First Impressions (Regarding Ely) SPOILER

[bentley]

Regarding Ely:

I found this writeup on the prophet Elijah who performed feats with fire. And I thought I would post it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah

The particular exchange in the book with the old man called Ely was interesting to me and I will get back to it here when I have more time.

[Paul_Hochman]

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bentley wrote:
Regarding Ely:

I found this writeup on the prophet Elijah who performed feats with fire. And I thought I would post it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah

The particular exchange in the book with the old man called Ely was interesting to me and I will get back to it here when I have more time.

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Thanks for the further reading, Bentley. Ely is definitely a character that needs to be discussed. Feel free to start a new thread when you're ready to delve into him.

[Skyler97]

Reading the book I am reminded of Faulkner's speech on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature at a time when Nuclear Holocaust was very real:

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail." -

[bentley]

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Skyler97 wrote:
Reading the book I am reminded of Faulkner's speech on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature at a time when Nuclear Holocaust was very real:

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail." -

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That is a great find Skyler..and so like Faulkner is McCarthy..following in his footsteps.

[Paul_Hochman]

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Skyler97 wrote:
Reading the book I am reminded of Faulkner's speech on receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature at a time when Nuclear Holocaust was very real:

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail." -

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Excellent find in that quote, Skyler. I wonder if McCarthy plans on continuing the son's story in another book?

Message Edited by PaulH on 04-07-200701:31 PM

[Mariposa]

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PaulH wrote:
McCarthy not only sets up an absolutely unique world in the very first pages, but also establishes the voice of the book. What were your first impressions of The Road upon opening the book?

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My first impression was positive. I was not startled by the writing style, because I have just finished reading No Country for Old Men.

I wrote the following note after reading the first page: Poetic cadences. Use of sentence fragments creates a rhythm. Broken thoughts. Sense of things being out of joint.

I also noted on page 6 of the paperback edition the interesting word positioning: "each the other's world entire."

The dialogue, freed from traditional punctuation reads like free verse:
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you. (11)

Lizabeth

[Paul_Hochman]

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dianearbus wrote:

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PaulH wrote:
McCarthy not only sets up an absolutely unique world in the very first pages, but also establishes the voice of the book. What were your first impressions of The Road upon opening the book?

---

My first impression was positive. I was not startled by the writing style, because I have just finished reading No Country for Old Men.

I wrote the following note after reading the first page: Poetic cadences. Use of sentence fragments creates a rhythm. Broken thoughts. Sense of things being out of joint.

I also noted on page 6 of the paperback edition the interesting word positioning: "each the other's world entire."

The dialogue, freed from traditional punctuation reads like free verse:
What would you do if I died?
If you died I would want to die too.
So you could be with me?
Yes. So I could be with you. (11)

Lizabeth

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I agree, Lizabeth. Even without quotations, the dialogue flows along very smoothly. This could be because the conversation only involves two people. McCarthy's style can be a bit difficult when more people are involved. Blood Meridian comes to mind.

[Fozzie]

I thought that the book might be a bit stagnant, filled with description but with little happening on a road, in desolation, in isolation. However, I found the book to be immediately compelling. I was quickly immersed in the world of the book and caught up in the mystery of finding out who the man and boy were, what happened to the world, will they make it to the ocean, etc.

[maxcat]

When I first started to listen to the book as I have the audiotape, I thought it was science fiction; the eerie landscape, how cold it was, the fact that the man and boy were always watching for other humans and hiding from them. To me it seemed as if something took over the world and maybe there were aliens out there searching for humans.

[Paul_Hochman]

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maxcat wrote:
When I first started to listen to the book as I have the audiotape, I thought it was science fiction; the eerie landscape, how cold it was, the fact that the man and boy were always watching for other humans and hiding from them. To me it seemed as if something took over the world and maybe there were aliens out there searching for humans.

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How do you like the narrator on the audiotape, maxcat?

[maxcat]

I can really get a feel for the man and the boy as the voice I imagined as being the father's. It's a very good tape and it let's your imagination roam with descriptions.

[Paul_Hochman]

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maxcat wrote:
I can really get a feel for the man and the boy as the voice I imagined as being the father's. It's a very good tape and it let's your imagination roam with descriptions.

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How's the boy's voice come across? I feel McCarthy really nailed the voice and it read as purely authentic.

[maxcat]

You're right about the boy's voice; he sounded scared and would have thoughts about things his father had done to protect him. The voice was very good at saying " okay " all the time as a little kid would say when they think things will be alright. The voice actually made you believe that the kid believed in everything his father did. And they did an excellent job on the father as he had to sound like the stronger of the two and make sure the boy listened to him. It was an excellent tape and I would highly suggest it. I downloaded it from netlibrary.com as I like to read but have trouble falling asleep reading. The tapes keep me awake.

[jiviro]

I am having a hard time getting though this book. I bought it as a recomendation from a friend. We obviously have very different reading preferences. After reading it for a while, I read 2 other books and then came back to it. I tried again, with not a lot of luck. I figure I will eventually get through it...after reading several other books in between.

[Fiction4Sale]

Post apocalyptic fiction isn't for everyone. Cormac's approach is a blend of horror, Old Testament death by fire and a strange lyrical beauty rising from this pilgrimage to some sort of possible resurrection. The atmosphere has a science fiction like quality, where the language rises into a kind of prophetic beauty and demands attention as to point of the whole effort of survival. In truth since World War II and the nuclear bombs in Japan, the world has lived under the dark shadow of nuclear incineration; our psyches, regardless of conscious awareness,I believe have been paying a price of sufferance under this nightmarish possibility. With the grinding bleakness of current war politics, terrorism and seemingly hopeless and feckless political leadership to solve international violence, we are feeling the tug toward the apocalyptic scenarios embedded in our ancient sacred literature as well as featured relentlessly in popular horror and sci-fi genres. Cormac McCarthy is tapping into this unconscious sea of worry and pushing the literary "take" to its incinerated Biblical limits (think too of this as another repeat of medieval crusade eras against Islam and their dark implications for Western survival). This novel was beautifully and horribly wrought and McCarthy took a big chance here. This effort could have come crashing down around his finely tuned ears, but the fact of the novel's success critically (even apart from Oprah's support) speaks the seriousness of our society's worry about the very real possibility of nuclear and chemical eradication of Western civilization. At the end McCarthy seems to suggest the child is a new chosen avatar of sorts, but given the extreme devastation...we current readers have no place in that future. We die with the father, a victim of the world weariness and failure of the previous civilization's exhaustion. Clearly the message is difficult to absorb but McCarthy drove the literary nail straight into the neurotic spirit of our times.

Don't play what's there. Play what's not there. ---Miles Davis