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Prof.Rodica Mihaila
Curs Cormac McCarthy
2011
Science Fiction and the apocalyptic novel
Michael Chabon. Dark adventure: On Cormac McCarthys The Road (107)
107-How the world ends: radiation, plague, an asteroid, some other cataclsm !ills most o"
the human!ind.
#he remnants mutate, lapse into "eudalism, or re$ert to prehistoric brutalit. %ld cults are
re$i$ed with their !ni$es and brutal gods, while tin noble bands cling to the tatters o" the
lost ci$ili&ation preser$ing !nowledge o" machiner, agriculture, missionar position
'mbi$alence toward technolog is the underling theme(stories about the end o" the world
seen as science "iction (deal with the changed nature o" societ in the wa!e o" a cataclsm )
these societies mirror and comment upon our own*.+,-a power"ul instrument o" satire)
10.(/the post-apocalptic mode has long attracted writers not generall considered part o"
the science-"iction tradition (this 0ualit o" +, to be a satire) ) critics would use words as
/parable1 or /"able1 ) appeal o" the post-apocalptic stor to mainstream writers li!e 2al!er
3erc (themes o" annihilation and recreation are easil inde4ed to the 5oo!s o" the 6ew
#estament and the "irst boo! o" the %ld.
-also a strong current o" con$ entional gard-edged naturalism at wor! in much post-
apocalptic science "iction to draw the mainstream writer.
107 ) the great 5ritish tradition o" the post-disaster no$el pioneered b M.3.+hiel8s #he
3urple Cloud and 9ohn Colleir8s "orgotten masterpiece Toms A-Cold, retooled in the "i"teies
b 9ohn 2ndham and 9ohn Christopher and brought to per"ection b 9: 5allard in the earl
si4ties, is $er much a mainstream naturalist tradition, cold-eed and unadorned, and no$els
li!e Christopher8s 6o 5lade o" :rass and 2ndham8s #he ;a o" the #ri""ids were popular
successes
-the growing sense in the minds o" readers and writers ali!e, since the mid-twentieth centur,
o" the plausibilit, e$en the imminence, o" the end o" the world.
Cormac McCarthy: The Road !inta"e #nternational$ 200%& Pulit'er Pri'e (inner
--/<t8s gripping, "rightening and, ultimatel, beauti"ul.1 +an ,rancisco Chronicle
=
--/+imple et msterious, simultaneousl crptic and crstal clear. #he >oad o""ers nothing
in the wa o" escape or com"ort.1 #he 6ew ?or! #imes1
--/#here is an urgenc to each page, and a raw emotional pull*ma!ing @itA easil one o" the
most harrowing boo!s ou8ll e$er encounter.1 5oo!"orum
--/*$iolent, grotes0ue world rendered in gorgeous, melancholic, e$en biblical cadences*1
>oc! Mountain 6ews
--/' dar! boo! that glows with the intensit o" @mcCarth8sA huge gi"t "or language*.in its
lapidar transcription o" the deepest despair short o" total annihilation we ma e$er !now,
this boo! announces the triumph o" language o$er nothingness.1 Chicago #ribune
--/#he >oad*e4poses whate$er blac! bedroc! lies beneath grie" and horror. ;isaster has
ne$er "elt more phsicall and spirituall real.1 #ime
--/<ts hard to thin! o" @an apocalpse tale A as beauti"ull, hauntingl constructed as this one.
McC possesses a massi$e, 5iblical $ocabular*1 #he +tar-Bedger
--/power"ul storteller1C /the writing throughout is magni"icent1 Chicago +un-#imes
--/;e$astating*McC has ne$er seemed more at home, more elo0uent, than in the sere,
postapocalptic ash land o" the >oad*.@'A masterpiece.1 Dntertainment 2ee!l
--Mc C /captures the !ni"e edge that "ugiti$es in a hostile world stand on*'mid the :odot-
li!e blea!ness, McC shares something $ital and enduring about the bo8s spirit, his "ather8s
lo$e and the nature o" bra$er itsel".1 E+' #oda
--/Fi$id, elo0uent*.#he >oad is the most readable o" @McCarth8sA wor!s, and consistentl
brilliant in its imagining o" the posthumous condition o" nature and ci$ili&ation.1 #he 6ew
?or! #imes 5oo! >e$iew
Coperta a patra: /#he searing, postapocalptic no$el destined to become C MCCarth8s
masterpiece1
+ubiectul: ' "ather and his son wal! alone through burned 'merica. 6othing mo$es in the
ra$aged landscape sa$e the ash on the wind. <t8s cold and when the snow "alls it is gra. #he
s! is dar!. #heir destination is the coast, although the don8t !now what, i" anthing awaits
them there. #he ha$e nothingC Gust a pistol to de"end themsel$es against the lawless bands
that stal! the road, the clothes the are wearing, a cart o" sca$enged "ood(and each other.
#he >oad is the pro"oundl mo$ing stor o" a Gourne. <t boldl imagines a "uture in
which no hope remains, but in which the "ather and the son, /each the other8s world entire,1
are sustained b lo$e. 'wesome in the totalit o" its $ision, #he >oad is an un"linching
meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable o": ultimate destructi$eness,
H
desperate tenacit, and the tenderness that !eeps two people ali$e in the "ace o" total
de$astation.1
p.=.I ) /+he would tal! to him sometimes about :od. He tried to tal! to :od but the best
thing was to tal! to his "ather*+he said that the breath o" :od was his breath et though it
pass "rom man to man through all o" time.1
--Eltimul paragraph ) al creatiei lumii inainte de aparitia omului, care o distruge, "ara putinta
de a mai re"ace ce$a. Fe&i si meta"ora hartii si opo&itia maps-mster: /Maps and ma&es. %"
a thing which could not be put bac!. 6ot be made right again. <n the deep gglens where the
li$ed all things were older than man and the hummed o" mster1 p. =.7