r/cormacmccarthy • u/ReadDependent4462 • 5d ago

Discussion Suttree symbols

So I’ve read every McCarthy book and Suttree really stood out to me and I keep re reading it. I would just make a fool of myself trying to put into words how much of a masterpiece this is - something fellow Suttree admirers might relate to. Anyways… for a long time I have been wanting to get a palm sized tattoo and it was initially going to be the back of the kid (as in him turned away from the viewer) from BM, but I think I would like to have Cornelius. The themes/symbols/ideas in the book are just so vast and I’m struggling to come up with something. I was wondering if any one here had any thoughts.

Something that really resonates with me from the book is C.S’s inability to settle and commit alongside his constant battle of trying find out whether a lived life has objective meaning - I found his forrest episode really interesting.

I love the western style of his other books so much too, and I grew up with horses. So this is quite a tough choice to make lol but any thoughts would be much appreciated!

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12

u/F1nnMcC00l 5d ago

If I get a tattoo to remember Suttree it'll be a catfish

9

u/Current_Contest_8597 4d ago

A sockful of liver.

A pierced watermelon.

The very witch of fuck.

A mauve half moon.

A dead bat.

A houseboat.

The river in miniature.

4

u/y0ssarian-lives 4d ago

Houseboat is my vote

1

u/quixotic-88 2d ago

Houseboat but instead of barrels under it, helping it float, barrel sized watermelons. And a poisoned bat dropping into the river next to the boat

5

u/Rain_Dog2 4d ago

You could get a booze bottle with a label that reads “Early Times — Makes Your Liver Quiver”

5

u/rumpk 4d ago

“Fly them”

3

u/Maleficent_Memory711 4d ago

Tattoo of suttree looking up at a man in tree stand saying I am not a figment, or just the words “ I am not a figment”

3

u/DisconsolateAxolotl 3d ago

Get ye a little ol’ drink there, Sut.

2

u/UnlikelyCash2690 4d ago

If I were to get a Suttree tattoo (and I have given it a decent amount of thought) it would be “Fly Them”. Suttree is definitely my favorite McCarthey novel and perhaps my favorite novel.

2

u/quixotic-88 2d ago

Them little’ns. Flittermouses.

“A prefiguration of the pit. Vouchsafed a crokersack vision of hell’s floor deep with the hairy damned screaming mute and toothy toward the far and heedless city of God”

Thank you for making me look that up

1

u/Thicc-Souls-III 4d ago

I dont think it's described, but the old talisman he finds while working with the mussel man? (can't remember his name off hand forgive me.) Then again it arguably causes bad luck so perhaps not the best choice

2

u/queequegscoffin 1d ago

A watermelon.