Tuesday, August 28, 2007

cormac mccarthy and films

today i got these three books in the mail:



but looks like they are going to have to wait because last night i started my reread of BLOOD MERIDIAN and am already in awe of what i'd forgotten. i think the first time i read the book i went a little too fast and if i missed something because my brain started to wander in the same way it does to keep me up all night, i would just run it over. i am being careful to get every sentence this time, because every sentence is pretty much a masterpiece in itself.

as such:

"Already gunfire was general within the tent and a dozen exits had been hacked through the canvas walls and people were pouring out, women screaming, folk stumbling, folk trampled underfoot in the mud. The kid and his friend reached the hotel gallery and wiped the water from their eyes and turned to watch. As they did so the tent began to sway and buckle and like a huge and wounded medusa it slowly settled to the ground trailing tattered canvas walls and ratty guyropes over the ground."

that's on page 7.
and i haven't even really gotten to the Judge yet.
anyone who is interested in violent and/or macabre and/or backwoods wanderer literature should put this book at the top of their list.

i heard a couple years ago that david cronenberg had bought the rights to film this book. i can't imagine anyone being able to do that but i guess he'd be the most likely to pull it off if anyone. the new cronenberg film that's about to come out looks like it could be better than a history of violence, which i felt was a pretty underdeveloped story, even if it looked cool. not to mention the soon-to-come coen brothers adaptation of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, which is also kind of potentially scary considering the coens' recent track record, but potentially awesome considering their earlier record.

hrphmhm.

2 comments:

Lyndall-O said...

by some algorithm of search engine results and networking of blogs I have come across you, and this post which has now prompted me to buy the blood meridian off amazon, and all this in one afternoon. sometimes the internet works. Most of the time it invariably takes me to home-made porn and videos of hilariously startled cats.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

that is good to hear. let me know what you think. read it slow.