Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
Interpretation
The quote explores the transformative nature of childhood and the journey of self-discovery.
In this quote, Cormac McCarthy reflects on the concept of transformation and the profound transition from childhood to adulthood. It suggests that as children grow, they shed their past identities and origins, entering a stage of existence where life becomes an uncharted territory full of challenges. The heart and will of a person become the tools by which they shape their destiny, highlighting the duality of creation and self-discovery that comes with maturity.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth, one might say, 'As Cormac McCarthy put it, we must explore the terrains of our own heart.'
Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world on the other hand are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.
See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
He'd half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat.
God gave us free will, and we may choose to exercise it in ways that end up hurting other people.
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
It was the voice of mad seas, roaring immense,/ That shattered your infant breast, too soft, too human.
Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
The sciences are the 'how,' and the humanities are the 'why' - why are we here, why do we believe in the things we believe in. I don't think you can have the 'how' without the 'why.'
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.