How Cormac McCarthy's Religion Changed His Writing
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- Was Cormac McCarthy a Christian? What were his religious affiliations? In this video, we will be discussing McCarthy's religious and spiritual philosophy. McCarthy was well-versed in Christianity, Gnosticism, Free-Masonery, Tarot, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many other religions. He also was a student of religious experiences and loved talking about them with others. The structure of the video is a survey of McCarthy's religious/spiritual evolution throughout his life.
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"Shoutout to the mod who won't approve or let me post any of my things on that subreddit."
Lol dead
Interesting. I took him to be just an atheist leaning agnostic who is nonetheless open to spiritual ideas. He is probably just one of those minds that sees the limitations in human thought and for whom intellectual certitude remains ever elusive. The smart atheists are the ones that are able to doubt their ideas and understand how other perspectives are rooted in aspects of human nature as well, and also that intellectual knowledge is not capable of obtaining a complete picture of life.
@pedorodek - You can read brains but can't access your own heart. You've polarized in the wrong direction and you've been blinded by your new power. Have fun lol!
It sucks that Spinoza was mentioned in the couldn’t care less interview, but was quickly brushed off. Wish we could have gotten something from McCarthy
Very interesting Breakdown. I believe I recall an interview with him in The Texas Monthly (?) around…2005ish…in which he spoke more favorably of a somewhat Christian belief. I don’t think I’m confusing that with Horton Foote but I’m not 100%. Cheers.
Must have been Foote! McCarthy never interviewed with them!
Would LOVE to see a video about your thoughts on Dostoevsky.
ps --- "True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true." #81 -- Tao te Ching by Stephen Mitchell.
My teachings are easy to understand
and easy to put into practice.
Yet your intellect will never grasp them,
and if you try to practice them, you'll fail.
- # 70 Stephen Mitchell
@@WriteConscious Not to worry -- the thought never crossed my mind.
I love what you said about Mormons leaving their faith, I attended the U of U also, what an excellent discovery
Glad you're here!
Are there any mainstream writers that you enjoy reading?
Murakami, Ishiguro, Louise Erdrich, James Ellroy, Atwood, Walter Mosley, and T.C.Boyle are all mainstream authors I like. Read all of their books. I like probably 200+of other living fiction or poetry authors that I wouldn't call mainstream though!
"Don't worry....you'll get one" lol!
McCarthy was just a classic lapsed Catholic imo. Deep thinker hounded by guilt
By the way, I've found that taking magnesium supplements helped my sleep. At least I think it was the magnesium. I was taking electrolyte water - salt, potassium and magnesium - and I think it was the magnesium.
Haha, funny you say that Stephen. Just started taking a magnesium supplement two days ago. It does make me feel very relaxed. However, I am good now! Yesterday was just an adjustment day to get me back to my 4am wake up time! Hopefully won't fall off the horse again. Electrolyte water changed my life. Thought I would have to quit teaching because I kept getting migraines, started taking them and haven't had a migraine at work in years lol.
@@WriteConscious awesome 👍 glad you're doing well now
dUh stOY ehvskee is what I got from dfw interview vids. Quien sabe?
lol
he was not atheist. never professed atheism. he was agnostic if not closet catholic.
Never said he was an atheist?
@@WriteConscious he described himself as 'pretty much a materialist' in his interview with Krauss didn't he? However there are christian materialists like the metaphysician Peter van Inwagen! Is the ending of THE ROAD compatible with atheism? "once there were brook trout in the mountains...vermiculite patterns on their backs that were maps of the world in its becoming *maps and mazes* .." But maps and mazes are by definition *designed!*
@@stephenglasse2743 I read a post on reddit where someone who met his brother Denis McCarthy after the interview and asked him about the entire "mostly a materialist" quote and Denis responded that Cormac's views on god and metaphysics "depend on the day that you ask him". Basically the same response as he posited on Oprah.
@@SSSadvakas Yeah that's the impression I get. I think sometimes he looked at creation and art and philosophy and thought, 'Sure, God exists' and other times at all the suffering and the doctrines of Darwin and Krauss and was more sceptical. Probably similar to a lot of people.
@@stephenglasse2743 Men do not turn from God so easily. Not so easily. Deep in each man is the knowledge that something knows of his existence. Something knows, and cannot e fled nor hid from. To imagine otherwise is to imagine the unspeakable. It was never that this man ceased to believe in God. No. It was rather that he came to believe terrible things of him.
- The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy
I'm sure he believed in God, but I'm not sure he was entirely sure that he was a purely benevolent entity. Cormac had a cosmology very close to that of Gnostic Christianity, and I think the question that really tackled him more than anything else was wether or not there was another opposite force to creation as we know it (Islam for example IMO provides a much more concise answer and framework for answering this question than Christianity IMO).
Basically he was a Gnostic but he wasn't sure there was anybody beyond the Demiurge, his I'm basically a materialist response should be interpretated as "I don't think theres a secret platonic world beyond ours where God in a identifiable form resides, all concepts of good/evil and the like are inside of this world". However, I don't think he was always too sure (from where we get all the fire allusions in BM/The Road - hinting at there being trapped divine pneuma in our world.