Cormac McCarthy Podcast

This video is episode two in our series of analyzing the influences of Cormac McCarthy. Today we veer away from our primary text for the series, "Books are Made out of Books" and into some analysis of how Cormac McCarthy's first divorce influenced the narrative of "Outer Dark." All the connections feel very close to the connection of David Lynch's anxieties that created "Eraserhead." I didn't mention David Lynch was also in a failing marriage with a child he didn't really want! 
Next video up will be "The Orchard Keeper.

People love to call Cormac McCarthy a nihilist. However, I think that's a pretty lazy label. Today, we will be hearing Cormac McCarthy discuss why he writes dark novels in a 2011 interview with Lawrence Krauss and Werner Herzog. McCarthy has never really discussed this at length before, and at some level, this is as close as he gets to talking about his own writing process. More videos dropping soon! If you want to join the McCarthy newsletter link is down below. Also, dropping daily McCarthy content on social media and on the McCarthy Underground Podcast.

Here is a clip of Cormac McCarthy speaking about some of the problems of finding success while you're still young. Even though they are talking about physicists, his ideas and thoughts can apply to all fields. After the clip, we will discuss McCarthy's career trajectory, failures, and eventual long-term success.

We are exploring Cormac McCarthy's advice on scientific writing today. I will be aiding this presentation by showing how McCarthy uses his scientific writing tips in his paper  "The Kekulé Problem." 

Cormac McCarthy did not write this piece. However, McCarthy did help edit the books and papers of the two Santa Fe Institute members who did write this piece and I'm sure it was written with McCarthy's consent.

Link to article

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02918-5

Link to McCarthy's paper 

https://nautil.us/the-kekul-problem-236574/

Today we will be watching a clip where Cormac discusses his experiences and perspectives on being an editor for some of the greatest scientific thinkers in the world right now! He of course trashes semi-colons and discusses some other perspectives on being an editor. Tomorrow I will be releasing a big breakdown of Cormac's advice on how to write a scientific paper and showing how McCarthy applies his advice in his scientific paper "The Kekulé Problem"

Today we will be talking about the only statement that we know of that Cormac McCarthy has said in relation to "The Passenger" outside of a general synopsis of it he's made in a couple interviews. This was found in a box in relation to McCarthy's novel "The Road." However, this statement does not reveal the plot or direction of the novel, but rather a maybe "inspirational" quote about the process of writing "The Passenger." As we talked about in other videos McCarthy may have been working on The Passenger for 40-50 YEARS! So it's 100% understandable that he was worried about perfectionism.

We will be viewing some timelines today and analyzing how long Cormac McCarthy has actually been working on "The Passenger" and Stella Maris. It could be anywhere from 40-60 years depending on the source lol! The first source is McCarthy himself, the second source is what seems to be common knowledge from McCarthy scholars, and the third is from a famous bookstore owner in New Orleans.

In a recent Cormac McCarthy interview he made a couple comments on classical education and how that has been lost in the western world. The conversation took this turn while they were discussing geniuses in the realm of physics. The interviewer asks Cormac why thinkers like Oppenheimer and Einstein seem to be extinct now. After the clip, I dive into a discussion about the collapse of classical education, the state of education right now, and the path forward to restoring classical education. This was taken from Cormac McCarthy's 2022 interview with the Santa Fe Institute.

My favorite Cormac McCarthy novel is "The Crossing." So, today we are kicking off a new series that will be exploring all of Cormac McCarthy's influences. There are over 150 confirmed influences alone!!! However, today we will explore the two influences that Michael Lynn Crews documents in his book "Books Are Made Out of Books: A Guide to Cormac McCarthy's Literary Influences." Crews had access to over 100 boxes of Cormac McCarthy's early drafts, notes, and papers which had a ton of notes in the margins about what McCarthy was inspired by.. and who he stole from! I am super excited to dive into "The Crossing" some more in my Cormac McCarthy course which drops on December 5th when we start to explore "The Orchard Keeper" together. If you want to know more, make sure to sign up to my Cormac McCarthy newsletter!

Today we will be watching a clip and discussing Cormac McCarthy’s thoughts on Robert Oppenheimer. At some level, McCarthy and Oppenheimer are dyads and shadows of each other! Oppenheimer appears in Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Passenger" and in this video, we will also discuss Oppenheimer's schizophrenia in relation to Alicia's schizophrenia in "The Passenger."  We will also be discussing Robert Oppenheimer's favorite books.