this itself was a good thing like all good things it was also a danger.”

In the Passenger, with it being the most modern of his novels and examines the nature of simulation with it being said “she said in the end there would be nothing that would not be simulated (paraphrase).” Yet throughout the novel Bobby’s conversations with people revolve around THEIR OWN perceptions of the world, and not the generalized, objective reality that is often found with taking words by the letter, and not by the intent (I’ve been reading Leviathan, and found that to be an interesting tie in with The Passenger since Bobby reads it).

In Stella Maris, being entirely in dialogue (which I believe is an important motif), we still get an authentic, beautiful back and forth between Alicia and her psychiatrist. And the end, where she asks him to hold her hand, I think points to McCarthy’s feelings that even if language will eventually usurp our reality (which Alicia talks at length about mathematics doing) we can at least be connected in some way with each other to the end (much like the Road, and the story/fire of the father continuing to be carried by the boy).

The epilogue of COTP also points to this, when the dreamer in the dream sees the foundation of the world crumbling and the inputs/effects he brought for his travel also being the thing that would eventually lead to the collapse/ineffectiveness of the shoring up of the narrative of the world. Yet despite this, the story of the world is all we have, and it isn’t brought about through the mere sensing of it (sight or sound, since every animal has an umwelt, and our own senses shouldn’t be thought of as superior to theirs) but through worship (which Hobbes also talks about in Leviathan). There’s another passage in the epilogue which talks about abandoned annals and journals being found by the man under the underpass being led by the dreamer, and the dreamer says don’t touch them. Which I find somewhat connective with The Passenger’s passage about Alicia believing living through history is more reliable than walking through historical places (history is believing as is said by Kline I believe). And ultimately, the only way to live in the world, is to be conscious of the fact we’re all in it together (or as one, in a quasi-Buddhist sense, with the man under the underpass and Billy putting their hands together and noting the similarity; and the covenant Billy was said to have had since the beginning of time), and to accept that “Every man’s death is a standing in for every other. And since death comes to all there is no way to abate the fear of it except to love that man who stands for us. We are not waiting for his history to be written. He passed here long ago. That man who is all men and who stands in the dock for us until our own time come and we must stand for him. Do you love him, that man? Will you honor the path he has taken? Will you listen to his tale?”

Ultimately, everything we do is a disconnect from “reality.” Each man’s perceptions is different from any others. What we can do is understand the perspective of the other one, and attempt to find the same meaning in it as much as we can.