Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian

new_mexico1

new_mexico1

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I've seen this talked about a lot but didn't find a thread solely for it. I finished reading it a couple of days ago and I'm still thinking a lot about it. I know it gets a lot of heat for being self important or pretentious, etc. and a lot of criticisms are legit, but I still think it's an amazing novel. Yeah, you have to force your way through parts but it doesn't take away from the powerful and straight up frightening story.

I also disagree with a popular interpretation of the ending.

Most say the kid/man was killed by the Judge at the end. I don't think the kid got raped or killed. He was simply enveloped by the Judge. He was enveloped by evil. I thought the kid finally bought wholesale into evil and was fully overcome by it after resisting. Now he's a Glanton, Davy Brown, Jackson, etc. And might have been the one who took the missing girl after succumbing to the judge/evil. It seems, though, most are totally sure he died, even pro critics, and many think he was raped as well. So now I've been thinking about all the different interpretations.

Some of the other interpretations are interesting. Either way, I loved this book. This is the only thing I've read of McCarthy's though I've watched The Road and No Country for Old Men. I'll probably go ahead and read those. Blood Meridian seems to get a lot of comparisons to Moby Dick which I'm finally gonna actually read next.

So what did you guys think of the novel? How did you interpret the ending and the book?
 
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i've been meaning to read this for a while, ive heard a lot of good things about it, i hear its supposed to be brutally violent too.

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

i think mccarthy is a great writer and you've inspired me to seek out blood meridian, i will bump this thread when i've read it!
 
The Road and No Country are microbes compared to Blood Meridian. I can see why some people utterly hate it, but I revelled in it; dat dere language and violence, etc.
 
Anyone know anything about this perpetually happening-next-year movie adaptation?
 
I don't understand how someone could call McCarthy "pretentious". I've heard that before, too, TS, but I find zero validity in that criticism of his style, diction, tone, content, what have you. I don't know who would think this; maybe Dan Brown readers. These people need to pick up a tome by T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound.
 
CelebritySexist said:
The Road and No Country are microbes compared to Blood Meridian. I can see why some people utterly hate it, but I revelled in it; dat dere language and violence, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's easy to see how many would not like it. And it there are times when you have to kinda push on but I'm glad I did. Afterward I was legit kinda scared and kinda beat up by the book. I know it sounds like lame hyperbole but it definitely does stick with you. I think so anyway.

CelebritySexist said:
Anyone know anything about this perpetually happening-next-year movie adaptation?
Click to expand...

I think James Franco was the newest one to want to make it but threw in the towel. Everything movie wise seems to be dead right now. Everybody seems to think this is one of those books that won't translate well. I don't know but it would definitely be pretty difficult. The casting alone might be pretty hard.
 
sh1tehawke said:
i've been meaning to read this for a while, ive heard a lot of good things about it, i hear its supposed to be brutally violent too.

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

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

Do it up. I finally went with it and got it done after always hearing so much about it and all of Mccarthy's works. And at first I was even wondering if it was overrated or if I just didn't "get it" or whatever. But yeah, after it got going I loved it.
 
D-Day Lewis for Judge Holden, it starts here.

By the way, the book keeps on giving; supposedly every paragraph and sentence has some greater significance, if you know how to do the deconstructions and know the symbology and background. I remember there was a book called "Notes on Blood Meridian" retailing for $400 on Amazon ten years ago, it might be cheaper now; the most chilling thing is that people roughly analogous to the characters in the book existed to a greater or lesser extent. The Glanton gang certainly existed, and whoever Judge Holden is based on sounds like the western equivalent of an ancient astronaut.

I keep meaning to get Suttree and Outer Dark, anyone read them?
 
Good timing TS, was just looking for a book, I was going to get this a while ago but went for something else.
 
I read the Road and then No Country but just couldn't get through Blood Meridian.

I'll have to go back to it.
 
new_mexico1 said:
I've seen this talked about a lot but didn't find a thread solely for it. I finished reading it a couple of days ago and I'm still thinking a lot about it. I know it gets a lot of heat for being self important or pretentious, etc. and a lot of criticisms are legit, but I still think it's an amazing novel. Yeah, you have to force your way through parts but it doesn't take away from the powerful and straight up frightening story.

I also disagree with a popular interpretation of the ending.

I don't think the kid got raped. He was simply enveloped by the Judge. He was enveloped by evil. Initially I just thought the kid finally bought wholesale into evil and was fully overcome by it after resisting so long and became a Glanton, Davy Brown, Jackson, etc. And might have been the one who took the missing girl after succumbing to the judge/evil. It seems most are totally sure he died, even pro critics, and many think he was raped as well. So now I've been thinking about all the different interpretations.

Some of the other interpretations are interesting. Either way, I loved this book. This is the only thing I've read of McCarthy's though I've watched The Road and No Country for Old Men. I'll probably go ahead and read those. Blood Meridian seems to get a lot of comparisons to Moby Dick which I'm finally gonna actually read next.

So what did you guys think of the novel? How did you interpret the ending and the book?
Click to expand...

Read it years ago, and as someone from the southwest (like yourself) the imagery of the book was incredible.

As far as the end, I always pictured the judge being a Shiva-like being of destruction. He finally returns to perform his reckoning, like he promises the kid he will.
 
Blood Meridian is way, way better than The Road.

Everything about it is epic.

It is definitely similar in tone to Moby Dick. Kind of like Moby Dick, it is too epic to be fully appreciated until you are somewhat older. They make high schoolers read Moby Dick, but it's kind of a waste at that age.
 
the audiobook for this is really good. I have a book about the book but have not read it yet. the craziness and violence is good. I would suggest reading no country for old men before reading the road.
 
Ive read all of McCarthy's work, Blood Meridian was the first of his books I read, I first gave it a shot when I was 18 and couldn't connect with it, tried again after my freshman year and loved it, got obsessed.

I dont think it's as tightly written as The Road or even No Country, but it's much bigger as a story so that's forgiveable I suppose. I prefer his lighter work (No Country, The Road, Child of God), and think that Cities on the Plain, Outer Dark and Suttree are pretty forgettable.

There are a few great scenes in Blood Meridian, the one thst sticks out for me is the Judge making gunpowder in the mountains while holding off the Indian siege, it was both alchemical in its description and yet plausible, and it tied in with the epilogue in my head for some reason.
 
“Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”

The whole book is like on big sig.
 
Great book, brutal. I read it about 3 years ago though so it's not that fresh in my mind. One enduring image is of the Indians bashing babies skulls in, fucking vicious. The Judge is a bad motherfucker.
 
BM and the Road are two of the most depressing novels I've ever read
 
Madmick said:
I don't understand how someone could call McCarthy "pretentious". I've heard that before, too, TS, but I find zero validity in that criticism of his style, diction, tone, content, what have you. I don't know who would think this; maybe Dan Brown readers. These people need to pick up a tome by T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound.
Click to expand...
Or perhaps they should give Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" a shot...

Blood Meridian is a modern masterwork.
 
bootsy said:
Or perhaps they should give Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" a shot...

Blood Meridian is a modern masterwork.
Click to expand...

Ironic that a modern masterpiece is a nihilistic violent drama in set in the old West.
 
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