>He paced up and back at the foot of her bed. He stopped to speak and thought better of it and paced again, kneading his hands before him like a villain in a silent film. Except of course they werent really hands. Just flippers. Sort of like a seal has. In the left of which he now cradled his chin as he paused and stood to study her. Back by popular demand, he said. In the flesh.
What in the reddit is this prose, McCarthy?
>werent
I haven't read the book yet, has Corncob really become so far gone that he dropped the aporstophe on "weren't"?
Huh? He always did that.
Imagine being this much of a fricking brain dead c**t.
I wouldn't be surprised. He's so obsessed with appearing like the toughest rootinest tootinest cowboy this side of the Mississippi but in reality he's a pretentious redditor who's lol so random
>werent
Has anyone else tried to work out Cormac's punctuation rules?
I thought at first he might apostrophize when there is ambiguity, i.e. where there's a legitimate word without the apostrophe. So, for example, he'll write "I'll" [meaning "I will"], because "ill" is a word. And he'll apostrophize possession, to differentiate it from the plural. And he'll always apostrophize "It's" (to mean "it is"), because "its" is the possessive. But he'll write "don't" as "dont", because there's no word "dont".
But it's not that simple, because he often apostrophizes where he doesn't need to by that rule, e.g. "We've", "I'm", etc.
Also he misses the apostophe from "can't", and there is a word "cant." On page 200 for example:
>Why cant I go to Houston?
>Because you werent here when we made up the crew.
It seems a bit random. Does it have to do with how we naturally pronounce the word? Is he just a senile old fool?
The other big issue is whether he's ever inconsistent. Is there a word he sometimes apostrophizes, sometimes not? I haven't noticed one but it would be arduous to check the whole text methodically. (I only have the physical Passenger. Someone with a pdf could do this easily, of course.)
Why doesn't he just write things correctly
>Why doesn't he just write things correctly
What no question mark?
Anyway, it's in keeping with his general philosophy ("don't clutter up the page with lots of little unnecessary marks"). The issue is what's necessary (or just helpful) and what isn't. I'm not a huge fan of the "no-apostrophe" style but it doesn't annoy me that much. Cormac obviously thinks that there's no need to acknowledge, for example, that "don't" comes from "do not". Tomorrow may well belong to him. After all, there was a time when well-educated people would write bus and phone as 'bus & 'phone (because they're short for "omnibus" and "telephone", respectively). But history marched inexorably over such people's dead bodies.
I knew it would be bad. Hemingway got shitty in the end, too.
I'm only on chapter 7 but the book is damn good especially for current year. I would say it's easily in his top 5. IQfy just doesn't want to read for some reason.
It's better than I expected. Compared to The Road this book had wonderful prose. Nowhere near the quality of Suttree or Blood Meridian however
Didn't enjoy the Thalidomide Kid either when he was first introduced, but he grew on me as time went on.
There are some beautiful prose moments scattered throughout the book that still keep coming back to me a week after I finished the book.
>no (you) for (you)
Why is this post redditspaced?
I like it for the most part, I think the silent film analogy could have been better though, I don't really associate silent film villains with the hand movement I imagine is being talked about. I don't really get any of the seal and flippers stuff... Also not a fan of the last 2 sentences.
It works really well in context. This guy is a flipper-handed madman who’s a cliche and pun machine. The last two sentences are just how he talks
Sorry I still don't get the flipper stuff, maybe if I had more context like you said then I would. Once again I feel if I had more context this wouldn't be true, but I can't really imagine someone saying those last 2 sentences either.
The character is a hallucination. The "flippers" are reference to a birth defect. Google Thalidomide Kids
TK is a periodic hallucination (or is he?) Who has been visiting Alicia for 12 years whenever she is off her medications.
They’re flippers, Michelle. Jesus.
I knew it would be bad. Hemingway got shitty in the end, too.
Is this a real quote?
If so, I told you gays this shit would be unreadable.
There's something fatiguing about reading pages and pages of his dialogue that reads like a lazy transcript. Still enjoyable though
every time I see this image it feels like his hat is a bit bigger
"kneading his hands before him like a villain in a silent film"
Cool it with the anti-semitisim, McCarthy Ye Irving.