#outer dark

[sibyllinedreams]

Been reading Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. It's so Southern gothic, I found myself reading it out loud in a southern dialect that I had long forgotten.

You can take the barefoot feral child out of Georgia, but she's still buried deep down there fixin' to come out.

[kagcyu]

I finished reading Child of God this week, and... Wow. Still thinking about it.

I'm not sure how it compares with Outer Dark in the grotesque factor. I'd say for Child of God, the content matter was more disturbing in a.... grounded way. The descriptions left me feeling physically repulsed, as if I were reading an account of a crime that actually happened. The time period could have something to do with it, but it was definitely a lot easier to distance myself from the cruelties portrayed in Outer Dark (and Blood Meridian, for sure), despite how graphic they are as well.

From what I remember, Outer Dark also had a more fantastical (biblical?) element to it, almost reading like a twisted parable. And the mystery behind the "villain" figure definitely leaves it open to interpretation, whereas the themes in Child of God felt more straightforward.

Both are soul crushing and phenomenally written and left me feeling hopeless on the state of humanity (would not be a McCarthy novel otherwise, I suppose ☺️).

I am tempted to revisit Outer Dark now bc I thought I noticed a few similarities in McCarthy's word choices (which would make sense, given he wrote the two back to back). It might be interesting to document them here, like I did with some of my reading notes with C&P. We'll see.

[magnusligon]

[rosehipn0vember]

i hate southern gothic wdym her name is Rinthy

[k1ll-sh0t-caomhanach]

𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑶𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌 (𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒄 𝑴𝒄𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒚) 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒈 𝒗𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔.

[seulunmotpeutblesserl-azur]

"Davanti a lui si apriva una distesa spettrale nella quale spiccavano solo gli alberi nudi, contorti in pose di sofferenza e vagamente umanoidi, come figure in un paesaggio infernale. Un giardino dei morti che fumava lievemente e si perdeva all'orizzonte. Saggiò con il piede il pantano che aveva davanti, e quello si gonfiò come una vulva fangosa e risucchiante. Fece un passo indietro. Da questa desolazione spirava un vento che portava con sé odore di marcio, e le canne palustri e le felci nere intorno a lui si urtavano lievemente, quasi fossero in catene. Si domandò perché una strada dovesse arrivare a un posto del genere."

Il buio fuori, Cormac McCarthy

[maryoliveoil]

Picked up a little light reading lol

[evehaze]