May 22, 2020

New Novel covid-19: day 70 | US: GA | info | act

I finally started Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian today. So far, it’s very mythic—archetypal and gritty. The protagonist is simply known as “the kid,” and only minor characters seem to get names. Typical of McCarthy, the esoteric vocabulary tends to further alienate the reader from an already surreal setting in the American southwest before the Civil War.

I’ve only made it through the fourth chapter—itself abstract, and ending in a violent massacre. McCarthy’s language has a simple complexity, using austere and naturalistic metaphors. It reminds me quite a bit of No Country.

                    

I have to start planning my summer course. The semester begins next Thursday. Why am I not ready? I need to get there. I’m probably going to do much the same I did last summer, but I might use the Discourse server for discussion.