our 1990s module continues with all the pretty horses by cormac mccarthy, marking a rapid return to his writing after covering blood meridian earlier this year. after discussing whether we could have approached “the border trilogy” in another way, we discuss 1992 facts (wherein shreds makes a generous offer) and talk about mccarthy’s assumption that you understand a fair amount of spanish to read his work. we talk about the minimal plot found in all the pretty horses, how this book serves as both an antidote to blood meridian and a possible return to religion for mccarthy, and the focus on morality in this text. we also talk about the “offscreen” violence (and reading with a fear of blood meridian-esque violence), whether we could do a module of books set in the 1990s (rather than published then), and the hallmarks of the western genre. we also talk about the issues with billy bob thornton’s film adaptation (though it’s likely not his fault).

reading list for season seventeen

vineland by thomas pynchon
mao ii by don delillo
all the pretty horses by cormac mccarthy
trainspotting by irvine welsh
notes of a crocodile by qiu miaojin
sabbath’s theater by philip roth
the atlas by william t. vollmann
i love dick by chris kraus
the poisonwood bible by barbara kingsolver
from hell by alan moore