Please meet longtime Books on the Nightstand reader and listener Hope Nesmith. Ever since I recommended The Road in several earlier posts and episodes, Hope and I have been talking about the powerful effect that Cormac McCarthy's novel has had on her. I finally convinced her to put her thoughts in writing for us. When I asked Hope for a bio, she replied: "Hope over-thinks things in NSW, Australia. Sometimes she blogs or tweets about it". Learn more about Hope by reading her blog or following her on twitter at @taueret.
Last year, I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It probably is not an exaggeration to say that I can now divide my inner life into "BtR" and "AtR" (before The Road and after The Road). My flippant "review" on Goodreads said something like ""When the Wind Blows by W.B. Yeats" I joke, when I meet a piece of art or media that is kryptonite to me, making fun of whatever disturbs me.
What do I mean by kryptonite? Well- it penetrates my defenses. If I see it coming, it doesn't matter because I can't look away. It might seem harmless to another person, even funny, annoying or boring- but it knocks the breath out of me and leaves me gasping and amazed. Most importantly, it leaves a permanent mark. (Apologies to anyone (I'm looking at you, Michael) to whom misappropriation of the word 'kryptonite' is, well... kryptonite.)
My kryptonite might not be yours- I'm thinking that it has to do with your assumptions, your personal internal dictionary of symbols and meanings, your exposure to other media, culture and art. What to one reader is just a piece of powerful writing leaves another flopping on the ground like a fish.
After many, many wakeful nights trying *not* to think about The Road, finally I'm coming to a place where I can start to turn around, slowly, and begin to examine it out of the corner of my eye. Obviously, I'm not the only person powerfully effected by this book; speculative fiction doesn't win a Pulitzer Prize every day. Talking about the book itself at this late stage seems silly*, and even more so when the author himself has declined speaking engagements, stating that whatever he has to say is already in his books.
So, I think I'll think more instead about the value of exposing yourself to kryptonite.
As an early Generation X-er, I grew up in the shadow of the Cold War, and rightly or wrongly spent a lot of time worrying about nuclear annihilation. I remember terrifying Civil Defense 8mm films (I'm old!) in primary school, telling us how to get under our desks in case of nuclear attack. I'd get up in the middle of the night and turn on the TV, to see if that scary shrill tone of alarm would have replaced the Home Shopping Show. Wimbledon or reruns of 'Mr Ed' would temporarily reassure me, and I'd return to lay in my bed and fret.
Thanks to The Road I was never as scared then as I am now.
The only other piece of media that has ever had an effect on me as powerful as that of The Road is the photograph that won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography (that link is only to words describing the picture, not to the picture- but still be careful). I can't get the image off my retinas, and I wish I could, but it has fundamentally changed my life, my values, my expectations, my place in the scheme of things.
Is that the value of literary kryptonite (LK)? I want to differentiate between LK, and sentimental emotionally manipulative maudlin pap (SEMMP). For example, an episode of a TV cop show in which scriptwriters do not pull up short of letting a kidnapped infant die is SEMMP. It makes me cry, sure, but it doesn't change my world. Merely exploiting an existing pathway, it may leave me feeling upset for days, but there's no value in that. It's emotional vandalism, pantomime moralising, not art and certainly not transformative.
So, bearing the distinction between LK and SEMMP in mind, what is your Literary Kryptonite? What is the value in exposing yourself to it? Has it changed the way you see the world, or the way you live? Were you permanently altered by the encounter? Is your reality shaped by it- in the sense that once seen, things cannot be unseen? Is LK a red pill? ? Are you a little bit more awake? Does it make reality a little bit more real forever after?
I hope you'll comment and share your thoughts.
* Hope's footnote is a lengthy description of her reactions to THE ROAD, and contains many spoilers. Because many of you have not yet read the road, we decided to post the footnote (which is a great post in itself!) over on our Goodreads group, where we can have a thorough discussion of the book without spoiling it for others. If you've read The Road, please read Hope's thoughts and share yours: The Road: Literary Kryptonite. I think you must be a GoodReads member to read and post, but membership is free.
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