Ironically, we had a lot of fun making this one. I know people will ask about the tunnel location, I saw it on the Alex Garland film "Men" and just had to go there. It's Hawthornes Tunnel in The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, sometimes referred to as the Euroclydon Tunnel. We got lucky and found that the north entrance was open so explored for a while, amazing place.

@deselby6669

Жыл бұрын

MDC ..You should perhaps give Steve Donoghue's critique of dude bros lit and this book a hearing..It is entertaining and a worthy observation of what is for some.,unfettered onanism..

@IkeThermite

Жыл бұрын

Hahaha good timing. My Facebook memories just gave me my 2020 recommendation for improving your Covid lockdown experience through literature. “If your exile is starting to wear on you, I suggest you read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Its lighthearted prose and situational comedy will lift your spirits for the duration of your isolation”

@VMSelvaggio

Жыл бұрын

Brilliantly shot, Moid! I love this! I started reading The Road about 4 months ago, and put it down to read Book of the New Sun (Yes, all of it) at your recommend. I am glad I did. I think it is time to pick up "The Road" again. Thanks for the awesome video!

@davidmarrazzo774

Жыл бұрын

Cloud Cuckoo land by Anthony Doerr is a must read for this channel Moid. I can’t begin to tell you how much this channel has upgraded my reading experience. Thank you Moid🙏

I’m tired of people calling this book depressing. This is one of the most hope filled books I have ever read.

@Gnaruto170

12 күн бұрын

Leave it to the Brits to misconstrue American Literature.

A good friend who I never talk about books with pulled The Road off the shelf, bought it and handed it to me. “Read it,” he said. It was so out context that I knew I had to. My son was about 2 at the time. I read it during my commute each day. The day I finished, I was interrupted when the ferry arrived in the city. I was crying when we arrived. I worked my day, got back on the ferry and finished the book. More tears. My take away was that our children are on their own journey. We give them tools, we do our best for them, but in the end they (hopefully) they continue on without us. The Road is one of the most impactful books I’ve every read. A coworker at the time viewed it as a survival story. He imagined how he would try to get by in that world. In effect, we read different books. I wonder if he has re-read it now that he has kids.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Amazing comment, thank you

@casinodelonge

Жыл бұрын

I made a similar point on an Amazon review of the book, I have a disabled child, he's my only child and I'm in my 50's. I try and keep fit and hope I can go on another 30 years but I worry constantly what will happen to him when I'm gone. That made The Road an almost unbearable read for me.

@NJI-hy1pq

Жыл бұрын

​@@casinodelonge where do you live, luv?

@casinodelonge

Жыл бұрын

@@NJI-hy1pq Dublin

Man the BBC should cut you a check and put you on television. Great video.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Oh thanks Matt, that's very kind

@Oldtortoise95

Жыл бұрын

@@MediaDeathCult Matt is right, very right.

@cycklist

Жыл бұрын

It would be a CHEQUE though.

@mattbennett3589

Жыл бұрын

@@cycklist no matter the spelling they cash the same. 🤝

In 2009 a coworker handed me a paperback copy and said "you have to read it." It was one of the most oddly compelling novels I've ever read. I handed it off to someone else.

@Pianodean

4 ай бұрын

I could NOT put it down. I read it in one sitting. The introspection it inspired...I don't have the words, but I just spent hours thinking about what I would do and how I'd survive and concluding I'd probably prefer the cataclysm just take me out.

Moid, your books reviews are becoming more and more accomplished, this and Blindsight have been both insightful and moving. Thanks.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Paul

One of the best books ever written. Cormac McCarthy is a genius.

I’m fascinated by this book but I don’t think I could read it in my current mental state

@Paul_Bond.

Жыл бұрын

I can thoroughly understand this, as the father of a ten your old son now I think it would have broken me if I hadn't read it long before he was born. But any level of empathy will cause you trouble. Well it did me anyway, I wish you all the best.

@jevinday

5 ай бұрын

Nothing wrong with that. I started reading Diary by Chuck Palahniuk once but I put it down after a couple pages because it just didn't feel right for me at the time. My dad had just killed himself and I think it was a good call on my part, as much as i like to be the person who can handle anything it's naive to not have limits.

The cinematography on this video is great

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

It'll do

The most depressing book of all time - Margaret Thatcher: The Downing Street Years. An apocalypse we did to ourselves.

@markcollins2704

Ай бұрын

Doing so much better these days

Wow. This is next level presenting. I feel like I've visited an art show and sat through a fully immersive documentary, walked out of the cinema as if I've been in there for hours, and am left astounded it's been less than 10 minutes.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, that means a lot to me

The whole message of the book is about keeping hope alive throughout the devastation. There is hope in the book and the relationship of the man and the boy.

One of the best books ever written. It hollowed me out, an absolute gut punch of a novel.

It sure depressed the heck outta me when I first tried reading it, so much so that I actually had to stop. And it was still depressing as heck when I finally finished it years later. 😅

Scariest book I've ever read. Read it in one setting, couldn't put it down, it absolutely horrified and terrified me. Amazing book

This was brilliant! Also yes, this book was amazing. The fact that it was so bleak made it feel that much more realistic for the "what if". The ending killed me though.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

"This is no country for old chapter numbers." Love it. (Note the use of quotes --- I'm old and I just can't stop using them.)

Moid, this is the best video you’ve ever made, imo. What a treat! You’ve got a real gift

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

That was absolutely superb! Great work Moid (and the rest of the gang). You've made me want to re-read this one, which I just thought was 'ok' first time around (albeit via audiobook).

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Two things from this novel have always stuck with me. When the boy asks his father what's the bravest thing he ever did and the father answers, "Waking up this morning." And the idea that you still have hope as long as your dreams are brutal and devoid of color. I mean, so bleak, but also oddly beautiful.

Amazing video Moid and team! Absolutely loved it and it introduced me to a book I knew nothing about!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

My pleasure, thank you

I enjoyed this video. It's way more elaborate than anything I could imagine trying to produce. That's the thing about these apocalyptic novels, isn't it? Most people assume that they're going to be one of the survivors. When reading The Road, though, I'm pretty sure I don't even want to be one of the survivors. Great novel, though, and definitely depressing.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Randy

Not depressing at all. I can read it again and again. It's a warm blanket on a rainy day ⛈️

Mr Lapworth introduced me to your videos and I’m glad he did. Quality all round! I read Blood Meridian last year. It was my first McCarthy book and I really struggled for the first few hours to adjust to his writing style. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. However, I’ve been wondering since WHY he writes like he does? You’ve provided the best explanation yet - he wants the reader to work in order to appreciate the words themselves. Thanks. The Road and All the Pretty Horses are high on my reading list. But first I’ll binge a few more of your vids!

"Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not to be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery." Finished it last weekend. So haunting and rich with depth. Great video!!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Ewan

Moid. Seriously. You've got something cooking here buddy. The last... Several video essays/reviews have gotten so artistic and unique and powerful... You HAVE to keep this momentum and take it with you to the next level! Idk what that is, but I know you have ideas, and my GOD do I want to see it happen. You're helping turn a bunch of millennials and zoomers into genre readers and you're revitalizing an amazing region of the media landscape (SF literature) for a whole new generation. I've been watching KZread as my primary entertainment medium for the entirety of my (albeit short) adult life, and You. Have. It. This year is the year of Moid, and it's going to be a wonderful, exhilarating ride Just like your mum

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you David, that means a lot, the plan is to eventually make this style the core of the channel

Very, very well spoken, Moid. Bravo. I saw the movie (which was excellent IMO) and for once am grateful I did not read the book. The movie left a lasting impression.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

I just finished this the day before you posted and its like nothing I had ever read before but Wow was it powerful

Loved the movie; loved the book; loved this review. Bloody well done, nicely scripted, recorded and lighted. And IMHO I think it's not the most depressing book ever - that award goes to its big brother, Blood Meridian. Cheers, Cult Leader!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you

A video from my favorite channel about my favorite novel? The day is saved! Thank you. :)

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Our pleasure

That was a really well thought out and written intro to this video. At least I assume it was written - if you did that off the cuff I am seriously impressed. Interesting video. Thank you.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, It was written, the script is in my pocket

My father used to read this to me before I went to bed.

Superb overview and a nice jacket.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, Marks and Spencers

Excellent video, Moid. This cult is so great.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Ben

The language is also on a biblical level. Very beautiful prose about the utter obliivon of things, that's hopeful in itself, that humanity can make art of it. The father son thing is that: the human hope despite hope fading. It's hopeful to me.

Only book that, as I got further into it, realised I had drifted slowly into an almost shock state. Rattled me. Love it.

The movie was great. A true description of a 15 year megadrought, no hope and all the structures of the civilization have transformed to uncivilized not even tribal mess of an anarchy.

Blood Meridian isn't sf but it's more horrific than The Road. All hope is squelched. After that I guess McCarthy was free to add just a dash of hope to some of his work. Fantastic review of probably the best living writer of English prose.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

I kind of agree and thought about talking about Blood Meridian in the video, but I thought I would let The Road have it's moment, thanks

I read this straight through one night. Not really because I was enjoying it so much but that if I stopped I wouldn't start again. What I found so sad wasn't the death of humanity, it was the destruction of the natural world. That was the true loss. Good review, really suits the mood of the book. Cool to see some location shots as well.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Obviously love the content. But dude the shots and style of this video….. brilliant. Please do more of this!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Evan

I've had this book for a couple of years but avoided reading it because I think I need to be in the right mindset (as in not totally disgusted by people in general), but I don't know that I'll ever get there ~ hope springs eternal and all that, ya' know. You're my favorite BookTube person, love your reviews and interviews. Great job as always, dude. 😘

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You Annet

I saw the movie version by chance not really knowing anything about it and it affected me deeply, especially as a new parent at that time. So I thought 'I have to read the book' but then I thought 'or maybe not', still havent made up my mind.

Just a fantastic job you've done here, some of YOUR descriptions are artful, poetic. Thanks for the vids you give us and for all the work that goes into making them:)

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

My pleasure, thank you

Really digging these recent reviews Moid. I love all your stuff, but this has been a nice way to add (even more) original touches to your reviews. You look well on top of your game.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Great video. I found the book recently but haven't read it yet. I think I need to be in the right frame of mind to get through it. When I do find the right time I'm sure I'll love it - probably for all the good reasons you talked about in this very video. Thanks!

Maybe do some of these "on-site" reviews for the upcoming Night's Dawn readalong?

Just started following your channel - great content. This would easily sit within the BBC’s iPlayer arts section.

Great review, great production, great video! Thanks Moid.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

My pleasure, thanks

Your new essay style of book reviews are spot on. You are a keeper of the fire

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, I'm in a transition period, planning on making these the main thrust of the channel

and that is why youtube recommodation push his top post-apocalys vidoes into our screens

Fantastic review- thank you!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, my pleasure

Love the on location look.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Excellent review, and nicely produced. wow

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you

Superb video, Moid! Great review!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You Joel

Cloud Cuckoo land is a must read for this channel ✌️

Love the spoken word parts! Cool video essay!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Loved your take on one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors and the production value was amazing (maybe I should say favourite?). Anyway, great video!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Bob

Brilliant review. Your best.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Mike

Hi Moid, enjoyed the video & your review o the book. I think I got more from it than I could the book (which I haven't read). I found the film depressing & the boy constantly repeating "Papa" so annoying that I wanted him to die just to shut him up. I doubt I will ever be in the right state of mind to appreciate the book (life in the here & now is too bleak already for me). Thanks for the effort you put into this.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Great video! They keep getting better. Other books that have greatly depressed me, in case you're into that: When Heaven Fell by William Barton (science fiction that's bleak as fuck), Johnny Got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo, every book by Thomas Hardy (OK not ALL but Jude and Tess at least), and Job (not the Heinlein-- the literal book of Job in the Bible).

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You

Fantastic review! Wonderfully shot! Beautifully bleak book too

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You

Amazing review!

@MediaDeathCult

10 ай бұрын

Thank You

I read The Road 10ish years ago and I still think about some of the scenes from it. A great video and critique of remarkable book.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You Anthony

"It's not death metal, it's Radiohead." That's a perfect summary... I've read my share of post apocalyptic novels and they probably aren't my favourite sub-genre of science fiction for many reasons, not all of which I am sure I can analyse, but at least partly it is because they often feel like teenage wish fulfilment with a "wouldn't it be great if there were no adults" kind of unspoken subtext going on, and with all the survivalists, ultra libertarians and general extreme rightwing nutters that seem to be half cheering for an apocalypse these days, I just feel uneasy about giving them the satisfaction of one, even if it is only in fiction 🙂But enough of my peculiar hang ups! The Road isn't one of those books and it's certainly uniquely memorable in a very bleak way. It's a piece of fiction I am pleased to have read but I don't think I'll go back to re-reading it any time soon. There's only so much unrelenting depression I can take!

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Great comment, thank you

@durwoodmaccool890

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I've said before about dystopia's, that the old one were more warning while the new ones seem to be saying get used to it.

You did this book justice, fantastic review

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You Baron

😮 Love the new format! Must have been a lot of work, but it was definitely worth it! I also agree. 'The Road', even though the themes and depictions in the book are depressing and awful, I feel has a smidge of Hope at the end. It's been a few years since I've read it, so maybe a re-read is on the table.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Moid taking MDC out on "The Road" is a great change up. Love this book. The writing is transfixing.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Liked this video immensely. Including the music.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank You

This video is so underrated. Loved it as much as the book❤

@MediaDeathCult

4 ай бұрын

Thank You

May I suggest that the most depressing book ever written is “On the Beach” by Neville Shute

Next level book review. Well done.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Santa

It's not a book I could re-read over and over again that's for sure. I'm rather hesitant in re-watching the film as well.

Cracking video Miod, i cant see me ever reading it for the very reasons you love it...the movie was trauma enough

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, I understand

I think the best part about the ending of The Road is that it symbolizes exactly what the father must have hoped for in carrying on with his son through all the hardship. You as the reader only have the hope that as the boy goes off into the world with the family that found him, he will he okay. You're deeply invested in him and his future because you've gotten to know him throughout the story, but you're given an ambiguous answer to what happens next. In that way you're like the father, who hoped to give everything he could to further his son's survival but is no longer around to see if he's really prepared to face the world or doomed to die in it. As the reader who gets to see the boy fall in with the family, you have at least that much more hope for a good ending that the father surely didn't have before he died, but you also don't get to carry on to see what becomes of the boy. You're left in the exact same hopeful but unknowing condition that comes when parents die and leave their children behind. They can really only hope that their child can make it in the world, cruel and depressing though it is.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Great comment, thanks

When asked about his lack of quotation marks McCarthy responded, “I don’t like a lot of extra garbage on the page.” Also, the inspiration of Byron, in particular his poem “Darkness,” needs to be mentioned.

Great vid. I loved The Road, for all its devastation (big CM fan anyway, particularly of his punctuation choices). I actually think Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’ is the most depressing book, because it’s real (I had to read it in my local botanical gardens to keep myself sane), but The Road is like an awful sequel.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Toby

Good show, mate.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Masterwork

Great video on a great book

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks

Excellent

Depressing, but beautiful. You ended on a hopeful note.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

We did indeed go to the pub, it was good

One of the most stirring books I have ever read .

From my memory.. The boy looks at his father, "That because we're the good guys." You've restored my faith in modern humans. On KZread, I watched a very bad review of this book by 2 guys who spent the entire video trying to figure how the world got this way. Was it climate change or a nuclear war? Would it be temporary or forever? I commented, "You guys missed the point! It was about a father's desperate and doomed attempt to keep the boy safe. The terrible circumstances were secondary to the relationship of the father and his son. I read the book long before the film and I was thinking, "It should be filmed in B+W". They met me halfway with desaturated color Your review is excellent and now you have a new sub

I had to read this book in college and write an annotation on it. I had many unpopular comments about it. I saw too many loopholes and was often taken out of the suspension of disbelief. Especially when it came to food. Many wild sources existed like mushrooms. And if poison ones grew, so did edible mushrooms. And the food they found in canned jars would not just make one sick like the story said. Usually, if bad, home canned food would be tainted with botulism, which would kill you - period. The jars of food were said to be very old, yet there were apples rotting on the ground. Apples fall in various stages from trees with some rotting on the ground while nice apples still hang on the tree late into the fall. Often pecked on by birds. And if there are apples rotting on the ground, that means the trees are still producing, and it wouldn't have been so long since the apple trees produced. And I'd eat rotten apples on the ground, they'd be like applesauce. Especially if in an apocalypse I'd slurp them up. Apples just break down, turn brown. I did not find it the most depressing book. I found it comical. McCormack just used canned stock shock factors and the book is overated. It's his name that created the mass "we like it" mentality. It's not a good book to me. It's lazy not to get facts right and not to write a realistic existence in the type of world he created.

The movie has an amazing soundtrack too.

Might be your best review yet

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you

Cracking video my friend

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Jordan

THE ROAD, was a brilliant read and without being controversial the film adaptation was as good, unlike the adaptation of ALL THE PRETTY HORSES...I love Cormac McCarthy. But very strange to see you without your whisky and home, but thank you for the effort....and you did'nt fucking swear !!! I thought Solaris by LEM was far more depressing. The Moomins are never depressing !!!

Love it. How do we get Moid on the telly box?

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you Rob

Now I feel like shit. Cheers for that 😭😂

For those who crave depressing books I can heartily recommend "Angela's Ashes".

Bloody good book. Bloody good video

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you

5:23 could be a black metal album cover lmao

To appreciate, one should eat of the crumbs from the depression table wherest this master writes. Stand up thereafter, dust off, and stumble off into the grey end of meaningless humanity.

Great video and review! I recommend Blood Meridian. This book is considered by many to be Cormac McCarthy's masterwork. It's pretty damn bleak too.

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, I've read every word he has written

I always loved this book but after watching this review I realized I didn't love it quite enough :) btw who's narrating? Sounds amazing

@MediaDeathCult

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, that's my wife

Was given this as a present a few years back and it claims the top spot on my DNF list..which is a list I can count on one hand in 50 years as an avid reader.. I managed about 3/4's of it before I checked out..I know misery porn is a popular genre..but this is on its own level of grim..

This is my favorite book.

I thought that was Ready Player One 😂 I loved the Road, maybe 'love' isn't the right word - so bleak and full of despair but compelling and the human need for hope and the will to survive

Whenever you tell someone you're reading this book they always say "oh man, that books is bleak" and its often held up as like some testament to depressing writing, but honestly I thought it was actually a hopeful book (don't want to give spoilers but think about the ending). I think the book is a great metaphor about how we as humans operate in a world where history is seemingly dead, the future is unthinkable, and what keeps us going. There are way more depressing books than this one, I think the depressing label is over blown on it.