Blood Meridian

[Cheshire]

I just finished reading this book and am a little bit confused. What I get out of the book is that it is the story of a violent kid growing up to be a lot less violent. The Kid becomes less violent as a result of seeing the massive amounts of violence done by the members of the scalping party he is a part of. For example at the beginning he fights a stranger solely for being in his way (the fight in the mud) and at the end he puts up with the kid from the buffalo bones gathering party calling him a liar and gives the kid every chance not to get killed.

I really do not understand the ending where the judge rambles on about dancing then the Kid leaves and the judge is waiting for him somewhere. Am I supposed to assume that they fight to the death or something? I also do not understand what is happening in the epilogue.

On a side note it seems like the Judge keeps people for pets a few times throughout the book am I supposed to get something out of this? People he keeps as pets: the little Indian boy, the young girl at the ferry and then the idiot.

Generally, I am a bit confused why people love this book. Also is there some major thing I am missing?

[Lucas Was Right]

On tdarko's recommendation, I recently read this book, as well as All the Pretty Horses by the same author. I enjoyed ATPH much more. After reading Blood Meridien, I can see why McCarthy is referred to as Faulkneresque. And I disliked Blood Meridien for the same reasons I dislike Faulkner. He rambles on and on overdescribing mundane details, forgoing any attempt at character or plot development. Instead he attempts to make every 40-line run-on sentence into a high school English teacher's wet dream with a plethora of over the top symbolism.

The book opens by introducing the reader to the "main character" who is some orphan kid, but then he's barely mentioned for the next 150 or so pages. I really just thought the whole thing was incredibly poorly written.

With all that said, I loved All the Pretty Horses, despite the occasional factual miss, and am looking forward to reading the rest of the Border Trilogy. I loved the characters in that book, which was probably part of why I was so disappointed in Blood Meridien, which I read immediately after. Just my $.02.

[Cheshire]

I might be putting Blood Meridian in the same category as The Sound and the Fury. I have read them and really did not get much out of them, however people who know a lot more about literature then I do say they are great. Maybe they are the kind of books that have to be studied not read for pleasure.

[Lucas Was Right]

I re-reading what I wrote, I was probably too harsh. I didn't really "dislike" it, and don't regret having read it. But I was disappointed after ATPH.

[Bill C]

Haven't read "Blood Meridian" but recently read his "No Country for Old Men" and really enjoyed it very much. (FWIW)

bill c

[yukoncpa]

I'll wait for the movie. Roger Ebert described the movie, "The Proposition" by comparing it to Blood Meridian
Here's his quote:
[ QUOTE ]
Have you read Blood Meridian, the novel by Cormac McCarthy? This movie comes close to realizing the vision of that dread and despairing story. The critic Harold Bloom believes no other living American novelist has written a book as strong and compares it with Faulkner and Melville, but confesses his first two attempts to read it failed, "because I flinched from the overwhelming carnage."



[/ QUOTE ]

[raisins]

The epilogue is a description of fence building. It suggests that the theme of drawing boundaries, is central to the book. It is also partly evocative of the end of the wildness of the West. This end of the West is also significant in the timing of the death of the Kid, after the slaughter of most of the buffalo.

The Judge kills the Kid in the jakes. In the bar he's sharing a little bit more of his world view.

In my opinion the most important sentence in the book is in the Kid's dream where he sees the Judge and the coiner, "of this is the Judge judge". It's easy to pass over it quick. If you are interested in what Blood Meridian and the Judge is about spend some time there.

Did you catch that the Judge is a sexual predator?

The comparison with Faulkner in style is a poor one. Faulkner is constantly detailing the inner monologue of his characters. McCarthy rarely says anything about his characters' thought; their inner lives are opaque.

[Cheshire]

After knowing the epilogue is about fence building I reread it and I understood it better. I still would have never figured it out on my own.

I caught that the Judge was raping the little girl. I did not catch that he raped the little Indian boy also.

Your explanation helped out a lot. It almost makes me want to read the book again.