Time is a ceaseless ravenous beast that eventually overtakes us all, and today it took the greatest novelist of our times. Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian, and many other phenomenal works of art that delved hauntingly into the darkness of human condition, has passed away at the age of 89. Condolences are pouring in, but one famous author in particular is especially bothered: fellow novelist Stephen King.
King called McCarthy “maybe the greatest American novelist of my time” and it’s hard to disagree. Few authors, besides King himself, have enjoyed the type of success and longevity enjoyed by McCarthy.
Though King is considered a “horror” author by trade, McCarthy was almost more of a horror writer but by accident. He could make the mundane sparkle with energy and the ordinary seem monstrous. He had a command of the English language that was almost encyclopedic, and he never shied away from the more taboo aspects of human life.
While King wrote about monsters and supernatural beings, McCarthy chronicled horrors like incest, arson, rape, necrophilia, cannibalism, and other very dark aspects of this life. In an interview with New York Times magazine in 1992, he said:
“There’s no such thing as life without bloodshed. I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea.”
RIP to one of the best to do it ever.
Published: Jun 13, 2023 03:35 pm