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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CANr4ZeNKK4DLinQTLx5sqhSSe7ZMv1_2PXVYAtQDhhk5LHV72w@mail.gmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I read perhaps two thirds of Blood Meridian a few years ago. My memory
is a little hazy about it now, but I just remember it feeling a little
"disjointed", and quite bloody and violent (unnecessarily so, IMO). I
might give it another go someday. Meanwhile, perhaps I'll try reading
The Crossing on Frank's recommendation.</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>I too found Meridian difficult in several ways and at the time (a
few years after publication) I took the "disjointedness" and
gratuitous violence to be an artifact of it's place in popular
fiction... it shocked and offended and irritated me. <br>
</p>
<p>On reflection decades later after discussing this (and
similar/related works) I came to appreciate that if nothing else,
it's structure and content was reflective of the moment Cormac was
exposing. I took it, at the time, to be an (appropriate) expose'
of the tragedy that was (mostly) the American West which is
normally romanticized by "Western" novelists such as Evans,
L'Amour, Grey. I came to realize to what extent it was a (bit of
a) parody on that romanticization. I think his "No Country for
Old Men" was the same, but updated to the modern era of "wild
west" romanticism. I haven't been able to find/apply the same
frame to "The Road" though some seem to give *it* a lot of credit
as well. <br>
</p>
<p>Literary critics often criticize his work as "nihilistic" which
is definitely a component or vehicle he uses. Others credit him
with showing us the lost and forgotten, "everyman" if you will.
I felt Steinbeck did a much better job of that (esp. Cannery Row,
but also Grapes and Mice) as well as Ed Abbey.</p>
<p>What I *think* Cormac was trying to do with BM was (IMO) done
much more effectively by Larry McMurtry in Comanche Moon (in
particular) with his various renderings of the TX Rangers (Call,
McCrae, Scull ...), the Mountain Men (Bartle and James...) as well
as a caste of Native Americans (Famous Shoes, Buffalo Hump...).
Hollywood did not do these characters justice IMO, and these too
were caricatures. I possibly was more receptive to them because
of the extra larding in of humour that McCarthy didn't seem to
engage in. In many ways McMurtry's old-west depiction was just
as stark and critical but as referenced earlier not as nihilistic?</p>
<p>I grew up among the descendants of many of these "frontiersmen"
under the specter of that heritage which was a concoction of toxic
masculinity and human chauvanism. It all seemed pretty "normal"
to me because it was all I knew and my father, being somewhat more
mild (but also educated) than many of the other men/fathers I knew
was also a product of the romanticism of "the West" raised in the
Depression/WWII era. He worked for the Dept of Agriculture in the
role of managing/regulating the use of public lands (Masters in
Forestry/Range Mgmt) but was raised under the shadow/image of
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett (in KY) before moving "west" to
seek his bliss. The heroes of the area were the likes of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Lilly">Ben Lilly</a>
(credited with single-handedly wiping out virtually every apex
predator in the southern Rockies) and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit_Carson">Kit Carson</a>
particularly in his brutal reputation as an Indian Figher. My
father's heroes were more likely conservationists like <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Leopold">Aldo Leopold</a>
who are credited with presaging the environmental movement.
Unfortunately the distinction between these two forms of Western
Romanticism were variations on the idea of <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny">Manifest
Destiny</a> with one using personal blunt-force trauma and the
other intrusive government "oversight". <br>
</p>
<p align="center"><img
src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/American_Progress_%28John_Gast_painting%29.jpg/800px-American_Progress_%28John_Gast_painting%29.jpg"
moz-do-not-send="true" alt="" width="800" height="595"></p>
<p align="center">John Gast's 1872 painting romanticizing the
westward expansion of the white man.</p>
<p align="center">It is worth carefully parsing this image visually.<br>
</p>
<p align="left">I had the benefit of knowing the descendents of some
of that era. One of my father's good friends went to school in
Ft. Sill Oklahoma with Cochise's grandson, another was born and
raised in a one-horse town named "Horse Springs" on the edge of
the San Augustin plains (where the VLA sits), not learning English
until he went to a one room public school as a young teen (his
grandparents were Spanish descendents who moved to the area after
the Civil War and the expulsion/extinction of the Apache in the
area). <br>
</p>
<p align="left"> Two of my classmates were the great grandchildren
of the main antagonists in the "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisco_shootout">Frisco
Shootout</a>" and one was born/raised in a cabin inhabited by
(possibly built by?) the afore mentioned Ben Lilly. Elfego Baca
(Frisco Shootout) was a self-appointed lawman who tried to
apprehend a member (McCarty) of a former Confederate Army gang (by
way of TX) working as what was effectively a private army for a TX
ranch interest trying to displace the Spanish-Colony descendents
who had recently settled the area as the *Union* army flexed it's
muscles to exterminate/capture the remaining Apache in the area
(who had done the same to the Mogollon, and other Puebloan's) a
few hundred years before! The Baca twins and the namesake
McCarty were entirely innocent of all of this history which I only
began to sort out over the decades. In fact we played in the
ruins of the building Baca hid out (under the floorboards) in
during the famous "shootout" and probably even touched if not
recognized some of the thousands of rounds of ammo fired into it
by the "cowboys". The building had been the home of another one
of my classmates (great) grandparents (Geronimo Armijo).</p>
<p align="left">This all happened a couple-hundred miles West of
Wimberley's tales of his childhood a half-generation before me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p align="left"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/new-mexico-legacy-frank-c-wimberly/1126593949"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/new-mexico-legacy-frank-c-wimberly/1126593949</a><br>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p align="left">I'm rattling on here (partly) because it is this arc
of mythology which I believe has driven us to (or reflects) our
hyper-exploitative nature (Western/Rural US)... and our
continued misogynist/racist behaviour/attitudes cloaked in
"patriotism" and "old fashioned values". I personally have been
caught in various currents and eddies of this (e.g. working
on/near Nuclear Weapons' programs and other highly questionable
technologies) myself.</p>
<p align="left">Los Alamos is about to host some serious
celebrations of the Manhattan/Oppenheimer legacy which itself is
wonderfully ambiguous in the same vein, only involving neutrons
instead of lead bullets?</p>
<div align="center"><img moz-do-not-send="true"
src="https://ladailypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Oppenheimer-Festival_SALA.jpg"
alt="" width="751" height="763"></div>
<p align="center"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://ladailypost.com/sala-presents-oppenheimer-festival-celebrating-the-legacy-of-j-robert-oppenheimer/"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://ladailypost.com/sala-presents-oppenheimer-festival-celebrating-the-legacy-of-j-robert-oppenheimer/</a></p>
OK... I'll stop now.<br>
<p align="left"><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CANr4ZeNKK4DLinQTLx5sqhSSe7ZMv1_2PXVYAtQDhhk5LHV72w@mail.gmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
On Wed, Jun 14, 2023 at 7:02 AM Frank Wimberly <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:wimberly3@gmail.com"><wimberly3@gmail.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Blood Meridian is his masterpiece but I enjoyed reading The Crossing more.
---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM
On Wed, Jun 14, 2023, 1:29 AM Jochen Fromm <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jofr@cas-group.net"><jofr@cas-group.net></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">
Cormac McCarthy died yesterday in Santa Fe where he lived for the last 30 years. Douglas Preston lives in Santa Fe too. There must be something in Santa Fe which attracts good writers :-) What's your favorite McCarthy novel?
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/13/cormac-mccarthy-dead-novelist">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/13/cormac-mccarthy-dead-novelist</a>
-J.
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