Science and Literature in Cormac McCarthy’s Expanding Worlds

Description

Bryan Giemza challenges the myth of the solitary genius, both in scientific and humanistic endeavors, and demonstrates how Cormac McCarthy is the exceptional figure whose work allows and encourages us to interrogate the marriage of the sciences and humanities. Drawing from previously unsurfaced archival connections as well as a range of primary sources and interview subjects, including those close to McCarthy, Giemza places McCarthy’s work within contemporary scientific discourse and literary criticism. Timely and innovative in both content and structure, the volume includes a biographical examination of the writer's love of science and the path that led him to the Santa Fe Institute and offers a rare look behind its closed doors. The book probes the STEM subjects – with chapters focused on technology, engineering, and math – within and throughout McCarthy’s fictional universe and biography. The final chapter explores McCarthy’s friendship with Guy Davenport and their shared interest in creating a unified aesthetic theory alongside McCarthy’s essays and most recent literary projects, The Passenger and Stella Maris. In arguing that science and art are connected by aesthetics, Giemza confirms the profound truth of McCarthy’s unwavering belief that "There’s a beauty to science" and a language of human understanding that transcends words. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Figures Chapter 1: Introduction: The Trail to Santa Fe and the Stars (and Why It’s Good Craic) Chapter 2: Science: Starting from a Unified Place—How Chirality and Handedness Inform McCarthy’s Expanding Universe Chapter 3: Technology: Blowing Up Knoxville–How Domestic Terrorism and Actual Misadventures with Dynamite Shaped McCarthy’s World Chapter 4: Engineering and the Built Environment: Hypanthropic Times—The Tennessee Valley Authority, Expanding Systems of Containment, and McCarthy’s Imagination Chapter 5: Math: Unified Theories and Fractured Minds—Toward No Probable Conclusions Acknowledgments Bibliography of Cormac McCarthy Works Referenced Index