www.patreon.co... In this video I summarize and analyze blood meridian, or that evening redness in the west, by Cormac McCarthy. I loved this book and hope you enjoy my review!
Fascinating. Will a secular view not do? Or is it just the rarity of seeing art through that lens of Christianity that draws you? I too am a believer, so I ask in good faith, so to speak.
I don't think the Judge killed the Kid. I think the Judge just invited (the man now) to "dance" and they BOTH killed the little girl missing, as the kid STEPS IN and is embraced by judge naked. And this whole time the Kid was the rapist (the book describes the Judges hands as small, yet the victims had large imprints on their neck). also, the Kid showed his impotence to the Dwarf- woman. And could only "get off" with violence. Also the Kid killed a child early that final chapter. And lastly, when the judge comes back to party at the saloon. The book focus on him dancing joyful having tempted the Kid. And the kid is not heard off again like toadvine and Brown. Which means the Judge didn't kill them, so neither does it mean the Kid died by the hands of the judge.
Absolutely incredible analysis, dude. My favorite essay on the novel that I've ever seen, McCarthy's works are so incredible they somehow always offer more. I had no idea about the references to the Book of Judges until I heard you discuss them and I already can't wait to re-read the novel with those in mind. I didn't think it was possible to appreciate this novel anymore than I already did but your discussion has proven me wrong. Thank you so much for making it! As an aside, your point on evil and its inability to create reminded me of another favorite novel of mine, The Silmarillion. I don't want to spoil anything if you haven't read it, but one of the core themes of the novel is evil's inability to create anything.
@@thomasr7292 : If you haven’t read it already, I would recommend Out Of The Silent Planet by C S Lewis for you. It too addresses that issue of the essence of, “evil,” and its inability to create anything anew, but to distort or destroy beauty. It’s the first in a series of science fiction novels, with some memorable prose and fascinating characters. But, since you like both Blood Meridian and The Silmarillion, I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to appreciate the metaphors and depth of Tolkien’s close friend and fellow, “Inkling.” It’s very unlike his Narnia stuff, which I must confess, I never really enjoyed nearly so much as his essays. But those, “Ransom Novels,” are superb.
The Kid is a tragic story of being lukewarm as well. This is ultimately what the judge accuses him of; that he alone was unable to fully commit to anything. He will make compassionate action one day, and cruel the next. He tells Tobin that he has not heard God speaking within him, and when the Kid is confronted by a burning bush in the wilderness, he still ultimately seeks out the Judge and returns to him, like a dog returns to vomit. This inaction and lukewarmness is what eventually seals his fate by the end of the story.
Just finished reading this book and was looking for videos discussing it, so I’m glad you made this so recently. I’ve been a huge McCarthy fan for years and had been saving this book as something to look forward to reading - it did not disappoint! As a fellow Christian, I also found so much insight in this book. Thanks for taking the time to talk about it!
This is a great analysis. I agree about the natural descriptions having a kind of otherworldly beauty...in Chapter IV, with the filibusters, the desert landscape is this alien hostile antagonist, but later there are scenes of true sublimity. There's a scene where Glanton examines a leaf while riding through the mountains, and McCarthy writes something like "it's perfection was not lost on him." As if he's saying that not even a killer like Glanton is totally immune to the beauty inherent in creation.
I was fascinated by your thesis. I think you’re right and you’ve added some ideas that I hadn’t thought of before, to cogitate. I took the epilogue as a way of drawing a line under McCarthy’s thesis, symbolically both explaining why that period of out of control violence appeared to end, whilst showing us that all that what really happened was that it didn’t cease, but merely changed in its manifestations, not its nature. The man is using a machine to plant these deep circles, empty cylinders, in the ground, one after another. Then he burns the gasses off and starts the next one, all the time being followed by what could actually be anything from people to animals, possibly birds seeking worms from the freshly dug earth, or assistant workers, doing their follow up work on the holes he planted. You really can read any species into that group of followers behind the man. But what he’s doing is making these perfect circles in the ground, at measured and equal distances: circles have no, “meridian.” Mark any point on a circle as being, “the top,” or peak, and from that point on you are descending back down. As the Judge said, (paraphrasing) at the moment mankind reaches the meridian of his achievement he also begins to decline and die; that, “sunset,” is visible on the horizon at the very meridian. I took it that McCarthy was saying something about the repetitive nature of man’s tendencies, and the fact that he leaves nothing behind but an empty space which profits only those who follow his wars, and them only for a brief time. I got an existential vibe from the epilogue, as though he was discussing this repetition as something that we’re doomed to see over and over until we cease to exist, or until the heat death of the universe; which, by the way, is an uncaring universe, content to ignore our tiny dealings and repeat its own processes long after we’re gone. The beginning of the novel uses that quote from the poet, William Wordsworth, “The child, the father of the man.” And it’s worth noting that, “the kid,” (who never gets a capital letter) is now referred to by McCarthy as, “the man,” by the end of the novel. Yes, I see the appalling crime of his father withholding life saving education from the kid, but . . . Is it not true to say that the Judge has become the father of the kid, as his antagonist, and is battling for his soul? When the kid became, “the man,” Judge Holden had lost that battle, so he responded in the same way that he always did when confronted with purity, maturation or innocence: he destroyed it. In that sense, the story is ultimately nihilistic. We are unfixable, destructive war makers, doomed to be so forever, whitewashing our historic crimes through false narratives, whilst even that which we call, “war,” is so often just rapine and pillage. And that evil within us cannot be killed, like the Judge, who represents a figure who argues that you can embrace this fact and profit from it, or be eradicated. It is possible to rise above these instincts but doing so cannot save you from war: only fighting, or prosecuting wars can do that, for the little time we have on earth. However, by next week I will have seen yet more meaning and themes and have reached new conclusions, as I have already several times. But that is McCarthy’s genius, beyond his sheer beautiful facility with language and the mesmerising poetry of his prose: he leaves you with an organic, living artefact inside your mind, that forces you to ponder the meaning of life, arguing its case. It continues to debate with you and evolves around your understanding. I’ve only ever encountered two other authors with that capacity; George Orwell and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (discounting certain philosophers who weren’t writing fiction) and even they were not dealing with direct historical cases at the time. You got me really thinking about this, which means you’ve done an excellent job . . . on me at least. Thank you.
Love your take. One of the best in the American canon. I’m a Christian who consumes literature like it’s a job and I’m always looking for biblical allusions and nods at objective moral standards. Most believers have allowed religiosity and modern Gnosticism to eclipse the beauty of God in art and literature. Few to discuss this with. You should start an online community-I’ll join.
A truly excellent analysis. Upon my revisiting Blood Meridian, I did think the novel serves as a total endorsement of Christianity, exploring one of the many ego-driven alternatives to faith that may take the place of the Church in its absence or decline- herein we are invited to see what could happen wherein the championing of unceasing violence and war displaces faith and connection with God
Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness In The West) is brilliant. Thoroughly and unquestionably epic. McCarthy is among the great American authors if not the pinnacle. His writing is at another level and other worldly. He's easily in the rarified air of Don DeLillo, with his prose in Underworld, or Vladimir Nabokov in Bend Sinister or Lolita (which, admittedly, i could only read halfway before i had to put it down, for good, over the subject matter). The analysis in this video is outstanding. The reference to the Book of Judges was new information for me and rings true. So many great points in this video. Well done. It's exceptional.
There is an extant theology in McCarthy's work, but I wouldn't call it Christian. And I would absolutely not foist evangelical traditions onto this book. But there are a lot of ideas about God, certainly. But I don't see this book or any of his work as pointing to biblical living as an antithesis to the evil this book discusses. Almost all his works are tales of inevitability. And human cruelty. But there is certainly a biblical syntax here, and it makes for a voice of authority. I think the Book of Judges allusion is at least an interesting theory, but this book is far more in conversation w Moby Dick. But I appreciate the work u put in here. I bet we could riff on this for a minute
Well done cover of one of my favorite books Caleb! Lewis also hits on evil as destroying beauty for the sake of it in Perelandra. The scene where Ransom discovers the trail of half dead frog like creatures left by the Weston's unman really ties into your point. BTW a friend referred me to your channel and I am hooked! Thanks!
I do t think the judge wants to destroy beauty-I think he wants to possess it as wholly as possible. He wants to capture it, own it, and eliminate it from being available ever again. He wants the existence of all things to be contained in himself. Something like that.
This is a heavy-duty book. I purchased a few books many years ago. This was one. I really am not into fiction books. A confedfrecy of dunces was one of the other ones. That's another story. This book was incredible. Is it violent? Yes with out a doubt. You read the worst of humans. I was really stunned when I read it. It is so well written. Just a incredible book..
In The Road, the father is always telling his son about preserving the fire that we carry inside. I think that is McCarthy being a little more explicit about what you said in the end about fighting evil with institutions that resist the evil. (Btw, you just gained a new subscriber. Really loved your analysis of this book and I scrolled through your uploads and I'm really liking the subject matter you choose.)
I don't think the Judge killed the Kid. I think the Judge just invited (the man now) to "dance" and they BOTH killed the little girl missing, as the kid STEPS IN and is embraced by judge naked. And this whole time the Kid was the rapist (the book describes the Judges hands as small, yet the victims had large imprints on their neck). also, the Kid showed his impotence to the Dwarf- woman. And could only "get off" with violence. Also the Kid killed a child early that final chapter. And lastly, when the judge comes back to party at the saloon. The book focus on him dancing joyful having tempted the Kid. And the kid is not heard off again like toadvine and Brown. Which means the Judge didn't kill them, so neither does it mean the Kid died by the hands of the judge.
The Judge definitely killed the Kid! Completely disagree with your analysis. The Judge was the child killer. The Kid is the closest thing to "good" in the book.
Fernando, you are right. If you read the ending very closely, it is inconclusive who was killed in the outhouse. Upon first reading, it seems like The Man is raped & murdered by The Judge. But a closer reading really points to the possibility it's the missing little girl. I think McCarthy intentionally left the ending inconclusive.
@@ericsierra-franco7802 but he's not the kid anymore. He is a man when they meet again. And he is as morally debased as the rest of the gang. Those are his bedfellows. What is the basis for the implication that the Judge raped him? Is it because he was naked and embraced him?
Heh, I'm going through The Bible now and the Book of Judges has been my favorite so far. I didn't think about it until you brought it up in the video but might not be a coincidence that Blood Meridian is also my favorite novel.
you are the first one that give me a possibility to think about this novel with a slight optimism. what you did not mention is the dead mother , the absence of the motherly spirit in the world of the gang, side by side with the total absence of god and love
The trains argument is certainly ambitious. Gonna have to think on this, because I see it as the land is superficially stitched w the symbols of unity, which is what the trains were treated as, but it's going over blood-soaked land. In actuality it changed nothing.
"This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god."
This is the very top notch of American literature. BTW, there is a musical companion to this novel (unofficial). Hex: or Printing in the Infernal Method.
Yes, by the drone/doom band Earth. Check out Ben Nichols of the band Lucero. He did a 6 song ep The Last Pale Light in the West. All the songs are based on scenes from Blood Meridian. Most of the lyrics are taken from lines in the novel.
I would love to know if you’ve read gravity’s rainbow and if so what you think about it. Also I wonder what you think about interacting with artistic works that are very explicit and dark as a Christian.
At the start of the book it mentions how he was born during the meteor shower and sky had fallen. Perhaps he was referring to all the fallen angels or the like? Perhaps the Judge is the Kid's Shadow side while the Ex-Priest is some semblance of a good side trying to come through. Toward the end he's with the priest in the desert trying to escape his shadow side but it's a lost cause.
Great analysis, Caleb. One thing I'd like to add to your comments regarding the railroad tracks being laid in the epilogue. Is it possible that Cormac is alluding to the impending violence of our own western expansion and the near extermination of the bison herds? The railroads provided hunters the means and method for moving heavy bison hides back east and to seaports for export to other countries. An interesting thought, at least.
I'm not a Christian, and I'm very skeptical when someone tries to imply that McCarthy is religious. However, I can't say your argumentation isn't well argued (at least as far as I myself understood the book). And you do recognize the fricking ridiculous literary quality of the book aside from the religious interpretation. I would maybe argue that McCarthy isn't stricly advocating for the actual existence of the christian god, but more for, as you say, the need for the construction of institutions which educate people in a way they don't stray too far away from good. Is religion the only institution that can do that? I'm not sure about that question, to be honest. Anyway, thank you very much for the video!
Really appreciate this take, read some atheists talking about it and they were enthralled but uncomfortable with what they say as the implications of the Judge l. Tom Holland's dominion comes to mind as I read this. I've read some of McCarthy and he definitely seems to believe in original sin at any rate. I think Chesterton said it's the doctrine for which we have the most empirical proof. I did get the hints of Solztenitzyn about "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart..." it drives me crazy when art tries to say any particular group has the monopoly on evil. I also think it's insulting to groups to remove agency of evil as if they not capable of responsibility.
One time I had a bad 25-i nbome trip and I hallucinated the camp raid scene where one of the Glanton gang members picks up two babies and starts smashing their heads against a rock while everything is on fire around them. It was very intense and the crunching sound of their skulls oh man it was a lot.
The language and the violence are a direct reflection of the land and people at that time. Frankly there is nothing gratuitous about it. The story is based on historical fact....there was a Glanton gang and there was a man named Judge Holden. The massacre at the crossing is fact. You have to ask when reading the book if good could even exist there when the law of the land was violence.
The end of the book is ambiguous. It does not say that the judge raped the man/boy. Why do I say this? At chapter 14, the judge was giving candy to the children as bait and after girl was missing and groups of citizens gathered to look for her in the pits. At chapter 15, a Mexican young girl was kidnapped, they find bloody pieces of clothes under the north wall above where she must have been trown and prints of her carrying in the desert. Who could do that? A powerful man - the judge. Then, at the end of the book, when the judge is in the bar with the man, he says "...on this stage is room for only one beast. All the other are doomed to a nameless and ethernal night. One by one will go down into the DARKNESS in front of the TORCHES. On the next page it says : " on the street people where shouting for the girl with the dead bear, because she was lost. They where going into the DARK yards with lamps and TORCHES, screaming for her. You went way to philosophical on your take.
I can’t get the images out of my head; the sentences and prose are artefacts that take on a solid form in my mind; but the characters, especially Judge Holden and the kid (who is me and you) have taken up residence with me and will remain in their wickiups camping on the edge of my consciousness, discussing death and the end of time, for years.
The epilogue is of people fencing in he West, not laying train tracks - McCarthy is saying the Wild West is coming to an end. Still, good review. In No Country For Old Men - set in 1980 - characters constantly say that something bad is coming that they don’t fully understand; they’ve talking about drug trafficking, but it could be a metaphor. 🤷♂️
Even thought this analysis is very good but New Testament isn't a all peaceful book we believe to be , nor any religion because of it's superiority complex nature , just look at the Mathew 10:34 and what was the real mission of son of God was. I believe McCarthy believes as much as evil is innate in us there is beauty and peacefulness , like the nature it portraits , which simultaneously have the thunder and the rain.
Does CM know Hebrew, thus influencing his syntax? Or is his syntax just divine coincidence? I mean to ask - is his syntax intentionally aligned with the Old Testament style of writing? If not, do we just chalk it up to chance that he wrote in the same syntax? Seems like an odd point to me to say that the author wrote in the same syntax as Hebrew language authors unless he has read the translation you mentioned, which keeps the clauses separate, or happened to deeply understand the stylistic tendencies of Judaic authorship.
I have attempted to read Blood Meridian at least three different times, with my furthest attempt going halfway. I'm not a fan of McCarthy's prose, given his overuse of polysyndeton, and I was disturbed by the violence - shockingly disturbed, as I was raised in a corner of the Internet where desensitization to real-life gore occurs rapidly and commonly. Your video deepened my appreciation of that which I had already read, inspiring me to give it yet another chance. It's one of my wife's favorite books; McCarthy is one of our rare divergences of taste. So, thank you for the insightful video! I hope to see more videos in this series (if it is a series). P.S. I came from /lit/, if that means anything to you. If not, you have an interesting audience behind the scenes!
well done ...but ...i have not read the book but if i already agree that "conserving institutions which ward off violence" is a good thing ...why should I dedicate the time to read this book? What i mean is that themes are not enough for me to justify the opportunity cost of reading one book instead of another. themes are the least important differentiator on my personal scale yet on RU-vid that is what most analysis centers on.
It's in the nature of books to lend themselves to multiple interpretations, I actually thought the major theme was the lie of America the Myth, and the death of the West
the description on Amazon has your interpretation too, saying the book is brilliant because it's tearing down good ideas about America's past. It's kind of sad we live in times where the worth of the book has nothing to do with having good writing, good characters, or a good narrative. The focus is entirely on the book being good because it says America is bad.
@@patrickbarnes9874 No, no. :-). If you got that from the review (versus your own interpretation from reading) then it was a terrible review. First and foremost, it's some of the most beautiful prose by any living American author, extolling the majesty of the western landscape. The prose style is a little like the Psalms of David(KJV) in a way. It's poetic, and concerned with man's treatment of each other, and (some say)the nature of evil. He doesn't moralize, or glorify. Based on real events, and told in an allegorical style ;its tone not unlike Milton, it's programme not unlike Dante. But more recognizable, since the novel takes place in the recent(1800's) history of the American West- -the formation and continued existence of, depended on settlers coming from the East
I thought the judge killed the boy because the boy referred as the man at fire when Two boys approached him killed the 14 boy which referenced himself at start of book instead of letting him go as if to say gave in idea of silence of god in that moment so the judge collected him at last
As a Christian one thing that I cant un think... the sergeant in the Army who lent me the book interpreted the Judge as the author's view of God. I don't like this of course since I believe in Christ and know that by him the world we live in was created. It is hard not to consider since If I remember the Judge draws things that then become extinct. A cruel god. I dont like it but it could be a way to look at it. My hope is that he represents the sin nature of mankind and the devil himself but my fear would be that the author intended for him to represent his view of god
I don’t know how I feel about this analysis. I don’t think McCarthy is a Christian - though i could be wrong about that. I’m going to start with the things I don’t agree with: I don’t think that the book of Judges was utilized to write this piece. I also don’t think that McCarthy was trying to make any sort of Christian philosophical point, mainly due to the point I stated above that I don’t think he is a Christian, or religious. Stepping back from this, I agree most of the points stated in this video, the exception being the statement that :all humans want to destroy beautiful sequences. That’s not true as it goes against all things that would make humans exist. If humans were insistent on destroying, Destruction and violence - which many are I agree but by FAR not all - the inherent aspect that I find disgusting about Christianity is the notions that humans are inherently evil. Yes I concur with the idea of sin, but lusting after a hot woman isn’t the same as wanting to rape her and make sure she know for a fact that she isn’t even a human. As what I glean from Christian teachings teach us... I can go on, but would like a counter to my statements first
Have you read or listened to "Sunset Limited" by Cormac McCarthy? This isn't a trick or argumentative question, I'm genuinely wondering? It's a short story about an atheist professor who tries to commit suicide and is rescued by a Christian who explains why life is worth living. I think that story shows that McCarthy is religious and believes secularism leads to a dark place. Also, I really don't want to be one of those youtube comment section arguers so don't take this as preaching, these are just two of my thoughts that you're welcome to dismiss and ignore- 1) Christianity, at least in my theology, doesn't teach that man is inherently evil, it teaches that he's inherently God's image but is fallen. Saying that humans are "fundamentally good but have fallen wills" makes sense of the human experience to me, it explains our art and our war, our good and our evil. If that "good but fallen" idea didn't come across in the video that's my bad communication skills. 2) I have found that the more comfort someone is raised in the less likely they are to believe the Bible's claims about how fallen man's will is. The people I've met in the Dominican Republic, and Chad, and Palestine have no problem with the Bible's claim that our wills are so broken and bent and fallen that they lead us to destroy beauty for the sake of it. The fact that the poorest people I've ever seen resonate with the message of "good but fallen" is one reason I believe it. Again, I'm not trying to preach, just my thoughts. Thanks for interacting!
@@CalebSmith3 thanks for the well thought out reply. I will say that I have nothing against Christian faith or anything of the like, but i simply don’t think that Cormac McCarthy was actively thinking on all these levels that many people tout that the book touches on. That’s all.
The thing which always strikes me is the Christian's inability to digest literature under the metaethical frames of the Moral Relativist. It's like their brain crashes and when they boot back up they just proceed under their perspective that Moral Realism an objective fact of reality and view everything under that frame.
You could literally say the same about any other group or religion in this world. Like the Gnostics, who try to recreate society in their image, willing to destroy everything and everyone for the sake of their political agenda, because they believe they know better, because they think they have occult knowledge about God, about the world, about people.
