Line #34 Creator/CormacMcCarthy


1	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cormac_mccarthy.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:305:Looked like someone's granddad. Wrote stuff that would make Pol Pot cry.]]
3
4	-> ''"I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing."''
5
6	Cormac [=McCarthy=] (born Charles Joseph [=McCarthy=] Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American author.
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8	Though he began his career in the 1960s, it was the publication of his novel ''Literature/AllThePrettyHorses'' in 1992 that brought him widespread recognition, earning him two of the most prestigious US literary awards, the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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10	Interest in [=McCarthy=] skyrocketed with Creator/TheCoenBrothers' UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-winning film adaptation of his novel ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'' and the subsequent film adaptation of his MediaNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning ''Literature/TheRoad''.
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12	His reputation as one of the finest American writers was further cemented with the placing of his novel ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' behind Creator/DonDeLillo's ''[[Literature/Underworld1997 Underworld]]'' and Creator/ToniMorrison's ''Literature/{{Beloved}}'' in a ''New York Times'' poll of the Greatest American novels of the last 25 years.
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14	A reclusive author, [=McCarthy=] surprised everybody when he agreed to give his first-ever television interview after [[Series/TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah Winfrey]] selected ''The Road'' for her famous Book Club.
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16	While [=McCarthy=] wrote books in genres such as {{historical fiction}}, SouthernGothic, {{crime\|fiction}}, and post-apocalyptic {{science fiction}}, most of his works are, at heart, [[TheWestern Westerns]]. His novels are infamous for their extreme content and use of {{Gorn}}. Murder, defilement, and wanton slaughter are par for the course in his works, so be warned if you choose to read them. That being said, they also tend to be strongly written and deeply affecting. Common themes include existentialism, the importance of decency, the brutal reality of human nature, and the potential for evil that lurks within us all.
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18	His books are also notable for their stylistic idiosyncrasies. [=McCarthy=] refuses to use quotation marks or exclamation marks, uses commas relatively sparingly, and is fond of using extremely long run-on sentences when describing scenes. He often combines these traits for horrific effects, such as describing scenes of barbarity in long, breathless paragraphs that communicate what's going on with feverish intensity.
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20	----
21
22	!! Works by [=McCarthy=] with their own pages include:
23	[[index]]
24	* ''Literature/TheOrchardKeeper'' (1965)
25	* ''Literature/OuterDark'' (1968)
26	* ''Literature/ChildOfGod'' (1973)
27	* ''Literature/{{Suttree}}'' (1979)
28	* ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' (1985)
29	* ''Literature/TheBorderTrilogy'' (1992-1998):
30	** ''Literature/AllThePrettyHorses'' (1992)
31	** ''Literature/TheCrossing'' (1994)
32	** ''{{Literature/CitiesofthePlain}}'' (1998)
33	* ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'' (2005)
34	* ''Literature/TheRoad'' (2006)
35	* ''The Passenger'' (2022)
36	* ''Stella Maris'' (2022)
37	[[/index]]
38	----
39
40	!! Other works by [=McCarthy=] contain examples of:
41	%%* AmbiguouslyHuman: [[spoiler:Anton Chigurh and Judge Holden.]]
42	* TheAntiNihilist: What "carrying the fire" means. It's for this reason that [=McCarthy=]'s work is often taught in conjunction with courses on [[UsefulNotes/FriedrichNietzsche Nietzsche]] (and to a lesser extent [[Creator/SorenKierkegaard Kierkegaard]]).
43	* ArcWords:
44	** "Carrying the fire" shows up in ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'' and ''Literature/TheRoad'', and is obliquely referenced at the end of ''Literature/BloodMeridian''.
45	** "Call it" showed up in ''Literature/AllThePrettyHorses'' before it became a motif throughout ''No Country for Old Men''.
46	%%* BeigeProse: ''Blood Meridian'' and onwards are these.
47	* CrapsackWorld: The settings of his novel are far from pleasant or welcoming, always filled with violence and hopelessness. ''The Road'' in particular is one of the darkest and bleakest [[AfterTheEnd depictions of a post-apocalyptic world]] in all of literature.
48	* {{Doorstopper}}:
49	** ''The Border Trilogy'' (which comprises ''All the Pretty Horses'', ''The Crossing'', and ''Cities of the Plain'') is a staggering 1040 pages long.
50	** ''The Passenger'' (which comprises ''The Passenger'' and ''Stella Maris'') is more modest at 608 pages.
51	%%* KarmaHoudini: Frequently. Most notably, [[spoiler:the three murderous strangers of ''Outer Dark'', Judge Holden of ''Literature/BloodMeridian'', and possibly Anton Chigurh of ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen'']].
52	%%* KnifeFight: In ''The Border Trilogy''.
53	%%* ShootTheShaggyDog: ''The Crossing''.
54	%%* SignatureStyle
55	* SmiteMeOMightySmiter: In ''The Crossing'', a priest tells the story of a heretic who lost his entire family and demanded that if God exists, that he reveal himself by killing him on the spot or showing him some sign of his existence. The heretic sat for days in the same spot under a tower, asking for God to cause the tower to fall and kill him.
56	%%* SouthernGothic: His pre-''Literature/BloodMeridian'' work, in stark contrast to the Westerns he's most famous for.
57	* WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma: [=McCarthy=] has a number of stylistic idiosyncrasies, but his most pronounced is his continual refusal to use quotation marks, as well as an aversion to apostrophes when using contractions. Another quirk of his is that in many, if not all, of his books, there is not a single exclamation mark. At all. In an interview, he stated it's just because he doesn't want to clutter up the page.

Context Creator / CormacMcCarthy