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The Road Pages 1-33

#90: Nov. - Dec. 2010 (Fiction)
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Suzanne

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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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giselle wrote:Father and son seem to have lots of conversations filled with one and two word sentences and not a whole lot of content. But I like this because it seems realistic, especially under the circumstances they are in. Some of these conversations take up most of a page in my little paper back.
I agree giselle. I get the feeling that the mom was a large influence in the child's life, and the lack of dialoge between dad and son really creates a void where the mom once was. There is almost an awkwardness in some of these conversations. But you do see them grow closer together. The dad is really in a bad spot, he needs to be able to comfort his son, and be realistic of their circumstances at the same time.

Giselle, you wrote something in another thread, about McCarthy's writing style. You wrote that the father depended on the son almost as much as the son depended on the dad. I think this is spot on. I really enjoyed your comments in that particular post.
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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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giselle wrote:Father and son seem to have lots of conversations filled with one and two word sentences and not a whole lot of content.
I think this is one of the key themes in the book...the spoken word, or even the Biblican "in the beginning was the word". Afterall, they are not only experiencing the end of the world as they know it but the beginning of something else. What is there in the world now other than the word?
I think the sentences are short and terse because, afterall, what is there left to talk about? It is mentioned that the father finds a newspaper but the "quaint" topics therein do nothing for him. There is no sustenance behind the words.
But the wordd itself is highly important, making them feel like humans beings. When the son is uncomfortable about something and doesn't speak to his father, he is admonished to "speak to me, son. Talk". Speech is one of the last vestiges of humanity. It is also important to the father that the son learns the alphabet.
Only one name was mentioned in the book, that of the old man who claims he is called Ely, but later says it is perhaps not even true--knowing names, giving your name away, is power or loss of power. And your name is one of the few possessions they have, definitely not to be shared with others. But I think this is a theme worth looking into..the meaning of speech and words.
(I love McCarthy's style of placing the adjectives behind the nouns in order to give them more strength.....it is also a more ancient way of writing English, indicative of the direction they are headed. And definitely more poetic).
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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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Only one name was mentioned in the book, that of the old man who claims he is called Ely, but later says it is perhaps not even true--knowing names, giving your name away, is power or loss of power. And your name is one of the few possessions they have, definitely not to be shared with others. But I think this is a theme worth looking into..the meaning of speech and words.
You are so right. A person's name when everything else is gone, is the one thing that they have that means something to them. It is their last hope; their will to survive. "It's our legacy, we need to preserve it like bread and milk." (Can't remember what movie it was from.) Very good. I'm actually liking this book.
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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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Just a few random thoughts so far . . . .

Living in NC, I must admit imagining the setting this through my own biases: A road leading through Appalachia. I sort of rationalize this by thinking only the peaks and temperatures of a low-lying mountain range could accommodate a man and boy pushing a cart through the snow. But yes, could be ANY setting (region, country or continent).

The tone or style (not sure technically what it’s called) is almost dreamlike.

As a father, I am having a strong emotional reaction to this story.
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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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The relationship between the man and the boy is so empathic and heart-warming. It's the most colorful thing in this grey and ashen wasteland of a world. And it's surprising to me how McCarthy does this; he's distilled the relationship to the very foundations of what it is. There's no hugging, no jokes, no smiles or chiding... The world has made them miserable and the desolation of it encroaches upon them but they still have each other and that brings some happiness to both of them.

This relationship is starkly contrasted by the past relationship between the man and the woman, which feels more like a recurring nightmare.
I just finished one part where he's remembering an argument they had
Spoiler
just before she kills herself
. The writing style as he eases into the memory is much more... controlled? normal? Much more traditional and sequential. It's less dreamy than the actual narrative, as if the memory were somehow more real than what the man is currently experiencing. In fact as the memory begins you have no indication of when this scene is taking place relevant to "the apocalyptic event". It feels like just another one of his cherished memories, at first.

It reminded me of what bad dreams feel like before they turn bad.

Then, gradually, you realize that whatever it was that happened to the world has already happened, and as the woman's intentions become apparent the nightmare starts to kick in and the writing style starts to distort.

At that moment I thought of something the man says to the boy: "We forget what we want to remember, and we remember what we want to forget". And it put the man's remembrance of his wife into an entirely different focus. At first I'd thought he cherished his wife's memory, that he longed for happier times and regretted her not being with him anymore. But suddenly I got the feeling his remembrance was as much about remorse and guilt as it was about love.

I'm starting to suspect that reading this strictly as post-apocalyptic fiction would limit my appreciation of its richness. It seems to me the world's desolation is, partially, a picture of the man's desolation due to the breaking up of his family by powers outside of his control. The only bright thing in his world is his son, and he regrets what happened to his wife every day...

...Of course, I'm only at the beginning of the book :). Let's see how this story progresses.

EDIT: Heck, I seem to have placed this comment on the wrong thread... I think the scene I'm referring to must be beyond page 33 of the book.... It's confusing not having pages in the kindle edition. Is there any chance we could get a post of the kindle locations relative to the pages in the printed book? I'll be happy to do it myself and post it here if anyone has a scan of the book or anything like that which I could use to find the correct locations.
Last edited by VMLM on Thu Nov 25, 2010 11:50 am, edited 8 times in total.
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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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Hmm, I thought that might be an issue. Does anybody have a kindle and a copy of the book? I mean, if you want, I can tell you the last line or so of each "chapter". I don't know if that'd help.

I might get a nook color next year but I don't have an e-reader right now; sorry. D:
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Re: The Road Pages 1-33

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Yeah, that'd actually help a lot. Send me the sentences as an IM and I'll post the respective locations.
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