cormac mccarthy
is, I suppose, the EE Cummings of our time. He had to differentiate himself from the other writers in some way so he decided to make half his shit unreadable.
As much as I like the stuff he writes, I do wish someone along the line had told him to use some damned punctuation. I’d like to lock him in a room with victor borge for about a week and see if that made any difference.
A week ago I wrote about a dream I had about the Dalai Lama and tried to handle it about the way mc carthy had, and nobody even called me on it, so I assume that people have gotten used to that sort of thing.
I suppose the intelligentsia saw this as a demonstration of the “fact” that people in flyover country have always been rubes, and loved it. I don’t know. It is cleverly written. I’m getting a little sick to death of the “We stole this country from the Indians!” bullshit, I sure as hell didn’t, and the Indians seem to have done pretty damned well out of the deal, these days.
Whatever. As much as I enjoy the way some people turn the language to their own advantage, this sort of thing coarsens it, no matter what kory stamper says.
And yes, I am specifically aware of the lack of capitalization in this post. it has all been specifically intentional.
“We stole this country from the Indians!â€
No, we bought the first lands. The Indian were amused that we would pay for something that could have no owner. It was the death of the eastern tribes, but we did pay for the ground.
The western tribes did not charge anything as they felt the strongest tribe would control the ground they could.
I would have to say the eastern Indians where more civilized, by our lights, and as it worked out it did not matter to the Indians how title of the land changed.
As to Punctuation, I tend to not notice to much beyond paragraphs that are one sentence. Did not have it drilled into me as some have.
What’s become a big problem among the tribes and archaeologists is past evidence indicating there were a LOT more Indians in the Americas than had been thought/believed for quite some time. Which, since it appears they terraformed the land to suit themselves and worked to control wildlife numbers and so forth, is a real problem for the ‘We left such a light footprint on the land that we were barely there!’ people.