Period Blood Schmeridian

My brother sent me a couple of Cormac McCarthy quotes on my way home. I've never read anything by him. The two fragments I read didn't get my balls wet, though. Blood Meridian, my brother tells me, is supposed to be a fine piece of literature produced by our buddy Mr. McCarthy. I should probably give it a try; I hear his name come up in conversation often enough. He writes in a way that's distinct, maybe even enjoyable - were I to give it the chance - but there's something about his writing that seems overly contrived. His sentences are too steeped in shadows of doom and dread. The persistent and unrelenting bleakness produces a constant despondency that chases all the good sentences away. His writing has an almost oddly noir feel to it.

I joking told my brother I'd write an excerpt in the voice of McCarthy titled, Period Blood Schmeridian:

She lie low in the weeds, listening to the air rustling through the field. Wounded by invisible arrows sailed from the bows of unseen archers. Conspiracy and whispers, this. The darkness and the moon, the light of the young girl's eyes. Thick menstruation of her mother, passed down from one womb to the other, to the other, for all of time. It is the way of things. Pulsing through the life liquid of lineages, lost. Dark blood rich and red as wine. Tasting of iron. Clots. Coloring her garments. Satin. Sinew. Stains. Small trembling fingers touch her pale lips. Those bleeding hands feel all the unsolicited horror, all the capricious charm of youth's dumb tenacity. Cursed by a cry, worried and griefed. Distant winds full of uncertain fortunes howl. Thrashing through the tall weeds, they stalk her slender arms. The paper thin meekness of her old, flowery skirt and its smelling. Somewhere a mad dog barks. The drunken earth beneath her cut knees drinks in her fleeting valor. The patient dirt, waiting. Waiting always for us to lie with it one last time.

See, anyone can do it. If I were Cormac I'd host classes and sell how-to books, cassettes, and DVDs on late night TV. For an extra $19.99 I'd even volunteer to come and speak at your school.

Hooked on McCarthy worked for me!™

I kid. I think I'll put him on my list of authors to read. I'm still trying, albeit poorly, to finish reading the book Q lent me many months ago. After that, I need to read one by Nabokov that I purchased, finish Swan's Way, and also start a book my friend Terry gave me. At this rate, I'm hoping to have finished them all by 2016.