READ OR DIE

In this episode, our hosts explore the next pages of “The Road.” Listen with us, as we take a look at the book through a different lens!

Fassler, Joe. “Cormac McCarthy’s The Road May Have the Scariest Passage in All of Literature.” The Atlantic, 14 May 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/05/cormac-mccarthys-i-the-road-i-may-have-the-scariest-passage-in-all-of-literature/275834/.

The article is basically about how people in horror know when something is going to be scary, and compares that logic to how the author writes the story. The writer of this article describes Cormac, the author, as someone who makes his story scary without all the violence. “ But he’ll also pull back. He’ll allow some violence to take place off stage, because he knows unseen acts can be as brutal and affecting as violence that’s shown—perhaps more so.” This article breaks down into a lot of detail about how the author of the Road writes in a way where he’s not telling everything at once. This provides context as to why we don’t see a lot of extra information from the characters.

Orlean, Susan. “The Family Issue.” The New Yorker, 17 July 2022, https://www.newyorker.com/family-issue-2022.

Looking through the historicist lens, the reader can see that Cormac McCarthy’s personal life and relationship with family reflect in his writing. The relationship with the father and son is different from being vulnerable. He has children and has been divorced. In the article, it talked about different aspects in life that affect one’s relationship, like drugs, general trauma, and communications.

White, Edmund, and Rudolfo Anaya. “Cormac McCarthy | Biography, Books, The Passenger, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 December 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cormac-McCarthy

This article gives background information about the author. Knowing the background of the author explains a lot about why the author may or may have not done the things he does. For example, his lack of commitment to his partners in his life might lead him to write about something similar. Or maybe he wants a better relationship with his kid and uses this book to explain that thought process. Or, his religious preference can cause him to talk a lot about God in the book. This article also gives some insight into his other work, and the reader could make some comparisons to see if there are some common themes between them.