Cormac McCarthy has officially entered the ring of performativity that Berserk and Deftones now reside, and some of yall say literature is dead and insist McCarthy is an underrated genius.

I was gonna write a longer essay-long note about how the real danger is people like this who use their ability to read complex literature as validation for their intelligence and as a way to say “look how deep and intelligent I am for understanding the complex and esoteric philosophy of the judge and how it correlates with gnostic and tarot symbolism. I can’t believe I’m the only one who understands it” despite reading one of the most popular authors of the 2020s.

Also how the boundary between a person who actually loves literature passionately and a person who uses it for social validation are going to blur together until the two are indistinguishable unless you go deeper and deeper into an ivory tower of nicheness and gatekeeping. Not unlike the black metal fans who insist you can only be a real fan if you exclusively listen to bands with only 30 monthly listeners on Spotify, and call anyone who listens to Mayhem or Emperor a poser.

I was also gonna mention how it correlates with that meme about the stick-men on the train all thinking to themselves “look at these normies. I’m so schizo and esoteric, these people have no idea of the deep forbidden knowledge I acquired from Google and Wikipedia,” but I’ll save all of that for another day when I feel more up to going super in depth.