The Road was originally published back in 2006, almost ten years ago. Since then, post apocalyptic media has jumped in popularity, and it's hard to believe that a quality work of fiction such as this is not responsible for creating some of the hunger for similar works.
The influence of The Road is prevalent in many works of post apocalyptic fiction. Rather than continue with action oriented, sci-fi cheese fests (see: Terminator, Mad Max, etc.) , these stories have become more character focused. This includes the books I Am Legend (also primary between two characters in the apocalypse) and the Russian novel Metro 2033. Television and Movies have not been impervious to the post-apocalyptic craze. The Walking Dead, Jericho, The Book of Eli are examples of this. Hell, even video games are participating in the craze. Day Z requires you to do constant resource management, I Am Alive contains a very similar aesthetic, and the masterpiece The Last of Us, which for all intensive purposes, is the video game version of The Road, focusing on the relationship between a bitter man hardened by the tough world, and a young girl full of energy and innocence.
Three years after the novel's publication, the film adaption of The Road received a limited US release. While strong on its own merits, it has quite a few differentiation from the novel. The man's wife plays a much bigger role than in the novel. She is stubborn and forceful, ultimately taking her own life and leaving her son and husband to travel the road. The most disturbing scene in the book was also cut out of the movie. My guess is the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) would not allow a charred, headless baby corpse to be shown in theaters. It doesn't make sense that it would be cut out to not off-put audience because the final cut was one of the most bleak and dreary films ever made.
The adaption is well done and preserves McCarthy's key themes: survivalism and the importance of family. The performances are all great, and the cinematography more than adequately captures the imagery of the gray world described throughout the novel. Anyone who's still reading this blog, give it a watch.
The adaption is well done and preserves McCarthy's key themes: survivalism and the importance of family. The performances are all great, and the cinematography more than adequately captures the imagery of the gray world described throughout the novel. Anyone who's still reading this blog, give it a watch.
I enjoyed in this blog passage and how you related your book's topic to today's society. I never actually thought about how many recent TV shows, movies, books, etc are based off this genre of apocalyptic fiction. Why do you think it is such a popular topic?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that deep down in our core the will to survive is one aspect of human nature that is present in all of us. Something about seeing a person pushed to their limits to survive is innately interesting to me, and equal interesting for probably dozens of millions of people around the globe. I love apocalyptic fiction and hope that more quality content in that genre will cross my path in the future.
DeleteJustin, I noticed you mentioned the change in apocalyptic novels (and movies and shows) in the past few years. Which do you prefer? Do you prefer the action oriented stories or the character focused stories?
ReplyDeleteWhile some of the more silly and preposterous examples of post-apocalyptic fiction are fun and enjoyable in their own rights, I prefer smaller, more character focused stories. Without the need to cast a very large net you can spend a lot more time developing a select few characters.
DeleteI think the interest in post-apocalyptic texts is also indicative of some of our concern about the likelihood of some sort of global crisis occurring in the near future. Margaret Atwood has an interesting take on a post-apocalyptic world in her Madd Adam series, and I've heard really good things about Station Eleven.
ReplyDeleteI could definitely stem from the climate change epidemic. If I'm not mistaken, tensions over climate change were very high in 2006. It is entirely possible that the event that changed the world in The Road was a result of climate change.
DeleteAlso, just as an FYI, and it's hard to resist as your English teacher: it's "all intents and purposes." One of those annoying phrases that we don't really pronounce as it is written, sort of like "should of" instead of "should have."
ReplyDeleteAs I wrote it, I felt like something was wrong. Then I just didn't fix it. :(
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