Thursday, April 28, 2011

Language

I've got to get some writing done, so I won't be reading many blogs today. I don't even have time to write my own post, so instead I'll leave you with a quote from a book I'm reading:

It was no sound they'd ever heard before. In the gray twilight those retchings seemed to echo like the calls of some rude provisional species loosed upon that waste. Something imperfect and malformed lodged in the heart of being. A thing smirking deep in the eyes of grace itself like a gorgon in an autumn pool.

What's he talking about? All the Pretty Horses, listening to their riders vomiting up their hangovers. Only McCarthy could make such a base thing sound so beautiful.

29 comments:

Michael G-G said...

Sweet gods of language, this is crazily beautiful. What strikes me most is the rhythm in each sentence, each word doing its magic part in the seamless whole.

It validates the writer's mantra: "Read, Read, Read."

Thanks for shring it, and may the writing force be with you today (and for ever more!)

Michael G-G said...

P.s. And it's a reminder that you can indeed start a beautiful sentence with "It was..."

A lesser person (i.e. me) might have written "They'd never heard such a sound before."

Summer Frey said...

That's cuz C-Mac is a BAMF.

LTM said...

uh huh. riiight... :D <3

vic caswell said...

*awe*

Hektor Karl said...

"Only McCarthy could make such a base thing sound so beautiful."

Great line. That could have been the tagline for Blood Meridian.

Michael, agree on the rhythm -- one of McCarthy's great strengths.

Ishta Mercurio said...

That was beautiful. And I agree with Michael and Hektor about the rhythm: it flows so beautifully, I almost forgot to think about what it meant.

Thanks for sharing!

Amanda Bonilla said...

Yep. Gorgeous writing.

Luanne G. Smith said...

All The Pretty Horses is a book full of beautiful words. :)

Old Kitty said...

Lovely - wretched but lovely!!

Take care
x

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

I want to follow your lead today and go write... I've discovered I'm in an every other day pattern.

Kelly Polark said...

Have a productive writing day!

Is this beautiful paragraph about puking?

Munk said...

Great puking gorgons!

Bkloss said...

Wow. That excerpt leaves me with two feelings. One, total awe. Two, ineptitude. I'll try to ignore the latter...

Steve Abernathy said...

I don't think a horse has ever heard my hangover. Sheep, yes. But no horses.

Bethany Elizabeth said...

Well... I have no time today and my homework is piling up but suddenly I have the urge to just... read. Read. And then read some more. :) Hm... I'll find time.

Eric W. Trant said...

Last year I read back-to-back these books, in this order: The Road, Child of God, All the Pretty Horses.

I was studying McCarthy and it about killed my voice!

I tend to take on the voice of whoever I'm reading, or at least some of it, and he writes some strange and obtuse descriptives, and I found myself writing strange and obtuse descriptives, using his OMNIPOTENT POV (which would get him kicked out of every crit group I can imagine, that and his missing quotations). I had to go back and read some KING to get my POV voice dialed back in...

Ironically, McCarthy says he prefers straight-forward simple sentences without fancy structure and little tic marks (such as dialogue marks). His structure can be surprisingly complex considering he prefers simplicity.

- Eric

Talli Roland said...

Oh, McCarthy. LOVE!

Thanks for sharing, and happy writing!

My Blog is Down So I'm Temporarily Here

Jeff Beesler said...

Sometimes we have to give up some things for other things. I admit I haven't been able to frequent some of my favorite blogs of late with the A-Z Challenge. Once I'm done with that I'll be back to visiting my regular favorite places to read up on.

Speaking of which, dude, I added your blog to my blog list over at World of the Scribe. That way I won't miss out on any more of your posts!

Cynthia Lee said...

I knew it was him after I finished the first sentence. Nobody else writes like that.

Susan Kaye Quinn said...

I'm off to write, too, but nothing as beautiful as that. :)

Bryan Russell said...

If I could drown in his sentences, I'd die happy.

Lindsay said...

Gorgeous writing.

Good luck with your writing day. I know you'll be productive! :D

Chris Phillips said...

Good luck on getting writing done. I've been dragging my feet on revisions so I know how you feel.

Author Joshua Hoyt said...

Good luck on the writing.

Steve MC said...

As Michael G-G said, crazily beautiful.

Love how he rhymes "rude" and "loosed," which also gives the sound of the retching. And then he brings it back at the end with "pool."

In fact, a "rudely loosed pool" would be an accurate description of puking.

erica and christy said...

Hope you had a very productive day!

Sarah said...

Thanks for sharing this, Matt. Sometimes examining something out of context helps us appreciate it even more. I hope you got a lot of writing done!

India Drummond said...

I loved this quote... it just reminds me that as a writer, every moment and scene is worth my best effort.

India Drummond