Cormac McCarthy, The End Of An Era In American Literature

Cormac McCarthy’s death marks the end of an era in the recent history of American literature. Without a shadow of a doubt, its impact will be felt on a global scale. The author of Blood Meridian opened up new avenues beyond the borders of his country. The relentless plasticity and brutal beauty of his stories were reflected in indelible images that easily integrated into the language of cinema. McCarthy’s stories are an invitation to peer into an uncomfortable abyss that can be dangerous because it reflects the darkest side of human existence. His death leaves a void that makes us reflect on the future of literature in general and American literature in particular.

Debatable, but almost always correct: Harold Bloom once stated that the four pillars on which the American literature of the future would be based were Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon. The first two, exact contemporaries, left this world. The other two lead the US literary scene from the shadows. What is striking about Bloom’s quartet is that all members were born in the 1930s, but names are missing. Let’s add them by birth year: 1930, John Barth; 1931, Tony Morrison; 1932, Sylvia Plath, Robert Coover and John Updike; 1933, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy and Susan Sontag; 1934, Joan Didion and Janet Malcolm; 1935, E. Annie Proulx; 1936, Don DeLillo; 1937, Thomas Pynchon; 1938, Raymond Carver and Joyce Carol Oates.

Toni Morrison, in Italy in September 2012. Leonardo Cendamo (Getty Images)

For literary rank not a single name is superfluous. Plath, a poet of the first rank, wrote a memorable novel: The Bell Jar. The legacy of Sontag, Didion and Malcolm, three of the most important intellectual figures in their country in recent decades, is still fully valid today. As a storyteller, nobody would be able to compete with Carver for a long time. Although less well known today, the importance of Robert Coover, one of the pioneers of postmodernism, cannot be overstated. The Updike case is significant: its once colossal figure is gradually fading irrevocably.

On the contrary, despite attempts to scrap him for reasons of political correctness, Roth has proven indestructible. Bloom was unaware of this approach, but if one wanted to find a quartet of female storytellers in the same decade, it would only be fair to mention Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, E. Annie Proulx and Marylinne Robinson (the latter born) in the 1940s ). Morrison’s caliber was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. Equal heir to Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, she is now primarily responsible for shaping much of the literary map of the United States.

Philip Roth in New York in September 2010.ERIC THAYER (Portal)

The other members of the quartet are not far behind. Proulx’s signature style has much in common with McCarthy’s world, with a wild grasp of the landscape and a penchant for danger and rootless characters. While her work doesn’t quite match the savagery of the author of The Road, she is his equal as a narrator. Proulx published her first book at age 55. An advocate for environmental protection and a 1994 National Book Award winner for The Shipping News, she is best known for her short novel, Brokeback Mountain, which made it to the big screen and won three Oscars. Joyce Carol Oates is a supernatural case: as the author of 60 novels, many of them of immense value, her portrayal of the United States is no less remarkable than that of any member of Bloom’s quartet. Just as unproductive as Proulx, Marilynne Robinson is a narrator of exquisite psychological depth whose brilliant career culminates in Gilead, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Annie Proulx, at her home in Carnation, Seattle, in 2016. Matt Mills McKnight

With regard to gender issues, it is interesting to see the position of the authors themselves. In a witty review of No Country For Old Men, Oates ironized the Updike/McCarthy aesthetic of masculinity, noting that McCarthy’s treatment of violence contained more eroticism than Updike’s explicit treatment of heterosexuality. When Proulx learned that a literary competition she had entered was for women only, she withdrew her name, saying that she could only be spoken of by people whose profession was writing.

If we stick to these criteria, Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon are the two people of McCarthy’s generation who remain at the literary pinnacle after his death. Each, in their own way, changed the course of contemporary literature.

Don DeLillo in New York in 2011.Pascal Perich

If there’s one name that has earned the unanimous respect of his peers in the United States, it’s Don DeLillo. After surpassing monumental works like “White Noise” and “Underworld,” DeLillo entered an increasingly subtle phase with titles like “Body Art,” “Point Omega,” and “Zero K.” Don DeLillo’s novels are works of quiet grandeur and his prose is of the highest writing quality in America today. The general consensus is that nobody writes sentences like him. A down-to-earth man who could never pull himself away, DeLillo faded from public life after the 2020 release of “The Silence.” The feeling his absence evokes is one of respect. I have had the honor of interviewing him four times. The last interview after the release of The Silence was conducted over the phone and was very brief. During the 20 minutes it lasted, DeLillo sounded tired and had trouble speaking. After his retirement, there is a suspicion that he will never publish again.

Pynchon’s case is radically different. He shares with Cormac McCarthy a disdain for anything to do with the banality of literary life. Though he’s been awarded the country’s most prestigious awards, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, none of them went out to pick them up. Pynchon even sent a clown to represent him.

One of the few surviving photos of Thomas Pynchon.

Interestingly, David Foster Wallace predicted that perhaps 25% of Pynchon’s work would survive. One would have to wonder what part of his work he was thinking of, because like DeLillo or McCarthy, there are multiple pynchons. With novels like “V” or “The Rainbow of Gravity” he revolutionized the concept of literature. The list of authors who have declared an indebtedness to him is endless and includes William Vollman, Richard Powers, David Mitchell, Dave Eggers, and Salman Rushdie, among others. Having changed the literary landscape of his time, he became more approachable. The irony is that it is his most difficult and revolutionary work that is the most illegible today. Pynchon’s enigmatic silence remains untouchable. His latest novel, Bleeding Edge, was published a decade ago. Will we read one of his books again? When the cheerful-looking McCarthy released The Passenger and Stella Maris a few months ago, there was little reason to believe death was imminent. Perhaps he was the only one who knew that the silence he had entered was final.