t/s: cormac mccarthy's "the road" vs george miller's "the road warrior"

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http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0730,idea,77350,9.html

Vahid's hatred of McCarthy is great on the ILBooks thread.

it's a love-hate relationship. my BFF in college, who was the gallic-cool pea-coat and creeper-wearing english major, gave me a copy of "all the pretty horses" for christmas when i was a freshman. i forget what i gave him ... maybe twin peaks videos?

anyway, i got really into cormac mccarthy in a big way until 2001 when i sorta snapped out of it and realized that nihilism was a shitty philosophy to adopt at age 25! honestly, though, seeing "no country for old men" is making me v v sad that i spent so much time shitting on the poor guy, he's great.

i just got one of my students a borders gift certificate for christmas - she did like 30 hours of interviews for a paper i wrote - and i recommended some stuff to her, including cormac mccarthy! i think it's about right for 17 year olds.

i'll admit tho that i've got a real soft spot for fatalism - maqroll the gaviero is probably my favorite literary character of all time. he's like this vagabond sailor who takes various jobs - smuggling weapons on horseback through the mountains of colombia, sailing a tramp steamer down the uncharted tributaries of the amazon (hi dere fitzcarraldo), etc etc highly recommended

Child Of God is the one that sticks with me the most over time, though I'm due for a re-read. Even in high school/college, everything to me reaked of Flannery O'Connor/Faulkner/KA Porter derivations...