Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian

[Camus123]

@TS, By that time in the novel, he was no longer the kid....He was referenced as the man.



That said I've read everything McCarthy has written, including most of his play writes and Blood Meridian is a transcendent journey I've managed to finish six different times in my life. Twice in the last year. I cannot stop returning to it. It's gotten to the point where I can pretty much read it in one sitting.

The line that has forever stuck with me was: "He will not see again the freezing kitchenhouse in the predawn dark. The firewood, the washpots."

I can't explain it, but, it sticks with me.

Also:





To me, it is ultimate beauty. The Judge encompasses every facet of humanity. McCarthy used the story of Glanton like Kubrick used King's The Shining. They turned it into a vehicle for a much deeper and hidden message.

EDIT:

Worth a watch, check these out!

I agree with your assessment. I think Judge Holden is one of the great characters in western literature. I've read Blood Meridian and The Road. What in your opinion should my next McCarthy read be?

 

[Phoenix Down]

I agree with your assessment. I think Judge Holden is one of the great characters in western literature. I've read Blood Meridian and The Road. What in your opinion should my next McCarthy read be?

All The Pretty Horses / The Crossing / Cities of the Plain.

It's the complete Border Trilogy, just a phenomenal journey.

The Crossing is second only to Blood Meridian as my favorite works from McCarthy.

 

[new_mexico1]

Ah, Blood Meridian. I managed to soldier through the bombast and the antic ramblings of the poorly fleshed out characters and the near plotless back and forth marauding, and I finally finished the damn thing.

Not a fan. The idea was strong, but I wasn't impressed by the execution. Sure, McCarthy has a great command of the language, but other than that, it did nothing for me. It was like literary cotton candy; very pretty, but very airy.

I respect that everyone else likes it, of course. I certainly don't regret reading it. It was my fourth McCarthy, and won't be my last, despite liking two of them and disliking two of them.

On the not so fleshed out characters and pointless violence. I think that was intentional.

 

[Gates of Janus]

On the not so fleshed out characters and pointless violence. I think that was intentional.

it was a story about a gang of scalp hunters. we would expect a lot of pointless violence. well, it had a point, get that cash.

i thought BM was the best display of chaoitc violence i ever read.

good book.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

On the not so fleshed out characters and pointless violence. I think that was intentional.

Oh, I definitely assumed that. I give McCarthy enough credit not to think he'd make such huge mistakes. But the intentionality doesn't change my criticism.

it was a story about a gang of scalp hunters. we would expect a lot of pointless violence. well, it had a point, get that cash.

i thought BM was the best display of chaoitc violence i ever read.

good book.

Right, but he labored on the point for far too long, IMO. It's not a profound statement to make that the United States--hell, the entire New World--was founded on violence. Three hundred pages of repetitive violence didn't bring me any enlightenment.

It's funny, because just last week (I think) I finally got around to reading The Iliad, and it was very reminiscent of BM in that sense. However, The Iliad had a completely different purpose, being a repository for the memories of dead heroes and their brave acts.

 

[new_mexico1]

it was a story about a gang of scalp hunters. we would expect a lot of pointless violence. well, it had a point, get that cash.

i thought BM was the best display of chaoitc violence i ever read.

good book.

Rex is talking about how it went on sometimes to the point of boredom. And I don't disagree. I just think that's what he wanted us to feel. We were being desensitized to the violence almost like the characters. It's probably why there were so much "and they rode on" parts. We were almost living their life of extremely boring riding and mindless killing. The author wanted us to feel that way.

 

[Toda Hiro-matsu]

I re-read all Blood Meridian on Sunday and since then there's been a weight upon and a darkness around me. When I meditate images of violence and desolation like those described in the book are disturbingly conjured. I don't think that book is meant to be crammed down all at once. Now I'm reading Jane Austen to try and counteract the lingering sense of bleakness and death McCarthy left in my mind.

Good novel but god-damn is it ever grim.

And when you post you're trying to channel him??? You forgot that part.

 

[Phoenix Down]

Ah, Blood Meridian. I managed to soldier through the bombast and the antic ramblings of the poorly fleshed out characters and the near plotless back and forth marauding, and I finally finished the damn thing.

Not a fan. The idea was strong, but I wasn't impressed by the execution. Sure, McCarthy has a great command of the language, but other than that, it did nothing for me. It was like literary cotton candy; very pretty, but very airy.

I respect that everyone else likes it, of course. I certainly don't regret reading it. It was my fourth McCarthy, and won't be my last, despite liking two of them and disliking two of them.

Attention seeking / purposeful ignorance / lack of understanding at it's finest.

It's considered one of the greatest American novels ever written, get real, it's not even an opinion. It's an incredible feat of literature and if you can't wrap your head around it, it's not the books fault, it's yours.

Rex is talking about how it went on sometimes to the point of boredom.

What part of Blood Meridian did you find boring? I'd love to hear what chapter / section you guys are talking about.

On the not so fleshed out characters and pointless violence. I think that was intentional.

If you have to explain this to him....It's not....Going to make any sense....He obviously doesn't get it.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

Rex is talking about how it went on sometimes to the point of boredom. And I don't disagree. I just think that's what he wanted us to feel. We were being desensitized to the violence almost like the characters. It's probably why there were so much "and they rode on" parts. We were almost living their life of extremely boring riding and mindless killing. The author wanted us to feel that way.

Yup, I agree with your thoughts on McCarthy's intentions. I'm sure everything in BM was deliberate; he's no hack, and this wasn't his first rodeo. I just wasn't impressed by it. In order to make that type of thing work--the back and forth, near plotlessness--the work needs to be special, it needs an extremely strong underpinning. IMO, the ruminations on violence weren't enough. Perhaps if the characters were better, or his "philosophy" more interesting, I would have been OK with it.

McCarthy gets compared to Melville a lot, and if there's any merit to that, it's probably because Melville likes to intersperse a little bit of plot between large chunks of ruminations. IMO, Meville does it a lot better, though. Except in his book Mardi. That might have been an even more tiresome read than BM, to me. It's no Moby-Dick, that's for sure.

You should check it out, perhaps it'd appeal to you since you liked BM for the reasons I didn't.

 

[Denter]

I've been driving through New Mexico for the last few days and I can't help but think about the book as I look out across the land.

 

[new_mexico1]

Yup, I agree with your thoughts on McCarthy's intentions. I'm sure everything in BM was deliberate; he's no hack, and this wasn't his first rodeo. I just wasn't impressed by it. In order to make that type of thing work--the back and forth, near plotlessness--the work needs to be special, it needs an extremely strong underpinning. IMO, the ruminations on violence weren't enough. Perhaps if the characters were better, or his "philosophy" more interesting, I would have been OK with it.

McCarthy gets compared to Melville a lot, and if there's any merit to that, it's probably because Melville likes to intersperse a little bit of plot between large chunks of ruminations. IMO, Meville does it a lot better, though. Except in his book Mardi. That might have been an even more tiresome read than BM, to me. It's no Moby-Dick, that's for sure.

You should check it out, perhaps it'd appeal to you since you liked BM for the reasons I didn't.

I'm still going through Moby Dick. I know Blood Meridian gets compared to Moby Dick a lot as in the vids posted earlier. I read a few books at once so I still have a way to go but I can already see a lot of the similarities. The other worldly similarities between Moby Dick and The Judge, the albino coloring, them representing aspects of human nature, the metaphorical story and the attempts to fight against those aspects. Both Ishmael and the Kid receiving prophecies, etc.

One of the big differences, though, is how Melville goes about much of it. He simply straight up tells you that Ahab sees in the whale this and that and the whale represents all this stuff. He also dedicates an entire chapter telling us the importance of the white coloring. In Blood Meridian all these things aren't told to you straight out. Some similarities with different approaches.

 

[KOQ24]

im about halfway through the book.
mccarthy is difficult to follow at times,but i really like it so far

 

[JonesBones]

Ah, Blood Meridian. I managed to soldier through the bombast and the antic ramblings of the poorly fleshed out characters and the near plotless back and forth marauding, and I finally finished the damn thing.

Not a fan. The idea was strong, but I wasn't impressed by the execution. Sure, McCarthy has a great command of the language, but other than that, it did nothing for me. It was like literary cotton candy; very pretty, but very airy.

I respect that everyone else likes it, of course. I certainly don't regret reading it. It was my fourth McCarthy, and won't be my last, despite liking two of them and disliking two of them.

Same thing. You could tell it was written by a deep man, and there was wisdom there...

It was just a chore to read.. He was trying too hard. It didn't really reveal anything to me. It was forgettable. In great books, I always find at least one great idea that I carry with me, for the rest of my life. I just don't feel Blood Meridian added anything to the world.

 

[sh1tehawke]

i've been meaning to read this for a while, ive heard a lot of good things about it, i hear its supposed to be brutally violent too.

i've read both the road and no country and thought both were excellent and would recommend you read them. i couldn't get into moby dick, tried a few times but its just so slow.

i think mccarthy is a great writer and you've inspired me to seek out blood meridian, i will bump this thread when i've read it!

i finally got round to reading this nearly 18 months after threatening to, just finished it on my dinner break. tbh im kind of unsure whether i liked it or not yet, it was not an easy read (use some commas ffs!) by any means and theres a lot to process. i took it that the judge killed the kid, but after reading through this thread the rape angle kinda makes some sense. after all the brutal violence that is done throughout you wouldn't think that a murder, however violent, would so shock the men who look through the jake door.

the judge though, what a great character, he has one of the best entrances for a character i can remember.

Edit - Also what was the deal with the epilogue, with the guy digging holes in the desert, i don't know if i missed something but i didn't grasp what that was about??

 

[xenomorph4prez]

I'm a chapter away from finishing Blood Meridian and I cast Marlon Brando as The Judge while reading. I can't think of anyone else that would've been more capable of pulling off Judge Holden.

 

[xenomorph4prez]

I just finished Blood Meridian and enjoyed as much as one can I guess and plan to read it again in the near future.

Some things I picked up on that I thought were interesting.

I found it interesting that the kid was a part of Glanton's gang that were brutal scalp hunters and after the gang was killed the kid went on to join a buffalo hunter who killed buffalo for their hides to near extinction. So we have the kid involved in the mass killing of two different beings for profit of their hides. This makes the fact that Judge Holden is hairless interesting because in a way he is immune to scalping (hiding in the case of the buffalo). Holden seems to be symbolic of evil in one way or another and the fact that he is hairless (hideless) and often appears naked could be a symbol of the purity of his evil as mentioned by another poster.

At the end of the book when the dancing bear is shot and killed I thought of a previous scene in the book where the Glanton gang happen upon a bear and fire on it and in response the bear seizes one of the Delaware's in it's maw and carries him into the forest where they both disappear. The dancing bear who is now tamed is shot twice but does not react violently and instead goes about the unnatural act of dancing that it has been conditioned to do until it falls over dead. I'm sure there is something to be taken from these two scenes. Also interesting is that someone was looking for the dancing bear's owner to inquire about purchasing the bears hide.

Another interesting bit was the end of the book of which I will continue to talk about in spoiler.

Spoiler

Earlier in the book Glanton's gang were given a warning from the Mennonite. "The wrath of God lies sleeping. It was hid a million years before men were and only men have power to wake it. Hell aint half full. Hear me. Ye carry war of a madman's making onto a foreign land. Ye'll wake more than the dogs."

At the end of the book when Judge Holden is dancing and singing he says that he never sleeps and he will never die. When Holden was doing this I couldn't help but think that he had taken the place of the dancing bear as the entertainment. Bears are dangerous as we were shown earlier but can be tamed. Holden is obviously a very dangerous man but can also appear civil and even charming making him even more dangerous than a bear as he can hide among men even though he is a merciless beast. Was Holden meant to be God's wrath personified or just the evil of man? I'm not sure what I think about this yet but I thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[drstrangelov]

I just finished Blood Meridian and enjoyed as much as one can I guess and plan to read it again in the near future.

Some things I picked up on that I thought were interesting.

I found it interesting that the kid was a part of Glanton's gang that were brutal scalp hunters and after the gang was killed the kid went on to join a buffalo hunter who killed buffalo for their hides to near extinction. So we have the kid involved in the mass killing of two different beings for profit of their hides. This makes the fact that Judge Holden is hairless interesting because in a way he is immune to scalping (hiding in the case of the buffalo). Holden seems to be symbolic of evil in one way or another and the fact that he is hairless (hideless) and often appears naked could be a symbol of the purity of his evil as mentioned by another poster.

At the end of the book when the dancing bear is shot and killed I thought of a previous scene in the book where the Glanton gang happen upon a bear and fire on it and in response the bear seizes one of the Delaware's in it's maw and carries him into the forest where they both disappear. The dancing bear who is now tamed is shot twice but does not react violently and instead goes about the unnatural act of dancing that it has been conditioned to do until it falls over dead. I'm sure there is something to be taken from these two scenes. Also interesting is that someone was looking for the dancing bear's owner to inquire about purchasing the bears hide.

Another interesting bit was the end of the book of which I will continue to talk about in spoiler.

Spoiler

Earlier in the book Glanton's gang were given a warning from the Mennonite. "The wrath of God lies sleeping. It was hid a million years before men were and only men have power to wake it. Hell aint half full. Hear me. Ye carry war of a madman's making onto a foreign land. Ye'll wake more than the dogs."

At the end of the book when Judge Holden is dancing and singing he says that he never sleeps and he will never die. When Holden was doing this I couldn't help but think that he had taken the place of the dancing bear as the entertainment. Bears are dangerous as we were shown earlier but can be tamed. Holden is obviously a very dangerous man but can also appear civil and even charming making him even more dangerous than a bear as he can hide among men even though he is a merciless beast. Was Holden meant to be God's wrath personified or just the evil of man? I'm not sure what I think about this yet but I thought it was worth mentioning.

The judge is just a big bald dickhead, the product of poison soil. He shrinks when exposed to neon light.

 

[Tankeray]

need to read this again

 

[deadshot138]

Anyone read this lately? Watched a couple YT video explanations and it just made me want to read it more. Seems fascinating.

 

[Osculater]

Anyone read this lately? Watched a couple YT video explanations and it just made me want to read it more. Seems fascinating.

Maybe Denis Villeneuve should make a movie adaptation