The Road

                                          

It seems appropriate to start the first blog post of the semester with something very relevant to class right now: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  I got mixed reviews from many of my friends who had English class on A-days. Some said it was amazing and written in a thought-provoking way. Others said it was depressing and they couldn't wait to get it over with, not to mention the ambiguity drove them crazy.  I am surprised to say that I like this book very much so far.  McCarthy really makes me think about what he's writing. Here are a few examples:

"On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world. Query: How does the never to be differ from the never that was?" p32

"Dark of the invisible moon. The nights now only slightly less black. By day the banished sun circles the earth like a grieving mother with a lamp." p32

I won't try to analyze those quotes because that's what we did in class, but I truly admire the deepness of those statements. To imagine how precisely and meticulously McCarthy must have worked to convey exactly what he wanted to leaves me awestruck. If nothing else, I think we can all agree that McCarthy should be commended on his hard work.

Another interesting point is the title. The man and his son are literally traveling on a road, but there is obviously some figurative meaning there too. The cliche about "the journey, not the destination" is important. When I saw the book, I thought, "What road? Where does the road lead to?" I also think it's interesting to note that most books that are considered literary fiction sometimes don't have such straightforward titles. For example, the three books I am reading for my inquiry project all have non-straightforward titles: The Forgotten Garden, Not Me,  and Dark Places. But even though McCarthy chose a perspicuous title, the language used in the novel is anything but.

Those are just a few thoughts as we start this unit. I think I will actually understand McCarthy's reasoning for using such complex thought processes in writing this book. As of now, I'm just trying to understand what's going on. I am also very proud that I kind of used one of the vocabulary words in this post. My goal is to try to do that as often as I can. Let's see how that goes! :)