But I didn't know what to say to him. What do you say to a man that by his own admission has no soul? Why would you say anything?
Interpretation
The quote reflects the existential dilemma of communication with someone who feels devoid of essence or purpose.
Cormac McCarthy's quote touches on a profound philosophical question regarding the nature of existence and the human condition. It suggests that when confronted with someone who perceives themselves as lacking a soul, the typical forms of dialogue may seem inadequate or meaningless, leading one to question the purpose of engaging at all. This evokes deeper considerations of identity, connection, and the search for meaning in human interaction.
In practice
During a philosophy seminar discussing the nature of the human soul.
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.
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.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
See the good in people and help them.
I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word for the truth.
As long as there are rich people in the world, they will be desirous of distinguishing themselves from the poor.
I took a wrong turn on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I had never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamberpots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon - or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder.
The decay of old aristocratic prejudices against greedy speculation, the undermining of orthodox Christian faith (which forbids avarice)... the debauching of agriculture to a gross money-getting concern: these particular aspects of a vast and voracious concentration upon profits are so many illustrations of our sinning confusion of values.
A small revenge is more human than no revenge at all.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.