Some see Trump as a “stochastic terrorism,” inciting others to violence. Cormac McCarthy may understand as well as anyone what’s going on.
Tag Archives: Cormac McCarthy
America’s Political Violence Problem
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Blood Meridian, Donald Trump, Gunfighter Nation, January 6, Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, Regeneration through Violence, Richard Slotkin, stochastic terrorism, violence Comments closed
McCarthy: Dark, Occasionally Hopeful
Although the late Cormac McCarthy had a very dark vision of humanity, one can find glimpses of hope within his novels.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian, Passenger, Road, Russo-Ukrainian War, war Comments closed
Faulkner’s Sanctuary, Trump’s Charges
Reading Sanctuary while awaiting a Trump indictment is a good counterweight to facile optimism. In Faulkner’s world, the courts can’t save us.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Flannery O'Connor, Justice, Sanctuary, Toni Morrison, Trump indictments, William Faulkner Comments closed
Trumpism and the Violence Myth
Slotkin says that “the” American myth is regeneration through violence. That myth can be seen in the Western, including in “Lonesome Dove” and “Blood Meridian.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Blood Meridian, Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, Regeneration through Violence, Richard Slotkin, Westerns Comments closed
License to Act with Impunity
Monday I’ve been reflecting upon a recent E.J. Dionne column about living in “an age of impunity.” Borrowing the phrase from International Rescue Committee head Dave Milland, Dionne looks at the horrors that arise when all moral inhibitions are swept away. Looking for an American author who depicts such a world, I settled upon Cormac […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged age of impunity, atrocities, Blood Meridian, Donald Trump Comments closed
From Frontier Racism to Wall Racism
Wednesday New Yorker writer Francisco Cantu has alerted me to an important book on the role that the frontier plays in the American imagination. Greg Gandin’s The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America, traces Donald Trump’s wall back to America’s frontier days. I describe the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Long Hair", America-Mexico border, American frontier, Blood Meridian, border wall, Donald Trump, End of Myth, Francisco Cantu, Greg Gandin, Hernan Diaz, In the Distance, Ofelia Rivas, Ofelia Zepeda, Tohono O'odham, Trump's wall Comments closed
Be Afraid of Trump’s Fear of Being Mocked
Donald Trump is obsessed with the fear of being laughed at, as he revealed once again in vowing non-compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement. As Cormac McCarthy shows in “All the Pretty Horses,” such people are capable of unimaginable cruelty.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged All the Pretty Horses, Donald Trump, mockery, Paris Climate Agreement Comments closed
How To Reflect upon the Death Penalty
Our motivations for executing prisoners too often have little to do with justice. Cormac McCarthy understands this well in “All the Pretty Horses.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged All the Pretty Horses, death penalty, executions Comments closed
