I’ve read some, but not all, of novelist Cormac McCarthy’s work, and ironically was currently reading his “Blood Meridian” when our PO Box yielded the September/October issue of Smithsonian magazine, which included an article on the late novelist focusing on his vast, eclectic, 20,000 volume book collection.
I noticed that his younger brother Dennis said of Cormac to the magazine, “He never left the house without a book. He never left the house without a gun. Both were equally unthinkable.”
The article continues, “Why was he always armed? ‘He was a conservative country boy from the South who understood that the world is a dangerous place’ (his brother answered).”
Clearly, Cormac McCarthy was One Of Us.
The article includes pix of one of the several gun books McCarthy owned, and a schematic McCarthy hand-drew of tools for rifling one’s own gun barrel.
If you’re not familiar with Cormac McCarthy’s writing, you’ve very likely at least seen movies based on his novels: “All the Pretty Horses,” “No Country for Old Men,” or “The Road.”
“Blood Meridian” may have been too spectacularly violent to make into a movie…
Wonderful author. His “Child of God” was something else and starkly different from his usual tales of the Southwest.
“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”
― Rudyard Kipling
A little off topic Mas, but you should do a story on the disparity of force thing last week with the football player versus the old man. I’m sure that will surprise a lot of people.
Not sure which case you’re talking about, sir. Can you furnish a link?
Mark Sanchez.
My 1st reply didn’t post? Maybe because I included a web link to NBC article?
He was allegedly drunk and in a dispute about parking with a 67(?) yo delivery driver. He allegedly assaulted & battered him enough that the driver allegedly ended up stabbing him. He (not the driver) has been arrested, charged and released.
Mark Sanchez incident
If the question is indeed about the Mark Sanchez incident, all media accounts thus far point to a justifiable self-defense stabbing. We never know the complete truth until everything comes out at trial.
Blood Meridian was transferred into one of the most Epic video games of all time. Red Dead Redemption 2 by TakeTwo Interactive. RM may be speaking of “The individual involved in that high-profile incident was Mark Sanchez, a former NFL quarterback who works as a football commentator for Fox Sports.” Downtown Indianapolis.
When I was a younger cop in 2005, No Country for Old Men was just another novel that was made into a good movie. I’m now 55, in the twilight of a career, and Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country speaks to me in ways that are hard to describe, especially when he talks about dreaming about his daddy. I get it now.
I too have come back around to reading books I read as a youth or young man. The perspective afforded by approaching geezerhood is amazing indeed. At 69 I find myself seeing things totally differently, almost like reading books for the first time.
Blood Meridian can be viewed as an all-time great novel or a magnificent piece of trash, depending on tastes. It relies on some histories and autobiographies that I had read before the novel was published. My seventh-grade teacher might have accused our friend Cormac of plagiarism. She was too deeply into shaming and blaming, though, IMHO. Punished me for imitating a comic book by revoking my pubertal JH Pulitzer. I believe that many famous authors have borrowed from predecessors while giving little or no acknowledgement. Cormac also reportedly researched extensively in Mexico in order to enhance his literary sensibilities. I give him credit for creating more than one villain in his books more classic than even Arthur Conan Doyle’s Moriarty. I am curious if Cormac limited his daily carry in Mexico, if he had a firearm there at all, to a .22 revolver, like Earl Stanley Gardner did on a trip to Baja. Hand it to author B Traven for keeping a .45 Colt revolver handy at home in Mexico, maybe for dealing decisively with abrasive critics, as well as rootin’ tootin’ Teutons. The black powder project in Blood Meridian is a great, if vulgar or profane, survival lesson in improvisation. Some day we all could be brought down into that boat if we let things slide.
Books and guns, two of my favorite things. R.I.P. and God bless, Cormac McCarthy. I’ll now have to add his works to my Bucket List/To-Do List.