McCarthy, Cormac - William Dow (essay date March 2000)
William Dow (essay date March 2000)
SOURCE: Dow, William. “Topographical Strides of Thoreau: The Poet and Pioneer in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.” Revue Française D'Études Américaines, no. 84 (March 2000): 89-105.
[In the following essay, Dow examines Blood Meridian as a topographical study in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau's Walden.]
A general knowledge of the topography is, then, the main guide, enabling one to determine where the trail ought to go—must go.1
(John Muir)
We must look to the West for the growth of a new literature, manners, architecture, etc. Already there is more language there, which is the growth of the soil, than here …2
(Henry David Thoreau)
Throughout his career as a writer and naturalist, Thoreau wished to reinvent “a new literature” linked to topographies. He held constant...
[The entire page is 7552 words long]
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