More violence

We happened across the film called 'No country for old men' the other day, one of the many films which comes with our Prime subscription, and thought we would give it a go, despite my vaguely thinking that is was probably something to do with Cormac McCarthy and probably violent. We finished it yesterday.

It was McCarthy and it was violent - but it was well made and was watchable for all that. Set in a rather desolate looking part of Texas, possibly just the Texas side of the southeastern corner of New Mexico in the map snapped above from the Times Atlas. A place which looked very big, very hot and very dry. And home to lots of trailer trash - and other rural oddities.

Lots of cod philosophy from both the good guys and the bad guys. Americans seem to have a taste for this sort of thing.

Lots of drug fuelled violence. Lots of pointless violence. Which makes one wonder first, why the US authorities have not learned from their last attempt that prohibition is not a good way to deal with substance abuse. And second, what it is about McCarthy which makes him so interested in this sort of thing? I suspect that it is more than just a carefully considered attack on the large market for violent fiction - although there is nothing that catches in the eye as bearing on this at reference 1.

I think I passed up on a copy of the book of the film in the Oxfam shop a while ago, so I will go back tomorrow and see if it is still there.

PS 1: we were shown some solidarity among veterans of the Vietnam war. If you could remember your number and your unit you were in. From where I associate to the one such veteran whom I met, in a neighbourhood bar at the back of Las Vegas. Interesting chap to meet in a bar, but odd. I guess there must have been plenty of people of the same sort in this country, after the first and second wars. Not to mention the Napoleonic wars: how many emotional cripples came out of Waterloo? Or Hastings come to that.

PS 2: a response, from a correspondent, to the bugs at the end of reference 5. A bug with legs. Nothing of this sort in our own micro-ponds, presently a bit clogged with duckweed.

For readers not familiar with ducks or weeds, duckweed, as turned up by by Bing. Powerful stuff and hard to get rid of. Some people farm it in large lagoons.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-road.html. A previous encounter with McCarthy.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men_(novel). The book.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Country_for_Old_Men. The film of the book.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-day-of-rabbit.html.