How Cormac McCarthy Ruined His Legacy

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ม.ค. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 111

  • @WriteConscious
    @WriteConscious  หลายเดือนก่อน +32

    For those who comment before watching the video, McCarthy's legacy hasn't been ruined for me. In this video, I detail how the McCarthy estate not getting in front of this story will be bad for his legacy in the long run to the masses. The skeleton in his closet has been hijacked and manipulated by opportunists looking for book sales.

    • @katherinegarcia3256
      @katherinegarcia3256 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@WriteConscious how do you call child rape a skeleton in his closet? I will never understand anyone who can minimize the rape of a child. I have several writers that I love wholeheartedly. But if I found out that they were pedophiles. I would throw out all their books. I would not support them as a writer and try to separate their actions from their work. Never that's like saying " yeah Hitler killed a lot of Jewish kids and babies but he was great with dogs." Come on! IMO that fact is all future generations need to know about McCormick -- he raped kids. If you make an exception for one you make an exception for all.

  • @cass52206
    @cass52206 หลายเดือนก่อน +49

    He's literally dead not literarily dead.

    • @olivercoulter260
      @olivercoulter260 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      No single creator has had as big of an influence on me but I’m having a hard time getting passed it. Death of the author is murky in this case.

  • @seanmurphy7011
    @seanmurphy7011 หลายเดือนก่อน +31

    I'm sorry, did the words in his books change? His legacy is fine.

    • @hardnewstakenharder
      @hardnewstakenharder หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      It's not. Stop excusing it. Read the author but don't pretend it doesn't change how you read it.

    • @germanicusternus1982
      @germanicusternus1982 28 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Now he’s even more awesome. He saved some beautiful homeless girl.

    • @TheHungarianOak
      @TheHungarianOak 23 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      @@hardnewstakenharder he is still great literature, his quality as a writer cannot be diminished, no matter what he did. Literature is not going to change.

    • @JohnM-sw4sc
      @JohnM-sw4sc 20 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@hardnewstakenharder why would the authors life change anything ? Many great authors were degenerates or weirdos

    • @Dapryor
      @Dapryor 2 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Agreed.

  • @theheadytimetraveler3864
    @theheadytimetraveler3864 หลายเดือนก่อน +37

    Paparazzi going to McCarthy's grave with an EMF detector, voice recorder, and a Ouija Board: "Cormac, would you like to make a comment on your relationship with Augusta Britt?"

    • @sweetviolents29
      @sweetviolents29 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Ngl I’d watch it

    • @katherinegarcia3256
      @katherinegarcia3256 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@theheadytimetraveler3864 child rape isn't a relationship. It's a crime. End of story

  • @montecristo6613
    @montecristo6613 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    You mean to tell me an artist had bizarre sexual proclivities? This is shocking

    • @doclime4792
      @doclime4792 หลายเดือนก่อน

      How bizarre how bizarre... You like that song Nick? I don't just wanted to see if you did.

    • @dreamplace7469
      @dreamplace7469 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      par for the course, isn't it?
      We need leading artists who can tap into the heart of darkness without having to live in it.

  • @christianvchacon
    @christianvchacon หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    McCarthy even uses gnosticism in Stella Maris. I found this in less than 10 seconds, and I quote:
    “Eight. The Ogdoad.
    The Ogdoad?
    In Gnostic years.”

    • @WriteConscious
      @WriteConscious  หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Lol, thank you! That dude is an idiot

    • @christianvchacon
      @christianvchacon หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Absolutely, Ian!

  • @swannmercury
    @swannmercury หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    I can't remember the last time I heard this much gossip about a novelist.

    • @KamPatterson69
      @KamPatterson69 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Sad that BS tabloid gossip about a great writer is more impactful then actual great novels

  • @Issacson
    @Issacson หลายเดือนก่อน +28

    People can still read McCarthy if they so choose, but actually defending and downplaying what he did is outright abhorrent. A child was exploited. Nothing negates that fact.

    • @KamPatterson69
      @KamPatterson69 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Dude got some young psleeve while writing some of the best novels of the 20th/21st centuries. Total OG move. The hack vanity fair piece makes Cormac even better

    • @upbeatsarcastic8217
      @upbeatsarcastic8217 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Is anyone actually defending his choices though?

    • @Issacson
      @Issacson หลายเดือนก่อน +11

      @@upbeatsarcastic8217 Read the comment right above you. SMH.

    • @upbeatsarcastic8217
      @upbeatsarcastic8217 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      @@Issacson lol fair. I'm hoping that person is just trolling you but...fair.

    • @causerofthis
      @causerofthis หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@KamPatterson69 you come off as pretty gross from this comment. Total OG move? Seriously?

  • @ryanusa860
    @ryanusa860 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    “If they’re old enough to bleed they’re old enough to butcher.”

  • @Beau2874-kf4rz
    @Beau2874-kf4rz หลายเดือนก่อน +13

    Some of y'all need your hard drives checked. Sheesh.

  • @josephvlogsdon
    @josephvlogsdon หลายเดือนก่อน +26

    I’ve learned to separate the art from the artist. There’s no such thing as moral purity in art. Everyone has sinned. Edgar Allan Poe married his 13 year old cousin and lied about her age on the marriage certificate. Charles Dickens treated his wife horribly. He isolated her from her children, tried to put her in a madhouse, and had an affair with a girl who was barely of legal age. He was a complete hypocrite, but I’ll still read him because I enjoy his stories. Art is created by flawed human beings. We’re not looking for saints.

    • @gregory_bloomfield
      @gregory_bloomfield หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Well said!

    • @shannonm.townsend1232
      @shannonm.townsend1232 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yeah but

    • @theslyngl
      @theslyngl หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Okay but be more fair in your presentation tho:
      "Everyone has sinned" - yeah but the magnitude and severity GREATLY differs. Don't make it out like rapists are the same amount of bad as having an affair.
      "We're not looking for saints": no one is claiming you have to be a saint to be read. You're doing yourself and your point a huge disservice with this bs

    • @ShadowoftheRisingSun
      @ShadowoftheRisingSun หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      ​​​@@theslynglit really does depend on your ethical and morality scale. You need to have yours and judge from that. Right now, society is so fragmented that most people don't agree on a standard. For myself, as an extreme example, I don't care about how many great quotes might be in Mein Kampf, I would never endorse it.

    • @theslyngl
      @theslyngl หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@ShadowoftheRisingSun There's a big difference between endorsing a book and reading it for innocent or historical/productive reasons

  • @opencarrydrift6308
    @opencarrydrift6308 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    the article was so badly written that I don't believe most of the details, just comes off as dishonest in some way.

  • @reaganwiles_art
    @reaganwiles_art หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    As if mofo gave a fo

  • @PeterLambert2211
    @PeterLambert2211 29 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    Everyone, and I mean every single person who has is or will live, has something they have done that they are deeply ashamed of and wish to move past. What a dumb culture we have where we want to throw out the entirety of a person, including all their good, because they are simply a human. This is insanity.

  • @Seraphim_Metal_Works
    @Seraphim_Metal_Works หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    Lol isnt the same channel that said "its ok to live unconciously" and defended John Paul Jones? I really dont care about McCarthy's sex life. Writers are pests and thats a rule but you could at least pretend to be consistent.

  • @austinstillwell
    @austinstillwell หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    Charlie Chaplin married a 13 year old. I still enjoy his movies. So regardless of the veracity of these accusations, I will continue to enjoy McCarthy's books. Scandals can tarnish reputations, but they can never tarnish works of genius.

    • @toddboothbee1361
      @toddboothbee1361 28 วันที่ผ่านมา

      It's not like he was running for office.

  • @gregory_bloomfield
    @gregory_bloomfield หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I’m going to continue to read McCarthy. He is one of the greatest authors of all time. I love his work. I know what he did was terrible, but it seems it was consensual if it even happened. We actually don’t know because we weren’t there. I really don’t believe her.

  • @toddboothbee1361
    @toddboothbee1361 28 วันที่ผ่านมา

    How did we read his work before? What if we found out he wrote while running a health insurance company, or helped dump toxic waste into Casco Bay in Maine? Where on the sin scale do these things fall? I found out that Wallace Stevens was an executive at Hartford Insurance. Still love his work.

  • @matthewwhite7654
    @matthewwhite7654 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I couldn't hear. What were the two words you said were in Blood Meridian that are specific to Gnosticism?

  • @varlamplatonov6099
    @varlamplatonov6099 หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    What ruined his legacy were the last 16 years of his life wasted for 500 pages.

  • @kevinogracia1615
    @kevinogracia1615 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    The plot thickens.

  • @tonywalton1052
    @tonywalton1052 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I dislike cancel culture. Heartily.

    • @dinocarosi4303
      @dinocarosi4303 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Cancel Culture is so slippery. I always think of all the authors out there getting the praise, who may have committed a hit and run over 30 years ago, getting away with it clean, if they did it. We can't be too careful.

  • @Kahunacatto
    @Kahunacatto หลายเดือนก่อน

    At which point the state are silent because they know this is going to increase sales ?

  • @alvinshultz4676
    @alvinshultz4676 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Ian - Small thing, but Dianne Luce is pronounced like “Loose” and not Lucey. Folks usually don’t pronounce the middle initial either. Nitpicky think to mention, I know, but a lot of folks know of her and it is just a tad distracting.

    • @spencerburke
      @spencerburke หลายเดือนก่อน

      And Cormac isn't pronounced /CormAc/, but closer to /CormUc/.

  • @reaganwiles_art
    @reaganwiles_art หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    McCarthy did what the usufruct he wanted and succeeded.

  • @rickeyepittman
    @rickeyepittman หลายเดือนก่อน

    A fantastic presentation! I so agree with you. I've lived long enough to know when I see targeted attacks against an author. Thanks for this.

  • @taambangerz
    @taambangerz หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Im not suprised you stand your ground, but I could not believe Aaron Gwyns tweet. What a whimp

  • @MoeGar-e6e
    @MoeGar-e6e หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Hollywood Groomers 👎🏾

  • @claudesaint-nuage
    @claudesaint-nuage หลายเดือนก่อน

    Britt was based on Wanda.

  • @larrylicavoli
    @larrylicavoli หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Glad im not a big corm reader. All you guys basing your writing on his style are in a hard place. Ian said he mightve met a young girl at a motor court pool, like the main character in NCFOM meeting a young girl at a motor court pool. Its been in front of you the whole time lol.

    • @Beau2874-kf4rz
      @Beau2874-kf4rz หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      "Separate the artist from their work" they say. I guess sometimes that's impossible.

  • @croinkix
    @croinkix หลายเดือนก่อน

    This reminds me of the scholars in 2666 and the movie Henry Fool by Hal Hartley

    • @WriteConscious
      @WriteConscious  หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Yes!!! The threesomes in Mexico would be a great addition to this story lmao

    • @croinkix
      @croinkix หลายเดือนก่อน

      @WriteConscious 😂😂😂

  • @mateosimon4237
    @mateosimon4237 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    The issue with cancel culture is double standards. I dont mean other male writers. I mean women. No one dares to say it, its insane

    • @germanicusternus1982
      @germanicusternus1982 28 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      Yeah he basically saved her from homelessness. What a monster.

  • @mikedahuman
    @mikedahuman หลายเดือนก่อน

    H.P Lovecraft was a terrified racist and anti-Semitic, But people still love his work and is still seen as one of the greats. You can say he was a Great writer and creative, but not that great of a person...

    • @germanicusternus1982
      @germanicusternus1982 28 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Well you can’t blame a man for loving his own people and despising those that actively try to destroy it through international finance.

  • @zombiewarking
    @zombiewarking หลายเดือนก่อน +17

    Nobody really cares especially since the girl he "Abused" doesn't seem to really feel like she abused.

    • @InstruMentalCase
      @InstruMentalCase หลายเดือนก่อน +25

      A child cannot consent because they lack the maturity, life experience, and brain development to fully understand the implications of such a relationship. Abusers exploit this, grooming children to normalize the abuse, which can distort their perception of the situation later in life. If an adult looks back fondly on an inappropriate relationship, it’s often a result of the manipulations and abuse they endured, not proof that it was acceptable.
      Cormack’s reputation will be irreparably damaged by this, and those recommending his work will feel compelled to acknowledge and denounce him as a child sex predator in the same breath. This will also deter many people who would otherwise have read his work.

    • @marcelberes469
      @marcelberes469 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      ​@@InstruMentalCase There is no point in "denouncing" him. He's dead, and it's not like he was a saint before this.

    • @emmaphilo4049
      @emmaphilo4049 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      ​@@marcelberes469I think it's important to acknowledge past pedophilic behaviours because as a society it's still creating victims everyday. Especially in powerful or culturally significant figures because the influence the whole society in this behaviour consciously or not.

    • @KamPatterson69
      @KamPatterson69 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@InstruMentalCase who cares, he’s the best writer of the last half century. His work will be praised for centuries and this story will ve forgotten

    • @germanicusternus1982
      @germanicusternus1982 28 วันที่ผ่านมา

      In most the world and throughout human history 16 years old was not considered a child for the purposes of consent. Cormac saved that girl from homelessness.

  • @punkpoetry
    @punkpoetry หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Who cares

  • @kentjensen4504
    @kentjensen4504 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Sir Ian Cattanach.

  • @pauls.7530
    @pauls.7530 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Vin-CHEN-zo

  • @ExpatRiot79
    @ExpatRiot79 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    I love it! pimp daddy CM's legacy grows stronger everyday! Right now it's stuck in this moralistic ox shit of a culture we have, but in a hundred years, two hundred years, this stuff is gonna be golden.

  • @dirkrodgers4400
    @dirkrodgers4400 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Anyone else starting to think john from the passenger was a self insert? Kinda like a confession

  • @1haunt
    @1haunt หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I think it's quite telling that Augusta Britt decided to share her story with the young writer (not a McCarthy Scholar) who wouldn't have any way to verify the stuff she was saying. Not dismissing all her claims but the original article read like fanfiction at times. What a mess.

  • @sethrakes1991
    @sethrakes1991 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    A child of God much like yourself perhaps.

  • @paulchironi7902
    @paulchironi7902 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I self-identify as a genius since I experienced my first diagnosed manic episode at the age of 59. I am currently experiencing a manic episode, so if you wish to disregard my opinion, that is okay. I support this young man, whom I shall refer to as Write Conscious because I can't slow down my mind enough to find out his name. I believe that Kindness is the key to brilliance, that my progress to brilliant to genius and then likely never to Genius. When people use the phrase misunderstood genius, let me put it this way, I now know why Cormac McCarthy didn't use punctuation. Punctuatioon slows down a Beautiful Voice and when your Muse speaks motherfucker, you listen. This is a kindhearted, thoughtful young man and he deserves to be taken seriously. Please do your best to respect his opinion. And my Write Conscious friend, if you want to interview an Agnostic who is still in a manic state, I would be honored to share my fanboy admiration of Cormac McCarthy at any time. I live in the CET time zone.

    • @martyclark-np7ov
      @martyclark-np7ov หลายเดือนก่อน

      No one wants to interview you man, please take your meds

  • @peybak
    @peybak หลายเดือนก่อน

    Indeed, something's fishy in Denmark.

  • @isaiahbasaldua924
    @isaiahbasaldua924 หลายเดือนก่อน

    he's a writer his personal life has no bearing on his legacy or his writing.
    I think whatever he did was probably murky, but I don't think that's for us to judge, especially posthumously.
    Also making money from this relationship or whatever you call it is just low and very opportunistic

  • @katherinegarcia3256
    @katherinegarcia3256 หลายเดือนก่อน +14

    The Road was the worst book I have ever read. It's the only book in my 58 years of life that I threw in the trash after finishing. It doesn't surprise me that he was a pedophile. That's what he was. He didn't have a "relationship" with this girl. He's a predator who abused a child.

    • @CJ.S-v3y
      @CJ.S-v3y หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Hopefully someone pulled it out of the trash and enjoyed it where you couldn’t. Cormac was a genius. A flawed genius.

    • @loliH9
      @loliH9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      How old was this child?

    • @williambartholmey5946
      @williambartholmey5946 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@loliH9 14

    • @account-gp4sn
      @account-gp4sn หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      You sound like a bitter dumbass

    • @martyclark-np7ov
      @martyclark-np7ov หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      It’s the Dudebro sphere man, they all read and worship the same crappy books across the board.

  • @michaelmayo
    @michaelmayo หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Can't stand CM. All his stuff is nihilistic sludge ie "Life's a Bitch and Then You Die." Reading his stuff (I've tried) is like being dragged over dirt...slowly. The idea that people would actually devote their lives to studying him is beyond me. I mean, is there anything to actually learn from this guy other than if you're pretentious enough and flatter the "America Is GENOCIDE!!!" crowd, people will buy your tripe.
    In terms of his relationship to a minor, it wouldn't surprise me. CM obviously had money and status, so he should have been able to find relationships closer to his age, but my guess is that he couldn't handle a more equal relationship and instead went for a hero-worshipping hot piece. Unless she lied to him, he should have known about her age too, which is doubly damning. You guys are welcome to this exploitive piece of trash...

    • @CJ.S-v3y
      @CJ.S-v3y หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      I mean the fact that you haven’t successfully read McCarthy shows. Or even struggled to read his work and harbor resentment for people who have. It’s not nihilistic sludge. Have you read his border trilogy? Exactly. Are you referencing Blood Meridian? It’s not nihilistic. Did you try and read The Road? It’s an apocalyptic setting so you did yourself a disservice. Your overview reminds me of an old friend I tossed in the trash who hated films he didn’t understand and by proxy the people who enjoyed them because his own narcissism said that if I can’t get it, then I know they don’t because I’m better than them. You sound like him. Maybe you are him😅

    • @michaelmayo
      @michaelmayo หลายเดือนก่อน

      @CJ.S-v3y I don't resent people who read CM, why would I? (I don't think I'm "him" either.) I've read Faulkner, "Ulysses," and "Moby Dick." Challenging works don't bother me, pointless ones do. ("The Road," btw, is a crock. The apocalyptic ecosystem where everything has been wiped out simply is unrealistic and, again, a giant authorial thumb put on the story. In fact, given that many predators would be lessened, there would be an explosion of the species that did survive.)
      But lets flip the script, since you wrote back. You Tell Me, as long or as short as you want, why I should read CM? What did you gain from reading him? What would I gain from reading him? (other than a greater appreciation of punctuation...)

    • @CJ.S-v3y
      @CJ.S-v3y หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@michaelmayo It depends on what you’re looking to get out of a book. Blood Meridian is Cormac creating a fantasy out of pre-existing ideas of Gnosticism across the Texas/Mexico desert where one of the gangs “leaders” is Yaldabaoth. It’s incredible. Do you walk away having learned something? I wouldn’t say it’s The Brothers Karamazov level, but it’s also not the intention. He took a true story of a real gang and fused gnostic ideas into a kind of hyper-reality or alternate universe. It’s hard to describe where it exists in the ethers of storytelling but when you chew on the bigger ideas it’s overwhelmingly gratifying because there isn’t anything like it.
      If you hated The Road, then I think his earlier work is better suited, especially if you’re versed in Faulkner and Melville. If you want a short McCarthy book that you can plow in a day or two, read “Outer Dark.” That’s my pick. The prose is great and setting is bleak but the payoff is rich.
      People who describe his writing as “nihilistic” truly don’t get McCarthy because his books usually end with a form of hope. His books remind me of that quote from season 1 of True Detective where Marty looks up at night sky and says something like, “looks like the dark has a lot more territory.” And Rustin counters with, “no, you’re lookin at it wrong. Once there was only dark. If you ask me the lights winning.” His books are drenched in dark which then only serves to highlight the sprinkles of light he leaves in them and those aspects of light are the takeaway. Blood Meridian’s moment of light comes in the paragraph of the epilogue, but it’s there and it changes the whole experience.
      Read, Outer Dark. If you’re into it but need something as or more sophisticated but with a better balance of dark and light, read The Crossing.

  • @blurredlenzpictures3251
    @blurredlenzpictures3251 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    He always seemed like a creep

  • @Samuel-vw2wy
    @Samuel-vw2wy หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    everyone makes mistakes

    • @WriteConscious
      @WriteConscious  หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      This video isn't about McCarthy's mistakes. It's about his estate ruining his legacy.

    • @katherinegarcia3256
      @katherinegarcia3256 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      Wow child rape isn't a mistake it's a crime.

    • @Nothingisapossibility
      @Nothingisapossibility หลายเดือนก่อน

      Brother!

  • @easytargetYT
    @easytargetYT 19 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Not only does this not matter in the least, you dude need to switch to decaf immediately.

  • @account-gp4sn
    @account-gp4sn หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Dude, why the hell do you keep saying she was "13/14"? That's not verified at all! You're just as bad as they are. Really.

    • @iammraat3059
      @iammraat3059 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Ian is being sloppy or disingenuous here

    • @WriteConscious
      @WriteConscious  หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      ​@@iammraat3059 - That is the whole point of this video. They botched this entire thing, are holding onto the information for future book sales, and didnt' do enough research to know that the Guy Davenport letter existed which would throw the whole timeline into question. I am cool with acknowledging that McCarthy took another young girl to Mexico in 1974. But, that seems unlikely, and throws the whole idea of "the muse" out the window. Davenport's letters are not dated wrong because the book McCarthy was helping with came out in 1974.