Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
My point is that it is dumb to drag McCarthy, the author, into the discussion.
But the general point that as much as the novel raises questions about ethics in the world it presents, it also raises the implied point about facing these same questions in our current world.
I personally have struggled with some of these scenarios, some of which I have discussed. Where literally I have felt like I could be risking my hide, at no personal gain, with disastrous results for my own family should I perish, for some possible theoretical gain for another person. I still struggle with it.
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Like Elizabeth Smart's dad who employed the homeless man who abducted and abused his daughter and unbelievably did not kill her.
Or the bishop who neglects family to visit the sick.
Those are probably bad examples, as in The Road, to save another truly would have resulted in death. Or would it have? The family, after all, took the boy in in the end.
A slight disagreement with you. I find an author's personal life very interesting in at least one respect: how does the author answer the very questions he raises? I guess this is interesting to me for the same reasons why it's interesting to learn about a prophet's personal life. Words versus actions.
If you've read the letters of Flannery O'Connor, her work means much more to you. But the same is not true for all authors, for sure. I agree with you about kundera. And why Franzen thought we would want to read a memoir already about his short, self-involved life, I have no idea.