The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy, and Bunnahabhain 12, Part 2

What this episode covers

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of suicide. Michael and Ethan continue their discussion of The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy, while drinking Bunnahabhain 12yo single malt. In this episode: Concise answers, reining it in, etc Is this book JD Salinger’s (incest) Franny and Zooey? Is McCarthy’s body of work just him taking previous works and adding greater shock value? Are these books Catcher in the Rye? If so, can Ethan deal? Is Bobby socially inept or socially VERY ept? Is Bobby Oedipus Rex? Is Alicia the Virgin Mary, or Medea, or both? Will Ethan get distracted by how overrated he finds Oppenheimer? How did you get here? Are you the passenger? Are we all the passenger? Did Oswald kill JFK? And whether he did or not, why do we spend 30 pages of this book discussing it? Does the climax of this book occur 100+ pages before the end of the text? Is The Thalamide Kid a hallucination, an alien, a quantum agent of some kind, an angel, a demon, or a broken-off shard of Alicia’s consciousness? Given every single thing these books are about, why are they such a delight? Next time Michael and Ethan will begin to discuss Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page. Join us on GoodReads! Donate to our Patreon! BUY A NIHILIST BLANKET! Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) and Ethan Bartlett (@bjartlett) MUSIC & SFX: "Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission. "The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. "Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.