The Road (SPOILERS)

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Rollo Tomassi
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The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by Rollo Tomassi »

I'll jump right into why I like it and why it makes you think.

The world is OVER. Done. Finished. Kaput.

There are no more animals. No livestock. No chickens. No fish. Nothing to hunt. Nothing will grow.

No one is building anything. No architecture. No car manufacturing. No fuel refining. Nothing. This is beautifully shown in one of my favorite parts of the book. When the Man finds the Sextant on the abandoned yacht. It's this beautifully crafted tool that now serves absolutely no purpose, and the person that created it was most likely skilled at doing one thing; making exquisite hand crafted sextants to put into satin lined mahogany cases. And that guy is gone, and the world doesn't need sextants. Or pocketwatches. Or anything anyone ever made ever. Your Star Wars figures mean fuckall.

Another thing that shocked me was the first time you see the roving band of 'bad guys' and they have the pregnant women with them, it doesn't really click. But, dude, those aren't children in their tummies. It's FOOD. Would you want to live in a world where you fuck a chick, just so you can have something to eat in nine months? What the fuck man!

So this world is just waiting to die. And deep down the man knows it. It's why his wife just decided to pragmatically kill herself. There is no "Aww man, if we can get through this hard times, a golden age waits on the other side..." Nope. Game over. So what is the point of going on? And why is it that the Man (who is the manifestion of us as a whole) can understand that the conclusion is inevitable and STILL refuses to stop. And the more you think about it the greater the bleakness gets. The more you realize the finality of the utter desolation. It's brilliant and haunting and sad.

What a great book.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by vynsane »

my favorite part was the conversation with 'ely' - his objective world view was interesting and enlightening and actually comedic. it reminded me of vonnegut, that part. a little absurd, very pessimistic but with a gleam of undying hope, in this case the hope that others are carrying 'the fire'.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by UKWildcat »

I don't venture into this "literature" section that often, if you didn't notice, but I was thrilled to discover that a couple of you guys have read The Road.

As I mentioned in the other thread, The Road truly is a masterpiece, and Cormac McCarthy is nothing short of brilliant.

I'm very much looking forward to the film, and I got around to watching The Proposition (2005) by John Hillcoat who is directing The Road. At first I was skeptical about the film adaptation, but after watching The Proposition, and thoroughly enjoying it, Hillcoat along with screenwriter Joe Penhall, could very well turn this novel into a magnificent film. I can't wait, and I'll probably read the book again beforehand.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by jjreason »

This book acted like a good book as I wanted to keep reading, but the hopelessness & bleakness were exhausting. I was very glad to come to the end and see it turn out with at least a modicum of positivity for the boy... but I'm mainly just happy to be done. I don't need anymore evidence that our daily lives, pursuits and accomplishments are completely meaningless, thank you very much. I won't be watching the movie.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by Diabolical »

Bought and read The Road this week while on vacation.
You guys pretty much said everything to be said about it: Great book, but depressing as fuck.

I really enjoyed something that would piss of many people: the mystery of it all.
No names or explanations are given. It was just the man, the boy and the ash.
Even though I wanted to know what the hell happened (asteroids, nukes, something else) I was fine with not knowing since it seemed like there was a good chance the man didn't exactly know either.

And McCarthy can make a rusty old can of food sound like Thanksgiving dinner.

The movie was fairly recently pushed from the November release date to early 2009, which isn't surprising since no trailer has been released yet, and from what I found online people are taking this as a bad sign, but I'll reserve judgment.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by RoIIo Tomassi »

I heard they had to go in and extensively re-edit the film. That makes me sad. Not because I have to wait for it, because I want it to live up to the source, but because either A. The Director didn't do the movie correctly or B. The studio thinks the movie should be made less bleak or some shit and somehow they will ruin the movie through tinkering. And by ruin, I mean change it from the original idea in order to sell tickets.



The only idea you get of what happened in the book is when he sees flashes of something in the distance, and immediately goes and starts filling the tub with water, because he knows they are going to need drinking water and there probably won't be running water after what hes seen. It was subtle and yet obvious at the same time. Great fore(after?)shadowing.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by anarky »

I'm not reading the spoilers, but picked this up at Costco tonight.
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Re: The Road (SPOILERS)

Post by Rollo Tomassi »

anarky wrote:I'm not reading the spoilers, but picked this up at Costco tonight.

What did you think?

I still haven't seen the movie. It was only at our theatre here for one week and it was the weekend I had my kids.
"Say Jim! Whoo! That is a bad outfit! Whoooo!" -- Pimp, Superman The Movie
"You're an idiot, Starscream." -- Megatron, Transformers:The Movie
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