Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen PDF
Preview Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen
Cormac McCarthy and Performance THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Cormac McCarthy and Performance Page, Stage, Screen Stacey Peebles University of Texas Press Austin The author gratefully acknowledges permission to use excerpts from the following previously published material: “Cormac McCarthy and Film.” The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy. Ed. Steven Frye. New York: Cambridge UP, 2013. 162–174. “Cormac McCarthy’s Dramas and Screenplays.” Critical Insights: Cormac McCarthy. Ed. David Cremean. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2013. 161–178. Used by permission of eBScO Information Services, Ipswich, MA. “Hang and Rattle: John Grady Cole’s Horsebreaking in Typescript, Novel, and Film.” Cormac McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Road. Ed. Sara Spurgeon. London: Continuum, 2011. 43–57. By permission of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. “Hold Still”: Models of Masculinity in the Coens’ No Country for Old Men.” No Country for Old Men: From Novel to Film. Ed. Lynnea Chapman King, Rick Wallach, and Jim Welsh. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2009. 124–138. Copyright © 2017 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2017 Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to: Permissions University of Texas Press P.O. Box 7819 Austin, TX 78713- 7819 http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/rp- form ♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of anSI/nISO Z39.48- 1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper). LIBrary Of cOngreSS cataLOgIng-I n- PuBLIcatIOn Data Names: Peebles, Stacey L. (Stacey Lyn), 1976–, author. Title: Cormac McCarthy and performance : page, stage, screen / Stacey Peebles. Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: Lccn 2016035705 ISBn 978-1-4773-1204-9 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBn 978-1-4773-1231-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBn 978-1-4773-1205-6 (library e-book) ISBn 978-1-4773-1206-3 (non-library e-book) Subjects: LcSH: McCarthy, Cormac, 1933—Criticism and interpretation. | Motion picture authorship—History and criticism. | Playwriting—History and criticism. | Authors, American— 20th century—History and criticism. | Motion picture authorship. Classification: Lcc PS3563.c337 Z797 2017 | DDc 813/.54—dc23 Lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035705 doi:10.7560/312049 Contents Acknowledgments vii IntrODuctIOn. Cormac McCarthy, Center Stage 1 cHaPter One. First Forays: Early Film Interest and The Gardener’s Son 15 cHaPter t wO. The Unproduced Screenplays: “Cities of the Plain,” “Whales and Men,” and “No Country for Old Men” 41 cHaPter tHree. Works for Theater: The Stonemason and The Sunset Limited 69 cHaPter fOur . Keeping the Faith: All the Pretty Horses and The Road 93 cHaPter fIve. Tragic Success Stories: No Country for Old Men and The Sunset Limited 133 cHaPter SIx. Great Expectations: The Counselor and Child of God 163 cOncLuSIOn. Bears That Dance, Bears That Don’t: The Attempts to Adapt Blood Meridian 201 Notes 213 Bibliography 221 Index 237 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Acknowledgments T HankS fIrSt t O tHe wOnDerfuL Staff Of tHe BILL Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, where the Cor- mac McCarthy Papers are housed—Steve Davis, David Coleman, and above all the incomparable Katie Salzmann, who not only makes archive visits a delight but provides clarifications, advice about logistics, and lots of good humor. More generally, I am grateful to the Wittliff Collections for grant- ing me permission to quote from material in the Cormac McCarthy Papers. Thanks also to Mr. Wittliff himself, who was gracious enough to speak with me about the subject of this book. Many thanks to Silvia Erskine for granting me permission to quote from Albert Erskine’s notes and correspondence, and also to Rebecca Tesich for permission to quote from Steve Tesich’s unpublished screenplay adaptation of Blood Meridian. My good friend Dianne Luce read all of my manuscript in draft, and I’m grateful, as I always am, for her excellent guidance and conversation. Steve Frye read portions of it and talked through most of the ideas with me, which is always as much fun as it is illuminating. Nick Lawrence, Dan Manheim, Scott Olsen, Steve Davis, and Dan Kirchner also read sections and gave me helpful comments. I’m grateful to them for their time and intellect, as I am to William Weber, Matthew Hallock, Danielle LaLonde, Shayna Sheinfeld, and Azita Onsaloo, who all helped me navigate areas of study that were rela- tively new to me, like conceptions of tragedy, theatrical history, apocalyp- ticism, and recent theories of adaptation. Part of the fun in writing a book is the conversations and new friendships it leads you into, and this was no exception. Andy Ingalls was kind enough to get excited about every aspect of this project, and further to put me in touch with Austin Pendleton, who took time out of his superlatively busy schedule to talk to me about his ex- vii perience with The Sunset Limited. Thanks to both of them for the good story- telling. I’m grateful as well to Dustin Anderson, who helped me come up with this book’s title, and to Peter Josyph for sharing his own explorations of McCarthy and performance with me. As was the case when I was writing my first book, I was lucky enough during the planning, writing, and revision of this one to have the feedback and support of a group of like- minded scholars: Danielle LaLonde, Robyn Cutright, Sara Egge, Kaelyn Wiles, Mary Daniels, KatieAnn Skogsberg, and Jenn Goetz. We may all work in different fields and in service of different disciplinary expectations, but nothing keeps the wheels turning like getting together to set goals, evaluate writing practices, and vent as needed. Jim Burr’s editorial guidance on the project, from start to finish, was im- peccable and always good-n atured. Kirk Curnutt once told me that being an editor means that you have the opportunity to ensure that “people are treated the right way,” and Jim fits that bill to a tee. I’m also deeply grateful to James Cox, one of the readers Jim assigned who was, until recently, anonymous to me. Professor Cox read the manuscript through in two different iterations and provided ample and incisive commentary for each, undoubtedly making this book a better one. Thanks finally to Cormac McCarthy, whose work has long thrilled and fascinated me, and to my family—especially Calliope, my own small, viva- cious, verbally and physically gymnastic Muse. / viii Acknowledgments Cormac McCarthy and Performance
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