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> I haven't read it myself, but I've seen many report that it was uplifting to them. Uplifting? There was nothing uplifting about The Road. It's a world withou

> I haven't read it myself, but I've seen many report that it was uplifting to them. Uplifting? There was nothing uplifting about The Road. It's a world without hope. From the description of the forests, seas, societies and families, cormac builds a truly hopeless apocalypse with no hope for redemption or salvation. A world where hope cannot exist. > Amid the utter horror and hopeless bleakness a parent does everything they can to protect their child. A father tries to do everything he can to save his son, but ultimately, he fails. It's a world without hope after all. The father dies and a bunch of cannibals "take in" the boy. It's one of the rare books that I finished in one sitting and then read again a few days later.

tehnub 3y ago
But the love between the father and his son persists to the very end. Here are some people using the word uplift in their review on Amazon: [0]. There are some negations though ("this book is not uplifting"). [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McCarthy-ebook/product-reviews/B000OI0G1Q/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewopt_kywd?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=1&filterByKeyword=uplifting https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McC...
- oilchange 3y ago
  > But the love between the father and his son persists to the very end. So what? Of course the love between a father and son persists. It's only natural. But that's not the point of the book. The book is about finding hope. The father is desperately trying to save his son. To find hope for his son. He thinks there is hope along the coast. That's why they are on "the road". When they reach the coast, they find a leaden sea holding no life. All marine life is dead. They find no hope. There, cannibals that were hunting the father and son shoot the father with an arrow and the father dies. The son buries his father and the cannibals find the boy and "take him in". > [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McC https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McC... This is just reviews with the word "uplifting". Many of the comments with "uplifting" is just saying it is not uplifting. "This is an unusual book. There is nothing uplifting here, so don't expect it." "As uplifting as a charred word void of virtually all-living species. As uplifting as a dead land shrouded in night, blanketed with ash and gray snow, legions of charcoaled corpses ornamenting the highways and hallways. As uplifting as the vicious gangs who prowl the countryside surviving on the last food source - other humans. As uplifting as the Halocaust, Idi Amin's Uganda, or Pol Pot's Cambodia." Read the book. There is nothing uplifting about it. The only thing uplifting about it is that we don't live in such a world. It's as hopeless a world as you can possibly create. It's a world where the wife and mother of the protagonists goes off into the woods to kill herself rather than face the horrors that await her and her husband and her son. That's how bleak and hopeless the world is. It's a world where the father carries a gun to take out his son and himself in case the cannibals get them. It's a world where the father fails to keep his promise to his son and dies, leaving him to a pack of cannibals. And that isn't even the worst of it. What exactly is uplifting here?
  - tehnub 3y ago
    >This is just reviews with the word "uplifting". Many of the comments with "uplifting" is just saying it is not uplifting. I noted that when I posted the link. But at least half are saying it is uplifting. I obviously can't argue further as I haven't read it. I will remark that different people will react to the same material variously uplifted or beaten-down, and neither reaction is less valid (unless they just misunderstood the plot). Personally, I tend to find depictions of nobility and perseverance in the face of imminent doom interesting and moving if not uplifting.
    - oilchange 3y ago
      > I obviously can't argue further as I haven't read it. You should. It's the best of its kind in my opinion. > I will remark that different people will react to the same material variously uplifted or beaten-down, and neither reaction is less valid (unless they just misunderstood the plot). I'm open to people having subjective feelings - like whether they enjoyed it, they found it too graphic, not graphic enough, etc. But uplifting is different. There has to be something concrete to back up the feeling of being uplifted. > Personally, I tend to find depictions of nobility and perseverance in the face of imminent doom interesting and moving if not uplifting. But that's the point. It isn't nobility and perseverance in the face of imminent doom. The mother thought it was inevitable doom. The father had hope. It's perseverance in false hope. Nonexistent hope. It's like you seeing a person jump 100 stories from the twin towers and flapping his arms in the hopes of flying and saving himself. Would you say that is uplifting? Of course not. Unless you were being edgy or silly. Instead of reading silly amazon reviews, go read the book and see for yourself.
  - danjoredd 3y ago
    What is uplifting is the underlying message. I do not want to write all of it over again, but I wrote my thoughts down here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36316079#36325708 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36316079#36325708 I have read the book, and it is about sticking to your morals no matter how evil the world will become. That is the message of the book.
huthuthike 3y ago
I disagree with your interpretation of the ending. It felt to me that the family that takes in the boy are not bad people.
- oilchange 3y ago
  > It felt to me that the family that takes in the boy are not bad people. What family? You really believe the man and woman who took in the boy had a "family"? A world where boy's own mother abandoned him and his father to kill herself because there was no hope. A world where there are no plants, animals, fish, etc left. A world where a a woman gives birth and then she and her friends cook the fetus over a campfire. You think in a world where there is no food, no possibility of food, where everyone is either starving to death or cannibalizing, that there is a happy family? It's a world where everyone is starving to death. You think "a family" is going to take in an extra mouth to feed? Did you miss the parts in the book where they explicitly mention how there is no children the boy's age left? The boy desperately wants a friend but there are no children his age left. Except for that one "imaginary" kid he ran into that disappeared. Why do you think that is? Also, the father and son were being hunted by a pack of cannibals who mortally wound the father. What are the odds that the cannibal hunters caught up to him. What are the odds that a magical good samaritan family stumbled upon him? When I first read the book, I thought the kid was saved. Then I reread it and boy cormac really made it crystal clear how hopeless that world was.
  - huthuthike 3y ago
    The boy offers to give the man his pistol but the man tells him to keep it. That indicates the man is not trying to trick him. Talking about odds in a fictional story is misguided. The odds are 100% whatever the writer intended.
    - oilchange 3y ago
      > The boy offers to give the man his pistol but the man tells him to keep it. That indicates the man is not trying to trick him. Yes and the nice cannibal they killed offered to give them food and shelter. Remember how nice that cannibal was? The pistol was worthless and if I remember correctly, it didn't even have a bullet left. Of course he let him keep it. It's no threat. > Talking about odds in a fictional story is misguided. No. It's a matter of determining what is most likely. > The odds are 100% whatever the writer intended. Yes. The author wrote everything that led up to the meeting for a reason. Everything the author wrote leads to the man and woman being cannibals. It's pretty obvious. It isn't a children's book. For children, the author explains everything clearly and spoonfeeds you. But for adult books you have to think about what the author is trying to say. Did that world seem like it had any good samaritans that you envision. No it did not. For a reason. What the author intended is 100% obvious. You don't like it because you childishly want a happy ending. Cormac wasn't writing disney books or children books. If you are still confused and you seem to be, go read his other books. You'll understand what kind of writer he was.

tehnub 3y ago

But the love between the father and his son persists to the very end. Here are some people using the word uplift in their review on Amazon: [0]. There are some negations though ("this book is not uplifting"). [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McCarthy-ebook/product-reviews/B000OI0G1Q/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewopt_kywd?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&pageNumber=1&filterByKeyword=uplifting https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McC...

oilchange 3y ago
> But the love between the father and his son persists to the very end. So what? Of course the love between a father and son persists. It's only natural. But that's not the point of the book. The book is about finding hope. The father is desperately trying to save his son. To find hope for his son. He thinks there is hope along the coast. That's why they are on "the road". When they reach the coast, they find a leaden sea holding no life. All marine life is dead. They find no hope. There, cannibals that were hunting the father and son shoot the father with an arrow and the father dies. The son buries his father and the cannibals find the boy and "take him in". > [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McC https://www.amazon.com/Road-Vintage-International-Cormac-McC... This is just reviews with the word "uplifting". Many of the comments with "uplifting" is just saying it is not uplifting. "This is an unusual book. There is nothing uplifting here, so don't expect it." "As uplifting as a charred word void of virtually all-living species. As uplifting as a dead land shrouded in night, blanketed with ash and gray snow, legions of charcoaled corpses ornamenting the highways and hallways. As uplifting as the vicious gangs who prowl the countryside surviving on the last food source - other humans. As uplifting as the Halocaust, Idi Amin's Uganda, or Pol Pot's Cambodia." Read the book. There is nothing uplifting about it. The only thing uplifting about it is that we don't live in such a world. It's as hopeless a world as you can possibly create. It's a world where the wife and mother of the protagonists goes off into the woods to kill herself rather than face the horrors that await her and her husband and her son. That's how bleak and hopeless the world is. It's a world where the father carries a gun to take out his son and himself in case the cannibals get them. It's a world where the father fails to keep his promise to his son and dies, leaving him to a pack of cannibals. And that isn't even the worst of it. What exactly is uplifting here?
- tehnub 3y ago
  >This is just reviews with the word "uplifting". Many of the comments with "uplifting" is just saying it is not uplifting. I noted that when I posted the link. But at least half are saying it is uplifting. I obviously can't argue further as I haven't read it. I will remark that different people will react to the same material variously uplifted or beaten-down, and neither reaction is less valid (unless they just misunderstood the plot). Personally, I tend to find depictions of nobility and perseverance in the face of imminent doom interesting and moving if not uplifting.
  - oilchange 3y ago
    > I obviously can't argue further as I haven't read it. You should. It's the best of its kind in my opinion. > I will remark that different people will react to the same material variously uplifted or beaten-down, and neither reaction is less valid (unless they just misunderstood the plot). I'm open to people having subjective feelings - like whether they enjoyed it, they found it too graphic, not graphic enough, etc. But uplifting is different. There has to be something concrete to back up the feeling of being uplifted. > Personally, I tend to find depictions of nobility and perseverance in the face of imminent doom interesting and moving if not uplifting. But that's the point. It isn't nobility and perseverance in the face of imminent doom. The mother thought it was inevitable doom. The father had hope. It's perseverance in false hope. Nonexistent hope. It's like you seeing a person jump 100 stories from the twin towers and flapping his arms in the hopes of flying and saving himself. Would you say that is uplifting? Of course not. Unless you were being edgy or silly. Instead of reading silly amazon reviews, go read the book and see for yourself.
- danjoredd 3y ago
  What is uplifting is the underlying message. I do not want to write all of it over again, but I wrote my thoughts down here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36316079#36325708 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36316079#36325708 I have read the book, and it is about sticking to your morals no matter how evil the world will become. That is the message of the book.

huthuthike 3y ago

I disagree with your interpretation of the ending. It felt to me that the family that takes in the boy are not bad people.

oilchange 3y ago
> It felt to me that the family that takes in the boy are not bad people. What family? You really believe the man and woman who took in the boy had a "family"? A world where boy's own mother abandoned him and his father to kill herself because there was no hope. A world where there are no plants, animals, fish, etc left. A world where a a woman gives birth and then she and her friends cook the fetus over a campfire. You think in a world where there is no food, no possibility of food, where everyone is either starving to death or cannibalizing, that there is a happy family? It's a world where everyone is starving to death. You think "a family" is going to take in an extra mouth to feed? Did you miss the parts in the book where they explicitly mention how there is no children the boy's age left? The boy desperately wants a friend but there are no children his age left. Except for that one "imaginary" kid he ran into that disappeared. Why do you think that is? Also, the father and son were being hunted by a pack of cannibals who mortally wound the father. What are the odds that the cannibal hunters caught up to him. What are the odds that a magical good samaritan family stumbled upon him? When I first read the book, I thought the kid was saved. Then I reread it and boy cormac really made it crystal clear how hopeless that world was.
- huthuthike 3y ago
  The boy offers to give the man his pistol but the man tells him to keep it. That indicates the man is not trying to trick him. Talking about odds in a fictional story is misguided. The odds are 100% whatever the writer intended.
  - oilchange 3y ago
    > The boy offers to give the man his pistol but the man tells him to keep it. That indicates the man is not trying to trick him. Yes and the nice cannibal they killed offered to give them food and shelter. Remember how nice that cannibal was? The pistol was worthless and if I remember correctly, it didn't even have a bullet left. Of course he let him keep it. It's no threat. > Talking about odds in a fictional story is misguided. No. It's a matter of determining what is most likely. > The odds are 100% whatever the writer intended. Yes. The author wrote everything that led up to the meeting for a reason. Everything the author wrote leads to the man and woman being cannibals. It's pretty obvious. It isn't a children's book. For children, the author explains everything clearly and spoonfeeds you. But for adult books you have to think about what the author is trying to say. Did that world seem like it had any good samaritans that you envision. No it did not. For a reason. What the author intended is 100% obvious. You don't like it because you childishly want a happy ending. Cormac wasn't writing disney books or children books. If you are still confused and you seem to be, go read his other books. You'll understand what kind of writer he was.