The relationship between Tobin, Toadvine and the Kid was honestly just really well written. Everytime the Kid and Tobin are written in the same scene was just pure gold.
I feel bad for the expriest. He's mostly just taunted/abused by Holden and he just disappears into the city after him and the kid make it out of the desert. He's almost a sort of guardian angel and I like to think thats why the man carries around the bible he can't read, just to honor Tobin's memory.
This is something I’ve been thinking about here lately and it’s about the kid and his lack of an actual name, I think he isn’t just merely an unnamed character in the story but was deliberately left nameless by his father. It’s established that his father was a learned man yet he never taught his son how to read or write and it’s not so much that he hated his son as it is he just never cared for him in the slightest bit. So given that, why would he even bother naming “the creature” who caused the death of his wife. This notion of a father who holds complete indifference to his offspring is often reflected in the silence and disappearance of God throughout the book and it adds another layer to the effect a loveless, careless father can have on a child. Also, I got chills when you were reading about the massacred penitents and the dead woman. This entire book is chilling.
I agree. And reading your comment made me think about the holy trinity: the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Does that make the Judge the Holy Spirit? 🤔 😳 I can see the comparison of God seemingly abandoning his son (mankind), and the fatherless-ness we see in the novel. I could think about this novel for hours. I’m considering doing another read thorough and trying to dissect it a few chapters at a time. Anyone can join in the discussion and read along if they like. I really like hearing other people’s perspectives. The more I think about the scene with the Abuelita, the more I think she is a pagan representation in the novel. She could be the crone, the spirit of the earth there to silently judge men’s actions in indifference. Much like the land is indifferent to man in all the long descriptions that McCarthy gives us. Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts.
@@jeffreyholmes7216 he was not immune. Spoilers Although it could be interpreted that nothing happened in the end, but it's pretty much stated that SOMETHING horrible happened to the kid in an outhouse.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize On that note, I have often thought about The Kid becoming The Man (i.e. the Son becoming the Father) by the Holy Spirit. While the implications in the outhouse at the end of the novel is generally agreed on, perhaps it is more to do with perpetuating the cycle of Father and Son.
I almost didn't click on this because of the title of the video, but you give it a fair treatment. In my opinion, this is the single best, heaviest, and most haunting novel ever written by an American author. Few writers can even dream of attaining the level that McCarthy does in 'Blood Meridian'.
It has become one of my “favourite” books of all time. But yes, it is heavy and dark, and I could not stop thinking about it. I want to work my way through all of McCarthy’s works to see how his style evolved. I’m especially excited for the 2 book releases of his coming out later this year. Have you read his other works?
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I read 'Blood Meridian' first, in 1992, and that led me to his other books. I've now read all of his major works, and 'Blood Meridian' still stands as my favorite. After that, I would say 'No Country' and ''All the Pretty Horses'. Let me add that is is a rare pleasure to see some intelligent topics and commentary in today's morass of social media inanity. I appreciate what you are doing here. It gives me some hope that there are still some intelligent and thoughtful folks out 'there'.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Suttree is his only other book I read, written before Blood Meridian, and I enjoyed that one. Somewhat plotless but eventful and picturesque.
Thank you for the focus on the scene where the kid tries to help the old woman. It's not as famous as some of the other scenes, like the "war is god" speech or the dance in the saloon at the climax, but it has always been the most affecting moment in the entire novel for me. I think it's the moment where the tragedy of the Kid/Man's life is fully encapsulated. The Kid/Man, as a representative everyman in this spiritual wasteland, is a failure (as repeatedly and correctly pointed out by the Judge) because he understands what is right but isn't strong enough to act on it. He can never bring himself to help his friends without holding back, is never able to act decisively to stand up to evil and kill the Judge, etc. After decades of experience and encountering numerous examples of truly good people, the Kid/Man fully understands that love is the greatest good, but when he expresses this to the old woman, she crumbles and blows away. The Kid/Man has done far too little, far too late. It's only a matter of time before he is finally consumed by the evil that thrives in this spiritual wasteland, symbolized by what happens to him in the jakes at the end.
Thanks for recommending this book. The ending still has my brain scrambled. I feel like i have to cleanse my brain after that one. And i was an infantry soldier for 20 years and a combat vet. The scene where the judge bought 2 puppies from the little Mexican kid, then threw the dogs into the river and shot them. I am a combat veteran and I've never encountered anyone as cold and ruthless as the Judge. He never sleeps dancing and dancing, he says he will never die. the judge reminds me of Casca or Cassius, the roman soldier that jabbed Jesus with the spear while he hung on the cross. He was cursed to live until the end of time and cannot die. his curse is eternal war and suffering.
I'm so glad you read it. That ending is a whopper, eh? What the heck? That is an interesting comparison to that roman solider. But it seems the Judge wouldn't consider that curse to be suffering at all. Once I get through all of McCarthy's work I want to read Blood Meridian again. There is so much to dissect which is one of the reasons I really love reading McCarthy. Thank you for being here.
@mikewiest5135 i was also thrown by that statement, because I've been studying the various myths and sects of Christianity for years and never heard about a Roman solider cursed with immortality.
There’s just so much to come back to in this book, the violence is what hits you on a first read but I found myself transported and hypnotised by the physical descriptions of vistas, detailed and yet never overly dull and precise.
Both the prose and the themes in this novel are so rich and layered that you can still find things that you missed even on like a 5th or 6th read through. I think another thing that moment where the kid tries to help the dead woman may signify is that, for the kid (the man at that point), his soul is irrevocably corrupted, and while it’s admirable he’s trying to be a good person-he wasn’t a good person when it really counted, even if he’d felt conflicted. His indecision and lack of fortitude back then doomed him, and this was sort of a “closing the barn door after the horse escaped” moment, and his punishment was this cruel denial of being able to help this woman. In short: it’s too late. One other note regarding the violence of the novel - McCarthy has such a commanding authority over both his stories and his worlds (Blood Meridian in particular), something so few authors are capable of. And because of this authority, you don’t disbelieve a single word on the page, and because of that, the violence and brutality is that much more disturbing. It just feels “real,” even though we know it’s fiction. I’ve read other books with copious amounts of violence, and almost none were quite as bothersome to me on a physical level as this one was, and I think that McCarthy’s sheer authority over the text has a lot to do with that-even more so than just the depravity of the acts themselves. Where as seeing violence in other novels is like watching it on a slick and shiny feature film with CGI blood, in Blood Meridian, it’s like seeing it on a cell phone video, or even worse, with your own eyes. Jack Ketchum is the only other author I’ve personally encountered that can evoke a similar feeling.
I had never noticed that the towns which contained churches resisted the glanton gang. Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. Always finding new meaning from ERITW
Reading Blood Meridian was like taking penance. The omnipresent evil of The Judge and the meat grinder of ceaseless, casual violence paint a grim and hopeless canvas.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Isn't it weird, though, a grim and hopeless canvas is cool because it contains so much, as you say, "symbolism"? If the canvas is grim and hopeless, how can it be a great canvas unless we affirm grimness and hopelessness themselves as great? How can multiple layers of symbolism be the sign of a great novel -- if the whole point of the book is nothing matters or has meaning, even the most gruesome slaughter?
@@yusefasabiyah495 Not a lot of people can write violence like Cormac McCarthy. At first it seems gratuitous, he doesn't seduce the reader with likable characters on an easy to forgive vengeance ride, these characters are bad people doing bad things for their own not entirely understandable reasons. In McCarthy like in life, actions speak louder than words.
@@chickencharlie1992 I do not believe violence can be represented, either in literature or cinema. Violence isn't gore. Violence doesn't necessarily result in gore, either. The books I admire "about violence" contain almost no violence. I'm thinking of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, or Melville's Moby Dick. In A Farewell to Arms, the "hero" is in a dugout crumbling cheese over macaroni when there's a direct hit on the dugout-- war is then over. The kind of violence in Blood Meridian doesn't affect me one way or the other. I don't care about these people-- maybe they aren't even people. (If you get down to it, everything is dehumanized, including the innocent victims...and the writing.) I thought Stella's point about not learning anything or getting insight into violence was key. You can say "actions speak louder than words"-- but really, in literature-- is it anything but words? What are you reading? "Words, words, words."
Took a few times to read but damn it's a fine novel. McCarthy is my favorite living American writer. I'm not easily shook by violent stories but this one shook the shit from me. McCarthy is one of those writers who earns multiple rereadings.
MaCarthy is becoming one or my favourites. I want to read Blood Meridian again and I think I might do a read along or dissect chapter by chapter here on my channel.
Oh, one thing i forgot to mention in my other comment: While it is true that McCarthy's early novels were in the Southern Gothic genre, Blood Meridian itself is in the Western genre. McCarthy's writing centers around the regions he lives in, so when he moved to the southwest that meant that his writing changed setting as well.
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I finished the novel and want to thank you for that thought provoking analysis. Like you said, there are many trails and threads to think about. Like you I thought of Mephistopheles from time to time, the judge embodying - like Mephisto - the evil principle. Now that you mention the magic-like scene where Holden creates fire like an Übermensch, it comes to my mind how Mephisto lets flames appear out of nowhere among ordinary men. Then again the Judge claims authority over everything (like a luciferian god-wannabe) while Mephisto mocks humen for their pathetic striving. And what Holden explains to the boy at the end in the bar, how to perceive life and fate - I wonder how this is compatible with his goals you mentioned (rightfully, imo) in your analysis. What’s so special about this book in my opinion is that it not only leaves me thinking, like cognitively speaking, but that it also leaves a nagging indefinite feeling that there are things in life which are even more obscure than I already thought. Holden and the boy will for shure be on my mind for a long time.
The scene that sticks with me the most, is the scene of the native hoard attacking specifically the the one in the bloody weeding veil. I fill like that scene was the kids literal marriage to violence and is bound to his bride of violence until his death
Great video! I read BM almost a year ago and since then it has become my favorite novel and it made me go after every Mccarthy novel I could find. I still think about this novel from time to time, especially the ending with the Judge. What I love about this book is how rich it is. On the surface, this is only about a group of outlaws scalping people, but if you're willing to look for it, you can certainly find so much more
I completely agree. McCarty is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. What other novels of his would you recommend? I have Sutree and No Country for Old Men on my shelf waiting for me to read.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize No Country was the second novel of his that I read, and I definitely recommend since it has a more modern feel to it and it is easier to read, but if you want to experience his writing style at its finest then go for Suttree
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I loved it really. His mix of minimalist and expansive story was very good used. The story is surprisingly fast-paced, but the focus is the relationship between the father and the son and not the survival itself. Of course there are disturbing moments and all, but compared to other post apocalyptic novels, this one is quiet slow, but the ending is heartbreaking and also optimistic in a way
@@g.salencar8675 I really enjoyed it also. It was a great character study and it was griping. I could not for the life of me understand all the intense hate I hear about it in the book community. Nothing is for everyone, surely, but I appreciate when an author experiments and takes chances.
I just finished it and liked it. I’m glad you went through the symbolism and connection to the bible because being an atheist these didn’t jump out at me, but they make sense now. I’m reminded of what Bob Dylan said of some of his songs. He said each line, each sentence, could have been the basis for another song. Reading McCarthy, every sentence is so full of imagery and dense with texture that it feels like you should spend a few minutes just savouring it, like each mouthful of a fantastic meal. This is what I liked about the novel even more than plot or characterization. Pretty astounding
I agree. MaCarthy may become one of my favourite authors. I’ve only read The Road and Blood Meridian so far but I loved both. I have Suttree and No Country for Old Men on my shelf just waiting, and I’m excited to read more from him.
At this stage in my life, I still think All The Pretty Horses is the deeper and more beautiful CM work. That book made me cry. Not really, I'm a dude. Sigh. I just love CM. We lost a giant. He was probably the last of the greats of American lit.
I am reading this book currently. It is arguably more violent than No Country For Old Men, which was the first book of McCarthy's that I read. Very dark. His depictions of the Old West, Mexico, and the desert are incomparable with any other author that I have read.
No country and blood meridian have some poignant connections between them. You can draw a line between the ruthless western expansion of the 1800s displayed in BM and the moral quandaries faced by the characters in no country. It was mindless bloodlust that fueled the expansion, and now the lawmen of Texas have no moral ground to stand on. Also, I think both novels have characters with the family name Bell in them, not sure if that's important tho.
Fantastic review, I’ve only read this novel once and I really let it wash over me. I was so taken by McCarthy’s elegiac prose, his impossible descriptions that I am certain I missed a lot of the symbolism going on. I was excited for a re-read before, now I can’t wait
Thank you for this excellent analysis. I’ve read most of McCarthy’s novels and he should have won the Nobel prize for literature long ago. No other contemporary author brings such realism to their character’s voices, in my opinion. The fact that his work continues to be explored and discussed in film and literature, for decades now, speaks to the depth of the stories and the characters he created. McCarthy was known to hang around the Los Alamos national laboratory and interact with the scientists there. I believe his novels often reflect this understanding of a probabilistic universe in which the unfathomable chaos of black holes and gamma ray explosions exist beside the tiniest aspect of life on this planet. Amid this total chaos, his characters are continually challenged on their notions of goodness and morality. Satan is the most accessible illustration of mankind’s fundamental awareness of the abyss. This same agent of chaos drives other well known characters in his works; like Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. This same theme is explored to its ultimate conclusion in The Road.
Great analysis of Blood Meridian, one of my favorite novels. I confess, I couldn't get through it on my first attempt sometime in the late 90s. But when I decided to power through and give it the old college try, I really enjoyed it, although the violence was hard to take. I grew up reading horror like Stephen King, Clive Barker, and many other gore meisters. But there was something about the horrors contained in McCarthy's novel that took it to a whole new level. I began to see the violence as part of the landscape. It was hard to take, but the novel would not have worked without it. It's not about a gang of beauticians, after all. You are right to compare The Judge to the whale in Moby Dick, a novel which was indeed a big influence on McCarthy.
McCarthy is one of if not my favorite writer. This was the hardest of his books to get through & I had to set it down multiple times because some of the violence is so anatomically horrific & bleak. Biblical & Homeric in scale.
I read it this summer. Its a story that will stay in my mind for the rest of my life. Especially since in from El paso Texas and have been to some of the places featured in the book.
I finished Blood Meridian about an hour ago and went straight to UA-cam for some sort of closure on what the epilogue meant. Still vague as to what it could mean. I enjoyed the book and for me its about evil and its positives, during war. The war theme in the book I think is both an allegory for life as well as the actual act of war, we all fight until the bitter end however difficult the road ahead is and sometimes we will do things, evil things, to survive, things that ordinarily we might not do. The Judge represents that, for me. My only criticism is that I found some of the endless descriptions of the desert plains and mountains etc a little laboured at times, but the story was great. Might read again, might not. Your insight was useful too, the confession section especially.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Pleaure, sometimes it is best to leave things unresolved, I feel that way about 2001 A Space Odyssey. ive watched it lots of times and love it, but still not sure what the last 10minutes is about. although puzzling, I quite like it that way. Blood Meridian could be the same for me.
well... the actual real story was a little bit bloodier than the novel... the actual events took place in my hometown (and it's still kinda the same there ) ... at the same time as the glanton gang was roaming around, abraham lincoln's cousin was working a ferry on the colorado river at the confluence with the gila river (which was mexico at that time)... the glanton gang kinda took over the ferry and started killing off the nearby village of quechans/yumans who were competing with lincoln's ferry (and then selling the scalps to the state of sonora, mex.)... so the quechans massacred the gang in return. the survivors of the gang made their way to san diego and so the state of california sent an "army" to take back the ferry. this set off the yuma war. the state of california went bankrupt because of this war and requested federal troops. the federal troops established a fort as well as re-establishing the ferry to california and communication via the camino del diablo (the devil's road) to the new mexico territory.... well, at the same time as this war was going on at the river crossing, a group of mormons (mainly the oatman family) were heading to the baja and the colorado river delta from far west, missouri (cause they believed it was the new zion and had broken off from the mainstream mormons of brigham young)... well, about 50 miles east of present day yuma (which was mexico at that time), these mormons were massacred by some apaches (and to me, the oatman massacre set up the 2nd mormon war/mountain meadow massacre a couple of years later , cause the mormons definitely didn't trust other americans after this) and olive oatman and her sister were taken as captives (and for whatever reason, olive oatman is portrayed in the hell on wheels tv series) and then olive and her sister were traded off to another tribe... you can kinda understand, the tribes were pretty pissed off at anyone that was white and so the oatmans got caught up in all the killing going on... this yuma war lasted bout til bout 1855 but things had started settling down after the gadsden purchase and the area came under u.s. control... but that's when the filibusters started showing up from san francisco and set up a base at a place called filibuster camp (present day wellton, az) and that's kinda when the real bloodbath starts... two guys who were the most notorious filibusters was a guy named henry crabb and gaston de raousset-boulbon... crabb tried to take over sonora, mexico by land and boulbon by sea... both of them ended up having their heads on sticks and their "armies" massacred ... well, the heros of this whole mess were, the u.s. army officer named heintzelman (who also saved washington dc after the federal army was defeated at bull run in the civil war ) and the greatest lady of the west, sarah bowman( aka "the great western"), who was finally able to locate olive oatman and bought her back via a yaqui friend. sarah bowman is kinda like a real life legend and definitely has not received her status as a true american warrior, madam, and pioneer savior but she is buried at the presido in san francisco with full military honor as a colonel of the u.s. army (yup, there were female officers back in the day)... anyway, the novel blood meridian was based on samuel chamberlain's confessions ... and every story that i ever heard or read about these events had the judge somewhere in it but he was just bald not necessarily hairless and the novel made him out to be some kinda of devil (most pioneer people knew how to make gunpowder back in the day and had their own "recipes" and a lot of us still know some of those old skills ). anyway, i believe he died at the massacre at the river or fleeing from it (dying out in the sand dunes) but some stories got him going up to the california silver mining area and i've heard a story of him hooking up with tiburico vasquez (the real life zorro)... so anyway, as a kid i would hunt for lincoln's gold (supposedly he had bout $50,000 in 1850 dollars and it was never found ) and i hunted deer, javalin and snake around the oatman massacre site and well as the grave site... and i've seen men crufixed on crosses down there and families firebombed ... just a couple of years ago another mormon family was massacred on the mexican side of the border on hwy 2 down there ... and some of the towns have problems with keeping their police chiefs (one got his house firebombed and another one got a few bullet holes in him and a couple of others took the pay but never showed up for the job) and there's plenty of ex federal agents doing their time in prison ... heck a few u.s. army dudes got busted as a murder for hire crew for one of the cartels and if you go down to the border and wander around the desert, well, pay attention to the big warning signs there and don't go pass them... most of the dirt roads crossing the border are watched by guys with high powered rifles up in the mountains protecting the routes... and don't pick up garbage out there ( it might be a "bundle" waiting for a pick up ) and if you go down in mexico on either hwy 3 or 8 don't stop driving til you get to rocky point (there a huge burial area down there for the "disappeared") and you might get a watcher anxious by you stopping near them... i came across your video here cause i wanted to listen to ben nichols (lucero ) who did a musical score for the james franco attempt at making a movie of the novel... good music... he did the music for movie mud (matthew mcconaughey and reese witherspoon) and does a great concert as well...
Fantastic review! While I do believe this novel is the kind of novel that has so much meaning under the surface, i also think the book is violent for the sake of being violent. The judge is all of us; everyone has the capacity for evil, some are just more in touch with it than others. I could talk about this book all day. Again, great review!
I could also talk about this book for ages. I want to one day maybe do a read along or try to dissect it a few chapters at a time on this channel. It’s endlessly fascinating.
Brutal, intense, colorful, visceral, real, and infinitely layered. Blood Meridian is the best book I ever read. It was a god damn *experience* reading that thing. You brought up really amazing points and observations. Especially about how the Glanton gang had people of every race, color and origin as if to say nobody is blameless here.
I read this for the first time many years ago. Found it very hard to understand. I have re-read twice since and I definitely agree with it being the most profound novel I've ever read. And I'm sure when I read it ten more times I will always find something I had previously missed. Until I read McCarthy, I thought " Oh, this book means more than just what the words say", was a cliche'. McCarthy was the first person I've read that has proven that perspective wrong in spades. By far my favorite author. Even movies made from his books are good. Great video. Thanks.
Thank you, and I agree with you. There is so much being said at all times in his work. But how excited are you for his two books coming out later this year? I can’t wait.
What is you first favourite book?? This was the best book I’ve read this year so far. This was also the year I first read any McCarthy and he may already be one of my favourite authors. I have Sutree and No Country for Old Men on my shelf waiting to be read and I can’t wait. Thank you for watching.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize My #1 favorite book ever is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The true pinnacle of literature for me. And yeah, I'm working my way through all McCarthy's works as well. I would put No Country for Old Men as either his 2nd or 3rd best book; it's one of his most philosophically profound, although the writing is much less striking than in his other novels.
Stella I recently got blood meridian myself and have been watching reviews on it and yours is one of my favorites. If you like music, which who doesn't, you should check out The Last Pale Light In The West album by Ben Nichols as well as his song Old Death. All of those songs were written and inspired by Blood Meridian. You'll love it if you love this book as much as I do. I was born in Tennessee and ended up living in Texas as an adult so I relate to The Kid quite a bit. I didn't join a gang of scalp hunters but his story really resonates with me.
That was a very good review, and BM seems typical of Cormack's work, always examining what morality is and of its taken-for-granted existence. You seem to be insightful and thoughtful. I'm going to read this thanks to you !
I loved your take on the religious themes throughout the book. Most people get so transfixed on the violence it's hard for them to consider the other elements.
Fantastic video! Really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on it, especially about the Kid's dialogue with the dead woman, i had forgotten about that part (i need to re read this book haha). For me, the most straightforward takeaway from this book is its total deconstruction of the Western genre's setting. The setting itself is not morally neutral, it's a colonized region in the process of ethnic cleansing (the gang is hired to kill indigenous people, after all). Most western novels ignore or downplay this, especially at the time the novel was published over 30 years ago. The immediate drive after reading this novel is to discern the hidden messages, so a lot of people (including myself for a while) ignore the more obvious messages: Western expansion, colonialism, and Manifest Destiny, were genuinely and horrifyingly evil. Also, the evils of the Judge are the evils of Western civilization (not everything about Western civilization is evil, but the evil aspects of it are distilled in the Judge). This is a bit of a tangent, but it baffles me that so many people assume McCarthy must be right wing because his stories are so centered around masculinity, when Blood Meridian's primary villain has an *existentially* hierarchical worldview, and the story itself is a deconstruction of our myths about "the old west," manifest destiny, and western civilization. The pathologies McCarthy portrays are historically male pathologies (because of patriarchy), so it makes sense that his stories would be centered on male characters. Of course, i myself am male so perhaps bias is shaping my analysis. Anyways, i hope you didnt mind the long rambling, I just love talking about this book and hearing others' opinions about it!
Hi Wade. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts. Hmmm...I shall ponder your Western expansion perspective. I can see how it is a part of McCarthy's message. This is the second of McCarthy's novels I've read. The first one being The Road. So far his novels have focused on men, but I don't have any issue with that. I find especially in Blood Meridian that women appear in the story as a form of comfort and/or compassion for the men, I mean when they're not being slaughtered or violated. And McCarthy doesn't allow his characters much of that. LOL! I'm reminded now about the little girl and the bear at the end. Only the little girl sat and mourned the slaughtered bear. And by all means, ramble away.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Oh yeah, I think it's definitely fair for people to criticize the lack of important female characters. I'm just saying there is at least *some* justification for it (in my opinion) because the pathologies that McCarthy dissects were historically male pathologies (there were no female scalphunter gangs in the Old West, for example). And because of patriarchy, most of history's greatest evils were primarily perpetrated by men. I think the bigger problem isn't necessarily the lack of important female characters/perspectives, but the depictions of women themselves. For example, his tendency to depict women as primarily mothers and/or victims is not good. Women aren't *just* mothers or victims, and this was true even 200 years ago. And of course, it's possible that as a man there are biases influencing my opinions on this. So, it's totally fine if you disagree with me haha! And I appreciate the response, what you said about the girl in The Road was a very important detail that I hadn't noticed when I read it.
@@wadehwallace I really enjoy McCarthy's work. I have No Country for Old Men on my shelf waiting for me to read. We are all biased, but it's important to try to see it and understand it.
The Judge's first scene is probably one of the most powerful introductions that I've ever read for an antagonist. As a mob was pummeling the innocent Reverend whom he accused of p*dophilia and bestiality, a group of wanderers, including The Kid find him at a bar across the street and question him. When he makes it clear that he didn't even know the man, nor laid eyes on him before that day, I actually got chills. Then all of the men started laughing and bought The Judge a drink for the vicious act. There are some parts of this book that are just hilariously malicious. I began to wonder if I was evil myself while reading it. But there were also times when I had to put it down because it was too much and kinda stressed me out. I think that's what good literature does. It confronts you and challenges you to make you think and question your entire worldview.
A great book to read in tandem with this book is John Steakley's Armor, it is a very unique variation on war and violence and offers an interesting difference of opinion, the character Felix, of Armor, is a fascinating juxtaposition to The Judge, of Blood Meridian, as Felix is the ultimate practitioner of war and very unlike The Judge; both Steakley and McCarthy were Texans.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I had to, Steakley died too young in his writing career, having only published two books and a few short stories, with all of his works in progress being lost. He's a writer whose one masterpiece, Armor, definitely shouldn't be lost; its a very universally themed book; up there with Moby-Dick and Blood Meridian in it's expression of humanity, struggle, and sadness.
One curious aspect of this novel that no one seems to mention is the fact that 'the kid' is astonishingly and mindlessly violent and amoral before he ever falls in with the scalp-hunters and the Judge, and there is no particular reason offered for why that should be so - for instance, while his childhood certainly seems 'troubled', it is not presented as violent (IIRC; it's been awhile since I read the novel).
It's been a while since I've read it, but to me, the kid, the judge, and the priest, and possibly other characters were all aspects of a single man with multiple personality disorder.
-the long dead woman represents his long lost chance at redemption bc he failed to kill the Judge despite getting three chances. -this failure is further seen when he kills a young man out of sheer ego. The kid, though in manhood, never evolved into an adult bc he never faced down the evils of his main role model -this is why I think he committed suicide in the final scene -I also think this was foreshadowed in the beginning. Usually a protagonist meets a mentor early on. Someone they will eventually evolve into if they take the hero’s journey and do what’s right. The kid meets the murderous, bigoted and insane hermit.
-I think the violence throughout the story represents each readers internal struggles against their own demons particularly our accumulation of sins and struggle to face them -and I think this is hinted at in the final scene when we see the kid talking to (himself) a judge that hasn’t aged. It seems like he’s struggling not to acknowledge or hear the things he’s saying, the way we all do when we can’t consciously handle the harm we’ve done throughout our own lives
@@Hermit_mouse Hmmmmm...this is a very interesting perspective. That last scene of dialog between the Man and the Judge is thick with meaning. I'm going to have to read through it and look for hints that he is talking to himself in that scene. Thank you for sharing.
It's one of the few novels I've read twice, my mother refuses to read it and my father dumped the copy I sent him, because of the language in it, cussing, cursing, etc. I think the violence in the novel points to how the US evolved out of violence and how central violence is to the country, even today. Not something most Christians and Liberals like myself like to be reminded of, we share in the fruits of that suffering and violence as a matter of historical fact, alas. It is, or is very close to, original sin. Not acknowledging that suffering and violence is an error and sin in itself.
I think it’s important to remember the chaos inherent in humanity. To balance freedoms with order. It is a delicate balance but it is the most important thing to ensure never happens again.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I think it's intrinsic to human condition, now and in the future. I haven't read it yet, but that seems to be what _No Country for Old Men_ is about.
Excellent vid ! Subsribing now. I've been thru that book at least 6 times. More times to come, I'm sure. I've been a western history and lifestyle student since I could first read. Luckily for me, I also by chance lived and worked in the west, cowboyed, wrangled and packed, Rodeo and old saloons, (The Palace Saloon in Prescott Az was the best) and meeting the oldest, old timers I could find. I listened to stories from a 103 year old man whose family owned a trading post in SW Colorado. And supplied Butch Cassidy when he was on the lamb. And the first female deputy in the Four Corners. She helped chase down on horseback and hang heroin smugglers coming out from San Francisco to the Colorado mining towns. I was a very fortunate young man. Anyways, Cormac, as always, dug deep and got it right. "Violence is but the truth of men whose souls are un encumbered" imagine almost no law of any kind ? It doesn't take long for Beast and Man to become one. The old west was definitely not a romantic paradise. The history of this corner of Colorado is insanely violent. The Judge ! Based on a real person, as are the events in the story. The Delawares, I've found reference to them here, in the Four Corners. Ive had hrs of talk with people in the film trade about making this book a movie. If it wasn't perfect, it would be the worst film related disaster we could imagine. And making that story perfectly ? Maybe not possible. Cheers !
A well done film would be amazing, but if done poorly it would be a sad endeavour. There is so much to capture it would be very difficult. I really want to reread it. So many books, so little time. Thank you for watching.
I have not read Warhammer 40,000. The interesting thing about the violence of Blood Meridian that makes it stand out for me is the needlessness of it. There are many reasons that one can justify violence in war or in self defence, but there are many situations where it is completely unnecessary which begs the age old unanswerable question of why? Makes it really interesting to ponder for me at least.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize yes, I agree. If you want a book with some fascinating character arcs and overall just a fantastic story, I recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. The first book is called Xenos, I believe. Just my $0.02.
I can disconnect with 40k Violence because it's Sci-fi, yeah it's horrific but I know it's all sci-fi but the shit that happened in Blood Meridian is real
Eisenhorn, The Night Lords Trilogy, Gaunts Ghost, The Horus Heresy Ciaphas Cain and other 40k books and series never gave me the feeling that Blood Meridian did
I’m not well read… audible is to blame for that…. I found out about this book via UA-camr Wendigoon, he is a great story teller and he has turned on millions to a vast array of fantastic stories and books. This book idk struck a cord … it is a masterpiece! I just want to share with anyone willing to listen or take my abuse lol telling them about this book 👀 don’t you want to scream when a story like this in found in the way?!! 😮🎉
Brilliant review of my favorite novel. A little late to the game, but one thing I'd love to point out is that *so* much of the more gratuitous violence (that scene with the babies in chapter five, specifically; you know the one) seem like heavy handed aesthetic choices on CM's part, gore for gore's sake, until you learn that that instance is taken verbatim from the historical record, as are many others. It's something the Apache were said to have actually done. Once I learned this, the violence I had honestly thought a little convoluted became suddenly and horribly and resoundingly perfect.
I just listened to the audio book read by the American actor/voice actor - Richard Poe. It's great to listen to. But I had a new thought about part of the ending. Before The Kid, now "The Man", goes and meets The Judge in the final chapter, he comes across a few young boys in their teens. One boy is named Elrod, whom The Man ends up killing because Elrod was antagonizing him. It made me wonder if Elrod reminded The Man of his younger self. Maybe it was an act of mercy, sparing the combative young man from winding up going through similar atrocities that he went through. Or maybe he just hated his younger self. Also the voice actor narrates Elrod much like he did The Kid. I don't know. Just a crazy thought.
I originally thought this as well and I think there is still merit in it. But a twist to this take is that the name Elrod means “God is king” in Hebrew. And now I wonder if there is another layer about the death of God and it is man who kills him and this theme is also seen through the whole story with the procession to Cavalry, the preacher, and the priest. I really need to read it again.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Holy frijoles! That just blew my mind. I always originally thought that the book was a commentary on the dangers of nihilism. This adds another pop to that theory. Have you given the audio book a listen!
@@Hesykast I haven’t listened to the audio book. I shall put a request in at my library for it 👍🏼. Another thing your comment makes me think about is that Elrod is a bone picker and there is that cryptic epilogue about the different walks of humanity: the bones (the dead), the gatherers of bones (those who rely on the bones/traditions of the past, perhaps Elrod), those who do not gather (the lost wandering souls of humanity), and those who dig holes as a mark of some progression toward who knows what. but those perfect holes spark when the metal tools hit stone/resistance. and so the world turns and they continue on.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Oh, wow. This is fascinating. My God, this book has so much depth and most people I know will not read it nor listen to the audio book. The audio book is free here on UA-cam. That's where I listen to it. I can get you the link if you want.
You made me wonder how the judge appeared to the other members of the gang before they joined. The epilogue of the book was very odd but I wonder if McCarthy was just saying that the more people read his book, the more light will be shed on thjs historical violence. Perhaps, agonizingly slowly, we'll fully reject violence by understanding it
I have a message on behalf of Jane from the Methadone clinic. She needs a delivery for no. 15 Carson Street, Miami Florida. Quite a few patients need their medication tonight. More so then usual so please be discrete.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize That's a shame... Had a Rooster mask all ready to send to a fellow patriot... Anyway, great book review. Just got my own copy of this sadistic romp today.
Great video! What did you make of the ending? I saw it one way - the judge murdering the kid in the jakes - but recently have changed my view. Now I see the possibility - after many readings and listens and reading various analyses of the end that in fact the kid, now the man, was not killed by the judge, but instead had abducted and murdered the crying girl who went missing sometime after the scene with the bear. A ‘man’ is described being near the scene inside the jakes who tells two others that they shouldn’t enter. Was that man the kid and was what was inside the jakes the missing girl? I’m not 100% sure but this angle has completely changed my perspective about the kid.
All throughout the novel several “missing” children are mentioned while the Glanton Gang rides through different towns and a few times the Judge is found in the company of children. I think the judge took the girl, murdered and raped her in the Jakes, and that was why he was naked when the man found him in the jakes. I think the judge then killed the man. Some people think the judge also raped the man, but I don’t know that I agree. I wanted to keep the review spoiler free but I think I might read Blood Meridian again and do a spoiler analysis. The problem is there is so much to talk about and I could go on about for at least an hour. Lol! Thank you for watching.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I’d listen! It’s a rare topic! Haha. That makes sense. Some take a more abstract view that the ‘spirit’ of the judge fully possesses the kid in the final pages, and the man becomes the judge, or becomes so corrupted he takes on his very worst traits, which would be in line with the themes of the book. Why do we think the kid is so different? It’s a very interesting question ;)
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize oh.. and another little question to ponder. At the start of the book the kid is described as having large hands, while the judge is described as having small hands. Now why do we assume that when random murders happen or children go missing it is always the judge? There is little evidence to go against the judge except for some explicit cases… however, one child victim is described as being discovered with large hand prints on the body…. Food for thought indeed! And there is a point early in the book even where a person dies, and no one knows who committed the crime, and the kid inherits his horse…
@@JKfilmzor I think the hand marks on the child’s neck is just from scaling, the judge has small hands in contrast to his immense size, but when those hands are used to kill the child they would appear large due to the smallness of the victim.
I started reading it today and couldn't stop...until my daughter came telling me she wanted a braid 🤣 Anyway... I really dig his writing style, it reminds me of a book I read in highschool.
The book is based off actual historical events, the Glanton gang and Judge Holden having been real people from that time. Even if some liberties were taken, it's in many ways a more honest depiction of the Wild West than you see in books and movies.
the judge is not god or devil. the idea is that he is man. the eternal evil of man. but yes, he is an abstract figure in the sense that he is real but with 'supernatural'/symbolic qualities. also the main ending theory is a clear giveaway that most readers take this story too literally. it is part literal and part symbolic.
I think that's right. People try to fit the Judge into a predefined framework for understanding evil: he's the devil, he's the gnostic demiurge, he's Nietzsche's ubermensch, etc. The problem is that he's all of those things and yet none of those things, because those things all represent specific types of false idols. I think it's more like this: in a spiritual wasteland where values are no longer aligned with the greatest good (love, self-sacrifice, courage, God, whatever you want to call it), the men who run amok and wreak havoc are those who epitomize the false idols of science, technology, power, wit, charm, knowledge, bloodlust, greed, hedonic pleasure, etc. What is the Judge if not an extreme example of and metaphor for a human being who worships those false idols, who embodies all those values?
What i love about this novel is the ultimate violence of it, and how absolutly everyone are involved in one way or another. For me it´s almost a Past-Dystopian book. It was however a pretty difficult read for me as an Icelandic guy, so maybe i missed a few underlinings or subplots. Anyways Great Review Ms.Stella :) P.s. I have actually been likened to Judge Holden on more than one ocation :) :)
Hello, It can be a difficult read as is has a lot of southern slang. I found it difficult at times as well. I had no idea the jakes were outhouses. At least in my part of Canada we call them outhouses. There is also a lot of Spanish which can be a lot to translate if you can’t read it. I’m assuming it’s your tall Icelandic frame they liken to the judge and not your contribution to chaos. 😉 Thank you for watching.
I see the Melville in Blood Meridian, but also Homer. Someone said it’s the most violent book since the Iliad. To me this book is the American Iliad. It has the same theme of the inevitability of war and cruelty.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I hear that. On the other hand I didn't have trouble getting into the Iliad from a modern perspective because the Gods are not hard to understand as metaphors for psychological processes and events beyond our control. In fact it's not that hard to find the supposedly "modern" viewpoint that is sometimes called "nihilism" (in McCarthy) in the Iliad. I.e. we're all headed for hades and no one will remember whether we were brave and noble or cowardly and cruel. Anyhow thanks for your response!
Holden puts ever Disney villain to shame. Honestly, switch out any villain with him and all the side characters saying to don't test him would make sense. Heck, if The Little Mermaid had someone like Holden, Sebastian saying to Ariel not to go see him, but she says, "Why don't you go tell my father? You're good at that.", only for him to do exactly that would make sense. Since I guarantee that any adult should be informed that they're child's making a deal with the devil.
It left me feeling stupid. I totally missed the plot. All I got was an account of a murder spree in the desert. It felt like a story that everybody raves about but I’m too dense to appreciate.
My favorite book! Your analysis is very astute. The Catholic symbolism is rife throughout the book. Some reviewers are oblivious to it unfortunately. Thoroughly enjoyed this video! 👍
Glanton was even more interesting to me than Holden. The judge is almost framed as a supernatural entity, a pure force of nature, while Glanton is more relatable to me. He seems like a more extreme version of Brown, Toadvine and the kid. He's kind of a bad leader yet several wayward souls follow him all the same. He seems in control when they're on the move and barely surviving but right when they settle down a bit it seems he loses the little control he had, as though he'd abandoned his purpose to wander and murder. Its never clear what he or most of the characters really want but I still find myself drawn to the scalpers and killers in their desperation. As soon as they try to establish something grounded and turn their trade into something more mechanical they fall apart, which mirrors what the hermit says at the beginning about man's creation and destiny. I almost feel like both Glanton and Holden would be disappointed to see the more industrialized mass murder of the 20th century. I think they want some sort of freedom but not the kind that invokes ethics and spiritualism. Anarchy allows them to live as predators of broken and helpless prey and any chance any of them had at being more sedentary died long before they ever met one another.
This is a great thing to point out. It’s as if any moment they can fall out of chaos and delve into something beyond survival and violence they have no idea how to relate or find their individuality. The chaos is a distraction for what they all lack internally, the fatherless, unmoored detachment from humanity.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize thats what I took out of it too. Fatherless sons who are at least some of them unknown fathers to wayward sons. Just a cycle of neglect and anger over and over. I wanted the man to just leave that camp with the 15 year old who challenges him so the inevitable would be avoided. That last kill really stuck with me especially what the other guys say to the 12 year old. I still think a LOT of boys out there struggle with the relationship with their dads. I never experienced abuse or violence but I definitely relate to some of the primal anger towards authority bc my own parents just didn't know how or want to do the job. Its hard to be grateful when you feel like you were brought into the world by mistake and the people who brought you in don't exactly make you feel wanted.
@@geordiejones5618 it’s heartbreaking to consider how many children are emotionally not cared for. I find myself fixated on the Fool. There are so many ways one could read how McCarthy dealt with that character. I really need to read Blood Meridian again.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologizeextremely late but I’d still like to say this. This is what I thought too. As soon as the gang stops all anarchy and goes somewhere where there order, things start falling apart. Like how when they go to the north and jackson is surprised to deal with segregation laws and the other guy is imprisoned.
I have only read Crime and Punishment so far but have The Brothers Karamazov on my TBR. C and P felt a bit bloated in areas but I really enjoyed certain parts of it. I have so far struggled with Russian writers though so I want to read more. What did you think?
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize yes I definitely agree that C&P was a tad tedious in some places, but I really enjoy him actually. He has a very unpretentious style but the content is so rich and thought provoking. I think he’s just so amazing at analysing the psychology of people and creating believable characters. I enjoyed The Idiot a lot from memory. If you like Japanese literature I’d recommend Yukio Mishima, he has such a gorgeous style :)
I tell people that Blood Meridian is 50% the most beautiful descriptions of the American Southwest ever written and 50% the most heinous and gruesome depictions of violence. It's a book like no other. Something I think is important to note is the role women play in the themes of the story. Men are almost wholly depicted as savage and murderous, but almost every woman in the novel who is given time on the pages will be a force of peace or soothing. Just as the Kid chose to leave his father, his first act was the (unknowing) killing of his mother during childbirth. I think there's a balance that McCarthy strikes there to create contrast.
Yes, I agree. I've heard others say that McCarthy doesn't write about women or that he is possibly misogynist, and I completely disagree. Now I haven't read all of McCarthy's works yet, but of the 6 i've read so far, I don't see it. I love how demanding McCarthy is of his reader. How his writing is an invitation for the reader to grapple and contend with what he is sharing. I love it!!
The relationship between Tobin, Toadvine and the Kid was honestly just really well written. Everytime the Kid and Tobin are written in the same scene was just pure gold.
I feel bad for the expriest. He's mostly just taunted/abused by Holden and he just disappears into the city after him and the kid make it out of the desert. He's almost a sort of guardian angel and I like to think thats why the man carries around the bible he can't read, just to honor Tobin's memory.
@@geordiejones5618the scenes with The Man are all intensely heartbreaking
He never sleeps he never dies he is a great favorite
This is something I’ve been thinking about here lately and it’s about the kid and his lack of an actual name, I think he isn’t just merely an unnamed character in the story but was deliberately left nameless by his father. It’s established that his father was a learned man yet he never taught his son how to read or write and it’s not so much that he hated his son as it is he just never cared for him in the slightest bit. So given that, why would he even bother naming “the creature” who caused the death of his wife. This notion of a father who holds complete indifference to his offspring is often reflected in the silence and disappearance of God throughout the book and it adds another layer to the effect a loveless, careless father can have on a child. Also, I got chills when you were reading about the massacred penitents and the dead woman. This entire book is chilling.
I agree. And reading your comment made me think about the holy trinity: the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Does that make the Judge the Holy Spirit? 🤔 😳 I can see the comparison of God seemingly abandoning his son (mankind), and the fatherless-ness we see in the novel.
I could think about this novel for hours. I’m considering doing another read thorough and trying to dissect it a few chapters at a time. Anyone can join in the discussion and read along if they like. I really like hearing other people’s perspectives.
The more I think about the scene with the Abuelita, the more I think she is a pagan representation in the novel. She could be the crone, the spirit of the earth there to silently judge men’s actions in indifference. Much like the land is indifferent to man in all the long descriptions that McCarthy gives us. Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts.
And it was also he was imunne to death around him. It never botherd him at all. And he saw a lot of it.
@@jeffreyholmes7216 he was not immune.
Spoilers
Although it could be interpreted that nothing happened in the end, but it's pretty much stated that SOMETHING horrible happened to the kid in an outhouse.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize On that note, I have often thought about The Kid becoming The Man (i.e. the Son becoming the Father) by the Holy Spirit. While the implications in the outhouse at the end of the novel is generally agreed on, perhaps it is more to do with perpetuating the cycle of Father and Son.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize i
I almost didn't click on this because of the title of the video, but you give it a fair treatment. In my opinion, this is the single best, heaviest, and most haunting novel ever written by an American author. Few writers can even dream of attaining the level that McCarthy does in 'Blood Meridian'.
It has become one of my “favourite” books of all time. But yes, it is heavy and dark, and I could not stop thinking about it. I want to work my way through all of McCarthy’s works to see how his style evolved. I’m especially excited for the 2 book releases of his coming out later this year. Have you read his other works?
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I read 'Blood Meridian' first, in 1992, and that led me to his other books. I've now read all of his major works, and 'Blood Meridian' still stands as my favorite. After that, I would say 'No Country' and ''All the Pretty Horses'. Let me add that is is a rare pleasure to see some intelligent topics and commentary in today's morass of social media inanity. I appreciate what you are doing here. It gives me some hope that there are still some intelligent and thoughtful folks out 'there'.
Judge Holden and Anton Chigurh are two of my favorite characters in literature, and of a type that reflects McCarthy's moral yet cynical worldview.
@@bluegregory6239 thank you for the kind words. I just started reading The Orchard Keeper by McCarthy today.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Suttree is his only other book I read, written before Blood Meridian, and I enjoyed that one. Somewhat plotless but eventful and picturesque.
Thank you for the focus on the scene where the kid tries to help the old woman. It's not as famous as some of the other scenes, like the "war is god" speech or the dance in the saloon at the climax, but it has always been the most affecting moment in the entire novel for me. I think it's the moment where the tragedy of the Kid/Man's life is fully encapsulated. The Kid/Man, as a representative everyman in this spiritual wasteland, is a failure (as repeatedly and correctly pointed out by the Judge) because he understands what is right but isn't strong enough to act on it. He can never bring himself to help his friends without holding back, is never able to act decisively to stand up to evil and kill the Judge, etc. After decades of experience and encountering numerous examples of truly good people, the Kid/Man fully understands that love is the greatest good, but when he expresses this to the old woman, she crumbles and blows away. The Kid/Man has done far too little, far too late. It's only a matter of time before he is finally consumed by the evil that thrives in this spiritual wasteland, symbolized by what happens to him in the jakes at the end.
Wow!! Great insight here! I love it and I completely agree with you. Great job putting it in words. I need to read it again.
Thanks for recommending this book. The ending still has my brain scrambled. I feel like i have to cleanse my brain after that one. And i was an infantry soldier for 20 years and a combat vet. The scene where the judge bought 2 puppies from the little Mexican kid, then threw the dogs into the river and shot them. I am a combat veteran and I've never encountered anyone as cold and ruthless as the Judge. He never sleeps dancing and dancing, he says he will never die. the judge reminds me of Casca or Cassius, the roman soldier that jabbed Jesus with the spear while he hung on the cross. He was cursed to live until the end of time and cannot die. his curse is eternal war and suffering.
I'm so glad you read it. That ending is a whopper, eh? What the heck? That is an interesting comparison to that roman solider. But it seems the Judge wouldn't consider that curse to be suffering at all. Once I get through all of McCarthy's work I want to read Blood Meridian again. There is so much to dissect which is one of the reasons I really love reading McCarthy. Thank you for being here.
This is tangential but I thought spearing Jesus was an act of mercy so he would be out of suffering sooner…?
@mikewiest5135 i was also thrown by that statement, because I've been studying the various myths and sects of Christianity for years and never heard about a Roman solider cursed with immortality.
I thought spearing Jesus was just to prove he was slive or dead. Nothing about mercy.
There’s just so much to come back to in this book, the violence is what hits you on a first read but I found myself transported and hypnotised by the physical descriptions of vistas, detailed and yet never overly dull and precise.
Also the way the Man carries a bible he can’t read is just one of the best and most complex metaphors
@@C-OBrien it’s a really powerful metaphor with so many possible meanings.
A beautifully written and yet horrifically descriptive novel.
Yes! Exactly!
Both the prose and the themes in this novel are so rich and layered that you can still find things that you missed even on like a 5th or 6th read through. I think another thing that moment where the kid tries to help the dead woman may signify is that, for the kid (the man at that point), his soul is irrevocably corrupted, and while it’s admirable he’s trying to be a good person-he wasn’t a good person when it really counted, even if he’d felt conflicted. His indecision and lack of fortitude back then doomed him, and this was sort of a “closing the barn door after the horse escaped” moment, and his punishment was this cruel denial of being able to help this woman. In short: it’s too late.
One other note regarding the violence of the novel - McCarthy has such a commanding authority over both his stories and his worlds (Blood Meridian in particular), something so few authors are capable of. And because of this authority, you don’t disbelieve a single word on the page, and because of that, the violence and brutality is that much more disturbing. It just feels “real,” even though we know it’s fiction. I’ve read other books with copious amounts of violence, and almost none were quite as bothersome to me on a physical level as this one was, and I think that McCarthy’s sheer authority over the text has a lot to do with that-even more so than just the depravity of the acts themselves. Where as seeing violence in other novels is like watching it on a slick and shiny feature film with CGI blood, in Blood Meridian, it’s like seeing it on a cell phone video, or even worse, with your own eyes. Jack Ketchum is the only other author I’ve personally encountered that can evoke a similar feeling.
I had never noticed that the towns which contained churches resisted the glanton gang. Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. Always finding new meaning from ERITW
If you ever read it again look out for the towns and the state of the churches. Thank you for watching.
This A much BETTER explanation of the relevance of religion within this book , its related to gnosticism. ua-cam.com/video/OOC7frHrwgo/v-deo.html
Reading Blood Meridian was like taking penance.
The omnipresent evil of The Judge and the meat grinder of ceaseless, casual violence paint a grim and hopeless canvas.
I agree.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Isn't it weird, though, a grim and hopeless canvas is cool because it contains so much, as you say, "symbolism"? If the canvas is grim and hopeless, how can it be a great canvas unless we affirm grimness and hopelessness themselves as great? How can multiple layers of symbolism be the sign of a great novel -- if the whole point of the book is nothing matters or has meaning, even the most gruesome slaughter?
@@yusefasabiyah495 I see you've started to understand the savage beauty of the dance with the judge, eternal in it's resonance.
@@yusefasabiyah495 Not a lot of people can write violence like Cormac McCarthy. At first it seems gratuitous, he doesn't seduce the reader with likable characters on an easy to forgive vengeance ride, these characters are bad people doing bad things for their own not entirely understandable reasons. In McCarthy like in life, actions speak louder than words.
@@chickencharlie1992
I do not believe violence can be represented, either in literature or cinema. Violence isn't gore. Violence doesn't necessarily result in gore, either. The books I admire "about violence" contain almost no violence. I'm thinking of Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, or Melville's Moby Dick. In A Farewell to Arms, the "hero" is in a dugout crumbling cheese over macaroni when there's a direct hit on the dugout-- war is then over. The kind of violence in Blood Meridian doesn't affect me one way or the other. I don't care about these people-- maybe they aren't even people. (If you get down to it, everything is dehumanized, including the innocent victims...and the writing.) I thought Stella's point about not learning anything or getting insight into violence was key. You can say "actions speak louder than words"-- but really, in literature-- is it anything but words? What are you reading? "Words, words, words."
Took a few times to read but damn it's a fine novel. McCarthy is my favorite living American writer. I'm not easily shook by violent stories but this one shook the shit from me. McCarthy is one of those writers who earns multiple rereadings.
This is probably the review on the book that I've seen on UA-cam. You have an inquisitive mind.
Thank you!
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Meant to write best*. But I think you understood what I meant.
I love how well you understand & explain this book.
Thank you so much.
This is the best review and discussion I've seen of the novel, thank you!
Thank you!
One third of the way through the book and my first McCarthy book. His prose is crazy good. Amazing. Like Proust or Nabokov
MaCarthy is becoming one or my favourites. I want to read Blood Meridian again and I think I might do a read along or dissect chapter by chapter here on my channel.
Oh, one thing i forgot to mention in my other comment: While it is true that McCarthy's early novels were in the Southern Gothic genre, Blood Meridian itself is in the Western genre. McCarthy's writing centers around the regions he lives in, so when he moved to the southwest that meant that his writing changed setting as well.
Oh, I thought I had seen this one listed as Southern Gothic as well. Won't be the first or last time I'm wrong. LOL
I'm subscribed already, I envy you for having ready many of the great novels.😎 Now I embark upon climbing that mountain.
"He who reads lives and dies thousand lives, he who doesn't lives only once" #George R.R. Martin
🙌🏾Barakha✊🏾🌾 Salema 💯🙏🏾
We're both climbing that mountain. Welcome to my channel!
Holy heck, that bit with the abuelita was powerful. I loved your analysis!
Thank you.
I finished the novel and want to thank you for that thought provoking analysis. Like you said, there are many trails and threads to think about. Like you I thought of Mephistopheles from time to time, the judge embodying - like Mephisto - the evil principle. Now that you mention the magic-like scene where Holden creates fire like an Übermensch, it comes to my mind how Mephisto lets flames appear out of nowhere among ordinary men. Then again the Judge claims authority over everything (like a luciferian god-wannabe) while Mephisto mocks humen for their pathetic striving. And what Holden explains to the boy at the end in the bar, how to perceive life and fate - I wonder how this is compatible with his goals you mentioned (rightfully, imo) in your analysis.
What’s so special about this book in my opinion is that it not only leaves me thinking, like cognitively speaking, but that it also leaves a nagging indefinite feeling that there are things in life which are even more obscure than I already thought. Holden and the boy will for shure be on my mind for a long time.
Yeah, I’m still thinking about this book. Lol! I might do a read-a-long next year and break it down a chunk at a time. Thank you for watching!
The scene that sticks with me the most, is the scene of the native hoard attacking specifically the the one in the bloody weeding veil. I fill like that scene was the kids literal marriage to violence and is bound to his bride of violence until his death
Great video! I read BM almost a year ago and since then it has become my favorite novel and it made me go after every Mccarthy novel I could find. I still think about this novel from time to time, especially the ending with the Judge. What I love about this book is how rich it is. On the surface, this is only about a group of outlaws scalping people, but if you're willing to look for it, you can certainly find so much more
I completely agree. McCarty is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors. What other novels of his would you recommend? I have Sutree and No Country for Old Men on my shelf waiting for me to read.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize No Country was the second novel of his that I read, and I definitely recommend since it has a more modern feel to it and it is easier to read, but if you want to experience his writing style at its finest then go for Suttree
@@g.salencar8675 good to know, but now the polarizing question: what did you thing of The Road????
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I loved it really. His mix of minimalist and expansive story was very good used. The story is surprisingly fast-paced, but the focus is the relationship between the father and the son and not the survival itself. Of course there are disturbing moments and all, but compared to other post apocalyptic novels, this one is quiet slow, but the ending is heartbreaking and also optimistic in a way
@@g.salencar8675 I really enjoyed it also. It was a great character study and it was griping. I could not for the life of me understand all the intense hate I hear about it in the book community. Nothing is for everyone, surely, but I appreciate when an author experiments and takes chances.
I just finished it and liked it. I’m glad you went through the symbolism and connection to the bible because being an atheist these didn’t jump out at me, but they make sense now. I’m reminded of what Bob Dylan said of some of his songs. He said each line, each sentence, could have been the basis for another song. Reading McCarthy, every sentence is so full of imagery and dense with texture that it feels like you should spend a few minutes just savouring it, like each mouthful of a fantastic meal. This is what I liked about the novel even more than plot or characterization. Pretty astounding
I agree. MaCarthy may become one of my favourite authors. I’ve only read The Road and Blood Meridian so far but I loved both. I have Suttree and No Country for Old Men on my shelf just waiting, and I’m excited to read more from him.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I 100% would suggest Suttree over No Country for Old Men. Much more slice of life pathos in it
I think her explanation is lacking, its actually related to Gnosticism , not mainstream christianity. ua-cam.com/video/OOC7frHrwgo/v-deo.html
At this stage in my life, I still think All The Pretty Horses is the deeper and more beautiful CM work. That book made me cry. Not really, I'm a dude. Sigh. I just love CM. We lost a giant. He was probably the last of the greats of American lit.
I am reading this book currently. It is arguably more violent than No Country For Old Men, which was the first book of McCarthy's that I read. Very dark. His depictions of the Old West, Mexico, and the desert are incomparable with any other author that I have read.
I have No Country For Old Men on my shelf and I can’t wait to read it.
No country and blood meridian have some poignant connections between them. You can draw a line between the ruthless western expansion of the 1800s displayed in BM and the moral quandaries faced by the characters in no country. It was mindless bloodlust that fueled the expansion, and now the lawmen of Texas have no moral ground to stand on.
Also, I think both novels have characters with the family name Bell in them, not sure if that's important tho.
It is way more violent the no country for old men. .
No Country For Old Men are those rare occasions where the film outshines the novel
Fantastic review, I’ve only read this novel once and I really let it wash over me. I was so taken by McCarthy’s elegiac prose, his impossible descriptions that I am certain I missed a lot of the symbolism going on. I was excited for a re-read before, now I can’t wait
Thank you for this excellent analysis. I’ve read most of McCarthy’s novels and he should have won the Nobel prize for literature long ago. No other contemporary author brings such realism to their character’s voices, in my opinion. The fact that his work continues to be explored and discussed in film and literature, for decades now, speaks to the depth of the stories and the characters he created. McCarthy was known to hang around the Los Alamos national laboratory and interact with the scientists there. I believe his novels often reflect this understanding of a probabilistic universe in which the unfathomable chaos of black holes and gamma ray explosions exist beside the tiniest aspect of life on this planet. Amid this total chaos, his characters are continually challenged on their notions of goodness and morality. Satan is the most accessible illustration of mankind’s fundamental awareness of the abyss. This same agent of chaos drives other well known characters in his works; like Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. This same theme is explored to its ultimate conclusion in The Road.
Great analysis of Blood Meridian, one of my favorite novels. I confess, I couldn't get through it on my first attempt sometime in the late 90s. But when I decided to power through and give it the old college try, I really enjoyed it, although the violence was hard to take. I grew up reading horror like Stephen King, Clive Barker, and many other gore meisters. But there was something about the horrors contained in McCarthy's novel that took it to a whole new level. I began to see the violence as part of the landscape. It was hard to take, but the novel would not have worked without it. It's not about a gang of beauticians, after all. You are right to compare The Judge to the whale in Moby Dick, a novel which was indeed a big influence on McCarthy.
McCarthy is one of if not my favorite writer. This was the hardest of his books to get through & I had to set it down multiple times because some of the violence is so anatomically horrific & bleak. Biblical & Homeric in scale.
Yes, it took awhile to read because I could only read in bits and pieces. It’s pretty intense and it’s thick with meaning and metaphor.
"Biblical and Homeric in scale"....you nailed it!
I read it this summer. Its a story that will stay in my mind for the rest of my life. Especially since in from El paso Texas and have been to some of the places featured in the book.
I finished Blood Meridian about an hour ago and went straight to UA-cam for some sort of closure on what the epilogue meant. Still vague as to what it could mean. I enjoyed the book and for me its about evil and its positives, during war. The war theme in the book I think is both an allegory for life as well as the actual act of war, we all fight until the bitter end however difficult the road ahead is and sometimes we will do things, evil things, to survive, things that ordinarily we might not do. The Judge represents that, for me. My only criticism is that I found some of the endless descriptions of the desert plains and mountains etc a little laboured at times, but the story was great. Might read again, might not.
Your insight was useful too, the confession section especially.
I need to read it again as I feel I probably only scratched 20% of the surface of it. Thank you for watching!
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Pleaure, sometimes it is best to leave things unresolved, I feel that way about 2001 A Space Odyssey. ive watched it lots of times and love it, but still not sure what the last 10minutes is about. although puzzling, I quite like it that way. Blood Meridian could be the same for me.
@@smalltown4855 I’d say reading the book will help you with the ending
well... the actual real story was a little bit bloodier than the novel... the actual events took place in my hometown (and it's still kinda the same there ) ... at the same time as the glanton gang was roaming around, abraham lincoln's cousin was working a ferry on the colorado river at the confluence with the gila river (which was mexico at that time)... the glanton gang kinda took over the ferry and started killing off the nearby village of quechans/yumans who were competing with lincoln's ferry (and then selling the scalps to the state of sonora, mex.)... so the quechans massacred the gang in return. the survivors of the gang made their way to san diego and so the state of california sent an "army" to take back the ferry. this set off the yuma war. the state of california went bankrupt because of this war and requested federal troops. the federal troops established a fort as well as re-establishing the ferry to california and communication via the camino del diablo (the devil's road) to the new mexico territory.... well, at the same time as this war was going on at the river crossing, a group of mormons (mainly the oatman family) were heading to the baja and the colorado river delta from far west, missouri (cause they believed it was the new zion and had broken off from the mainstream mormons of brigham young)... well, about 50 miles east of present day yuma (which was mexico at that time), these mormons were massacred by some apaches (and to me, the oatman massacre set up the 2nd mormon war/mountain meadow massacre a couple of years later , cause the mormons definitely didn't trust other americans after this) and olive oatman and her sister were taken as captives (and for whatever reason, olive oatman is portrayed in the hell on wheels tv series) and then olive and her sister were traded off to another tribe... you can kinda understand, the tribes were pretty pissed off at anyone that was white and so the oatmans got caught up in all the killing going on... this yuma war lasted bout til bout 1855 but things had started settling down after the gadsden purchase and the area came under u.s. control... but that's when the filibusters started showing up from san francisco and set up a base at a place called filibuster camp (present day wellton, az) and that's kinda when the real bloodbath starts... two guys who were the most notorious filibusters was a guy named henry crabb and gaston de raousset-boulbon... crabb tried to take over sonora, mexico by land and boulbon by sea... both of them ended up having their heads on sticks and their "armies" massacred ... well, the heros of this whole mess were, the u.s. army officer named heintzelman (who also saved washington dc after the federal army was defeated at bull run in the civil war ) and the greatest lady of the west, sarah bowman( aka "the great western"), who was finally able to locate olive oatman and bought her back via a yaqui friend. sarah bowman is kinda like a real life legend and definitely has not received her status as a true american warrior, madam, and pioneer savior but she is buried at the presido in san francisco with full military honor as a colonel of the u.s. army (yup, there were female officers back in the day)... anyway, the novel blood meridian was based on samuel chamberlain's confessions ... and every story that i ever heard or read about these events had the judge somewhere in it but he was just bald not necessarily hairless and the novel made him out to be some kinda of devil (most pioneer people knew how to make gunpowder back in the day and had their own "recipes" and a lot of us still know some of those old skills ). anyway, i believe he died at the massacre at the river or fleeing from it (dying out in the sand dunes) but some stories got him going up to the california silver mining area and i've heard a story of him hooking up with tiburico vasquez (the real life zorro)... so anyway, as a kid i would hunt for lincoln's gold (supposedly he had bout $50,000 in 1850 dollars and it was never found ) and i hunted deer, javalin and snake around the oatman massacre site and well as the grave site... and i've seen men crufixed on crosses down there and families firebombed ... just a couple of years ago another mormon family was massacred on the mexican side of the border on hwy 2 down there ... and some of the towns have problems with keeping their police chiefs (one got his house firebombed and another one got a few bullet holes in him and a couple of others took the pay but never showed up for the job) and there's plenty of ex federal agents doing their time in prison ... heck a few u.s. army dudes got busted as a murder for hire crew for one of the cartels and if you go down to the border and wander around the desert, well, pay attention to the big warning signs there and don't go pass them... most of the dirt roads crossing the border are watched by guys with high powered rifles up in the mountains protecting the routes... and don't pick up garbage out there ( it might be a "bundle" waiting for a pick up ) and if you go down in mexico on either hwy 3 or 8 don't stop driving til you get to rocky point (there a huge burial area down there for the "disappeared") and you might get a watcher anxious by you stopping near them... i came across your video here cause i wanted to listen to ben nichols (lucero ) who did a musical score for the james franco attempt at making a movie of the novel... good music... he did the music for movie mud (matthew mcconaughey and reese witherspoon) and does a great concert as well...
Fantastic review! While I do believe this novel is the kind of novel that has so much meaning under the surface, i also think the book is violent for the sake of being violent. The judge is all of us; everyone has the capacity for evil, some are just more in touch with it than others. I could talk about this book all day. Again, great review!
I could also talk about this book for ages. I want to one day maybe do a read along or try to dissect it a few chapters at a time on this channel. It’s endlessly fascinating.
Really enjoyed the review. Greetings from Scotland 🏴
Thank you for watching.
Brutal, intense, colorful, visceral, real, and infinitely layered. Blood Meridian is the best book I ever read. It was a god damn *experience* reading that thing.
You brought up really amazing points and observations. Especially about how the Glanton gang had people of every race, color and origin as if to say nobody is blameless here.
It's a great book. I want to reread it once I finish all of McCarthy's works.
Loved your summary! Indeed it is a bizarre dream where one wonders what the problem is amongst senseless violence
I read this for the first time many years ago. Found it very hard to understand. I have re-read twice since and I definitely agree with it being the most profound novel I've ever read. And I'm sure when I read it ten more times I will always find something I had previously missed.
Until I read McCarthy, I thought " Oh, this book means more than just what the words say", was a cliche'. McCarthy was the first person I've read that has proven that perspective wrong in spades. By far my favorite author. Even movies made from his books are good.
Great video. Thanks.
Thank you, and I agree with you. There is so much being said at all times in his work. But how excited are you for his two books coming out later this year? I can’t wait.
This is my second favorite book of all time, and McCarthy is my favorite author. Just an absolutely stunning experience. Great review!
What is you first favourite book?? This was the best book I’ve read this year so far. This was also the year I first read any McCarthy and he may already be one of my favourite authors. I have Sutree and No Country for Old Men on my shelf waiting to be read and I can’t wait. Thank you for watching.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize My #1 favorite book ever is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The true pinnacle of literature for me. And yeah, I'm working my way through all McCarthy's works as well. I would put No Country for Old Men as either his 2nd or 3rd best book; it's one of his most philosophically profound, although the writing is much less striking than in his other novels.
@@TH3F4LC0Nx I just recently read and reviewed Frankenstein also. I loved it
Stella I recently got blood meridian myself and have been watching reviews on it and yours is one of my favorites. If you like music, which who doesn't, you should check out The Last Pale Light In The West album by Ben Nichols as well as his song Old Death. All of those songs were written and inspired by Blood Meridian. You'll love it if you love this book as much as I do. I was born in Tennessee and ended up living in Texas as an adult so I relate to The Kid quite a bit. I didn't join a gang of scalp hunters but his story really resonates with me.
I need to check out that album. Thank you for mentioning it.
That was a very good review, and BM seems typical of Cormack's work, always examining what morality is and of its taken-for-granted existence. You seem to be insightful and thoughtful. I'm going to read this thanks to you !
Thank you for your kind words. If you read it you have to let me know your thoughts. Which of McCarthy's works have you read so far?
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize The Road - harrowing, it scared me.
I loved your take on the religious themes throughout the book. Most people get so transfixed on the violence it's hard for them to consider the other elements.
Thank you! ☺️ There is so much being said but it is easy to get distracted by the violence.
Fantastic video! Really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on it, especially about the Kid's dialogue with the dead woman, i had forgotten about that part (i need to re read this book haha).
For me, the most straightforward takeaway from this book is its total deconstruction of the Western genre's setting. The setting itself is not morally neutral, it's a colonized region in the process of ethnic cleansing (the gang is hired to kill indigenous people, after all). Most western novels ignore or downplay this, especially at the time the novel was published over 30 years ago.
The immediate drive after reading this novel is to discern the hidden messages, so a lot of people (including myself for a while) ignore the more obvious messages: Western expansion, colonialism, and Manifest Destiny, were genuinely and horrifyingly evil. Also, the evils of the Judge are the evils of Western civilization (not everything about Western civilization is evil, but the evil aspects of it are distilled in the Judge).
This is a bit of a tangent, but it baffles me that so many people assume McCarthy must be right wing because his stories are so centered around masculinity, when Blood Meridian's primary villain has an *existentially* hierarchical worldview, and the story itself is a deconstruction of our myths about "the old west," manifest destiny, and western civilization. The pathologies McCarthy portrays are historically male pathologies (because of patriarchy), so it makes sense that his stories would be centered on male characters. Of course, i myself am male so perhaps bias is shaping my analysis.
Anyways, i hope you didnt mind the long rambling, I just love talking about this book and hearing others' opinions about it!
Hi Wade. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts. Hmmm...I shall ponder your Western expansion perspective. I can see how it is a part of McCarthy's message. This is the second of McCarthy's novels I've read. The first one being The Road. So far his novels have focused on men, but I don't have any issue with that. I find especially in Blood Meridian that women appear in the story as a form of comfort and/or compassion for the men, I mean when they're not being slaughtered or violated. And McCarthy doesn't allow his characters much of that. LOL! I'm reminded now about the little girl and the bear at the end. Only the little girl sat and mourned the slaughtered bear. And by all means, ramble away.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Oh yeah, I think it's definitely fair for people to criticize the lack of important female characters. I'm just saying there is at least *some* justification for it (in my opinion) because the pathologies that McCarthy dissects were historically male pathologies (there were no female scalphunter gangs in the Old West, for example). And because of patriarchy, most of history's greatest evils were primarily perpetrated by men.
I think the bigger problem isn't necessarily the lack of important female characters/perspectives, but the depictions of women themselves. For example, his tendency to depict women as primarily mothers and/or victims is not good. Women aren't *just* mothers or victims, and this was true even 200 years ago.
And of course, it's possible that as a man there are biases influencing my opinions on this. So, it's totally fine if you disagree with me haha! And I appreciate the response, what you said about the girl in The Road was a very important detail that I hadn't noticed when I read it.
@@wadehwallace I really enjoy McCarthy's work. I have No Country for Old Men on my shelf waiting for me to read. We are all biased, but it's important to try to see it and understand it.
@@thereisnosanctuary6184 What do you mean?
The Judge's first scene is probably one of the most powerful introductions that I've ever read for an antagonist. As a mob was pummeling the innocent Reverend whom he accused of p*dophilia and bestiality, a group of wanderers, including The Kid find him at a bar across the street and question him. When he makes it clear that he didn't even know the man, nor laid eyes on him before that day, I actually got chills. Then all of the men started laughing and bought The Judge a drink for the vicious act. There are some parts of this book that are just hilariously malicious. I began to wonder if I was evil myself while reading it. But there were also times when I had to put it down because it was too much and kinda stressed me out. I think that's what good literature does. It confronts you and challenges you to make you think and question your entire worldview.
I completely agree.
You did a fine job. You may be a teacher. Perhaps you are. If not. You would do well. Thank you.
I’m not a teacher, but thank you for your kind words. 😊
A great book to read in tandem with this book is John Steakley's Armor, it is a very unique variation on war and violence and offers an interesting difference of opinion, the character Felix, of Armor, is a fascinating juxtaposition to The Judge, of Blood Meridian, as Felix is the ultimate practitioner of war and very unlike The Judge; both Steakley and McCarthy were Texans.
Thank you for the recommendation.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I had to, Steakley died too young in his writing career, having only published two books and a few short stories, with all of his works in progress being lost. He's a writer whose one masterpiece, Armor, definitely shouldn't be lost; its a very universally themed book; up there with Moby-Dick and Blood Meridian in it's expression of humanity, struggle, and sadness.
@@noheroespublishing1907 That's such a sad story for that author.
I love both of these books but never really compared them at all. Very interesting :)
One curious aspect of this novel that no one seems to mention is the fact that 'the kid' is astonishingly and mindlessly violent and amoral before he ever falls in with the scalp-hunters and the Judge, and there is no particular reason offered for why that should be so - for instance, while his childhood certainly seems 'troubled', it is not presented as violent (IIRC; it's been awhile since I read the novel).
What a great video. You pointed some things that I did not notice.
I might read it again at some point.
It's been a while since I've read it, but to me, the kid, the judge, and the priest, and possibly other characters were all aspects of a single man with multiple personality disorder.
-the long dead woman represents his long lost chance at redemption bc he failed to kill the Judge despite getting three chances.
-this failure is further seen when he kills a young man out of sheer ego. The kid, though in manhood, never evolved into an adult bc he never faced down the evils of his main role model
-this is why I think he committed suicide in the final scene
-I also think this was foreshadowed in the beginning. Usually a protagonist meets a mentor early on. Someone they will eventually evolve into if they take the hero’s journey and do what’s right. The kid meets the murderous, bigoted and insane hermit.
-I think the violence throughout the story represents each readers internal struggles against their own demons particularly our accumulation of sins and struggle to face them
-and I think this is hinted at in the final scene when we see the kid talking to (himself) a judge that hasn’t aged. It seems like he’s struggling not to acknowledge or hear the things he’s saying, the way we all do when we can’t consciously handle the harm we’ve done throughout our own lives
@@Hermit_mouse Hmmmmm...this is a very interesting perspective. That last scene of dialog between the Man and the Judge is thick with meaning. I'm going to have to read through it and look for hints that he is talking to himself in that scene. Thank you for sharing.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize careful not to wander too far down that rabbit hole again. Haha
@@Hermit_mouse forget the rabbit hole, it’s more like a black hole. Lol!! 😉
Hey if you do crack this open again, reread the second half of page 297. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
1:33 i'm glad I already red the book because this is a major spoiler 😅
It's one of the few novels I've read twice, my mother refuses to read it and my father dumped the copy I sent him, because of the language in it, cussing, cursing, etc.
I think the violence in the novel points to how the US evolved out of violence and how central violence is to the country, even today. Not something most Christians and Liberals like myself like to be reminded of, we share in the fruits of that suffering and violence as a matter of historical fact, alas. It is, or is very close to, original sin. Not acknowledging that suffering and violence is an error and sin in itself.
I think it’s important to remember the chaos inherent in humanity. To balance freedoms with order. It is a delicate balance but it is the most important thing to ensure never happens again.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I think it's intrinsic to human condition, now and in the future. I haven't read it yet, but that seems to be what _No Country for Old Men_ is about.
Excellent vid ! Subsribing now. I've been thru that book at least 6 times. More times to come, I'm sure. I've been a western history and lifestyle student since I could first read. Luckily for me, I also by chance lived and worked in the west, cowboyed, wrangled and packed, Rodeo and old saloons, (The Palace Saloon in Prescott Az was the best) and meeting the oldest, old timers I could find. I listened to stories from a 103 year old man whose family owned a trading post in SW Colorado. And supplied Butch Cassidy when he was on the lamb. And the first female deputy in the Four Corners. She helped chase down on horseback and hang heroin smugglers coming out from San Francisco to the Colorado mining towns. I was a very fortunate young man. Anyways, Cormac, as always, dug deep and got it right. "Violence is but the truth of men whose souls are un encumbered" imagine almost no law of any kind ? It doesn't take long for Beast and Man to become one. The old west was definitely not a romantic paradise. The history of this corner of Colorado is insanely violent. The Judge ! Based on a real person, as are the events in the story. The Delawares, I've found reference to them here, in the Four Corners. Ive had hrs of talk with people in the film trade about making this book a movie. If it wasn't perfect, it would be the worst film related disaster we could imagine. And making that story perfectly ? Maybe not possible. Cheers !
A well done film would be amazing, but if done poorly it would be a sad endeavour. There is so much to capture it would be very difficult. I really want to reread it. So many books, so little time. Thank you for watching.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize "Shadow Country" Peter Matthison. Possibly another for that long list 😁
If this is the most violent thing you've read, obviously you have no experience with warhammer 40,000 books.
I have not read Warhammer 40,000. The interesting thing about the violence of Blood Meridian that makes it stand out for me is the needlessness of it. There are many reasons that one can justify violence in war or in self defence, but there are many situations where it is completely unnecessary which begs the age old unanswerable question of why? Makes it really interesting to ponder for me at least.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize yes, I agree. If you want a book with some fascinating character arcs and overall just a fantastic story, I recommend the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett. The first book is called Xenos, I believe. Just my $0.02.
I can disconnect with 40k Violence because it's Sci-fi, yeah it's horrific but I know it's all sci-fi but the shit that happened in Blood Meridian is real
Eisenhorn, The Night Lords Trilogy, Gaunts Ghost, The Horus Heresy Ciaphas Cain and other 40k books and series never gave me the feeling that Blood Meridian did
The book is FUCKEDDDDDDDDDD up omg especially the ending I was just like wowwwww
Yeah, it pulls no punches.
I’m not well read… audible is to blame for that…. I found out about this book via UA-camr Wendigoon, he is a great story teller and he has turned on millions to a vast array of fantastic stories and books. This book idk struck a cord … it is a masterpiece! I just want to share with anyone willing to listen or take my abuse lol telling them about this book 👀 don’t you want to scream when a story like this in found in the way?!! 😮🎉
Brilliant review of my favorite novel. A little late to the game, but one thing I'd love to point out is that *so* much of the more gratuitous violence (that scene with the babies in chapter five, specifically; you know the one) seem like heavy handed aesthetic choices on CM's part, gore for gore's sake, until you learn that that instance is taken verbatim from the historical record, as are many others. It's something the Apache were said to have actually done. Once I learned this, the violence I had honestly thought a little convoluted became suddenly and horribly and resoundingly perfect.
I agree. It’s chilling. Thank you for watching.
I just listened to the audio book read by the American actor/voice actor - Richard Poe. It's great to listen to. But I had a new thought about part of the ending. Before The Kid, now "The Man", goes and meets The Judge in the final chapter, he comes across a few young boys in their teens. One boy is named Elrod, whom The Man ends up killing because Elrod was antagonizing him. It made me wonder if Elrod reminded The Man of his younger self. Maybe it was an act of mercy, sparing the combative young man from winding up going through similar atrocities that he went through. Or maybe he just hated his younger self. Also the voice actor narrates Elrod much like he did The Kid. I don't know. Just a crazy thought.
I originally thought this as well and I think there is still merit in it. But a twist to this take is that the name Elrod means “God is king” in Hebrew. And now I wonder if there is another layer about the death of God and it is man who kills him and this theme is also seen through the whole story with the procession to Cavalry, the preacher, and the priest. I really need to read it again.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Holy frijoles! That just blew my mind. I always originally thought that the book was a commentary on the dangers of nihilism. This adds another pop to that theory. Have you given the audio book a listen!
@@Hesykast I haven’t listened to the audio book. I shall put a request in at my library for it 👍🏼. Another thing your comment makes me think about is that Elrod is a bone picker and there is that cryptic epilogue about the different walks of humanity: the bones (the dead), the gatherers of bones (those who rely on the bones/traditions of the past, perhaps Elrod), those who do not gather (the lost wandering souls of humanity), and those who dig holes as a mark of some progression toward who knows what. but those perfect holes spark when the metal tools hit stone/resistance. and so the world turns and they continue on.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize Oh, wow. This is fascinating. My God, this book has so much depth and most people I know will not read it nor listen to the audio book. The audio book is free here on UA-cam. That's where I listen to it. I can get you the link if you want.
@@Hesykast oh, I didn’t realize it was available on UA-cam. I’d love that link. Thank you!
You made me wonder how the judge appeared to the other members of the gang before they joined. The epilogue of the book was very odd but I wonder if McCarthy was just saying that the more people read his book, the more light will be shed on thjs historical violence. Perhaps, agonizingly slowly, we'll fully reject violence by understanding it
I have a message on behalf of Jane from the Methadone clinic.
She needs a delivery for no. 15 Carson Street, Miami Florida.
Quite a few patients need their medication tonight. More so then usual so please be discrete.
I think you have the wrong number.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize That depends...
Do you enjoy hurting other people?
@@sekijokes451 can’t say that I do.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize That's a shame...
Had a Rooster mask all ready to send to a fellow patriot...
Anyway, great book review. Just got my own copy of this sadistic romp today.
This is the most intriguing review I've seen. Definitely interested in this book.
Great video! What did you make of the ending? I saw it one way - the judge murdering the kid in the jakes - but recently have changed my view. Now I see the possibility - after many readings and listens and reading various analyses of the end that in fact the kid, now the man, was not killed by the judge, but instead had abducted and murdered the crying girl who went missing sometime after the scene with the bear. A ‘man’ is described being near the scene inside the jakes who tells two others that they shouldn’t enter. Was that man the kid and was what was inside the jakes the missing girl? I’m not 100% sure but this angle has completely changed my perspective about the kid.
All throughout the novel several “missing” children are mentioned while the Glanton Gang rides through different towns and a few times the Judge is found in the company of children. I think the judge took the girl, murdered and raped her in the Jakes, and that was why he was naked when the man found him in the jakes. I think the judge then killed the man. Some people think the judge also raped the man, but I don’t know that I agree. I wanted to keep the review spoiler free but I think I might read Blood Meridian again and do a spoiler analysis. The problem is there is so much to talk about and I could go on about for at least an hour. Lol! Thank you for watching.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I’d listen! It’s a rare topic! Haha. That makes sense. Some take a more abstract view that the ‘spirit’ of the judge fully possesses the kid in the final pages, and the man becomes the judge, or becomes so corrupted he takes on his very worst traits, which would be in line with the themes of the book. Why do we think the kid is so different? It’s a very interesting question ;)
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize oh.. and another little question to ponder. At the start of the book the kid is described as having large hands, while the judge is described as having small hands. Now why do we assume that when random murders happen or children go missing it is always the judge? There is little evidence to go against the judge except for some explicit cases… however, one child victim is described as being discovered with large hand prints on the body…. Food for thought indeed! And there is a point early in the book even where a person dies, and no one knows who committed the crime, and the kid inherits his horse…
@BlackedOut hmmmmmmmmm…you make me want to reread it right now. Lol. This is a great thing to look out for next time I read it.
@@JKfilmzor I think the hand marks on the child’s neck is just from scaling, the judge has small hands in contrast to his immense size, but when those hands are used to kill the child they would appear large due to the smallness of the victim.
I started reading it today and couldn't stop...until my daughter came telling me she wanted a braid 🤣 Anyway... I really dig his writing style, it reminds me of a book I read in highschool.
Ooooooo…let me know what you think of it. How far in are you?
This book is pure dissonance in written form. You'll be given the most beautiful, elegant descriptions of brutal needless violence.
It's intense!
The book is based off actual historical events, the Glanton gang and Judge Holden having been real people from that time. Even if some liberties were taken, it's in many ways a more honest depiction of the Wild West than you see in books and movies.
You have to be a botanist to understand half this book
It would probably help. Lol!
Or be from south Texas and know the places mentioned by name. Like shadows never seen.
the judge is not god or devil. the idea is that he is man. the eternal evil of man. but yes, he is an abstract figure in the sense that he is real but with 'supernatural'/symbolic qualities. also the main ending theory is a clear giveaway that most readers take this story too literally. it is part literal and part symbolic.
I think that's right. People try to fit the Judge into a predefined framework for understanding evil: he's the devil, he's the gnostic demiurge, he's Nietzsche's ubermensch, etc. The problem is that he's all of those things and yet none of those things, because those things all represent specific types of false idols. I think it's more like this: in a spiritual wasteland where values are no longer aligned with the greatest good (love, self-sacrifice, courage, God, whatever you want to call it), the men who run amok and wreak havoc are those who epitomize the false idols of science, technology, power, wit, charm, knowledge, bloodlust, greed, hedonic pleasure, etc. What is the Judge if not an extreme example of and metaphor for a human being who worships those false idols, who embodies all those values?
What i love about this novel is the ultimate violence of it, and how absolutly everyone are involved in one way or another. For me it´s almost a Past-Dystopian book.
It was however a pretty difficult read for me as an Icelandic guy, so maybe i missed a few underlinings or subplots.
Anyways Great Review Ms.Stella :)
P.s. I have actually been likened to Judge Holden on more than one ocation :) :)
Hello,
It can be a difficult read as is has a lot of southern slang. I found it difficult at times as well. I had no idea the jakes were outhouses. At least in my part of Canada we call them outhouses. There is also a lot of Spanish which can be a lot to translate if you can’t read it. I’m assuming it’s your tall Icelandic frame they liken to the judge and not your contribution to chaos. 😉 Thank you for watching.
I see the Melville in Blood Meridian, but also Homer. Someone said it’s the most violent book since the Iliad. To me this book is the American Iliad. It has the same theme of the inevitability of war and cruelty.
It feels epic and fickle like the Iliad but I prefer it to the Iliad because I like that the "God's" are silent in it.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize I hear that. On the other hand I didn't have trouble getting into the Iliad from a modern perspective because the Gods are not hard to understand as metaphors for psychological processes and events beyond our control. In fact it's not that hard to find the supposedly "modern" viewpoint that is sometimes called "nihilism" (in McCarthy) in the Iliad. I.e. we're all headed for hades and no one will remember whether we were brave and noble or cowardly and cruel. Anyhow thanks for your response!
They say this is an "unfilmable" novel. Would you agree?
I think it would make a much better miniseries rather than a movie like the last of us adaptation
I don't think anything is impossible but it would be tough.
Awesome review.
I'm going to the library and reading this. A good friend told me about this book.
Let me know your thoughts if you do read it.
Biv-wacked is how you say it. Great discussion. One of my favorite novels
Thank you for the pronunciation. I had never seen that word before. This book is one of my favourites too.
I really enjoyed your overview. Easy sub 😃
Welcome to my channel.
It truly is a masterpiece.
The Judge - I've been wondering about him for a decade now.
I feel this comment is my future also. LOL!
It seems to me Mccarthys' 3 main influences are, the new testament, William Faulkner and Moby Dick.
He definitely pulls from the old testament as well. But you're not wrong. ;)
Great review, just subscribed.
Thank you, and welcome! ☺️
Great job!
Thank you ☺️
Holden puts ever Disney villain to shame. Honestly, switch out any villain with him and all the side characters saying to don't test him would make sense. Heck, if The Little Mermaid had someone like Holden, Sebastian saying to Ariel not to go see him, but she says, "Why don't you go tell my father? You're good at that.", only for him to do exactly that would make sense.
Since I guarantee that any adult should be informed that they're child's making a deal with the devil.
It left me feeling stupid. I totally missed the plot. All I got was an account of a murder spree in the desert. It felt like a story that everybody raves about but I’m too dense to appreciate.
For instance, tell me a spoiler in this story. If there’s a spoiler, I’ll reconsider it.
If you think that’s the most violent you’ve ever read then try stomaching American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. It only gets worse with every chapter.
My favorite book!
Your analysis is very astute. The Catholic symbolism is rife throughout the book. Some reviewers are oblivious to it unfortunately.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video! 👍
I really want to read it again to try to piece more of it together. Thank you for watching.
Violence may be senseless but not in sensual
haunting piece of work
I agree.
Great video!
Thank you for watching.
Bivouacked is pronounced "bĭv′wăk"
Thank you. Good to know.
Interesting analysis however violence is the reason I read it
Then you would not be disappointed.
Glanton was even more interesting to me than Holden. The judge is almost framed as a supernatural entity, a pure force of nature, while Glanton is more relatable to me. He seems like a more extreme version of Brown, Toadvine and the kid. He's kind of a bad leader yet several wayward souls follow him all the same. He seems in control when they're on the move and barely surviving but right when they settle down a bit it seems he loses the little control he had, as though he'd abandoned his purpose to wander and murder. Its never clear what he or most of the characters really want but I still find myself drawn to the scalpers and killers in their desperation. As soon as they try to establish something grounded and turn their trade into something more mechanical they fall apart, which mirrors what the hermit says at the beginning about man's creation and destiny. I almost feel like both Glanton and Holden would be disappointed to see the more industrialized mass murder of the 20th century. I think they want some sort of freedom but not the kind that invokes ethics and spiritualism. Anarchy allows them to live as predators of broken and helpless prey and any chance any of them had at being more sedentary died long before they ever met one another.
This is a great thing to point out. It’s as if any moment they can fall out of chaos and delve into something beyond survival and violence they have no idea how to relate or find their individuality. The chaos is a distraction for what they all lack internally, the fatherless, unmoored detachment from humanity.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize thats what I took out of it too. Fatherless sons who are at least some of them unknown fathers to wayward sons. Just a cycle of neglect and anger over and over. I wanted the man to just leave that camp with the 15 year old who challenges him so the inevitable would be avoided. That last kill really stuck with me especially what the other guys say to the 12 year old. I still think a LOT of boys out there struggle with the relationship with their dads. I never experienced abuse or violence but I definitely relate to some of the primal anger towards authority bc my own parents just didn't know how or want to do the job. Its hard to be grateful when you feel like you were brought into the world by mistake and the people who brought you in don't exactly make you feel wanted.
@@geordiejones5618 it’s heartbreaking to consider how many children are emotionally not cared for.
I find myself fixated on the Fool. There are so many ways one could read how McCarthy dealt with that character. I really need to read Blood Meridian again.
@@ItsTooLatetoApologizeextremely late but I’d still like to say this. This is what I thought too. As soon as the gang stops all anarchy and goes somewhere where there order, things start falling apart. Like how when they go to the north and jackson is surprised to deal with segregation laws and the other guy is imprisoned.
The Reverend Green doesn't get chased out of town. He gets killed by the crowd.
Shots are fired but it is never explicitly stated that he was killed. He very well could have been killed though.
Holden is not literally the devil. Can y'all mfs stop with this lazy take
Violence is never senseless. Only divine law is.
You should listen to Ben Nichols album, “The Last Pale Light in The West” about the novel.
Thank you. I will definitely give it a listen.
All The Pretty Horses is no walk in the park either.
I’m curious, how do you find Dostoyevsky? :)
I have only read Crime and Punishment so far but have The Brothers Karamazov on my TBR. C and P felt a bit bloated in areas but I really enjoyed certain parts of it. I have so far struggled with Russian writers though so I want to read more. What did you think?
@@ItsTooLatetoApologize yes I definitely agree that C&P was a tad tedious in some places, but I really enjoy him actually. He has a very unpretentious style but the content is so rich and thought provoking. I think he’s just so amazing at analysing the psychology of people and creating believable characters. I enjoyed The Idiot a lot from memory.
If you like Japanese literature I’d recommend Yukio Mishima, he has such a gorgeous style :)
If someone doesn't want a spoiler don't watch the video !
Great analysis.
thank you.
Uncomfortable but really good.
Completely agree.
That is a great book! Man alive!
I agree!
Anyone seen my dog?
Bahhahaha!
I tell people that Blood Meridian is 50% the most beautiful descriptions of the American Southwest ever written and 50% the most heinous and gruesome depictions of violence. It's a book like no other. Something I think is important to note is the role women play in the themes of the story. Men are almost wholly depicted as savage and murderous, but almost every woman in the novel who is given time on the pages will be a force of peace or soothing. Just as the Kid chose to leave his father, his first act was the (unknowing) killing of his mother during childbirth. I think there's a balance that McCarthy strikes there to create contrast.
Yes, I agree. I've heard others say that McCarthy doesn't write about women or that he is possibly misogynist, and I completely disagree. Now I haven't read all of McCarthy's works yet, but of the 6 i've read so far, I don't see it. I love how demanding McCarthy is of his reader. How his writing is an invitation for the reader to grapple and contend with what he is sharing. I love it!!