Comments on: Mind Melds, Depressing Hammers, Parasol Protectorates, and Lots of Work…

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:57:25 +0000

Naw, I never think about that. I can go on noir binges or nonfiction binges, but nothing more specific.

By: Bryan Russell

Bryan Russell — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:47:47 +0000

Lol, I thought that book made car exhaust seem funny (though I still loved it). Actually, your initial joke got me thinking about how people pick books to read, or, rather, the sequence they read books in. Do you ever line up books like that? A series of dark books with thematic similarities or something? I guess I’m just curious about any causal links in choosing the order of books to be read (at least when professional concerns aren’t dictating the choices – and maybe even then).

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:37:55 +0000

Well, I mean, I was making a joke. But Blood Meridian–I didn’t see that one as depressing.

By: Bryan Russell

Bryan Russell — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:13:20 +0000

Yeah, The Road is actually one of McCarthy’s more chipper stories. I mean, Blood Meridian, The Outer Dark, Child of God… yowzers.

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:54:43 +0000

Yeah, you have a point. It’s become kind of a knee-jerk response to typify it as depressing.

By: GlenH

GlenH — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:50:02 +0000

I always find it strange when people cite The Road as hugely depressing. Sure the world and humanity as a whole is in an irrevocable mess but the world’s too removed to give a damn about, the savages too far removed from humanity to be worth morning and, most importantly, the ending is about as unambiguously happy and hopeful as they come.