Re: R.I.P. Cormac McCarthy
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2023 4:05 pm
I think McCarthy can be easy to dismiss as nihilistic because he traffics in dark stories and themes. I guess he may be easy to dismiss as well because his stories are often so masculine, but I think it's beautiful in the way he finds small spots of hope and grace notes in a dark world, akin to Flannery O'Connor. Both the dark and the light work together and in conversation with each other in my opinion and one doesn't work without the other.
I listened to the This Had Oscar Buzz episode on The Counselor yesterday, which of course was his only original screenplay, I don't think it's possible to misread McCarthy to a greater degree than they do in that episode, who they dismissed as a Taylor Sheridan-level crime writer who hides behind as dime store philosophy and needs filmmakers like the Coens and Ridley Scott (lol!) to make his stuff really "work". They also try to blame McCarthy for the negative media depictions of Mexico (specifically depicting it as a cartel-land,) and as someone who lives and works in a community with a large Mexican-immigrant population, I am interested in that discussion, but McCarthy is not the person to throw that discussion on, because No Country and The Counselor are the only works of his that deal with cartels, and his depictions of Mexico in The Border Trilogy is written by someone who clearly has affection for it. All of which makes me question if they've ever really read anything of McCarthy's.
I listened to the This Had Oscar Buzz episode on The Counselor yesterday, which of course was his only original screenplay, I don't think it's possible to misread McCarthy to a greater degree than they do in that episode, who they dismissed as a Taylor Sheridan-level crime writer who hides behind as dime store philosophy and needs filmmakers like the Coens and Ridley Scott (lol!) to make his stuff really "work". They also try to blame McCarthy for the negative media depictions of Mexico (specifically depicting it as a cartel-land,) and as someone who lives and works in a community with a large Mexican-immigrant population, I am interested in that discussion, but McCarthy is not the person to throw that discussion on, because No Country and The Counselor are the only works of his that deal with cartels, and his depictions of Mexico in The Border Trilogy is written by someone who clearly has affection for it. All of which makes me question if they've ever really read anything of McCarthy's.