Yes, a definite comparison of subject matter and (partial) sensibility, but I would need to read further in Bolaño—I just read a couple of the novellas, neither of the big books—to say more.
I guess I have this pithy little refrain stuck in my head that 2666 is Blood Meridian by way of globalization (or that, in a way, it’s the Blood Meridian of the “real” world or the postmodern world - haven’t quite been able to articulate it). But aside from the violence of the US-Mexico border, they both have a penchant for antagonists that may be something more or less than human, manifesting as fate or judgment, etc. They both dip into neo-noir (though Bolaño is more interested in the Nabokov or Borges aspects of detective stories as metafiction, something I think McCarthy would have little patience for).
Enjoyed this and your other writings on McCarthy's novels, to which I've devoted a little bit of attention as well: https://alexanderriley.substack.com/p/cornac-mccarthy-conservative-novelist
Yes one discovers Jesus through excess and sin, this is a profound insight, and more souls would be saved if more churches were honest about this.
Made me think of reading "Saints and Sinners" about the creation of Crime and Punishment, and then reading the novel itself. Fascinating. Also, re McCarthy: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/no-country-for-old-men
Michael Mohr
"Sincere American Writing"
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
I’ve wondered long about certain correspondences between McCarthy and Bolaño (and not only for their mutual fixations on borderlands).
Yes, a definite comparison of subject matter and (partial) sensibility, but I would need to read further in Bolaño—I just read a couple of the novellas, neither of the big books—to say more.
I guess I have this pithy little refrain stuck in my head that 2666 is Blood Meridian by way of globalization (or that, in a way, it’s the Blood Meridian of the “real” world or the postmodern world - haven’t quite been able to articulate it). But aside from the violence of the US-Mexico border, they both have a penchant for antagonists that may be something more or less than human, manifesting as fate or judgment, etc. They both dip into neo-noir (though Bolaño is more interested in the Nabokov or Borges aspects of detective stories as metafiction, something I think McCarthy would have little patience for).