Humans like to think of themselves as evolved creatures with morals, values, and standards. So it was pretty darn shocking when one of the world’s leading publications decided to glorify the abuse of a 16-year-old girl at the hands of now-deceased author Cormac McCarthy. The author of the article might try to justify their relationship. But when a 42-year-old man says he fell in love with a foster child after meeting her at a hotel pool, something is seriously wrong.
The girl in question, Augusta Britt, is now 64 years old and spoke to Vanity Fair about the first time she saw McCarthy in Tucson, Arizona. When she eventually realized he was the author of The Orchard Keeper, a book she was reading at the time, she took her copy over to him for an autograph. Despite being tossed around the foster care system and enduring abuse from her father, she had no intention of starting a relationship with him.
Britt’s recollection of events paints McCarthy as her savior who took her away from an already troubled life. And if one were in her shoes, the sentiment might be shared. What is troubling is the glorification of the strange May-December relationship by the writer of the Vanity Fair article. The person goes out of their way to avoid the obvious problematic elements and instead chooses to describe the coupling as a “crazy” story about an author and his “secret muse.”
“Just imagine for a moment: You’re an unappreciated literary genius who has not even hit your stride before going out of print,” the Vanity Fair article asks its readers. “You’re sitting by a pool at a cheap motel when a beautiful 16-year-old runaway sidles up to you with a stolen gun in one hand and your debut novel in the other. She flickers with comic innocence yet tragic experience beyond her years and an atavistic insistence on survival on her own terms.”
Folks on social have been sharing their thoughts about this highly problematic take and have openly expressed their disgust. “Genuinely stunned this got published. The writer is positively drooling over the thought of an exploited, abused 16-year-old girl. He celebrates Cormac McCarthy’s pedophilia (he was 42!) as ‘the craziest love story.’ What is going on here?” @delaney_nolanwrote on X. “When he was 42, Cormac McCarthy fell in love with a 16-year-old girl he met by a motel pool,” @Tuosma added.
A user named @adamquinn__called out the profile on Britt for what it is. “When Vanity Fair pays by the word and you convince the editor you need to poorly emulate Cormac McCarthy style nature writing constantly in your international sex trafficking exposé.” That is essentially what the writer does between direct quotes from Britt, whose life was filled with violence until she met an exploitative older man who took advantage of her in other ways.
Unfortunately, it seems like Britt was taken advantage of once more by a publication that failed to see how troubling it is to see a story about an abused teen finding solace with a lesser abuser. While she might not have been getting beaten, she was still a victim of the Blood Meridian author, and her story should not have been published in this manner.
