197:
185:
40:
246:. He theorizes about the nature of the unconscious mind and its separation from human language. The unconscious, according to McCarthy, "is a machine for operating an animal" and that "all animals have an unconscious." McCarthy postulates that while the unconscious mind is thus a biologically determined phenomenon, language is not.
422:
character, difficult to talk with, yet impossible to leave alone. ... The best example of McCarthy inferring intention from the unconscious comes in one of his many strings of rhetorical questions: "It's hard to escape the conclusion that the unconscious is laboring under a moral compulsion to
386:, Lila MacLellan said the essay provided rare insight into McCarthy's thinking during his time at SFI and praised the way it "somehow distilled the lofty ideas, unanswered questions, and epiphanies collected during this long inquiry into a beautifully written narrative."
390:, a Canadian-American psycholinguist and author, said he agreed with McCarthy's overall notion that "thought is not the same thing as language" but warned against drawing too many conclusions from the example of Kekulé's dream, noting that
372:, Nick Romeo said the essay was a successful adaptation of McCarthy's distinctive writing style into the realm of non-fiction, with its "folksy locutions and no-nonsense sentence fragments and even, at points, the vaguely biblical
1462:
824:
1452:
274:
called it "a reader's memoir. If you like, a thinker's memoir. A wonderer's memoir. Notes of a mental traveler. McCarthy Table Talk," placing it in the tradition of such essayists as "
1457:
406:—said the subject of the Kekulé problem was "hardly surprising" for McCarthy, describing the author's decades-long career in fiction as an "unrelenting struggle to say
941:
410:." The McCarthy scholar Jay Ellis said that the paper's greatest value was the insight it provided into the author's worldview, and highlighted its latent
376:
of his earlier novels", and remarked that the author's "thoughts on the unconscious", though "framed as scientific reflections ... also creep toward
1432:
1065:
1040:
1417:
887:
171:, an American evolutionary biologist who had known McCarthy for two decades, wrote a brief introduction. Don Kilpatrick III provided illustrations.
810:
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167:
first ran the article online on April 20, 2017, then printed it as the cover story for an issue on the subject of consciousness.
1374:
1194:
1122:
1161:
1153:
1033:
564:
562:
Berridge, George (March 23, 2018). "Madness and civilization: The literary influences and output of an
American genius".
1314:
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927:
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612:
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266:, such as an anecdote stemming from one of McCarthy's frequent lunchtime conversations with his friend, the physicist
163:
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vast majority of dreams and reveries don't solve major problems in the history of science."
239:
235:
225:
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536:
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270:. Such elements of memoir are virtually absent from any of McCarthy's published writings.
150:
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111:
31:
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educate us. (Moral compulsion? Is he serious?)" The logic here leaps with dramatic humor.
573:
373:
1225:
1114:
932:
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368:
337:
311:
766:(October 16, 2021). "A Few Nice Things and a Few Problems with 'The Kekulé Problem'".
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333:
329:
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271:
267:
630:
Ellis, Jay (2019). "Chapter 17 - Science and
Technology". In Frye, Steven (ed.).
811:"Cormac McCarthy explains the brutal, beautiful neuroscience of the unconscious"
785:
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158:
72:
27:
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221:
254:"The Kekulé Problem" is written in the style of a reflective philosophical
184:
228:
could provide a meaningful solution to a fundamentally linguistic problem.
1130:
377:
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691:
670:
217:
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1018:
685:(3). London: The European Association for American Studies: 1–29.
411:
255:
77:
1015:(November 27, 2017) – McCarthy's answer to reader correspondence
1022:
1463:
Works originally published in science and technology magazines
320:
856:. No. 19. New York: NautilusThink, Inc. pp. 22–31.
710:
Science and
Literature in Cormac McCarthy's Expanding Worlds
348:"The Kekulé Problem" was published in the science magazine
905:
Cormac McCarthy, Philosophy and the
Physics of the Damned
957:
Stagg, Guy (February–March 2023). "The
Solitary Road".
1349:
1306:
1288:
1244:
1217:
1184:
1141:
1115:
Blood
Meridian; or, the Evening Redness in the West
1074:
845:"The Kekulé Problem: Where did language come from?"
477:
475:
473:
128:
104:
91:
86:
65:
57:
49:
21:
735:
609:Cormac McCarthy: A complexity theory of literature
157:(SFI). It was McCarthy's first published work of
149:" is a 2017 essay written by the American author
1453:Works originally published in American magazines
1013:"Cormac McCarthy Returns to the Kekulé Problem"
878:"Cormac McCarthy Returns to the Kekulé Problem"
416:
400:—a British philosopher and book critic for the
1458:Works originally published in online magazines
611:. Contemporary American and Canadian Writers.
581:Christman, Phil (March 2023). "Ghost Guilts".
1034:
591:(3). New York: Commonweal Foundation: 42–43.
8:
876:——— (November 27, 2017b).
354:on April 20, 2017. The essay is about 3,000
1181:
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1041:
1027:
1019:
928:"Cormac McCarthy Explains the Unconscious"
38:
690:
493:
671:"Mirror-Image Asymmetry, Chirality, and
741:: The phantom world of Cormac McCarthy"
433:
224:. McCarthy asks how the non-linguistic
549:from the original on December 22, 2022
452:
440:
18:
1004:"The Kekulé Problem" (pp. 22–31)
568:. No. 5999. London. p. 23.
517:
481:
464:
7:
890:from the original on October 9, 2022
679:European Journal of American Studies
545:. New York: The Baffler Foundation.
505:
234:McCarthy analyzes a famous dream of
944:from the original on April 24, 2017
863:from the original on June 29, 2023
809:MacLellan, Lila (April 21, 2017).
44:Illustration by Don Kilpatrick III
14:
1433:Philosophy of language literature
535:Baker, Erik (December 22, 2022).
886:. New York: NautilusThink, Inc.
827:from the original on May 4, 2017
208:The title refers to the chemist
195:
183:
1418:American non-fiction literature
1375:Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy
926:Romeo, Nick (April 22, 2017).
708:——— (2023).
418:he unconscious appears like a
262:. There are flashes of direct
220:after a symbolic dream of the
1:
1438:Philosophy of mind literature
565:The Times Literary Supplement
1307:Adaptations by other writers
1368:The Cormac McCarthy Journal
786:10.5325/cormmccaj.19.2.0203
778:Penn State University Press
769:The Cormac McCarthy Journal
613:Manchester University Press
1479:
909:Edinburgh University Press
903:O'Connor, Patrick (2022).
636:Cambridge University Press
632:Cormac McCarthy in Context
1448:Works about consciousness
1056:
644:10.1017/9781108772297.018
607:Cooper, Lydia R. (2021).
37:
26:
1408:Works by Cormac McCarthy
132:April 20, 2017
16:Essay by Cormac McCarthy
1443:Psycholinguistics works
161:. The science magazine
1323:No Country for Old Men
1123:No Country for Old Men
669:Giemza, Bryan (2017).
425:
212:'s realization of the
1315:All the Pretty Horses
1154:All the Pretty Horses
843:(March–April 2017a).
537:"Reenchanted Science"
238:'s as a model of the
1382:Wittliff Collections
1186:The Passenger Series
995:"The Kekulé Problem"
734:(October 19, 2022).
638:. pp. 180–194.
22:"The Kekulé Problem"
1170:Cities of the Plain
960:The London Magazine
776:(2). Pennsylvania:
714:Bloomsbury Academic
455:, pp. 105–106.
244:origins of language
1297:The Kekulé Problem
1270:The Sunset Limited
1252:The Gardener's Son
1234:The Sunset Limited
1144:The Border Trilogy
1083:The Orchard Keeper
692:10.4000/ejas.12336
260:first-person voice
258:in McCarthy's own
155:Santa Fe Institute
147:The Kekulé Problem
1428:Philosophy essays
1423:Magazine articles
1390:
1389:
1213:
1212:
1180:
1179:
918:978-1-4744-9728-2
798:Project MUSE
723:978-1-5013-8379-3
653:978-1-108-80869-9
622:978-1-5261-4858-2
143:
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374:grandiloquence
369:The New Yorker
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739:The Passenger
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408:the unsayable
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403:New Statesman
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388:Steven Pinker
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264:autobiography
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236:August Kekulé
227:
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216:structure of
215:
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210:August Kekulé
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53:United States
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1362:Judge Holden
1339:Child of God
1337:
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1296:
1276:
1268:
1251:
1232:
1224:
1203:Stella Maris
1201:
1193:
1185:
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1162:The Crossing
1160:
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1129:
1121:
1113:
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1099:Child of God
1097:
1089:
1081:
1061:Bibliography
1007:
974:
958:
946:. Retrieved
936:. New York:
931:
904:
892:. Retrieved
881:
865:. Retrieved
851:
829:. Retrieved
819:. New York:
814:
773:
767:
752:. Retrieved
745:
738:
709:
682:
678:
672:
631:
608:
594:
588:
582:
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551:. Retrieved
540:
513:
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489:
460:
448:
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417:
401:
396:
381:
367:
365:
349:
347:
319:
272:Peter Josyph
268:George Zweig
253:
233:
162:
146:
144:
95:
92:Published in
1403:2017 essays
1245:Screenplays
780:: 203–218.
542:The Baffler
453:Josyph 2021
441:Josyph 2021
414:qualities:
344:Publication
159:non-fiction
87:Publication
73:Non-fiction
28:Short story
1397:Categories
1289:Nonfiction
1091:Outer Dark
938:Condé Nast
732:Gray, John
584:Commonweal
574:A634283993
518:Ellis 2019
482:Romeo 2017
465:Ellis 2019
428:References
356:words long
318: [
136:2017-04-20
105:Media type
999:nautil.us
980:161597867
969:0024-6085
963:: 65–71.
821:G/O Media
794:240982944
701:1991-9336
662:243436908
600:162251799
506:Gray 2022
398:John Gray
362:Reception
280:Montaigne
222:ouroboros
1331:The Road
1299:" (2017)
1131:The Road
1008:Nautilus
948:June 28,
942:Archived
888:Archived
883:Nautilus
867:June 28,
858:Archived
853:Nautilus
831:June 30,
825:Archived
750:. London
553:June 30,
547:Archived
412:dramatic
378:theology
351:Nautilus
304:Cendrars
250:Analysis
242:and the
164:Nautilus
153:for the
97:Nautilus
66:Genre(s)
58:Language
1107:Suttree
894:July 1,
754:July 1,
673:Suttree
528:Sources
420:Beckett
334:Kerouac
324:],
308:Saroyan
292:Whitman
284:Thoreau
218:benzene
175:Summary
134: (
61:English
50:Country
1378:(1999)
1342:(2013)
1334:(2009)
1326:(2007)
1318:(2000)
1281:(2013)
1273:(2011)
1262:(1996)
1257:(1977)
1237:(2006)
1229:(1995)
1206:(2022)
1198:(2022)
1173:(1998)
1165:(1994)
1157:(1992)
1134:(2006)
1126:(2005)
1118:(1985)
1110:(1979)
1102:(1973)
1094:(1968)
1086:(1965)
1075:Novels
1066:Awards
978:
967:
915:
816:Quartz
802:814967
800:
792:
720:
699:
660:
650:
619:
598:
572:
383:Quartz
380:." At
338:Selzer
330:Miller
316:Eisely
300:Orwell
296:Huxley
276:Seneca
214:ringed
190:Kekulé
112:Online
1218:Plays
973:EBSCO
861:(PDF)
848:(PDF)
790:S2CID
658:S2CID
593:EBSCO
326:Vidal
312:Woolf
288:Twain
256:essay
116:print
78:essay
975:host
965:ISSN
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