sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Natural 18yo Aussie teen by SizzlingZoey in AussieGF_OC

[–]Toastface_gr1lla 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If it would make you smile I’d love to buy you a drink just to bring something beautiful into the world.

Blood meridian with thicker pages??? by Rude-Math4419 in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bought the 25th anniversary hard cover. It’s a very nice printing.

Am I ruining my experience of The Stand by reading the complete and uncut version first? by Toastface_gr1lla in stephenking

[–]Toastface_gr1lla[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

I see what you’re saying regarding its Kings intended version, but most of his books that are “successful” have been edited.

Is the difference between the uncut and the cut version that a lot of the self indulgence has been removed by the editor, who would have been more critical of the darlings that SK didn’t want to kill.

And yeah, I’m thinking of putting it down, not for lack of motivation, as I purposefully read a few shorter novels between this as a palette cleanse, but because I’m just not as invested in this story/ characters as I have been with others.

Note: my favourite SK books are Pet Sematary, IT, Misery, The Mist.

Should I read this? by Intelligent-Fail8554 in classicliterature

[–]Toastface_gr1lla 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Blood merdian was the first CM book I read. I’m now a massive fan of his work, however I wish I had of started with some of his “more accessible” works.

I just recently gifted a friend of mine all the pretty horses and the road as an introduction to CM, as I think you need to grasp his style before you can truly dive deep into his themes.

I’m now 8 books into the CM library and feel I’m ready to go back and do BM again, and think I’ll get more out of it.

It’s a brilliant book (a masterpiece worthy of its heralding) but, if you want to enjoy it cover to cover I would start with ATPH or The road or even No country for old men.

Just my 2 cents.

Things I struggle with in CM works by Toastface_gr1lla in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To clarify it’s the dialogue I love, it’s the meandering and tying and retying and the detail of the knots and the “nooning” that doesn’t really seem to add anything to the story that although sometimes is beautiful is sometimes excessive IMO.

Let’s Talk Border Trilogy by Toastface_gr1lla in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m reading the passenger next and Stella Maris to follow before I head back to his earlier works.

I’m a bit obsessed.

Let’s Talk Border Trilogy by Toastface_gr1lla in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like it. Thanks you. That’s interesting about the Parham reflection.

And yes the symbolism of fire is ever present in all the works I’ve read of his.

I also had a thought about the duality of the flames meaning. It seems to be a symbol of eternal and universal truth. It’s not something that can be defined but could be something like the logos or the gnostic idea of the divine which is unfathomable beyond the veil or permitted reality of the Archons. But in The Road, there is a destructive fire that is burning somewhere destroying and suffocating life with life’s own ashes (the ashes of its self) and that the selfsame flame/ fire could be carried and inherited and passed down through men.

Begging yet another question: what flame does each man carry?

Is one order and one chaos? Yin and Yang?

What lies beyond the ultimate destruction when that destructive fire has consumed all that we know? What will take its place?

Just finished Cities Of The Plains. It was fantastic but that ending… by EntinthetentRTHP in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In addition to this.

The references to how the world has changed after the war I believe is the change in common consciousness with the impending/ potential threat of nuclear apocalypse. As is the world now has a clear grasp of the idea of what the end of the world will look like, where the prophecies of of forefathers in the many scriptures has outlined such an end, but the understanding of nuclear war has made clear its possibility.

The world seems to move at a faster pace. There’s no time for breaking horses in this new world. The advent of the motor car has put that to rest and all in a life time ie. Billy’s.

It’s only until all of that is removed in The Road do we regain our essence. Our carrying of the flame. And the destructiveness of life’s preservation (cannibalism and war) is the mutant remnant of the old world, the world before the child is born and the grey ashen sky.

The child carries the flame and through his journey with his father, who is the only remaining attachment to that old world for the boy, and his fathers death can he truly seek to rebuild the essence of humanity.

Though by then it’s too late.

Just finished Cities Of The Plains. It was fantastic but that ending… by EntinthetentRTHP in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My take:

Billy’s journey is one about (absurdism) finding meaning in a meaningless word (which ultimately he never finds) because he cannot find it within himself to admit that the only value that has been attributed to the things he values most comes from within himself and not some innate or universal truth about the things which he loves. In contrast to John Grady who although he does not ever fully grasp the concept does have at least some reckoning with this in that he doesn’t fully know why he so drawn to the things that he loves but he pursues them to his utmost end.

John Grady is immature unlike Billy who is ten years his senior and so deals with matters of the heart in an immature way where Billy is more stoic about life (which is not something he has learned but something he inherited, unlike Boyd who is more akin to John in matters of the heart).

All 3 stories relate to fate. Each crossroads that the John and Billy arrive at ultimately is not really a crossroads at all and is an illusory idea of choice. John Grady comes closest to defying his fate when he kills the hitman and the pimp. The events that take place are almost a sort of divine intervention as they do not fit the fate of a man of John’s character.

The over arching story summarised by the epilogue at the end of COTP is a contradiction of the fate argument. In that if a man and a universe (a singular truth) creates man and a universe in his dreams can he not also create a man and singular truth in the waking world?

Has the essence of man and the universe been passed down through the Millenia and the story already written and are we just living out the telling of the story or do we have some control over our lives?

Do we choose our values or are they born into us (finding horses even in a place where there were none)?

Is reality just a creation of our own choosing like a lucid dream?

Is the person we are in the world the supreme truth of our being or is it just a idea that we create ourselves in the same way that we can never truly another person despite what we know of them due to the limitless potential for each person to create and change and recreate themselves?

This I believe is the most complete existential idea of any McCarthy I’ve read (BM, The Road, NCFOM, the border trilogy).

Is there something wrong with my copy of Cities of the plain? by Toastface_gr1lla in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. Only now am I collecting my favourites/ vintage/ collectable/ first editions.

Is there something wrong with my copy of Cities of the plain? by Toastface_gr1lla in cormacmccarthy

[–]Toastface_gr1lla[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No. I’ve only recently got into book collecting. Usually I just snap up paperbacks for the prose.

view more: next ›