So, after struggling with deep philosophy for the past, I don't know, it feels like forever, I'd become convinced that it was no longer possible for me to read more than a few pages of anything in a sitting. 6 pages of Blanchot and I have to get up and do some dishes, pick at my face, iron my bedsheets, anything to keep from passing out in a sludge of drooling intellectual stupor. 20 pages seemed to be my daily limit, between Blanchot, Nancy, Hallward and Hegel. Ack.
It was in a furious bout of charity shop shopping that I picked up two gently used books. The first was purchased simply to get people off my back. To all of you who have asked: "Miss Melville, have you read the new Cormac McCarthy book? You know, the one they're making/have made into a movie? The one starring Viggo?" The answer is now: "Yes, you bastards, now leave me alone!"
The book, needless to say, is The Road. The Times Literary Supplement says it's the best book of the past 10 years. I don't know about that. It is, however, a terrifying read.
I'm not much of one for zombie movies, and not because I teach film and I think they're all hack jobs. Quite to the contrary: they scare the absolute piss out of me. Anything post-apocalyptic gives me the most severe anxiety. So, thanks to all you miserable sons of whores to harassed me into reading this.
All that said, it's a brilliant book. The literary merit is solid, and I do appreciate the way he plays with a lack of punctuation to further underscore the lack of possession in the novel. It's powerful stuff. Redemptive? I don't know. Parts of it quite reminded me of King a la Cell. The description is vivid and chilling, the characters bleak and torn, the setting unsettling. The cannabalism is a horrific touch, but not overdone. All that taken in, I liked it. If anyone has a copy of Blood Meridian they'd like to loan me, please go ahead.
I read The Road in a day. Yes, that's right: ONE DAY. I started it on the bus in to Uni in the morning and finished it in the dark of night (considering I'm in Aberdeen where the sun is down by 6pm, this isn't that impressive). Inspired by this success, I moved on to another work.
More about this after the break!
2 comments:
Damn now I feel compelled to read The Road but post-apocalyptic stuff gives me the willies like no one's business!
No joke. I actually ran through my admittedly insane plan of how to get back to the loved ones across the pond with the contingency that there were no air planes, no ocean liners and complete chaos in governmental infrastructure. This necessitated a call to some friends and (not one word of a lie) a serious conversation about where they would go and what they would leave so I could find them. I knew it was insane at the time, but went ahead with it anyway.
This book scared the hell out of me. Even four days out my mind keeps returning to some of the images and I have the urge to book plane tickets. You know, just in case... crazy.
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