Cormac McCarthy On The True Meaning of The Road

From an interview conducted in 2012 by Mario Paul Martinez.

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[FlowMichael]

"But who will find him if he's lost? Who will find the little boy?"
"Goodness will find the little boy. It always has. It will again." - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

[colet]

Reading that book after becoming a father is a devastating experience. It's about the true meaning of fatherhood.

[SJorgeRoc]

The boy, a living tabernacle, carrying the fire—the Holy Spirit burning from within.

My favorite book.

[morelocks]

An extremely vulnerable love letter to a son. Well done Mr. McCarthy.

[Chris-fhqv]

It is so beautiful that he is saying that his love for his son is what helped him write this novel. That he could frame a story around the love between a father and son, one that he knows so well. It is very much the enduring quality of the novel, in spite of everything with love you can overcome anything. When has that never been true? A universal truth.

[dancinggold]

The Road is one where I'll probably never watch the movie. It's so crystallized in my mind and I don't want to change that.

[dallas]

Currently reading this and I have to put the damn book down every three pages or so because I can’t just flippantly read on. It’s just fresh horror after fresh horror and the love of a father is the only light in this icy Hellscape.

[bear]

Mccarthy's sense of humour is totally underrated. It's on full display in the passenger especially

[sevenpak]

Yeah I remember watching that movie when I was younger and thinking it was the most depressing thing ever. I just rewatched it after becoming a father a few months ago and thought it was one the most hopeful uplifting movies I’d seen in a long time.

[tobyforbes]

You have my whole heart. You always did. You're the best guy. You always were.

[jasonuerkvitz]

"We're going to be okay, arent we Papa?
Yes. We are.
And nothing bad is going to happen to us.
That's right. Because we're carrying the fire.
Yes. Because we're carrying the fire."

"How do I know you're one of the good guys?
You don't. You have to take a shot.
Are you carrying the fire?
Am I what?
Carrying the fire.
Your'e kind of weirded out, aren't you?
No.
Just a little.
Yeah.
That's okay.
So are you?
What, carrying the fire?
Yes.
Yeah. We are.
Do you have any kids?
We do.
Do you have a little boy?
We have a little boy and we have a little girl.
How old is he?
He's about your age. Maybe a little older.
And you didn't eat them.
No.
You don't eat people.
No. We don't eat people.
And I can go with you?
Yes. You can.
Okay then.
Okay."

"Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery."

~from _The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy

[spidermonkey]

Amazing. Just finished it. I was scared to finish it for a week or so so I read a few pages at a time waiting for my son to get out of school each day.

[georgespiese]

And when there is no love, you are thrown into the abyss

[mehran]

Can i get the whole interview somewhere? The links from the comments don't work

[juanchicrysuk]

Como todo sentimiento un amor verdadero e interminable como es un vinculo tan cercano, que bueno este relato, me acuerdo poco de la peli y relata bastante los cimientos morales..

[DoubleNN]

I definitely got that impression I my readthrough (well, audiobook). There's this looming ambiguity about what the nature of this apocalypse was, nuclear? Some solar thing? You only know it has something to do with fire. The relationship between the man and his son is the only thing that isn't immensely mysterious.

[_prathameshzore]

I have this book but I'm afraid to complete it. I always try to read it but I'm too afraid of the fact that it will make me so sad that I don't want to read it. I'm too afraid.when I bought it I just read some pages and then just gave up then again after few years I thought giving it a try but no . Couldn't do it.

[B_R_Thorn]

It is depressing, when you had a shit father.

[jamesbarry]

A nearby gamma-ray burst could sterilise Earth. These bursts of energy are so powerful that they can briefly outshine the rest of the Universe. Fortunately, the chance of one occurring nearby is slim. Beaming with energy: The radiation from gamma-ray bursts is strongly beamed in two opposite directions.

[chrisred]

If a reader has missed the point he makes here, they’re a pretty poor reader