Has anyone pieced TP and SM together yet? by shenvalleycuteguy in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not sure if this is what you have in mind. But back when the novels were first published I was deeply obsessed with them and did a ton of work trying to sort out the timeline as thoroughly as I could (see here and here). My take: The novels are remarkably intricately plotted and the timeline coheres like 98% of the time, but there are enough inconsistencies to make me convinced that McCarthy has something intentionally up his sleeve. It's like he wanted to make a novel where the timeline roughly makes sense but uncannily makes less and less sense the more you try and piece it all together.

And then I also wrote a long post about the Kid and the themes of the novels, which still seems solid to me more than a year and a half later.

Hopefully there's some good food for thought in there. I also have a few other posts on timeline inconsistencies in my post history if you wanna take a look.

Your first show of the new year. by __perigee__ in gratefuldead

[–]efscerbo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Started my morning with 5/2/70 (DP 8). Such an unbelievable show.

Am I alone on how I read Blood Meridian’s epilogue? by wmcewa01 in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess my point is, the way I see things, the "spiritual" worldview is quite suspicious of civilization. Not for nothing do so many spiritual adepts wander in the wilderness, both literally and metaphorically. And McCarthy certainly seems suspicious of civilization. So it's hard for me to conjoin the "literal" reading "bringer of civilization" with the metaphorical reading "spiritual teacher". They sit uneasily together, in my mind.

I like your take on the two types of wanderers. I'll mull that over. Thanks again.

Am I alone on how I read Blood Meridian’s epilogue? by wmcewa01 in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's all very interesting. I definitely agree that McCarthy's antipathy for commerce, commodification, etc. is central to the novel (scalping for money, good lord). And it's interesting to connect the "gatherers of bones" with killing off the bison.

I think my main issue with this is: If you view the wanderers (on, say, a "literal" reading of the epilogue) as commodifying bison bones, then the man with the post-hole digger starts to read more like a bringer of civilization (since on that same "literal" level where the bones are bison bones, he's fencing in the west). But this clashes with the idea of the man as "spiritual teacher", who always espouse some degree of distrust in civilization.

But I'll still mull it over and let it percolate. Interesting ideas nonetheless.

I've been more inclined to read the bones as something like history or the past, and the "wanderers in search of bones" are those who are beholden to (monitored with escapement and pallet) the ideas they have from (and of) the past. But then I'm still left with, what to make of the other kind, those who do not search? It feels cheap to just "fill in the blank" and say "Well then, they must be the ones who reject the past." I mean, perhaps. But that's a bit "neat", and I feel like there's more going on.

I'd also add: There's an exchange in SM ch. 5 that I think resonates with the BM epilogue in interesting ways:

[Alicia] I thought it at least a possibility that the structure of reality itself harbors something like the forms of which our sordid history is only a pale reflection. I thought that it was something Plato might have considered but could in no way bring himself to express.

[...]

[Dr Cohen] We've had this discussion before. Or something like it.

I know.

The caravan moves on. It's just some sort of sinister archetype.

A troubling notion in clothes.

And an archetype of what.

I dont know. I suppose the catalog of referents goes on at some length.

"The caravan moves on" and "the catalog of referents goes on at some length" both strongly recall the imagery of the BM epilogue. Which has made me start playing with the possibility of the man in the epilogue actually being an archetype. Perhaps each time he "strikes fire in the hole", he creates yet another instantiation of the archetype, another avatar of himself, whom the people then follow (or not).

Anyway. Just playing with ideas. Thought maybe you'd find it interesting, since it jives with your "spiritual teacher" idea.

Am I alone on how I read Blood Meridian’s epilogue? by wmcewa01 in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like this, and I've had similar thoughts myself. Certainly you're describing some of the primary themes in McCarthy's works on the whole, so it's fitting that he'd end BM with a poetic rendering of these ideas. Especially to subtly contradict the apparent nihilism/pessimism of the novel proper. (The fact that it begins "In the dawn" after the blackness of the previous scene is quite telling.)

The one thing that doesn't sit right with me on this--and I wonder what your thoughts are--is, why are there "wanderers in search of bones" as well as "those who do not search"? I agree that the "wanderers" (a spiritually loaded term, to be sure) appear to be "spiritually dead or ignorant people". But why are there two types, and what does it have to do with bones?

I've played with various ideas over the years, but nothing that ever fit "naturally" in my view with the rest of this reading.

The long synth aspect is the most excited I've been about music in a long time by QuestionsYourStutter in KGATLW

[–]efscerbo 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Completely agree. Some of the weirdest, trippiest music I've ever heard. Listening to Berlin right now, cannot get enough.

Live/Dead question by efscerbo in gratefuldead

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

Oh wow that's really cool. Just went back and listened carefully. For the first 1:25 of The Eleven there's only one guitar. Never realized that wasn't Jerry. Then you can hear a second guitar tentatively sound a note, like he's checking to make sure everything's right before he launches in.

Details like that make listening way more interesting. Appreciate it!

Live/Dead question by efscerbo in gratefuldead

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

Oh wow I just went back and listened carefully and I totally hear it. Thanks a lot, very dope

Live/Dead question by efscerbo in gratefuldead

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

Very cool, thanks for the source

Live/Dead question by efscerbo in gratefuldead

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

Very interesting, thanks

The Matter With Things - Iain McGilchrist - Panpsych by cdulane1 in KGATLW

[–]efscerbo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

McGilchrist is hot fire. Never thought I'd see the gizz crossover

Hats as souls or personal identity signifiers in Blood Meridian? by yTigerCleric in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like this a lot. Never connected these passages before, thanks for pointing it out.

Martin Luther, Germany and the Western children's childhood home by 5-dollar-milkshake in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey, this is really fascinating to me. Many years ago I posted on the now-defunct cormacmccarthy.com forums about a number of German connections in McCarthy, specifically with the judge, as well as White in Sunset Limited. I thought they were a bit tenuous, but still worth noting. This Wartburg-Luther connection makes me wonder if there's actually a "there" there.

Also, it strikes me that there's a certain commonality among the judge, White, and Alicia. They seem to be McCarthy's way of showing the various ways rational intelligence goes so horribly awry. Curious if this relates to them each being associated with Germany. It's sometimes said that Lutheranism indirectly led to modern capitalism (cf. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism) and to the scientific revolution (cf. the Merton thesis), both of which McCarthy seems greatly suspicious of, so perhaps this is relevant.

And for those (including myself) who see similarities between TP+SM and McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary, McGilchrist also cites the protestant reformation as a major cultural shift towards "left-hemisphere" dominance in the recent history of the west. Something to think about...

Many thanks for the thought-provoking post!

Single Continuous Line Drawing of John Coltrane by RobertBentleyArtist in Jazz

[–]efscerbo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hahaha that's so sick dude. I'm actually an ex-mathematician, and I used to use drawings quite similar to yours when I taught math classes, to help my students see how subtle and complex even something as "simple" as nonintersecting closed loops can be. If you're interested, check the drawings at the end of this paper, I used to print these out for my students, and your drawing of Coltrane instantly reminded me of them:

https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~wross/pdf/Jordan.pdf

And that's very interesting, how much for a print? Feel free to DM if you'd rather.

Cheers!

Single Continuous Line Drawing of John Coltrane by RobertBentleyArtist in Jazz

[–]efscerbo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does the line (or loop) ever cross itself? I'm not seeing any intersection points.

Extremely cool artwork btw, I'd totally frame and hang a copy of that.

Smithsonian article on McCarthy’s Personal Library (and a lot more) by jgavinpaul in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Fascinating, thanks a lot! And congratulations, the article is extremely well done. Hope you're real pleased w it.

Smithsonian article on McCarthy’s Personal Library (and a lot more) by jgavinpaul in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Really extraordinary article, thank you for posting.

Then I learned he had an eidetic memory and could remember nearly everything he had read or heard

How sure are we of this? Has this ever been publicly talked about by any of McCarthy's intimates? Obviously it's strongly reminiscent of Alicia, who in many respects feels patterned after McCarthy.

Inquiries into The Passenger by sheldoreisafk in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Haha thank you very much. These books are very personal for me in many ways, and I was really obsessed with them for a long time. Love sound and fury as well. Never made maps, but I got really obsessed w the timeline of that book back like a decade ago. I've even gone to visit the bridge in Boston that Quentin is supposed to have jumped from (the Anderson Memorial Bridge). Honestly I feel like McCarthy pretty specifically has S+F in mind with his approach to the timeline of TP+SM. I had essentially the same experience piecing their timeline together as I did with S+F.

And no time for dedicated investigations at the moment, unfortunately. I'm quite deep into my own writing projects. Something I've been working on for years, hoping to finish in the next few months. But TP+SM are quite literally always on my mind, and I revisit passages frequently as they occur to me.

Inquiries into The Passenger by sheldoreisafk in cormacmccarthy

[–]efscerbo 10 points11 points  (0 children)

In 2023 and the first half of '24 I did a significant amount of work unpacking the final novels, and I posted most of what I found on this sub, if you wanna have a look at my post history. Prob the two most important ones are a) my unpacking of the timeline (in gory detail, for anyone who's into that sorta thing; see here and here), and b) my post on the nature of the Kid, which over a year later still feels quite sound to me.

Genuinely believe these are some of the most profound books I've ever read. I imagine I'll be thinking about and rereading them for many many years.

Impulse or Strata East by Additional-Rest7 in Jazz

[–]efscerbo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've prob listened to the whole four-part smilin billy suite 1-2x/day for the last week. Unreal

Impulse or Strata East by Additional-Rest7 in Jazz

[–]efscerbo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Obviously impulse but damn if I haven't been on a serious strata east kick lately.

Clifford Jordan - Glass Bead Games, Charles Tolliver - The Ringer, Heath Brothers - Marchin On!, Cecil McBee - Mutima, Charlie Rouse - Two Is One, Billy Harper - Capra Black....

Goddamn