I am not convinced he loved writing, at least not over the last fifteen to twenty years of his life. Didn't he mention in some interview how writing was further down the list of activities he enjoyed? I have been an actor in Canada since I was 30 and I am now 60. People often assume I want to talk about the roles and the different celebrities I have worked with, but I don't. I have no interest. It is only a job. Cormac is my favourite author. I love almost everything he has written and sometimes I get caught up in the myth of Cormac. We're drawn wanting to know as much about this quiet reclusive guy as we can. The fact that he preferred the company of science-minded folk over writers speaks volumes as to why he didn't speak volumes about his craft.
Great points Alan! Love you bringing in your expierences. That makes sense. He also told someone he writes because no one else writes books like him. That he'd rather golf than write.. So, it seems like there is a sense of duty there.
I'm really enjoying your thoughts and this thread, Ian. There isn't anyone in my orbit who appreciates Cormac and his work the way people like you and I do. This is great. Keep'm coming, brother.
I'd love a TV mini series on Suttree. I think only the Brits could pull it off. They seem to make the best television.
I think the spectre of Wittgenstein (and possibly Heidegger) is influencing this. I remember Wittgenstein’s famous conclusion to the Tractatus “Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.” I think writing and art was a mysterious process for Cormac McCarthy and he didn’t want to speak of what he didn’t truly understand and so cheapen and possibly lose his ability to do it.
A trait, like several others, he shared with Faulkner. He used to hate most of the time he spent in New York - and tended to drink heavily there, as the literary talk got deep.
I am not convinced he loved writing, at least not over the last fifteen to twenty years of his life. Didn't he mention in some interview how writing was further down the list of activities he enjoyed? I have been an actor in Canada since I was 30 and I am now 60. People often assume I want to talk about the roles and the different celebrities I have worked with, but I don't. I have no interest. It is only a job. Cormac is my favourite author. I love almost everything he has written and sometimes I get caught up in the myth of Cormac. We're drawn wanting to know as much about this quiet reclusive guy as we can. The fact that he preferred the company of science-minded folk over writers speaks volumes as to why he didn't speak volumes about his craft.
Great points Alan! Love you bringing in your expierences. That makes sense. He also told someone he writes because no one else writes books like him. That he'd rather golf than write.. So, it seems like there is a sense of duty there.
Yes absolutely - a sense of duty.
I'm really enjoying your thoughts and this thread, Ian. There isn't anyone in my orbit who appreciates Cormac and his work the way people like you and I do. This is great. Keep'm coming, brother.
I'd love a TV mini series on Suttree. I think only the Brits could pull it off. They seem to make the best television.
I think the spectre of Wittgenstein (and possibly Heidegger) is influencing this. I remember Wittgenstein’s famous conclusion to the Tractatus “Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.” I think writing and art was a mysterious process for Cormac McCarthy and he didn’t want to speak of what he didn’t truly understand and so cheapen and possibly lose his ability to do it.
I heard something Gaddis once said recently that relates to this topic...
“More people are fascinated with the idea of being a writer than actually writing”
It could really be as simple that Cormac didn’t like literary criticism
Maybe he didn’t think that hard about what he wrote and just wrote stuff he liked, when he liked.
Writing came easy to him. Being a writer did not.
A trait, like several others, he shared with Faulkner. He used to hate most of the time he spent in New York - and tended to drink heavily there, as the literary talk got deep.