No Country for Olympians, Either

The ending of No Country for Old Men re-emphasizes Cormac McCarthy’s view that, despite our hopes to the contrary, God and goodness will never be able to overcome evil.  Ed Tom Bell dreams himself into some sense of solace as he copes with Ellis revelations that the world has always had unstoppable figures like Anton Chigurh, and evil would reign in the future whether Bell manages to stop Chigurh or not.  As in other McCarthy novels, most notably Blood Meridian, the pursuit of virtue and goodness might enable one to see the world for what it is, and even perhaps to come to grips with it, but it can never help one overcome the world.  And in the character of Chigurh, evil seems to have achieved the level of fate, even if the assassin would seem to wish otherwise at times.  Admittedly, this particular theme in the novel and the film is so engrossing that it’s been the center of my interpretive reflections, and it has probably kept me from thinking about other important aspects of the plot.

But today I was thinking on Chigurh’s crash in the final sequences of the film, and I was struck by how it deviates from the gnostic theme of the movie to critique the possibility of chance overcoming fate or evil.  It’s McCarthy’s demonstration of an attempted deus ex machina, in an almost literal interpretation of that device.  Chance can’t stop Chigurh though, who throws $100 at some boys for a shirt while they look on in awe of his compound fracture.  He gets up and hobbles off before the authorities arrive to inspect the scene, escaping justice once again.  It’s McCarthy saying that God isn’t going to help out, and no, the universe isn’t going to right itself either.

No More Worldview

I’ve just finished the first major section in James Davidson Hunter’s To Change the World and it bristles with criticism not only for Christian public life in the United States, but also even more for the ways in which that public life has been viewed, discussed, and theorized by Christians.  Hunter not only goes after the founders of the idea of cultural change (Chuck Colson and members of the “Religious Right”), but even dispatches new theorists like Andy Crouch.  In the words of a friend, “it says most of the things we’ve been thinking about for the past few years, but in a cohesive and integrated way.”  The internal coherence of what Hunter puts forth is the real value of the book, or at least Essay 1, “Christianity and World-Changing.”  Before that dampens your desire to read the book, remember that I’m not through with the book yet.  And having read just that section, I find that Hunter’s careful construction and integration of various concerns is as important as some of those concerns individually.  My hope as I continue through the book is that the emerging whole will be beneficial.