Did anyone ever watch that Joss Whedon show, Firefly? There's something about this bleak, post-apocalyptic world where most survivors are reduced to cannibalism, brutality, etc. that reminds me a lot of Reevers and stuff.
I had the same thought! Since you and Brady spoke so highly of the show, I got the DVD from Netflix and loved it. I even got my super-devout Mormon roommate to love it. While I was reading the book, I kept thinking about the Reevers too.
I loved the sparse but descriptive language McCarthy uses. At one point he refers to a "trellis of a dog," covered with skin, and I thought that was just the most perfect way to evoke a starved, pathetic dog that I could imagine.
And I disagree with Dusty...I think knowing what the apocalyptic event was *is* really important, because HOW ELSE CAN I PREPARE FOR IT? My previous post-apocalyptic plan had been to retreat to somewhere in the South with decent soils and a long growing season and use my farm girl skills to survive. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe there would be no sun and nothing would grow. Also, I've pretty much decided if there are cannibals about, I'm just done for. There's no way I'd be smart enough to avoid them.
the psychics say the Shenandoa Valley is the saftest place to live in the USA for any disaster. It runs the length of Virginia and is bordered by two mountain ranges. but the pychics also said brad and angela would break up too.
I'm in earthquake town, and they tell us the next big one is coming. i used to keep clean water. you'll need water no matter what.
the mother's reaction --in the book-- is interesting. she's like, i'm killing myself, it's the only moral thing to do. but the father figure sees this as immoral. he has faith in something. humanity. persistence. family. something.
i don't think it's a tale of post-apocltyic woe as much as it's a tale about the unreasonableness of faith. john could probably weigh in better on that.
it's interesting that the father dies before help arrives. like moses. moses never saw the promised land. he died in the desert.
i got done with this book so fast i went out and got blood meridian, if anybody wants to add that to the reading agenda this month.
The problem is, now that the psychics told everyone, the cannibals will know where to go to find people. I'm looking for somewhere other people might kind of avoid.
I spent a lot of the book wondering why the father would keep trying so hard to live. I mean, he has no real indication that things will be any better at the coast, and in fact they really aren't. It's not clear that things are better ANYWHERE. Life is awful, and he secretly is almost disappointed every time they find food and don't starve, yet spends his time desperately looking for food anyway. It doesn't seem that he really has faith in god specifically, so it's sort of a vague faith in SOMETHING. Although he must talk about god, since the kid discusses god and must have learned about the idea from his dad.
I kept wondering--which would be more moral, to kill your child yourself or to fight to keep them alive in circumstances that show no likelihood of improving and where, if you fail, your child will probably die a horrible, awful death?
That's kind of why I asked the question at the beginning--would you want to go on living in that situation? I have a suspicion I do not have much faith and would pretty quickly just give up. It seems inevitable that I would eventually be eaten by someone else or starve, and those seem like really awful ways to die.
i can't freakin' believe this. it didn't even ask me for my password, which i forgot any good.
so what did i say.
oh, #1. that whole dialogue with the wife when she wants to kill herself is sooo good. re-read it. i mean, she has a point. the dude does too though. you just go on and on until your times up. the kid wants to die a lot. he always saying, i want to be with my mom. she wants to kill him too. as an act of mercy.
i'm sure all those cannibals started off as half-way decent folks, you know.
anyway, i bought earthquake water in case of the big one here. i have a gun too, and box of 9mm ammo in case there's a race war here. i got the gun after new orleans and there were reports of roving black gangs shooting up the place. i thought --since i live in a mostly black area-- they ain't getting me without a fight. silly huh? those new reports turned out to be highly exagerated. by that time i was armed to the teeth. ain't nobody gettin' my earthquake water.
i had earthquake water last year too, but my wife drank it.
Um, I think I'm scared of you now. You would get along well with my family--they outfitted a cellar for Y2K and were freaked out that I insisted on going back to Wisconsin instead of staying there so I could go underground with them when the world ended.
i get paranoid because every week there's a local paper that gets thrown on my doorstep that fans the flames of racial tension. i'll send you a few if anyone thinks i'm exagerating. it runs headlines like, AmeriKKKa Hates Black People, and the Mayor Hates Blacks.
there's not many black folks in SF --most i know are selling their homes for millions and moving back south. most immigrated here during WWII.
but there's a lot of pissed off folks though. last year, 60 black men died within a mile radius of where i live. so for some, the apocalpyse in now, you know. i'm sure those people feel like it's the end of the world. i bet people in iraq feel like it's armigendon. it's just taking longer to get to the rest of us.
A student in my class was reading USA Today last week and I noticed that a headline on the front page was "Iraqi Children Suffer Trauma." I was like "NO SHIT?!? You think so? I don't know, we better do more studies."
Just to let you know...My pick for May is "Drive Like Hell: A Novel," by Dallas Hudgens. I don't really know anything about it. I read some small blurb that made me think it *might* be interesting, so I googled it and ended up on a Drive-By Truckers fan site where the book was highly praised and it was asserted that Mike Cooley loves the book. I figured, what better praise can a book about a Southern kid with a race-car driver dad get? And so that's our pick. Just wanted to let you know.
Oh, and I assume you all heard that The Road won a Pulitzer?
I had to interlibrary loan my pick. Apparently it'll take about 2 weeks to get here, so ya'll may have to start without me. Also, I had to pay $1 for postage. I hope they don't refuse to order it because it has the word "hell" in the title.
Guys, Sorry I haven't commented on this book. Life kinda threw me a curve ball, and despite having tons of time on my hands, everytime I picked up the book to read, I just found it too damn depressing. So...I got like two chapters in and gave up. Figures...the two books that got rave reviews (Dusty's and Brady's) are the two that I just couldn't get into.
18 Comments:
I went ahead and made a new post so we can start discussing this totally awesome book. I finished in Saturday.
I'll throw out the first questions (hope you don't mind, Dusty).
1. What do you think was the apocalyptic event that caused all this?
2. Given the situation, do you think you'd want to go on living in that situation?
Did anyone ever watch that Joss Whedon show, Firefly? There's something about this bleak, post-apocalyptic world where most survivors are reduced to cannibalism, brutality, etc. that reminds me a lot of Reevers and stuff.
I had the same thought! Since you and Brady spoke so highly of the show, I got the DVD from Netflix and loved it. I even got my super-devout Mormon roommate to love it. While I was reading the book, I kept thinking about the Reevers too.
I loved the sparse but descriptive language McCarthy uses. At one point he refers to a "trellis of a dog," covered with skin, and I thought that was just the most perfect way to evoke a starved, pathetic dog that I could imagine.
And I disagree with Dusty...I think knowing what the apocalyptic event was *is* really important, because HOW ELSE CAN I PREPARE FOR IT? My previous post-apocalyptic plan had been to retreat to somewhere in the South with decent soils and a long growing season and use my farm girl skills to survive. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe there would be no sun and nothing would grow. Also, I've pretty much decided if there are cannibals about, I'm just done for. There's no way I'd be smart enough to avoid them.
This may not have been the best time to watch "An Inconvenient Truth" and think about possible climate-related apolcalyptic scenarios.
gwen,
the psychics say the Shenandoa Valley is the saftest place to live in the USA for any disaster. It runs the length of Virginia and is bordered by two mountain ranges. but the pychics also said brad and angela would break up too.
I'm in earthquake town, and they tell us the next big one is coming. i used to keep clean water. you'll need water no matter what.
the mother's reaction --in the book-- is interesting. she's like, i'm killing myself, it's the only moral thing to do. but the father figure sees this as immoral. he has faith in something. humanity. persistence. family. something.
i don't think it's a tale of post-apocltyic woe as much as it's a tale about the unreasonableness of faith. john could probably weigh in better on that.
it's interesting that the father dies before help arrives. like moses. moses never saw the promised land. he died in the desert.
i got done with this book so fast i went out and got blood meridian, if anybody wants to add that to the reading agenda this month.
dust
The problem is, now that the psychics told everyone, the cannibals will know where to go to find people. I'm looking for somewhere other people might kind of avoid.
I spent a lot of the book wondering why the father would keep trying so hard to live. I mean, he has no real indication that things will be any better at the coast, and in fact they really aren't. It's not clear that things are better ANYWHERE. Life is awful, and he secretly is almost disappointed every time they find food and don't starve, yet spends his time desperately looking for food anyway. It doesn't seem that he really has faith in god specifically, so it's sort of a vague faith in SOMETHING. Although he must talk about god, since the kid discusses god and must have learned about the idea from his dad.
I kept wondering--which would be more moral, to kill your child yourself or to fight to keep them alive in circumstances that show no likelihood of improving and where, if you fail, your child will probably die a horrible, awful death?
That's kind of why I asked the question at the beginning--would you want to go on living in that situation? I have a suspicion I do not have much faith and would pretty quickly just give up. It seems inevitable that I would eventually be eaten by someone else or starve, and those seem like really awful ways to die.
checking to see if i can post. i wrote a big long thing but the stupid blog ate it
i can't freakin' believe this. it didn't even ask me for my password, which i forgot any good.
so what did i say.
oh, #1. that whole dialogue with the wife when she wants to kill herself is sooo good. re-read it. i mean, she has a point. the dude does too though. you just go on and on until your times up. the kid wants to die a lot. he always saying, i want to be with my mom. she wants to kill him too. as an act of mercy.
i'm sure all those cannibals started off as half-way decent folks, you know.
anyway, i bought earthquake water in case of the big one here. i have a gun too, and box of 9mm ammo in case there's a race war here. i got the gun after new orleans and there were reports of roving black gangs shooting up the place. i thought --since i live in a mostly black area-- they ain't getting me without a fight. silly huh? those new reports turned out to be highly exagerated. by that time i was armed to the teeth. ain't nobody gettin' my earthquake water.
i had earthquake water last year too, but my wife drank it.
i said, jesus, that's our earthquake water.
she said, i was thirsty.
Um, I think I'm scared of you now. You would get along well with my family--they outfitted a cellar for Y2K and were freaked out that I insisted on going back to Wisconsin instead of staying there so I could go underground with them when the world ended.
oh my, i do sound crazy.
i get paranoid because every week there's a local paper that gets thrown on my doorstep that fans the flames of racial tension. i'll send you a few if anyone thinks i'm exagerating. it runs headlines like, AmeriKKKa Hates Black People, and the Mayor Hates Blacks.
there's not many black folks in SF --most i know are selling their homes for millions and moving back south. most immigrated here during WWII.
but there's a lot of pissed off folks though. last year, 60 black men died within a mile radius of where i live. so for some, the apocalpyse in now, you know. i'm sure those people feel like it's the end of the world. i bet people in iraq feel like it's armigendon. it's just taking longer to get to the rest of us.
A student in my class was reading USA Today last week and I noticed that a headline on the front page was "Iraqi Children Suffer Trauma." I was like "NO SHIT?!? You think so? I don't know, we better do more studies."
Gah.
Just to let you know...My pick for May is "Drive Like Hell: A Novel," by Dallas Hudgens. I don't really know anything about it. I read some small blurb that made me think it *might* be interesting, so I googled it and ended up on a Drive-By Truckers fan site where the book was highly praised and it was asserted that Mike Cooley loves the book. I figured, what better praise can a book about a Southern kid with a race-car driver dad get? And so that's our pick. Just wanted to let you know.
Oh, and I assume you all heard that The Road won a Pulitzer?
whew, Gwen, looks like it was me and you on this one,
i got the next book,
dust
I had to interlibrary loan my pick. Apparently it'll take about 2 weeks to get here, so ya'll may have to start without me. Also, I had to pay $1 for postage. I hope they don't refuse to order it because it has the word "hell" in the title.
So that's the state of my local Utah library.
Guys,
Sorry I haven't commented on this book. Life kinda threw me a curve ball, and despite having tons of time on my hands, everytime I picked up the book to read, I just found it too damn depressing. So...I got like two chapters in and gave up. Figures...the two books that got rave reviews (Dusty's and Brady's) are the two that I just couldn't get into.
Welcome back, Karen! Hope my pick is less depressing.
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