Post by account_disabled on Jan 3, 2024 6:45:11 GMT
Every time I read a novel by McCarthy I discover this incredible writer more deeply, more details of his narrative , of his way of telling stories, gradually emerge. McCarthy managed to totally differentiate himself from other authors and is today considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Not everyone likes him, which is normal for every writer, but McCarthy isn't liked for some of his narrative choices, in my opinion, which disorientate the reader. Thinking back to the novels I read and to Beyond the Border which I recently finished, I had confirmation, if we can call it that, of some elements of McCarthy's writing . This made me think about the freedom of the writer : McCarthy feels free to write as he wants, not worrying about not being accepted, about breaking the mold, about overturning some rules of creative writing.
McCarthy writes like this: readers can accept this state of affairs and read his works or buy and read the novels of other authors. Stories within stories Some time ago we talked about the importance of subplots in a novel: they Special Data give more depth to the story, characterize the characters better, etc. The stories within the stories that McCarthy uses are different. If we want to be picky, they are also useless: remove them from the novel and absolutely nothing changes. But the story of the blind man in Beyond the Border , which the wife tells to Billy but in McCarthy's voice, adds something to the novel, it shows the harshness of life in the Mexican territories, the same territories in which Billy is forced to stay at that moment . This subplot lasts for over fifteen pages. Indirect dialogues In a story they are as necessary as direct ones.
Recently on Anima di carta we talked about the use of indirect speech in dialogues , with several examples, and I read interesting things that we don't always think about. McCarthy uses them a lot, alternating them with direct dialogue. Everything happens in a fluid manner, as if the reader expected that at that point it would be better to move on to indirect speech. Direct dialogue without quotes It is all too well known that Cormac McCarthy writes dialogue without using quotation marks or corporals. For him the narrative cannot be interrupted with those signs. Of course, you have to be good at writing entire dialogues without using quotation marks . Rarely in the nine McCarthy works I have read have I had difficulty understanding who was saying what. But certainly a dialogue setup like this leaves the reader disoriented.
McCarthy writes like this: readers can accept this state of affairs and read his works or buy and read the novels of other authors. Stories within stories Some time ago we talked about the importance of subplots in a novel: they Special Data give more depth to the story, characterize the characters better, etc. The stories within the stories that McCarthy uses are different. If we want to be picky, they are also useless: remove them from the novel and absolutely nothing changes. But the story of the blind man in Beyond the Border , which the wife tells to Billy but in McCarthy's voice, adds something to the novel, it shows the harshness of life in the Mexican territories, the same territories in which Billy is forced to stay at that moment . This subplot lasts for over fifteen pages. Indirect dialogues In a story they are as necessary as direct ones.
Recently on Anima di carta we talked about the use of indirect speech in dialogues , with several examples, and I read interesting things that we don't always think about. McCarthy uses them a lot, alternating them with direct dialogue. Everything happens in a fluid manner, as if the reader expected that at that point it would be better to move on to indirect speech. Direct dialogue without quotes It is all too well known that Cormac McCarthy writes dialogue without using quotation marks or corporals. For him the narrative cannot be interrupted with those signs. Of course, you have to be good at writing entire dialogues without using quotation marks . Rarely in the nine McCarthy works I have read have I had difficulty understanding who was saying what. But certainly a dialogue setup like this leaves the reader disoriented.