# Cormac McCarthy had a 17-year old muse **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [November 22, 2024, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582 "2024-11-22T02:08:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/1 "2024-11-22T02:08:28Z")
Continuing the discussion from [Cormac McCarthy has died (13 June 2023)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-has-died-13-june-2023/985448): Vanity Fair reported yesterday that McCarthy had a relationship with a 17 year old that started in 1977 when he was 43. She evidently was his “muse” and inspiration for several of his characters. I’m not quite sure how I feel about it. It clearly fits today’s definition of grooming, and I don’t think that 1977 makes it that much better. But there’s more nuance to the whole story than just the headline. Anyway, it’s interesting reading for McCarthy fans. No matter where you land on things, it’s a very McCarthy-esque story. > **[Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I...](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/cormac-mccarthy-secret-muse-exclusive)** > > When he was 42, Cormac McCarthy fell in love with a 16-year-old girl he met by a motel pool. Augusta Britt would go on to become one of the most significant—and secret—inspirations in literary history, giving life to many of McCarthy’s most iconic... ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/2 "2024-11-22T07:48:56Z")
That Vanity Fair article is truly terrible. It’s written in bizarrely flowery language (clearly a Z-grade attempt to imitate what the author thinks is McCarthy’s own style) and comes off as some sort of sweaty romantic fantasy instead of objective journalism. And it’s getting absolutely slammed for the apparent failures in editorial oversight that led to numerous easily verified factual inaccuracies being included in the text. > **[‘Vanity Fair’ Faces Major Backlash Over Cormac McCarthy Scoop](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/vanity-fair-faces-major-backlash-212046400.html)** > > Many have criticized the way the magazine revealed McCarthy’s “secret muse,” whom he met when she was 16 and he was 42. I would recommend strongly against drawing any kind of conclusions or forming any beliefs about McCarthy, positive or negative, on the basis of that shitty and unreliable article. McCarthy is a messy, complicated figure, and this thing doesn’t help at all. But hey, it’s getting lots of clicks, so yay 21st century media! ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/3 "2024-11-22T09:21:19Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > That Vanity Fair article is truly terrible. It’s written in bizarrely flowery language (clearly a Z-grade attempt to imitate what the author thinks is McCarthy’s own style) I was getting increasingly irritated by the language as I read it. When I got to this part, I quit reading. > [@](#): > > Two eyes are not sufficient for a sunset in the West. That’s because there is more than one sunset, more than can be seen in a single field of vision. After a monsoon, the sky is Sistine. To the west, lightning races the tousled embroidery of clouds in pink gilt. Turning on my heels, there are Iliads and Edens of violet cloudwork parted by the slimmest blue streamlets of sky. Soon the mountains will be darkened and skimmed of all their reddened lilac, and they will stand like glowing geometry against the sunset’s final yellow. It is all daubed in a nimbus around the muse, like a painting that is still wet, still open to being blended. Gah! Since I haven’t read any of McCarthy’s books, I didn’t know if it was some sort of homage to the author’s style or just really awful writing desperately in need of an editor, at the very least. Thanks for letting me know it was a very bad attempt to imitate McCarthy. It sounds like there was no editorial assistance with the story at all. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/4 "2024-11-22T09:51:47Z")
The text reads like someone prompted ChatGPT, “Write this pretending you’re Cormac McCarthy, and also pretend you’ve been roofied.” It’s awful. For what it’s worth, the writer of the piece is an outsider without much of a resume. He’s dabbled in journalism, apparently, but thinks of himself more as a novelist, and that shows in the language. He obviously saw this as his ticket to the big leagues. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/5 "2024-11-22T10:37:09Z")
I’ve only read _No Country For Old Men_ and if was anything like that painful drivel, I wouldn’t have made it past page 2. The prose scans like a rough-draft for the Bulwer-Lytton contest. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/6 "2024-11-22T11:25:56Z")
So is McCarthy’s writing that bad? If so, why is he so famous? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/7 "2024-11-22T11:36:14Z")
You may find this earlier thread of interest. > [@Is Cormac McCarthy an acquired taste? I’m struggling mightily](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-cormac-mccarthy-an-acquired-taste-i-m-struggling-mightily/1004959): > > So I decided to try and read a few high profile contemporary books and started with The Road by Cormac McCarthy and boy I think I may have misfired here. I’m only about 20 pages in but it has been a VERY slow 20 pages because of his writing style. Very little punctuation makes it hard to parse but I’m finding the bigger barrier to be his excessive use of “and”. Huge run on sentences that will have 5+ ands in them. “I did this and this was happening over there and the sky was blue and Greta … Personally, I find his writing challenging but rewarding. However, individual preferences will vary. What’s beyond argument is that the writing in the VF article thoroughly sucks. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/8 "2024-11-22T14:56:28Z")
The language in the article is terrible, but I wouldn’t describe it as an attempt to write like McCarthy. It is flowery in a way that McCarthy never is. I think it’s the guy’s own invention, not mimicry. But if you can get past that, it’s a fascinating and disturbing story. I’m torn: on one hand, I want to respect Britt’s view of the relationship. This is a mature woman looking back with clear eyes, and her opinion should count for more than a bunch of armchair analysts. On the other hand, just because this had a seemingly good outcome for her doesn’t mean it was right. His actions can’t be judged solely on how things worked out. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2024, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cormac-mccarthy-had-a-17-year-old-muse/1010582/9 "2024-11-22T19:23:48Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > The text reads like someone prompted ChatGPT, “Write this pretending you’re Cormac McCarthy, and also pretend you’ve been roofied.” It’s awful. > > For what it’s worth, the writer of the piece is an outsider without much of a resume. He’s dabbled in journalism, apparently, but thinks of himself more as a novelist, and that shows in the language. He obviously saw this as his ticket to the big leagues. My first reaction was that it was written with AI. Maybe AI would have done a better job.