I have the first page of blood meridian framed on the wall in my studio. The density of imagery in the first chapter alone, and all of the brutal backstory it describes is unparalleled. I’m a voracious reader, but it took me 3 attempts to finish this one as the hellish scenes dragged up some PTSD in me on my first two attempts. Cool video :)
I got strong Hannibal Lecter vibes from Judge Holden when I read the book. He's brilliant and well versed in seemingly everything, yet he is also a complete psychopath. As with Lecter, you are fascinated and drawn in by his brilliance and knowledge, yet you also know he would destroy you without hesitation or warning if it suited him.
Ben Nichols, of Lucero, made it into a great album: "The Last Pale Light in the West." Most people who have heard the title track think that it's about "The Walking Dead," but it's actually about Blood Meridian.
Absolutely brilliant video! I appreciate the effort and thought you put into this, I have been making my way through McCarthy's work for a couple years now and i notice some common themes throughout his work which you've touched on here. Lastly, I do appreciate that your analysis Didn't become bogged down into some kind of overly-simplistic political interpretation like most reviews that I have seen on the book tend to become.
The "bled it of its strangeness" section is what sorta gave me a mini existential awakening and ignited my curiosity about the world. I think it's a much more exciting quote than scary.
As you describe The Judge, another literary character came to mind: Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. Despite that they both look similar, both men have similar viewpoints on man and violence.
You’ve illuminated very interesting themes in this novel for me to explore, I was ready for a second read of it but now I feel primed to really take away something new. Thank you!
Nice video. To me each of the major characters represent an aspect of our psyche, and the events portray the pain and tragedy of existence. The kid represents the internal self. Tobin is the conscience. Toadvine is cowardice. Glanton is petty greed. The Judge/Father represents the dark aspects of human behavior, who ultimately ( in this case least wise) overtake the self ( the kid) after chasing him for years
I really want to see this book adapted for film and seeing Judge Holden casted. A Denis Villeneuve production can do the Judge justice but one can only dream in the meantime.
I loved this analysis! Thank you my man I would love for you to even tell more about this book. This book is EXTREMELY interesting. One of the greatest literary creations I believe, now obviously there are a lot, but this is something very unique and special... Haunting. Could you make analysis on The Judge? Who is he? What is happening? etc etc...
Blood Meridian is my favourite book and whenever I'm reading it I find myself scouring RU-vid looking for additional insight. Thoroughly enjoyed this video! Especially the stuff on the act of witnessing bringing things into existence. Are you considering doing anything else on Blood Meridian?
Thanks for the feedback! In the near-term I don't have any plans, but I do hope to make more videos about some other Cormac McCarthy novels at some point. Another video you might enjoy - there's a video on my channel called "Booktube Backstage Tag" and at the end of that video I read off every one of McCarthy's similes in Blood Meridian.
While radically different, the context of violence, war, and conflict, another favorite author of mine, ironically also a Texan (Like Mccarthy), since passed on unfortunately, leaving only two books as his memory, is John Steakley, his novel Vampire$, which was half adapted by film maker John Carpenter was certainly a good book, but his meditative masterpiece on war is Armor. Mccarthy's style of writing, especially in Blood Meridian, is visceral and yet creepily detached, I recommend it to anyone I can, but I find that even if they haven't read it, they've at least heard of it, Steakley's Armor does not have such a privilege, and so I recommend it to you. It is certainly not written like Mccarthy, rather Steakley's style, especially in portraying war, makes use of the intimate and uses run-on sentences as a style of writing and conveyance. I find this book to be a great companion piece to the themes of Blood Meridian, and the character of Felix in Armor to be the complete antithesis to The Judge; Felix actually being the ultimate practitioner of war and yet nothing like The Judge.
Would the tragedy have occurred had we not turned the page and read the words? By reading what was already written, we have made the event part of the story.
Surprised I haven't seen anybody comparing the Judge Holden to the Walkin Dude from the Stand. Not comparing the men as writers but the idea of the two characters are quite alike.
Heraclitus, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Spengler. "War is the father and king of all. Some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free." -Heraclitus- The human condition and all it's frailty and deception. I believe even the lack of punctuation -and in another vein harshness towards children- is meant to convey the brittleness of manmade rules, laws and forms. "Every society is only three meals away from chaos." -Lenin-
I've been going back and forth on the question of whether to try Blood Meridian or not. On the one hand I've always found the whole western/cowboy aesthetic in American media to be really boring and off-putting. On the other, Harold Bloom has it as one of his top three American novels, and I've heard good things about it here and on other RU-vid channels. Going to give it a go in tandem with Paradise Lost, as the gnostic/theodicy framework seems more interesting than just reading it as an 'anti-western' genre critique.
@@ami1649 Something of an update: still only about 1/6 of my way into Blood Meridian, but yesterday I listened to a podcast on the novel I thought offered a very interesting commentary: E. S. Dallaire's 'Metaphor & Reality', EP.9 - Novelist As Visionary: On Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Really excited to continue reading 👍
@@benjaminb6678 OK, Kubrick probably would have been the best man for the job if it were possible. His ability to show terror without too much gore is apparent in "The Shining," and Blood Meridian is a mind f@ck, as are "Dr. Strangelove," and "Full Metal Jacket."
