First off, I’ll get the obvious out of the way: This book deserves the praise it gets. I get it.
However
Maybe this is just an age maturity thing (I’m 23, thought I was relatively smart until I saw people dissect this book in ways my tiny mind could ever comprehend) but so much of this book, particularly the writing itself, has gone completely over my head. And yet I can still see how jaw dropping some sections are. I just don’t totally get them.
The violence really hasn’t bothered me all that much. In fairness I have about 100 pages left, but I really can’t see it getting much worse than I’ve already read. Sure it’s totally brutal and horrible and gross to read such senseless violence, but it makes sense. The Wild West was an absolute inhumane time in history, and this book portrays that very well. Maybe I’m numb to it at this point.
But I’d be lying if I said I gave a shit about the characters. I don’t. And maybe that’s the whole point, but being true to myself, my favourite part of stories is the characters. These are underdeveloped (again, maybe on purpose) names on a page. Glanton and the Kid are the names I know most, and of course the Judge. The Judge is the only character in this book I could even call a character. And a fucking creepy one as well. His monologues that I can hardly decipher? Amazing.
Blood Meridian is a draining book. The prose is bleak and brutal, people die constantly in horrible ways, the language is so hard to follow, and yet I do, despite everything I’ve said, look forward to seeing how this ends. Maybe I would “get it” if I was 20 years older, but it has been a reading experience I won’t forget for a long time.
I’m 44 and recently finished the book. I share most of your opinions on it. A hard read in more ways than one, but one I’m glad to have finished.
One thing I felt made the book a bit more unnecessarily difficult to read (on top of the constant torture/murder-porn aspect) was how McCarthy kept using obscure words that I have never heard before. Someone on reddit mentioned that he was actually making up words for some of this stuff (I never verified if that is true).
Anyway, glad I read it. Probably won’t read it all the way through again. May or may not read some of his other works.
Same here. The people are all brutal killers or brutalized victims. Got to the point where I sensed a large Native American slaughter was coming up and didn’t want to read it anymore.
I gave up on it in the second chapter
Bleak and brutal is/was Cormac McCarthy’s style. The Road was the same way and while I respect his talent, I was out after that book. I’m not interested in reading anything else of his.
Talking about McCarthy makes me think of the time they interviewed him, Lawrence Krauss, and Werner Herzog for Science Friday. Such an odd trio, it was such a great interview:
https://www.npr.org/2011/04/08/135241869/connecting-science-and-art
Strangely, The Road was much more disturbing to me than Blood Meridian. Actually, I found Stella Maris more troubling than Blood Meridian. Maybe it’s the same way I am way more scared by psychological horror films than gore fests. He was one hell of an author.
Wow. I forgot he died
I’ve tried and failed to read many of cormacs books and I just can’t get past the violence and bleakness and confusion.
And I honestly think his books are similar to the bible in that people take their own meanings from them. Many of my friends rave about them and can pick apart so many things that I just can’t see.
All in all not my cup of tea. But i still wish it was
Yeah I got on a very short stint of listening to Jocko Willink podcasts this is one of his top three reads that speaks volumes.
I appreciate that there are hard as steel men like Jocko protecting us from evil and securing oil interests in the Middle East but I can only take so much hyper macho drivel.
The book is brutal but if you want a serious man’s read it’s for you.
Just got to the point where they get out of the prison camp to head out with judge. Maybe I’m emotionally damaged or 4 Chan really hurt me but while I like it it’s not that shocking thus far
I’m glad you’re interested in finishing it. Even if you hate it and think it’s just a plotless endless book that puts you to sleep. The end changes everything.
but so much of this book, particularly the writing itself, has gone completely over my head.
I still come across books like that occasionally, and I’ve learned to just go with the flow and enjoy the confusion :). I can get a lot out of a book even if I miss relatively “obvious” ideas or subtext, much less the level of analysis that people can get out of a book when they really try. Some books benefit from multiple reads or even from reading the book with annotations or a companion work. Other books are, frankly, better if you don’t try to read too deeply into them.
And, frankly, some analysis I’ve read definitely crosses the line from insight to reading signal from noise. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar! Humans are great at finding complex patterns and meaning in the outside world… even if that meaning isn’t really there, or isn’t even meaningful.
I just finished Blood Meridian last week and I had followed along chapter by chapter on litcharts. After a few chapters I just gave up on the ‘analysis’ section and read the summary just to sorta reinforce what I just read and help clarify some things. The analysis stuff drove me crazy - you hit the nail on the head - “Glanton smokes a cigar which represents the fire burning in all men’s hearts and the risks one is willing to take to enjoy a fleeting moment” Yeeesh
I think there is a point where people over-analyze and I feel that can actually take the fun out of it. Makes it more into an assignment rather than enjoying the art. My two cents anyway, to each their own.
I’m with you. Not sure I want to read it a 3rd time.
Reading it for the second time right now. The first time, it helped to have a spark note review after each chapter. The second time around I’m enjoying it much more (and I loved it the first time). I get it’s a bit odd in terms of writing style. I find very important moments will be recorded in a very nonchalant way, making the plot hard to follow. I was initially drawn in by the description of the landscapes and the brutality of the setting itself.
I would have loved to get a book from McCarthy about Toadvine and his story before Blood Meridian…
It’s a postmodern deconstruction of the western genre and the concept of frontier America. Rather than it being something guided by God as manifest destiny would have you believe, McCarthy portrays the whole thing as complete depravity and senseless violence. Which is exactly how you would feel if you were the one on the receiving end of manifest destiny or frontier America. Or at least that’s my read on it. Art is subjective after all!
Much like say the movie Prey hinted at the extractive violence of the settler project. The wanton murder of the native population for little more than greed. Perhaps guided by God, but a horrible, vengeful one.
The Judge is one of my favorite villains of all time… if you can even call him a villain? I’m honestly not sure. He’s certainly brutal, inhuman, arguably even evil, but he feels more like a force of nature than a person motivated by human motives and interests.
“Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent”. My god what a line.
Strongly agree with this. The Judge’s monologue on the strangeness of the universe, delivered while performing a magic trick, and his monologue on the nature of war are two of the best passages of writing ever put to paper.
That line and, “The freedom of birds is an insult to me” has got to be two of the best lines ever written for a villain in any book ever made.
I do see the judge as the manifestation of Satan itself.
I have this in my cousin’s library (old edition). Thanks for this review. I was thinking of reading it.
Time for this post again?
Honestly it’s the same post every month. There should be a pinned thread for it by now.
god forbid people discuss books in a book subreddit