Talk:Cormac McCarthy/Archive 1

Untitled
'But Gell-Mann was too rushed and disorganized'- can we have a reference here, please?

Anyone with the skills to sort the infobox out, it looks a bit odd on this page? Frainc 02:00 05 July 2006
 * Infobox sorted out, also got a new image after I e-mailed Random House. LilDice 16:28, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

What to do?
This article is quite small, what do you think is the most important thing to add next? Criticism, writing style? LilDice 13:00, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I've added a bunch of early biography stuff, I stopped around Blood Meridian time. More could be added there. LilDice 03:30, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

It is a bit odd - Is it not?- That Mccarthy chose to entitle one of his novels, to wit, Cities of The Plain, after one of the long sections of Proust's Remenbrance of Things Past-His supposed nemesis.(Myersdtm 17:21, 6 June 2007 (UTC))

I think Cities of the Plain is a reference to Sodom and Gomorrah rather than Proust. The ranch is being bought out for nuclear testing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.143.189.0 (talk) 03:50, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps some indication of how 'Charles' came to be replaced by 'Cormac' might be in order. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.178.179.84 (talk) 00:50, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Opening section
Who is "Literary critic Adam Stoltz"? I can't find this guy anywhere on google so I think this sentence should be removed. (At the least there should be a citation.) Of course McCarthy is one of the most important American novelists of his (or any) time, but can we say this a bit less weasel-y? --Sam
 * User Peripatic changed it to Adam Stoltz, I changed it back to Bloom. Feel free to find your own quote and cite it though.

The Road
Finished it last night. Cried like a baby. Don't know if I should push others to read it or beg that they not. It is powerful, raw, gut wrenching and beautiful. If you are a father you need to go into this book with a silent mantra...it's not real...it's only a book... The author, as usual, has created a materpiece out of thin air and his ridiculously advanced brain. This is an instant classic - John Hubbard
 * Holy shit! I didnt know there was a new McCarthy book, I'm half way through a huge George RR Martin fantasy book right now too, what to do what to do...LilDice 14:31, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Science Fiction (?)
I see that someone has described some of McCarthy's works (without specifying which ones) as science fiction. I have read most but not all of them. I've never seen this term applied to his work before. Remove the term? Can anyone suggest to me which of his books qualify as science fiction? Does it just apply to The Road? Mr Frosty 15:48, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * The only novel that you could say is science fiction would be the Road, but just judging from the description of the book (I haven't read it yet) I think that's a bit of a stretch. I'd just remove it.LilDice 18:29, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I changed it to "speculative fiction". I think this is more appropriate, as the book does not posit the existence of any new "science", nor does it even dwell for more than a few sentences on the presumably technological basis of the apocalyptic event. - kennn
 * That's fine with me. McCarthy's a lot of things but a Sci-Fi writer, that just doesn't fit. LilDice 23:15, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I beg to differ, as I believe that although CMC's book may be informed by the genre codes of speculative fiction, it is nevertheless more than that. Can we agree on inserting post-apocalyptic fiction rather than speculative fiction? --Kleiner Junge 22:49, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Fair 'nuff. LilDice 23:37, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

In Portuguese
Just to say that there is already a portuguese entry for "Cormac McCarthy", but that is not being added to the "other languages" column.

Appalachia?
The article states that the setting of Outer Dark is Appalachia. This is an assumption, as the setting is never specifically mentioned. Moreover, I'm not so sure that that it is a safe assumption; the South, yes, but Appalachia specifically, no. The reason I say this is because there is a passage in the novel that mentions alligators in the distance. I suppose there is the possibility of alligators existing somewhere in Appalachia (I don't actually know the full extent of their territory during the time period of the novel), but it seems unlikely. A small problem (if it is a problem, I await your input), but one that should be fixed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.11.83.250 (talk) 05:42, 29 March 2007 (UTC).

remark on removals
If being attacked by B.R. Myers is "excessively unimportant trivia", then there's no reason for any book title to appear more than once in the text. --VKokielov 15:27, 19 May 2007 (UTC)


 * While I agree with you, I conclude that the proper is course is not to exclude the rest but to include a Myers reference. I think most McCarthy fans knew about the Myers article, and I certainly don't think this McCarthy article has gotten so long and unwieldly that the "importance" hurdle is yet high enough to exclude the "incident."  I have reinserted the prior language, which could certainly use improvement.  Cka3n 22:52, 19 May 2007 (UTC)


 * By itself it's harmless, but seeing as it's the only piece of "criticism", I think it should be removed or replaced with a more robust discussion. All by its lonesome, it's a rather ridiculous bit of trivia on an important author.

The back of my edition says the novel is set in Appalachia. Does that count — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.65.43.200 (talk) 05:35, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Oprah stole our article!
Oprah's Book Club Meet the Author

Pretty close to this article probably not 1 for 1 though, I wrote a bulk of it and I recognize some key phrases there, ah well... Lil' Dice (yeah, I said it!) - talk 17:23, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

All of this material was previously available either in print or at cormacmccarthy.com, so nobody "stole" anything.Josh a brewer 23:20, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The 'stole' part was tongue-in-cheek, but there are some duplicate phrases. Lil' Dice (yeah, I said it!) - talk 00:23, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
 * You cannot steal what doesn't belong to anybody. --88.68.229.115 (talk) 16:02, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Religious beliefs?
I see that McCarthy is included in the categories "Christian writers" and "Roman Catholic writers." Does anyone know if this is verifiable? He certainly packs his books with Christian themes but that doesn't necessarily make him a practicing Christian. Breadhat 20:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Well let's see: he was raised Catholic. He identifies himself as being Catholic.  You sure that doesn't "necessarily" make him a practicing Christian?  If he were to come right out and say, "oh, and by the way, I am indeed a practicing Christian." Would that turn you off from wanting to read his books?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.53.78.141 (talk) 14:39, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't think he should be considered Catholic unless somebody has better evidence than the fact that he was raised Catholic. Based on his interviews, I'd wager that he's atheistic, but that certainly isn't proof, either. Perhaps until someone can find something credible, the "Roman Catholic Writers" thing should be removed. And also, no need for the acridity, 159.53.78.141. 71.182.233.240 (talk) 05:00, 23 November 2009 (UTC)James

He doesn't have to practice any sort of organized religion to be considered a Christian writer. The mere fact that a bulk of his canon and diction has biblical themes reveals that he is a Christian writer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.110.11.108 (talk) 02:52, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Being raised a catholic does not make you one now. I was raised such but now consider myself an atheist. Same with biblical themes in his work (of which I've only read one) this is not evidence of his religious beliefs. Anyone can base writing on a theme without being part of that theme, any more than writing crime stories makes you a criminal. We should treat the info about his religion like all other info on this project, ie, require proof or remove it.--Dmol (talk) 06:22, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Dude he's Christian — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.65.43.200 (talk) 05:37, 17 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I find it so interesting that atheists feel such a strong urge to associate Cormac as 'one of their own'. I wonder if Dmol would cease reading Cormac's books if he held up a rosary and stated "I am a Catholic".  Probably Dmol would say that there's nothing conclusive in the statement since "all that 'catholic' means is 'universal'".  Also, Dmol states that he was raised catholic (which has nothing to do with accepting the doctrine) and later became an atheist; I guess the assumption on his part is "if it happened to me it probably happened to him". JKlun  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.53.46.141 (talk) 15:15, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

The argument is simple, whether you have proof he is a catholic or not, this an encyclopedia here, not a pub conversation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.61.98 (talk) 18:36, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

I have read perhaps 10 McCarthy novels at this point, and considering the extreme nature of his topics both explicit and implied (ranging anywhere from incest to bodily mutilations, etc.) it is fair to say that though many of McCarthy's themes are moralist in nature, they are certainly not "christian" in the colloquial sense. I can imagine that there are some folks who could chalk this up to the revelations/sodom/Gomorra/Heironemous Bosch-styled christianity of some age in antiquity, but i do not believe that it qualifies McCarthy in one way or another as either christian or not, though his writing style is certainly "biblical" in many ways (see: Blood Meridian, The Road). It is interesting that some of the above posts claim that there is an impulse for atheists to "claim" CMcC. It seems like the "christians" are doing the same. I think it depends largely on how you interpret the work itself. Given CMcC's reticence on these topics, it seems like the best course of action is to remove any religious affiliation until a credible source (perhaps the man himself) can solidly verify it. Mihali Skierkiewicz (talk) 04:13, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

It's unclear what McCarthy's beliefs are. Since none of that is sourced here, I went ahead and removed the category in question. Maybe someone can re-add the category if there are any published interviews in which McCarthy clearly establishes his religious beliefs. There's really no point in speculating since these kinds of details need to fall back on verifiable sources, not editor opinion. 75.63.209.97 (talk) 20:55, 21 July 2018 (UTC)

Influences
I've added Ernest Hemingway as an influence in the info box. This can be sourced to the introductory essay to the Modern Library edition of Blood Meridian. The essay, written by Harold Bloom, says that McCarthy disproved the until-then widely-held belief that a writer could be influenced "either by Faulkner or by Hemingway, but not by both." Also, in regards to the inclusion of Dostoevsky as an influence, I don't disagree, but I'm wondering if there is a source as I've never read anything to that effect before. 74.73.191.197 01:58, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

As far as Dostoevsky goes, McCarthy has an interview from 1992 with the New York Times where he referred to Faulkner, Dostoevsky, and Melville as "the greats." In the December 20 issue of Rolling Stone, they have a profile of McCarthy that says his favorite novels are Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury, Moby-Dick, and The Brothers Karamazov. In that same profile, they link his recent Hemingwayish spareness to his involvement with the Santa Fe Institute and his interest in the precision/rigors of scientists. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.143.189.0 (talk) 03:46, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Child of God publication date
There's a unexplained discrepacy in the Biography section and later in the article: Child of God's publication date is both 1973 and 1974. Kpjas (talk) 11:51, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Criticism section removed
I removed the criticism section after reading the Myers page. His qualifications do not substantiate inclusion of his criticism of McCarthy in this article. Slankford12 (talk) 19:17, 29 July 2008 (UTC)


 * There should be a section that addresses McCarthy's critical reception. However, I agree that Meyers is a lightweight.  Criticism should not be equated here (or anywhere) with "complaints" or "objections."  Literary scholars have written a lot about McCarty that is worth mentioning here. Josh a brewer (talk) 16:58, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree.--Cúchullain t/ c 23:20, 1 August 2008 (UTC)


 * The current quote in the criticism section is well, stupid. Citations? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.175.102.224 (talk) 01:56, 17 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I removed it. A stray quote in Paste is exactly the type of nonsense Josh was talking about above.--Cúchullain t/ c 02:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Which book in which genre?
I came looking to find out which of his books are in the post-apocalyptic genre. More generally, which of his books fall into which genres? The article doesn't say. I suggest that it should. (I can't add this information as I don't know.) HairyWombat (talk) 01:22, 27 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm sure this opens a can of worms, but most scholars would argue that while McCarthy's books certainly make play with the conventions of various genres (the Western for the Texas books, the Southern Gothic for the Tennessee books, the post-apocalyptic for The Road), they're more usefully considered in the broader category of literary fiction. (The same could be said of writers of similar inclinations, such as William Faulkner.) I don't think it would be appropriate to reductively categorize the books like so, since the labels themselves aren't terribly descriptive (Blood Meridian is more thoroughly apocalyptic than The Road in many ways, but it's a historical fiction that makes use of the Western, whereas the Border trilogy is a romanticish literature that also makes use of the Western but is very different, tonally and otherwise, from Blood Meridian. Suttree and Blood Meridian are both epicish, but couldn't be any more different tonally.) Geology1001 (talk) 14:36, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for answering my question (only The Road falls solidly into the post-apocalyptic genre). I take your point about the genre crossing/mixing; I have never read any of the books so didn't know. If we close the can quickly, before any of the worms crawl out, then I believe all will be well. HairyWombat (talk) 19:52, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Personal life
Someone has added "Trevor Chandler" to the list of McCarthy's children. I have never heard of him having any more than two children. Can someone source this?

-Dan S. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.171.221.150 (talk) 02:46, 26 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I moved the story about the typewriter getting auctioned out of the literary works section. I didn't know which section was best, but I didn't think it belonged up there, especially since people will be adding to that section as he authors more works. Akuvar (talk) 22:38, 12 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Do we know what happened to his first marriage? The article discusses his first wife and then the seconded without closing the first marriage. Ocracoke72 (talk) 21:22, 27 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm fairly certain that his first wife said (in print) that he just didn't care about money, and Cormac has echoed that sentiment himself, though I don't currently have a citation for either.Josh a brewer (talk) 00:33, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Inverted commas / quotation marks
Is it common for McCarthy to omit inverted commas from dialogues? I've only read The Road, but I've seen it (rather, the lack of it) in No Country for Old Men as well. 91.150.125.130 (talk) 15:42, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

He never uses quotation marks, in any of his novels. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.65.43.200 (talk) 05:39, 17 September 2011 (UTC)

Nobel candidate - the newspaper
Isn't "by the influential and well-informed Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet" (in the end of the opening section) an odd way to cite the name of a newspaper? I'd remove this part of the sentence altogether (saying he is increasingly mentioned and citing the newspaper seems enough), or at least remove the adjectives. What do you think? Aerthis (talk) 22:27, 25 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Agree. That wording is definitely puffery.  Removal of the adjectives would solve the problem.  The  Interior (Talk) 22:57, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Citation Source for the 'working titles?'
Is there any documentation or evidence that these are in fact the working titles of whatever works in progress he has? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.92.233.113 (talk) 14:13, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Nobel prize candidate
I don't like to edit Wikipedia, and I don't want to mess around with the references list, but the statement about "increasingly mentioned as a candidate" is not only nonsensical, but the reference (reference 8 on the list) is not an actual reference, it's just a single, unattributed sentence of gibberish. This should probably be fixed by someone who knows how to do it. 72.49.167.12 (talk) 01:45, 19 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I've removed that sentence. A source establishing that he was once mentioned as a possible winner doesn't amount to him being "increasingly mentioned" as such. Cordless Larry (talk) 21:20, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Cormac McCarthy. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080311120802/http://www.cinematical.com:80/2007/11/05/is-guy-pearce-going-on-the-road/ to http://www.cinematical.com/2007/11/05/is-guy-pearce-going-on-the-road/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at Sourcecheck).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 06:43, 28 February 2016 (UTC)

The Passenger release date
I believe The Passenger's release date will be sometime in 2018. I saw this discussed on the Cormac McCarthy forums. Knowing that this source is not acceptable in Wikipedia, does anyone have any information regarding The Passenger's release date?

Also, I believe that "forthcoming" would be a much more apt descriptor of The Passenger. Calling it unpublished makes it seem as though it is a book McCarthy decided not to publish. This is not the case. Inspector Semenych (talk) 20:13, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

I was also wondering why The Counsellor is in the unpublished section. The screenplay HAS been published. Source: I own it and have read it.14.201.236.128 (talk) 16:57, 28 September 2017 (UTC)