With The Road, the cinematic adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel, now in movie theaters, a new audience is getting exposed to the nightmarish tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic landscape. At its core though, The Road is about the heartwarming relationship between a father, the Man, and his son, the Boy, as they fight off cold, starvation, ash storms, and roving cannibals. DadWagon recently caught up with the Man to ask him about fatherhood in this not-so-brave new world.
A lot of our readers are wondering: Just as civilization was breaking down, you decided to have a child—was that the right decision to make?
If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
Take us through a typical day on “the Road.”
No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.
What do you see as your primary responsibility as a father?
This is my child. I wash a dead man’s brains out of his hair. That is my job.
Do you consider yourself brave?
Just medium.
What’s the bravest thing you’ve done?
Getting up this morning.
Is there anything you can’t do?
I can’t hold my son dead in my arms. I thought I could but I can’t.
What do you remember of life before the apocalypse?
Each memory recalled must do some violence to its origins. As in a party game. Say the word and pass it on. So be sparing. What you alter in the remembering has yet a reality, known or not.
Do you have nightmares, or do you dream of a better future for your son?
When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that never will be and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand?
Definitely. What do you think your father would say of your parenting skills?
Do you think your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground.
Have you and the Boy established any fun traditions?
All of this like some ancient anointing. So be it. Evoke the forms. Where you’ve nothing else construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.
Have you made any friends along the Road?
On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them their world. Query: How does the never to be differ from what never was?
Surely the Boy needs more companionship. Have you considered a pet?
The dog that he remembers followed us for two days. I tried to coax it to come but it would not. I made a noose of wire to catch it. There were three cartridges in the pistol. None to spare. She walked away down the road. The boy looked after her and then he looked at me and then he looked at the dog and he began to cry and to beg for the dog’s life and I promised I would not hurt the dog. A trellis of a dog with the hide stretched over it. The next day it was gone. That is the dog he remembers. He doesn’t remember any little boys.
I understand the Boy’s mother killed herself. If you could address her now, what would you say?
Will I see you at the last? Have you a neck by which to throttle you? Have you a heart? Damn you eternally have you a soul? Oh God. Oh God.
Well, that about does it. Thank you for joining us, the Man.
Look around you. There is no prophet in the earth’s long chronicle who’s not honored here today. Whatever form you spoke of you were right.
Fantastic. I can’t recall a book that has won more awards that is more deserving of parody, if not mockery. Why does McCarthy write as if it’s 1860? ‘And they were always thus and would never be otherwise.’ sheesh.