Episode II: The Origin of Judge Holden

A deep dive into the greatest villain in all of Literature: Judge Holden of Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece, Blood Meridian. I discuss Samuel Chamberlain's memoir, My Confession, the only record of the historical "Judge Holden of Texas"--one of the primary sources for McCarthy's novel. I also talk about the way McCarthy weds the "motiveless malignancy" of Shakespeare's Iago (also, Milton's Satan and Melville's Ahab) to the mysterious historical figure from Chamberlain's memoir.